Version: 1.0

Author: Kobal (Zamir)

Requirements: Shivering Isles, OBSE

http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45249/?

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

-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

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 NPCs now have at least one target and one touch spell available in addition to the random one that may or may not be useful to them. Creatures have their abilities and spells improved to be more up to par with the new magic system.

The nature summons replace the low level shivering isles summons due to limited space for summon effects. I added them to the mysticism school because it didn't have any spells that were regularly useful and I thought they don't fit well between all the evil creatures that conjuration has. Turn undead is now also a mysticism spell. There also is a new spell called Arcance Blast that bounces your enemies away. Weak enemies will fly very far and potentially die, while very potent enemies may resist it completely.

Ancient Ghost is available as a journeyman summon, faided wraith has been upgraded to wraith.

Weakness spells now belong to alteration to create some synergy rather than a magic school fortifying itself and the mastery level for many restoration spells has been increased, so that a mere apprentice cannot cure everything already.

Default dispel spells on self are immune to silence, so they can be used to get rid of it, buff spells on target cannot be reflected.

All new spells can be bought from the following ventors: Edgar Vautrine(IC), Adrienne Berenne(Skingrad,destruction), Avrus Adas, Mark Gulitte, Tumindill(chapels and anvil mages guild,restoration mostly), Delphine Jend, Ita Rienus,(Bravil mages guild basemant,Illusion), Athragar(Chorrol, Summons), Raminus Polus(random expert spells), Borissean(master and special spells)

Since buff spells are now more useful I decided to remove them from spellmaking and prevent their stacking to not let things go out of hand.

A few other highly exploitable effects are removed as well, but most offensive spells are still allowed, so as a master you can be as powerful as you desire.

As a bonus feature I modded the fight against the supposedly strongest mage in the game into something more appropriate. We already revisited Mannimarco, now it is time for Mankar Camoran to live up to his self-praise. Be prepared! He will now give you the fight he promised and is too smart to just be outlasted.

I also enhanced a few previously wimpy named mages you encounter during some quests and that no overhaul seems to have paid much attention to and used this as an opportunity to integrate some better looking robes with worthy enchantments into the game. There is also an Imperial Dragon Robe for completing the main quest.

Things are set up in a way to avoid conflicts with other mods as much as possible. If there are still issues let me know.

I recommend you use Enhanced Economy to reset the prices of enchanted items back to vanilla, because of the increased enchanting cost they are now much higher.

If you don't think you reach a big enough magicka pool I recommend uncapping your attributes. But you can become a decent mage even if you don't.

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There is a second optional esp, which has no requirements or dependencies and has the purpose to rebalance all enchantments in the game. There were many items that felt like cheating if you put them on, while others were hardly worth it at all. All items should be good enough to have some use, but I also want to be able to use all items I get without breaking the game. OOO also dealt with this, but I didn't like some of its changes, it nerved many items that were weak or just right in vanilla undeservedly while others were still overpowered. So here is my take on it.

Included is a rebalance of all Sigil Stones, I also increased their charges and the chance to get one of the more useful ones. The weakest version has been removed, but it also takes a bit longer until the strongest versions appear.

I disliked that quest reward items are useless if you get them early, but having them automatically update to your level is equally strange. With this esp they are unleveled, but that does not mean you just always get the strongest version, it depends on the importance of the quest and the amount of work involved. Though you can count on never getting the crappiest version:). If the difficulty of the quests matches the reward depends on your other mods, with OOO and other overhauls that set up things in a reasonable way it should work well. For a few sidequests I releveled some creatures myself to make the challenge more up to the reward.

For Finger of the mountain and Wizards Fury you get both an expert and a master version(as defined in my magic mod).

Before activating this esp I recommend you unequip all non custom enchanted items on your current character, otherwise your stats will not update correctly and be permanently messed up once you change equipment.

If you already use an overhaul that levels things differently and want it to take precedence in Wrye Bash you can remove the bash tags from my mod, then its changes will be overwritten where necessary. Or you load it early to get just the enchantment rebalance while leveled lists may be overwritten by your other mods.

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Installation

Copy all files into your data folder or use Wrye Bash and make your selection there. Should you want just the enchantment rebalance all other files are not needed.

Load order:

-somewhere in the middle, behind overhauls and such. If you already used another magic overhaul, just replace it. I wouldn't recommend to load any other mods after this that change anything about vanilla magic or things might get messy.

-the enchantment rebalance can be loaded pretty much anywhere, depending on what changes from other mods you want it to overrule and which not

Any identical to master records are on purpose to override changes from OOO, Race Balancing Project or whatever you might be using that could interfer with my mod.

Incompatibilities: All mods that alter magic effects and spells obviously, especially other magic overhauls. Otherwise no major incompatibilites known.

Credits:

-J3X for the Nature Summon Effect

-Aknevrec and AlienSlof for the mage equipment

-McMuffin for the Daedric Lord Armor

-Stattis and Forsaken32 for the icons

-Agarr for the sounds

-Captain-Ultima for the Flamesword

-Underground09 for some scripting ideas

Have fun with the mod!