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About this mod
Re-Balances all the ranks of Vampiric Drain to make it actually useful, and not overpowered. Scales so it stays competitive in damage with destruction spells.
- Permissions and credits
In the vanilla game, Vampiric Drain maxes out at 5 damage a second at rank 4 vampirism. It's completely useless for damage and for healing.
I attempted to balance it for myself. I tried some other mods that just upped the magnitude, but I found they were always hard to balance because if it did decent damage then it also healed too much.
What I did is change Vampiric Drain so it heals the caster for only half the damage done. This adds flexibility in the amount of damage you can give it so it is competitive with other spells, while not being overpowered by healing too much.
Now scales with destruction perks, full details down below.
In general the magicka cost is around double the damage dealt, but with the magicka cost can be halved with the Novice Destruction perk.
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New in V1.1
All ranks of Vampiric Drain now cost half once Novice Destruction perk is taken (previous version only rank 3 and 4 had cost reduction, and with apprentice and adept). One perk isn't much to invest in even if you aren't a caster, and if the perk requirement was any higher it is more inaccessible to lower level characters, or non-mages.
Added scaling with the Destruction tree perks. Each destruction perk will add 40% extra damage, capping at 300% extra damage with Master Destruction. This means that the spell does good damage for all players even if they don't invest in destruction, and for destruction users it means that the spell damage should always be competitive with the new rank of spells you're getting.
Made this mod compatible with any mod that changes the destruction tree and adds scaling, so those mods won't affect vampiric drain at all.
Quick Note
If you are any vampire rank OTHER than rank 1, for the scaling effect to activate you'll have to feed to revert back to rank 1 vampirism. Then you should get a message saying "Vampire Destruction was added".
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**Compatibility**
This mod -should- be compatible with anything that doesn't affect the Vampiric Drain spell. If you're using a mod like Better Vampires or Belua Sanguinare and they change how Vampiric Drain works (I can't remember if they do or not) try putting my mod right after theirs in your load order.
As of V1.1 this mod should work perfectly with, and independently of any mods that affect the destruction tree, like Better Magic, Empowered Magic, Balanced Magic, etc. Any changes these mods made, adding scaling to destruction perks will have NO effect on Vampiric Drain now, and any changes made to the magicka cost reduction with the destruction perks won't affect the spell's cost.
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What this mod changes:
Level 1 Vampirism:
Deals 6 points of damage to target and absorbs half the damage dealt as health.
1.4/ 1.8 / 2.2 / 2.6 /3 Damage multipliers with perks destruction Novice/Apprentice/Adept/Expert/Master
8.4/10.8/13.2/15.6/18 Damage after perk modifiers
~16 Magicka/second, ~8 Magicka/second with Novice Destruction
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Level 2 Vampirism:
Deals 10 points of damage to target and absorbs half the damage dealt as health.
1.4/1.8/2.2/2.6/3Damage multipliers with perks destruction Novice/Apprentice/Adept/Expert/Master
14 /18 / 22/16 /30 Damage after perk modifiers
~34 Magicka/second, ~17 Magicka/second with Novice Destruction
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Level 3 Vampirism:
Deals 16 points of damage to target and absorbs half the damage dealt as health.
1.4 / 1.8 / 2.2 / 2.6 /3Damage multipliers with perks destruction Novice/Apprentice/Adept/Expert/Master
22.4/28.8/35.2/41.6/48 Damage after perk modifiers
~42 Magicka/second, ~21 Magicka/second with Novice Destruction
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Level 4 Vampirism:
Deals 20 points of damage to target and absorbs half the damage dealt as health.
1.4/1.8/2.2/2.6/3Damage multipliers with perks destruction Novice/Apprentice/Adept/Expert/Master
28 /36 /44 /52 /60 Damage after perk modifiers
~74 Magicka/second, ~37 Magicka/second with Novice Destruction
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Notes
The listed magicka costs are the values entered in the Creation Kit. They seem quite high, but in game they seem to cost a fair bit less. For my rank 4 vampire character, Vampiric Drain only costs 26 Magicka/second with no spell cost reduction other than Adept Destruction. With the arch mage robes 15% spell cost reduction, its down to 22/second.
tl;dr
If the costs seem too high for you, give it a try because the actual costs will most likely be lower than the listed values.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Future Changes
Right now the costs are probably a little high for most people who have the adept perk or below - they just aren't a high enough level to have enough magicka for the cost to not be too much.
