I want to make a spell that will cause my enemies to be 100% weak to Fire and do Fire Damage at the same time, but with the weakness accounted for. In which order would I add the spell effects in the Spellmaking menu to create such a spell? Thanks!

I don't think it matters which order you put them in.

You can't do both at exactly the same time, since the game is coded to not apply weaknesses to any damage done in the same cast of a spell or strike of a weapon. It only applies on subsequent hits.

And in order for it to work right, you have to list the weakness effect after the damage effect.

Spell effects go off in the order in which they're listed, and if a new cast of a spell goes off while the duration on a previous one is still running, the new one simply replaces the previous one.

So-- on the first cast, you do the base damage and start the clock on a weakness effect (make it at least a second or two longer than the duration on the damage effect-- I like 1 second of damage and 3 seconds of weakness).

On the second cast (if it's within 3 seconds, or whatever duration you've set), the damage goes off first and is modified by the weakness that's still running from the previous cast. Then the new weakness effect goes off, resetting the clock on weakness to fire.

And so on.

If you list the weakness effect first, then every time you cast it, the first thing that happens is the clock is restarted for the weakness effect, then it doesn't do anything to the damage, since it's in the same cast of the spell.

Yeah, they didn′t make it easy to understand without consulting someone :shakehead:

not at all. what you might consider, is to make a 'weakness to' spell for x seconds (long enough for you to be able to fire off another spell) and then fire off a spell using the type of damage you just gave your opponent weakness to

Also, you want Weakness to Magic LAST in the chain so that it amplifies the magic that comes before it, including elemental or poison weakness.

So...

Fire
Weakness to Fire
Weakness to Magic

You can replace Fire with anything, even drain health.

Also, Soul Trap must come FIRST to work.

Finally... in case some people are not aware of this, the order is the reverse from Morrowind (which requires Weakness to come first, not last, in chains).

I think they were just having fun with the players... in a sadistic sort of way, mind you.

Yeah well in my world weakness always comes before damage. So in a spell or enchantment it should be put in first. With my logic anyway

Doesn't that sequencing trick only work with for item enchantments, and not on spells?

You can read a full explanation of the complexities of stacking weakness effects on the UESP wiki. I won't repost it here.

Just a note... for everyone who feels that weakness should come first, well, actually, it DOES comes first, to all intents and purposes. Specifically, any target does not have any effect on it until your spell hits it. You have given the target a weakness. When your next spell (or arrow, or whatever) hits it, the damage is altered by the weakness already on it from the previous cast.

The idea is that a spell having both weakness and elemental damage is happening simultaneously. Since the target doesn't yet actually have a weakness (i.e., it is contained within the same spell as the damage effect) there is no reason for the damage to be altered by that spell. It makes perfect sense that you have to give the target weakness, and then hit it with damage that you've made it weak to, in order to get a bonus effect. So, in essense, weakness does come first, just as it should.