Improved Smithing

Mod originally posted to the Steam Workshop Here

During my many playthroughs of Skyrim it's always annoyed me that certain items were continually overshadowed by others simply because they weren't affected by any of the Smithing perks. Iron weapons and armor were greatly eclipsed by Steel because they couldn't be improved nearly as much once you get the Steel Smithing perk. Characters that use light armor languish in Hide and Leather until they gain access to Elven Smithing, and once they gain Elven Smithing the difference is overpowering. Perhaps this is intentional and right since these materials are meant to be replaced easily as you advance through the game, but there are many unique items that are unaffected by Smithing perks they rightly should be affected by. The Nightingale weapons and armor, Spellbreaker, Dawnbreaker, etc.. are often easily set aside for Ebony or Glass weapons and armor just because they can't be improved as much at a grinding stone or workbench.

Improved Smithing seeks to correct this annoying oversight.

I've created a new perk, Improved Smithing, that is just above Steel Smithing on the Smithing perk tree. The perk allows you to improve weapons and armor made from basic materials such as Hide, Leather, and Iron twice as much so they stand up better over time. I also included Silver weapons in the perk for anyone that wants to take advantage of the improved damage against undead and werewolves that silver provides.

I combed through the item lists as well and added all the unique items I could find to one of the Smithing perks according to their tempering material costs. Spellbreaker is now affected by Dwarven Smithing, the Nightingale weapons now gain the bonus of Ebony Smithing and the armor is affected by my Improved Smithing perk since it's modeled on Leather, etc.... I also found a few unique items that couldn't be improved at all so I created tempering recipes for them and added them to the appropriate Smithing Perk.

Improved Smithing doesn't require any other mods and should be compatible with weapons and armor added by other mods as long as their creators have flagged them with an appropriate material (iron, leather, silver, etc...).

This mod is likely to conflict with any mod that also changes weapon and armor materials or stats. Load whichever mod you prefer 2nd in the load order so its changes are the ones that affect your game.

I'm not sure how Skyrim handles changes to perk trees so either in the extremely rare chance that a mod has added a perk to the Smithing tree in the exact same position where I've placed Improved Smithing or if a mod changes the Smithing Tree at all, there's very likely to be issues. Please keep an eye out and let me know if there are any.

If while playing with Improved Smithing you find a vanilla item that you believe is not being affected