For the next version I THINK I'm going to lower the cost across the board, and increase the cost by, I don't know yet, say 15% for each perk AFTER novice. This way at master destruction you don't have a spell doing 60 damage a second channeled, and only a base amount of 20 magicka, probably lowered to 10 or so with enchanted armor. This will help out all types of players who use this spell, especially non full mages who may not invest in a lot of magick, while also having a more balanced spell for high level mages.
The latest version (V1.1) brings the damage more in line with each rank of destruction spell, and the next version should bring the cost in line with it as well. This isn't final yet, so I'll have to play around with the percentages to see what feels right, and then compare them with comparable level destruction spells.
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Installation
With NMM
Just press "Download with Manager", activate, and you're good to go.
Manual
Extract the .esp from the archive and place in your Data folder, and select it under Data Files on the main Skyrim loader.
FOR THOSE UPDATING FROM 1.0
Make sure to delete the previous version. The new .esp has v1.1 at the end of the name, so downloading with NMM OR manually probably wont overwrite the previous version.
With NMM
In NMM under the plugins tab, un-check Vampiric Drain Balanced.esp. Under the Mods tab, double click the mod (most likely titled Vampiric Drain Balanced) to deactivate, then press delete.
Download v1.1 the same as before, just press "Download with Manager"
Manual
Just go to your Data folder and delete Vampiric Drain Balanced.esp, then download v1.1 the same as before.
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Bugs and Feedback
I haven't noticed any bugs yet in 40 or so hours of gampelay but if you notice anything leave a comment.
I'm open to suggestions, I'd love to hear some feedback from you guys and let me know if its too weak, too strong, what changes you think it could use.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Credits
Big thanks to Morionic (who may or may not be GrimyBunyip here at the nexus, I'm not sure) over at http://forums.bethsoft.com for helping me figure out how to get the spell to only heal half the damage done, as well as helping me get all the variables right for the scaling. Without his help, I don't think I'd have ever got as far as I have with this mod.
I attempted to balance it for myself. I tried some other mods that just upped the magnitude, but I found they were always hard to balance because if it did decent damage then it also healed too much.
What I did is change Vampiric Drain so it heals the caster for only half the damage done. This adds flexibility in the amount of damage you can give it so it is competitive with other spells, while not being overpowered by healing too much.
Now scales with destruction perks, full details down below.
In general the magicka cost is around double the damage dealt, but with the magicka cost can be halved with the Novice Destruction perk.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New in V1.1
All ranks of Vampiric Drain now cost half once Novice Destruction perk is taken (previous version only rank 3 and 4 had cost reduction, and with apprentice and adept). One perk isn't much to invest in even if you aren't a caster, and if the perk requirement was any higher it is more inaccessible to lower level characters, or non-mages.
Added scaling with the Destruction tree perks. Each destruction perk will add 40% extra damage, capping at 300% extra damage with Master Destruction. This means that the spell does good damage for all players even if they don't invest in destruction, and for destruction users it means that the spell damage should always be competitive with the new rank of spells you're getting.
Made this mod compatible with any mod that changes the destruction tree and adds scaling, so those mods won't affect vampiric drain at all.
Quick Note
If you are any vampire rank OTHER than rank 1, for the scaling effect to activate you'll have to feed to revert back to rank 1 vampirism. Then you should get a message saying "Vampire Destruction was added".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Compatibility**
This mod -should- be compatible with anything that doesn't affect the Vampiric Drain spell. If you're using a mod like Better Vampires or Belua Sanguinare and they change how Vampiric Drain works (I can't remember if they do or not) try putting my mod right after theirs in your load order.
As of V1.1 this mod should work perfectly with, and independently of any mods that affect the destruction tree, like Better Magic, Empowered Magic, Balanced Magic, etc. Any changes these mods made, adding scaling to destruction perks will have NO effect on Vampiric Drain now, and any changes made to the magicka cost reduction with the destruction perks won't affect the spell's cost.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What this mod changes:
Level 1 Vampirism:
Deals 6 points of damage to target and absorbs half the damage dealt as health.
