Balanced Magic

Requirements: Shivering Isles, OBSE

Description

When I started modding Oblivion one of the first things I looked for was a magic overhaul, because magic had not been very well set up in the vanilla game. But even though the existing ones all improved it considerably, the mixture they used never completely satisfied me. OOOs changes to magic went into the right direction, but it didn't do enough overall. LAME had about the scope I wanted, but overpowered defensive/duration based effects for the sake of convinience while leaving existing exploits untouched. Supreme Magicka looked like having everything you could potentially ask for, but I didn't really feel the need for most of its new spells and mechanics, I'd rather have seen some improvements to enemies, especially creatures whose magic was very weak. And since it left half the magic cost system for myself to figure out how to adjust it, I tought I might aswell do everything from the ground up rather than just with a few game settings. So I decided to do my own overhaul. You can just install it and play without worrying about which settings work well and it won't hurt performance either. It improves the vanilla system as thoroughly as possible with a focus on balance and reducing/removing exploits. I want my power to feel rightfully earned rather than comming from bad mechanics. Everything is carefully adjusted to make playing a mage comfortable at all levels without becoming a mastermage at expert or journeyman level already. I only added a few new things in some areas where I felt the vanilla game was really lacking.

Features -one point in intelligence gives 3. 5 magicka -thorough overhaul of the entire magicka cost system and all spells and summons -duration of many spells increased, but not extremely so -buyable default spells added for all mastery levels and NPC leveled lists filled up where necessary -most magic effects have their own distinctive sound -better spell sorting (similar to LAME) -illusion spells scale higher -nature summons (optional) -new bound equipment: Longsword(Journeyman), Battle Axe(expert), Flame Sword(master), enchanted Daedric Lord Armor(Master) -enchantment costs are much higher, but not as extreme as in OOO -bundles the useful yet neglected obse plugin "fractional magic damage"

Changes in detail:

All spells are extended to the limit of their mastery level. Higher tier spells cost initially less, but the cost does not decrease as sharply with your skill level as before. Spells with higher magnitude are now less magicka inefficient compared to the weaker ones. Summons last for an average fight, but they all have an extra long version available (60-90 seconds) at the same mastery level that costs appropriate magicka that a dedicated mage who can afford it can use.

Destruction using NP