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Makes magic dangerous and unpredictable! Compatible with other magic overhaul mods.
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=== Sorcery's Toll ===
version 0.85
December 29, 2008
by Picador
----
= Overview =
This mod changes the way magic works: it makes magic more dangerous and unpredictable, and it allows even unskilled magicians to cast powerful effects if they're willing to deal with the consequences. Higher magical skill allows you to cast higher-level spells safely, and at a lower magicka cost, while high willpower reduces the severity of the toll exacted from you when you reach beyond the limits of your skill.
The toll exacted from sorcerers takes the form of damage to attributes, as well as fatigue damage and occasionally health damage. This means that spell casters will either need to be cautious with their spell-casting, or they will need a way to replenish their attributes regularly: praying at a temple, using Restore Attribute spells, or making potions. This generally separates spellcasters into two types: the devout (using shrines and Restoration magic) and the arcane (using potions). It also makes Alchemy a logical adjunct to spellcasting, and it gives mages a reason to hang on to Restore Attribute potions instead of selling them.
This mod addresses several shortcomings in the way Oblivion deals with magic:
* Magic is always characterized in the lore as dangerous, unpredictable, and experimental: just listen to the mages talk to each other at the University, or listen to Martin talk about Conjuration magic, or witness the wayward mages in Skingrad and Bravil getting cornered by out-of-control zombies or getting lost in dream realms. But in practice, magic is entirely predictable and benign in its effects on the user. No experimentation, no risk-taking is possible. This mod makes magical risk-taking possible, and powerful magic produces dire and unpredictable side effects.
* High fantasy settings like Tamriel often describe the way that magic twists the mind and body of its practitioners over time. But again, no such mechanism is present in Oblivion. This mod changes magic so that magicians -- especially those that practice Conjuration and Destruction magic -- find their vitality, their humanity, and their sanity stripped away by their arcane and unholy practices.
* The Damage Attribute effect is almost unused in the game, which means that the Restore Attribute effect is almost useless. This also makes a lot of potions useless except as sales inventory. This mod makes Alchemy a useful adjunct to spell-casting, and it gives mages a reason to hang on to those "Restore Endurance" potions.
* Willpower is underpowered. Intelligence is more useful than willpower for regenerating magicka, and willpower has almost no other effect. This mod uses willpower to determine how well a mage can withstand the overload of magical energy passing through him when he overextends himself.
* The sign of the Apprentice connotes a foolish, incautious magician who conjures powers greater than he can control. High magicka should allow dangerous stunts, while high skill and willpower should be required to keep these under control: the Mage and the Lady have high willpower, and they are birthsigns of control and restraint. This mod actually gives form to these ideas within the game, allowing Apprentices to cast powerful magic with unpredictable side-effects, while Mages are more restrained in their ability to cast powerful spells at low skill levels but are also more adept at controlling their side effects.
* Why do mages carry staves? Since staves cast magical effects, doesn't it seem as though mages would find them redundant? In this mod, staves and enchanted weapons have a secondary purpose for spellcasters: grounding them against magicka overload. A mage's staff, or a spellsword's enchanted blade, is more than just a weapon in itself -- it also augments the wielder's own spellcasting abilities.
= Mechanics =
* There is no longer a minimum skill requirement for casting any spell. All auto-calculated spells are now Novice level, and non-auto-calculated spells are changed to Novice level when the PC equips them. Some spells available through vendors (or even in the PC's inventory) will still state a minimum skill requirement. This will go away once that spell is equipped by the PC for the first time.
* Instead of denoting a minimum skill for casting, the magicka cost of the spell determines whether the caster will suffer side effects from casting it: anyone can safely cast a spell in a given school if the spell has a final (not base) magicka cost less than or equal to his or her skill in that school.
* Any spell with a final cost higher than the caster's skill may produce side-effects. The severity of these side-effects is determined by the amount by which the magicka cost exceeds the caster's skill, divided by the caster's willpower. Thus, casting spells with a cost less than (skill + willpower) generally only produces minor side effects if any (e.g. 1 point attribute damage plus 20 points fatigue damage), while casting a spell with a cost more than (skill + 3 x willpower) will produce devastating side effects (e.g. 20 points attribute damage plus 400 fatigue damage). The exact amount of damage from side effects includes a random factor, so you'll get different results casting the same spell twice.
* Any time you cast a spell far beyond your abilities -- with a cost more than, say, your skill plus willpower -- you run a risk of acquiring a magicka infection in addition to any attribute damage. These infections take many forms -- physical (e.g. Glass Bones), mental (e.g. Delusions of Grandeur), and mystical (e.g. Ethereality) -- and they can be quite debilitating. They can, however, be cured like any other disease.
* Spells from different schools damage different attributes. Conjuration and Destruction spells are particularly dangerous, and damage two attributes instead of one.
* If you cast a spell when the attribute it damages is already at zero, your health will be damaged.
* If you cast a Summoning spell significantly higher than your skill, your summoned creature will not be entirely under your control! It will not disappear when your spell expires, and it might not be friendly toward you. You will even get a bounty if it attacks law-abiding citizens.
* Spellcasters still get perks when they reach Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert and Master level. An Apprentice only suffers 50% of the usual fatigue damage from casting spells in that school; a Journeyman only suffers 25% fatigue damage; an Expert has his Willpower effectively doubled for resisting spellcasting side-effect; and a Master suffers no backlash at all for casting spells in his school.
* These side effects only apply to spells, not to major or minor powers. Powers are always safe to cast.
* The script runs five times per second, checking if the PC has lost magicka since the last iteration and calculating side effects based on the magicka loss and the current spell equipped. This means that getting hit by a powerful Drain Magicka or Damage Magicka effect can produce damage to your attributes and fatigue as though you had cast a spell with that strength! It also calculates these side-effects based on your currently equipped spell, so if you have Alteration skill 5 and get hit with a Drain Magicka 200 effect while you have an Alteration spell equipped, you're going to be in big trouble. The (ex post facto) in-game rationale for this is that magicka passes through your body and mind using the mental/physical "template" set by the spell you have prepared, sort of like a power surge backing up through a circuit designed to flow in the other direction. (Note also that keeping a Power equipped makes you immune to this effect; non-spellcasters may want to make a habit of this if they're fighting an opponent who can drain or damage their magicka. That's right: even _thinking_ about magic can be dangerous!)
* The fatigue, attribute, and health damage gets applied over several seconds, at the rate of one point of attribute damage per second. This produces a visual effect, and you will get an on-screen Message telling you that your stats are being damaged.
* Importantly, these changes only apply to the PC. NPCs will not suffer from side effects. (NPCs will in theory be able to cast high-level spells, but they usually only know spells in their skill range, and they are still limited by their Magicka.)
* Carrying a staff or enchanted weapon grounds you against magicka overload. You have a buffer equal to 1/5 of your skill with the weapon -- when wielding a staff, you are buffered by 1/3 of the magical skill you're using to cast the spell. This buffer effectively reduces the magicka cost of spells for the purposes of overload. When casting a spell over your skill limit, however, the charge of the weapon will be reduced by the amount by which your weapon buffers you. Thus, if you have Alteration 10 and Blade 100 and are wielding an enchanted sword, your effective magicka overload when casting a 45-magicka (final cost) Alteration spell is 25 (45 minus 10 minus one fifth of 100), and the weapon's charge is reduced by 20 (one fifth of 100). If the spell had cost 15 magicka instead, you would have no backlash and the weapon's charge would be reduced by 5.
= Installation / Uninstallation =
Install by placing the files "SorcerysToll.esp" and "Sorcerys Toll.ini" in your Oblivion/Data folder and activating it under Data Files in the Oblivion launcher menu. It's probably best to install it after you leave the sewers during the starting tutorial, but it won't permanently screw up your game if you install it before then.
You can adjust many of the values used by the mod in the .ini file: thresholds for attribute damage, diseases, and uncontrolled summons; degree of fatigue damage; multiplier for determining effective skill and effective willpower; chance of getting a disease; and skill mutipliers for weapon grounding.
Uninstall by removing the .esp file. Unfortunately, all non-auto-calculated spells the PC has ever equipped will be marked as Novice spells permanently. I'll try to fix this in a later revision.
= Compatibility =
* This mod REQUIRES Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) version 0015a or later. You can download OBSE here:
http://obse.silverlock.org/
* The mod is very simple in its implementation, and it should be compatible with all major overhauls and magic mods: Mighty Magicka, Supreme Magicka, LAME, Midas, Spell Tomes, OOO, skill leveling mods, etc. It will not overwrite any of their changes, unless they adjust the maximum magicka costs for different spell mastery levels. (Personally, I use it with Supreme Magicka, Midas, Spell Tomes, and my own custom skill leveler, and it works great.)
* The mod adds a quest with a script attached, and changes four game settings (making all spells into novice spells). That's it.
= Changelog =
Version 0.85
* Fixed a bug causing uncontrolled summons to blink out of existence instead of fading upon death
* Added a whole bunch of new .ini settings. Almost everything can now be configured to your preferences.
Version 0.81
* Fixed a bug causing flakiness in backlash and spell-mastery-level adjustment.
* Added a debugging command to restore all attributes to their base levels (works on damaged or "modav"ed attributes from other mods): type "startquest aaSTRestoreAllAttributes" from the console and wait a few seconds.
Version 0.8
* Uncontrolled summons added! Any standard (non-modded, non-SI) summon will be affected.
* Assault bounties by the summoned being get attached to the player, unless Reneer's Guard Overhaul is detected (the feature is incompatible with RGO for some reason).
Version 0.7
* Overhaul of side-effects script to use enchanted tokens instead of scripted modifiers. As a result, backlash now has a visual effect and a text message, and is applied over time. It is also cumulative: if you cast a second powerful spell while the first is still applying backlash to you, the duration of the first backlash damage will be extended.
* Got rid of permanent afflictions, at least for now.
Version 0.6
* added a user-configurable .ini file for scaling effective skill and willpower
Version 0.5
* reduced grounding effect for non-staff weapons to 20% of skill
* fixed spell-school-detection bug for scripted effects (thanks to Kyoma!)
* increased fatigue damage to double previous levels
* prevented Endurance from being drained to 0 by Restoration backlash
* stopped health damage at 5 instead of 1
Version 0.4
* added grounding effects when using enchanted weapons and staves
Version 0.3
* added permanent afflictions: 5-point permanent drains added as abilities if backlash would otherwise take you to 0 health
* added magicka infections as diseases that can infect you if you have backlash > 5 points
* changed the post-tutorial reset to happen any time you exit the race menu
Version 0.2
* added new skill perks and changed perk-award screens accordingly
* added OBSE requirement warning to README
= Attribution and License Information =
Contact Picador through the Bethesda Forums or by emailing [lucaspicador at gmail dot com].
Feel free to use this mod and all its contents in any way you like. Some attribution to Picador in your README would be appreciated if you think it's due.
If you want to start your own variant mod using this as a baseline, please name it something different so as to avoid confusion.
Many thanks to all the Oblivion mod community members for encouraging my work on mods.
version 0.85
December 29, 2008
by Picador
----
= Overview =
This mod changes the way magic works: it makes magic more dangerous and unpredictable, and it allows even unskilled magicians to cast powerful effects if they're willing to deal with the consequences. Higher magical skill allows you to cast higher-level spells safely, and at a lower magicka cost, while high willpower reduces the severity of the toll exacted from you when you reach beyond the limits of your skill.
The toll exacted from sorcerers takes the form of damage to attributes, as well as fatigue damage and occasionally health damage. This means that spell casters will either need to be cautious with their spell-casting, or they will need a way to replenish their attributes regularly: praying at a temple, using Restore Attribute spells, or making potions. This generally separates spellcasters into two types: the devout (using shrines and Restoration magic) and the arcane (using potions). It also makes Alchemy a logical adjunct to spellcasting, and it gives mages a reason to hang on to Restore Attribute potions instead of selling them.
This mod addresses several shortcomings in the way Oblivion deals with magic:
* Magic is always characterized in the lore as dangerous, unpredictable, and experimental: just listen to the mages talk to each other at the University, or listen to Martin talk about Conjuration magic, or witness the wayward mages in Skingrad and Bravil getting cornered by out-of-control zombies or getting lost in dream realms. But in practice, magic is entirely predictable and benign in its effects on the user. No experimentation, no risk-taking is possible. This mod makes magical risk-taking possible, and powerful magic produces dire and unpredictable side effects.
* High fantasy settings like Tamriel often describe the way that magic twists the mind and body of its practitioners over time. But again, no such mechanism is present in Oblivion. This mod changes magic so that magicians -- especially those that practice Conjuration and Destruction magic -- find their vitality, their humanity, and their sanity stripped away by their arcane and unholy practices.
* The Damage Attribute effect is almost unused in the game, which means that the Restore Attribute effect is almost useless. This also makes a lot of potions useless except as sales inventory. This mod makes Alchemy a useful adjunct to spell-casting, and it gives mages a reason to hang on to those "Restore Endurance" potions.
* Willpower is underpowered. Intelligence is more useful than willpower for regenerating magicka, and willpower has almost no other effect. This mod uses willpower to determine how well a mage can withstand the overload of magical energy passing through him when he overextends himself.
* The sign of the Apprentice connotes a foolish, incautious magician who conjures powers greater than he can control. High magicka should allow dangerous stunts, while high skill and willpower should be required to keep these under control: the Mage and the Lady have high willpower, and they are birthsigns of control and restraint. This mod actually gives form to these ideas within the game, allowing Apprentices to cast powerful magic with unpredictable side-effects, while Mages are more restrained in their ability to cast powerful spells at low skill levels but are also more adept at controlling their side effects.
* Why do mages carry staves? Since staves cast magical effects, doesn't it seem as though mages would find them redundant? In this mod, staves and enchanted weapons have a secondary purpose for spellcasters: grounding them against magicka overload. A mage's staff, or a spellsword's enchanted blade, is more than just a weapon in itself -- it also augments the wielder's own spellcasting abilities.
= Mechanics =
* There is no longer a minimum skill requirement for casting any spell. All auto-calculated spells are now Novice level, and non-auto-calculated spells are changed to Novice level when the PC equips them. Some spells available through vendors (or even in the PC's inventory) will still state a minimum skill requirement. This will go away once that spell is equipped by the PC for the first time.
* Instead of denoting a minimum skill for casting, the magicka cost of the spell determines whether the caster will suffer side effects from casting it: anyone can safely cast a spell in a given school if the spell has a final (not base) magicka cost less than or equal to his or her skill in that school.
* Any spell with a final cost higher than the caster's skill may produce side-effects. The severity of these side-effects is determined by the amount by which the magicka cost exceeds the caster's skill, divided by the caster's willpower. Thus, casting spells with a cost less than (skill + willpower) generally only produces minor side effects if any (e.g. 1 point attribute damage plus 20 points fatigue damage), while casting a spell with a cost more than (skill + 3 x willpower) will produce devastating side effects (e.g. 20 points attribute damage plus 400 fatigue damage). The exact amount of damage from side effects includes a random factor, so you'll get different results casting the same spell twice.
* Any time you cast a spell far beyond your abilities -- with a cost more than, say, your skill plus willpower -- you run a risk of acquiring a magicka infection in addition to any attribute damage. These infections take many forms -- physical (e.g. Glass Bones), mental (e.g. Delusions of Grandeur), and mystical (e.g. Ethereality) -- and they can be quite debilitating. They can, however, be cured like any other disease.
* Spells from different schools damage different attributes. Conjuration and Destruction spells are particularly dangerous, and damage two attributes instead of one.
* If you cast a spell when the attribute it damages is already at zero, your health will be damaged.
* If you cast a Summoning spell significantly higher than your skill, your summoned creature will not be entirely under your control! It will not disappear when your spell expires, and it might not be friendly toward you. You will even get a bounty if it attacks law-abiding citizens.
* Spellcasters still get perks when they reach Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert and Master level. An Apprentice only suffers 50% of the usual fatigue damage from casting spells in that school; a Journeyman only suffers 25% fatigue damage; an Expert has his Willpower effectively doubled for resisting spellcasting side-effect; and a Master suffers no backlash at all for casting spells in his school.
* These side effects only apply to spells, not to major or minor powers. Powers are always safe to cast.
* The script runs five times per second, checking if the PC has lost magicka since the last iteration and calculating side effects based on the magicka loss and the current spell equipped. This means that getting hit by a powerful Drain Magicka or Damage Magicka effect can produce damage to your attributes and fatigue as though you had cast a spell with that strength! It also calculates these side-effects based on your currently equipped spell, so if you have Alteration skill 5 and get hit with a Drain Magicka 200 effect while you have an Alteration spell equipped, you're going to be in big trouble. The (ex post facto) in-game rationale for this is that magicka passes through your body and mind using the mental/physical "template" set by the spell you have prepared, sort of like a power surge backing up through a circuit designed to flow in the other direction. (Note also that keeping a Power equipped makes you immune to this effect; non-spellcasters may want to make a habit of this if they're fighting an opponent who can drain or damage their magicka. That's right: even _thinking_ about magic can be dangerous!)
* The fatigue, attribute, and health damage gets applied over several seconds, at the rate of one point of attribute damage per second. This produces a visual effect, and you will get an on-screen Message telling you that your stats are being damaged.
* Importantly, these changes only apply to the PC. NPCs will not suffer from side effects. (NPCs will in theory be able to cast high-level spells, but they usually only know spells in their skill range, and they are still limited by their Magicka.)
* Carrying a staff or enchanted weapon grounds you against magicka overload. You have a buffer equal to 1/5 of your skill with the weapon -- when wielding a staff, you are buffered by 1/3 of the magical skill you're using to cast the spell. This buffer effectively reduces the magicka cost of spells for the purposes of overload. When casting a spell over your skill limit, however, the charge of the weapon will be reduced by the amount by which your weapon buffers you. Thus, if you have Alteration 10 and Blade 100 and are wielding an enchanted sword, your effective magicka overload when casting a 45-magicka (final cost) Alteration spell is 25 (45 minus 10 minus one fifth of 100), and the weapon's charge is reduced by 20 (one fifth of 100). If the spell had cost 15 magicka instead, you would have no backlash and the weapon's charge would be reduced by 5.
= Installation / Uninstallation =
Install by placing the files "SorcerysToll.esp" and "Sorcerys Toll.ini" in your Oblivion/Data folder and activating it under Data Files in the Oblivion launcher menu. It's probably best to install it after you leave the sewers during the starting tutorial, but it won't permanently screw up your game if you install it before then.
You can adjust many of the values used by the mod in the .ini file: thresholds for attribute damage, diseases, and uncontrolled summons; degree of fatigue damage; multiplier for determining effective skill and effective willpower; chance of getting a disease; and skill mutipliers for weapon grounding.
Uninstall by removing the .esp file. Unfortunately, all non-auto-calculated spells the PC has ever equipped will be marked as Novice spells permanently. I'll try to fix this in a later revision.
= Compatibility =
* This mod REQUIRES Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) version 0015a or later. You can download OBSE here:
http://obse.silverlock.org/
* The mod is very simple in its implementation, and it should be compatible with all major overhauls and magic mods: Mighty Magicka, Supreme Magicka, LAME, Midas, Spell Tomes, OOO, skill leveling mods, etc. It will not overwrite any of their changes, unless they adjust the maximum magicka costs for different spell mastery levels. (Personally, I use it with Supreme Magicka, Midas, Spell Tomes, and my own custom skill leveler, and it works great.)
* The mod adds a quest with a script attached, and changes four game settings (making all spells into novice spells). That's it.
= Changelog =
Version 0.85
* Fixed a bug causing uncontrolled summons to blink out of existence instead of fading upon death
* Added a whole bunch of new .ini settings. Almost everything can now be configured to your preferences.
Version 0.81
* Fixed a bug causing flakiness in backlash and spell-mastery-level adjustment.
* Added a debugging command to restore all attributes to their base levels (works on damaged or "modav"ed attributes from other mods): type "startquest aaSTRestoreAllAttributes" from the console and wait a few seconds.
Version 0.8
* Uncontrolled summons added! Any standard (non-modded, non-SI) summon will be affected.
* Assault bounties by the summoned being get attached to the player, unless Reneer's Guard Overhaul is detected (the feature is incompatible with RGO for some reason).
Version 0.7
* Overhaul of side-effects script to use enchanted tokens instead of scripted modifiers. As a result, backlash now has a visual effect and a text message, and is applied over time. It is also cumulative: if you cast a second powerful spell while the first is still applying backlash to you, the duration of the first backlash damage will be extended.
* Got rid of permanent afflictions, at least for now.
Version 0.6
* added a user-configurable .ini file for scaling effective skill and willpower
Version 0.5
* reduced grounding effect for non-staff weapons to 20% of skill
* fixed spell-school-detection bug for scripted effects (thanks to Kyoma!)
* increased fatigue damage to double previous levels
* prevented Endurance from being drained to 0 by Restoration backlash
* stopped health damage at 5 instead of 1
Version 0.4
* added grounding effects when using enchanted weapons and staves
Version 0.3
* added permanent afflictions: 5-point permanent drains added as abilities if backlash would otherwise take you to 0 health
* added magicka infections as diseases that can infect you if you have backlash > 5 points
* changed the post-tutorial reset to happen any time you exit the race menu
Version 0.2
* added new skill perks and changed perk-award screens accordingly
* added OBSE requirement warning to README
= Attribution and License Information =
Contact Picador through the Bethesda Forums or by emailing [lucaspicador at gmail dot com].
Feel free to use this mod and all its contents in any way you like. Some attribution to Picador in your README would be appreciated if you think it's due.
If you want to start your own variant mod using this as a baseline, please name it something different so as to avoid confusion.
Many thanks to all the Oblivion mod community members for encouraging my work on mods.