Birthsigns Revised

Birthsigns have always been one of my favorite lore bits in The Elder Scrolls. Nearly 17 years ago, I created "Blademan's Better Birthsigns" to improve on that part of the game; still a pretty popular mod! Though I haven't used that screen name in over a decade...

With the remaster out, I have an opportunity to revisit the mod, and now with more design experience than before. As I haven't gone by "Blademan" in some time, I'm going with the shorter name of just Birthsigns Revised. A simple name for a simple mod.

This mod seeks to overhaul all 13 birthsigns with new, lore-friendly effects that should have a greater impact on how you play your character than the original birthsigns. Each sign has a passive ability, lesser power, and greater power. The lesser powers are of particular note; rather than just a free/cheap spell like I did in my original mod, these lesser powers are meant to be powerful, but with an opportunity cost. Things like major boosts to stats that makes yourself vulnerable to damage, sacrificing your Willpower for a magicka boost, or a big defensive bonus that makes you nearly immobile. These ARE strong for their magicka (or fatigue) cost, but the drawbacks should make their use require more thought than simple spam.

Do note that I play on Expert difficulty (and therefor design around it), not Adept, so the birthsigns are not balanced around Adept difficulty or lower. Also, it's nigh impossible to make powers that are fair both at level 1 and level 25+, so some will feel overpowered at low levels or fall off in the higher levels (esp. damaging spells). Some day I'd like to make a birthsign mod that scales and grants new powers as you level, but for now this will do.

Common features for the birthsigns:

• []All birthsigns have a passive Ability, a Lesser Power, and a Greater Power.

  []Lesser Powers cost 50 magicka or less, while Greater Powers are always 0 magicka.

  []Lesser Powers all come with some additional cost or downside to make their use more defining of a playstyle/build. Some powerful Greater Powers also have their own drawbacks, but not all of them.

  []All powers (Lesser + Greater) are unaffected by silence.

  []Greater Powers cannot be absorbed nor reflected.

  []Some powers will describe an area of "burst" instead of self, touch, or target; this is a touch spell that "Explodes w/ no Target", meaning it creates a point-blank area of effect near your character.

  As with anything, there's always room for improvement, so if you have suggestions, notice errors, or find something egregiously overpowered/underpowered, feel free to leave a suggestion!

  Installation:

  Using a mod manager is the easiest way, but if you want to do it manually, you need to copy it into your Data folder. Typically, this is located at: