I'm trying to create a script that will cause x amount of damage. I'd rather not have the script cast a spell at the target, as then I would have to deal with resistances and weaknesses. I'd also like to avoid making a trap, as then I can't run other scripts on the target, increasing/decreasing the damage thusly. ModActorValue Health would do what I want, but I've heard of noticable problems using it in this way. OBSE's ModActorValue2 Health is pretty much perfect, but I'd rather not make my mod OBSE-dependant.

Long story short, what's the best way to deal damage to an actor from a script?

Would there be a problem making the mod OBSE dependant? Just think of it as an oblivion extension .. as it truly is.

But it it "must" be non-OBSE style.. .. .. use drain health and make is look/immerse like a wound. Or make it a scripted permament drain ability and remove it on any restore health effect.

As much of an extension OBSE is, there are people who, for whatever reason, choose not to use OBSE, and I want to respect that. Speaking out of personal experience, when I switched from Morrowind to Oblivion, I had a pretty bad opinion about script extenders, as using MWSE made my game very instable, and was the cause of most of my ctd's. Because of this I was apprehensive about OBSE at first, but now that I do use it I've yet to have any problems.

My point is, some people don't want to use OBSE.

Anyhow, thanks for the advice. I found an article on the wiki about adding silent damage, which involved adding an ability spell to the target with 2 effects - one, damage health, and the other, a script effect that removes the ability spell in the ScriptEffectStart block. I looked through the wiki and found some solutions to message spam (without obse, the double blank message method looks nice), so it should all work nicely. Thanks for the advice, in any case.

Abilities are unaffected by resist/weakness, right?

Abilities bypass resistances. Not sure about weaknesses, though.

Alright, that's really all I care about. Thanks!