A while ago I add the Enchanting Freedom mod, and was eventually able to find a Khajit caravan selling the rings that let you learn some useful enchantments. I got Spell Absorption, and with perks and an Enchantment of 100, I was able to add 50% spell absorption to several objects. As a Breton, I also have a base 25% resistance to magic.
The good news is that between the spell absorption and the magic resistance, I am (so far, at least) pretty much immune to spell damage. I’ve actively avoided waking the dragons up, so I don’t know how that will stand up against them.
The bad news is that my spell absorption is so high, I can’t conjure familiars or flame atronachs by personal spell. I haven’t tried using a scroll or staff, nor have I gotten any higher level conjure beasties. This is a trifle annoying, as having a pet atronach or dremora lord is useful, damnit. (I also don’t have many perks in Conjure.)
The ok news is that the Midas Conjure Luggage spell is completely unaffected by this problem, so I still have my traveling luggage. And the Luggage is perfectly happy to attack enemies. It seems to have the same damage as the dwarven spider worker that it’s based on, so it doesn’t help a lot, but it’s kinda cute to see it go after another spider.
This is a known glitch. I’m currently debating whether the near-immunity to spell damage is worth more to me than the ability to conjure extra help.
After digging through the latest file contents of the most recent PC patch it seems Dawnguardmay add crossbows, more vampires and the Snow Prince. The Snow Prince was a leader of the Falmer, vanquished by ancient Nords on Solstheim, the setting for Morrowind’s second expansion, Bloodmoon. Spears were his signature weapon.
Just got back into Skyrim after not playing for a while. Going Mage this time, with a mod that adds a bunch of spells (Like Baleful Polymorph!) and the Deadly Dragons mod. Since my other character was a dual-axe-wielding Berserker type, the game is totally different… And I love it.
Apparently there are finishing moves on spells! I was a 2nd level Mage running around trying to get the Dragonstone. Fought the guy who pops up by running around and dodging while burning him, while that Elf from the first town followed him with a greatsword. So, I go into a kill animation. There I am, pumping flames out of my outstretched hands. The enemy raises his sword to attack, then stops and starts jerking back and forth in the flames. And then, BOOM! Slow-mo greatsword swing, fire flies everywhere, and he’s down.
I don’t think this was supposed to be a 2-man killcam, but it sure looked like it… Is that possible?
Having lots of fun with my mage so far. I play on Master, which made the first dragon fight ridiculously hard; I ducked behind rocks, jumped out and used Frostbite on him, and then ran away again. Finally, he landed (with about 1/3rd health) in front of the tower and started tossing guards into the air. I played medic, animating them as zombies and sending them back into the fight, but finally the only people who were left were Irileth, my companion, and one other guard. I decided to be a hero, chugged a fire resist pot, and dashed towards him, unloading my Frostbite on the dragon. He turned around, slowly, and opened his maws… And died!
I killed a second fire dragon without too much trouble with my companion, but then I decided that I wanted to go solo a dragon. At level 7, as a mage with all of his skill points spread out among the various magic skills. Found me a Shock Dragon… His breath hits much harder than the fire or cold dragons, and it cools down much faster, but it’s a line attack as opposed to a cone. So the fight involved me running around, frantically dodging the dragon and shooting it with fire. It was epic!
My problem with the finishing moves is that sometimes, I’ll go into the slow-mo-cam and finish off an enemy by burning him to death… And then he doesn’t take enough damage, and still comes at me. Or if I’m chasing someone, the slow-mo might give him enough distance to escape.
I think it might be because I’m playing on Master? The game calculates, “He has 10 health left, let’s do a kill cam!” but because of the lower damage values in Master the enemy survives?
I’m replaying with a new character. A chick assasin with what will be an arsenal of poisons and illusion spells.
Going to concentrate on the main quests and the thieve’s/assasin’s quest plot line only, since I didn’t see any of those with my prior character.
I’m dumping mods into this bad boy left and right, so if you’ve got any suggestions, maybe you’ve got a colleciton set up over in SteamWorks, please share the link!
I’m specially looking for anything that makes dragons more interesting, anythign that might enhance my assasin build, and anythign that makes the world look better.
Right now I’ve got the enhanced outdoor and indoor sounds mods, the realistic lighting mod ( which makes dungeons terrifyingly dark places. I need to use magic or torches now!), a couple of the house mods, and the two mods that improve the way Whiterun and the town with the thieve’s guild looks.
In case anyone else runs into this, the fix is to use the Game Data Utility to delete any Game Data for Skyrim (this does NOT mean to delete your saved games, or you’ll lose them) and then relaunch the disk to prompt a fresh download of the 1.5 patch and re-installation of the game, both of which take a few minutes.
At present I’m running Deadly Dragons and Deadly Dragons Armory, which adds more and tougher dragons & new weapons/crafting options. Neither is on Steamworks I think. I’ve also got No Blur Nightvision, Sounds of Skyrim (adds extra background sounds), Spells Give Off Light, Midas Magic, Detailed Cities, and More Argonian Colour (so I could have my blue Argonian mage; yes, she’s a lizard wizard).
One new mod since I posted last; I’ve added the “Open Face Helmets Compilation”, which adds craftable helmets with an exposed face for helms like the Dwarven helmet. Makes you look less generic in kill-cutscenes.
And…<dramatic drumroll>…Patch 1.6 is adding mounted combat to Skyrim!
And the Luggage is perfectly happy to attack enemies. It seems to have the same damage as the dwarven spider worker that it’s based on, so it doesn’t help a lot, but it’s kinda cute to see it go after another spider.
