Uncapped Skeleton Key

Update 4/29/2025: Added two miscellaneous files for those that don't use the Unofficial Oblivion Patch. It's come to my attention that Blessing of Nocturnal can be subject to a vanilla bug that UOP fixes. The quest item flag is removed from the Blessing of Nocturnal in these two new files to prevent this for users not using UOP. They are standalone files, so you don't need either of the main files to use them.

Update 1/24/2021: Cleaned up the code of both versions and removed GameMode block from the OBSE version.

Purpose of this mod was to modify the Skeleton Key so that it doesn't modify the users Security skill, but rather boosts it, like any equipped, enchanted item would. What this does is allows the player to continue to raise the security skill passed 60 while having the Skeleton Key on their person, while still allocating the plus 40 Security.

This was accomplished by creating a new clothes item with no biped allocation, Blessing of Nocturnal, that would be immediately added to the players inventory and equipped. Blessing of Nocturnal comes pre-enchanted with Fortify Security 40. Because there is no biped allocation, this item can be equipped without replacing any of the player's equipment, though it does show as an error when starting the Construction Set. As Blessing of Nocturnal is used, the Skeleton Key ability was removed from the script that the Key uses.

"NOBSE? What's that?" I hear you ask! Well, there are two versions of this mod, one that requires OBSE, and one that requires no OBSE, or no BSE. I just made it one O because I'm insufferable.

Anyway, OBSE adds a lot of new scripting functionality for mod developers, some of these things made development and improvement of this mod easier and, in many cases, altogether possible. This means that the OBSE version is better, in many ways, than the NOBSE version. If you don't yet use OBSE, I suggest you install it and use the OBSE version over NOBSE. I will not be offering support for the NOBSE version, 'cause, honestly, it's already been deprecated before it was even uploaded. But, I'm uploading it, anyway, in case you're also insufferable, in your own special way, and would prefer to not use OBSE.

So, what does the OBSE version do differently? Well, it applies an actual menu icon for the Blessing of Nocturnal, rather than just using a transparent .dds image, and without needing any new textures! (It's just the Skeleton Key's menu icon.) When adding the Skeleton Key to the player's inventory, it adds and equips the Blessing of Nocturnal without the sounds or messages that come with automatically equipping or unequipping items. And, to top it off, if the player has the Skeleton Key in their inventory when they load up a save with this plugin newly installed, it will automatically remove the old Skeleton Key ability and add the Blessing of Nocturnal, enchantment and all. It's all nice and clean. If you'd ra