1.4/ 1.8 / 2.2 / 2.6 /3 Damage multipliers with perks destruction Novice/Apprentice/Adept/Expert/Master
8.4/10.8/13.2/15.6/18 Damage after perk modifiers
~16 Magicka/second, ~8 Magicka/second with Novice Destruction
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 2 Vampirism:
Deals 10 points of damage to target and absorbs half the damage dealt as health.
1.4/1.8/2.2/2.6/3Damage multipliers with perks destruction Novice/Apprentice/Adept/Expert/Master
14 /18 / 22/16 /30 Damage after perk modifiers
~34 Magicka/second, ~17 Magicka/second with Novice Destruction
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Level 3 Vampirism:
Deals 16 points of damage to target and absorbs half the damage dealt as health.
1.4 / 1.8 / 2.2 / 2.6 /3Damage multipliers with perks destruction Novice/Apprentice/Adept/Expert/Master
22.4/28.8/35.2/41.6/48 Damage after perk modifiers
~42 Magicka/second, ~21 Magicka/second with Novice Destruction
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level 4 Vampirism:
Deals 20 points of damage to target and absorbs half the damage dealt as health.
1.4/1.8/2.2/2.6/3Damage multipliers with perks destruction Novice/Apprentice/Adept/Expert/Master
28 /36 /44 /52 /60 Damage after perk modifiers
~74 Magicka/second, ~37 Magicka/second with Novice Destruction
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes
The listed magicka costs are the values entered in the Creation Kit. They seem quite high, but in game they seem to cost a fair bit less. For my rank 4 vampire character, Vampiric Drain only costs 26 Magicka/second with no spell cost reduction other than Adept Destruction. With the arch mage robes 15% spell cost reduction, its down to 22/second.
tl;dr
If the costs seem too high for you, give it a try because the actual costs will most likely be lower than the listed values.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Future Changes
Right now the costs are probably a little high for most people who have the adept perk or below - they just aren't a high enough level to have enough magicka for the cost to not be too much.
For the next version I THINK I'm going to lower the cost across the board, and increase the cost by, I don't know yet, say 15% for each perk AFTER novice. This way at master destruction you don't have a spell doing 60 damage a second channeled, and only a base amount of 20 magicka, probably lowered to 10 or so with enchanted armor. This will help out all types of players who use this spell, especially non full mages who may not invest in a lot of magick, while also having a more balanced spell for high level mages.
The latest version (V1.1) brings the damage more in line with each rank of destruction spell, and the next version should bring the cost in line with it as well. This isn't final yet, so I'll have to play around with the percentages to see what feels right, and then compare them with comparable level destruction spells.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Installation
With NMM
Just press "Download with Manager", activate, and you're good to go.
Manual
Extract the .esp from the archive and place in your Data folder, and select it under Data Files on the main Skyrim loader.
FOR THOSE UPDATING FROM 1.0
Make sure to delete the previous version. The new .esp has v1.1 at the end of the name, so downloading with NMM OR manually probably wont overwrite the previous version.
With NMM
In NMM under the plugins tab, un-check Vampiric Drain Balanced.esp. Under the Mods tab, double click the mod (most likely titled Vampiric Drain Balanced) to deactivate, then press delete.
Download v1.1 the same as before, just press "Download with Manager"
Manual
Just go to your Data folder and delete Vampiric Drain Balanced.esp, then download v1.1 the same as before.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bugs and Feedback
I haven't noticed any bugs yet in 40 or so hours of gampelay but if you notice anything leave a comment.
I'm open to suggestions, I'd love to hear some feedback from you guys and let me know if its too weak, too strong, what changes you think it could use.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Credits
Big thanks to Morionic (who may or may not be GrimyBunyip here at the nexus, I'm not sure) over at http://forums.bethsoft.com for helping me figure out how to get the spell to only heal half the damage done, as well as helping me get all the variables right for the scaling. Without his help, I don't think I'd have ever got as far as I have with this mod.