--- Description ---

This mod does exactly what its name implies; it tweaks the values of your dragon shouts to make them more useful and appropriately powerful. Almost every shout has been modified in some way, such as cooldown reduction or power increase, making your Thu'um feel more in line with its legendary reputation. However, each change was given careful consideration and caution was taken to prevent your shouts from becoming overpowered.

This mod alters shouts in the vanilla game, as well as shouts added by Dawnguard and Dragonborn. Therefore, you will need both of these DLCs to use this mod.

This mod was inspired by Ozram's Improved Dragon Shouts, a great mod, similar to this one, that you should also check out. While I enjoyed the majority of Ozram's changes, I felt that some shouts ended up overpowered, such as Fire Breath and Frost Breath. This is what inspired me to try my own hand at balancing the Thu'um, the result of which was Dragon Shouts Rebalanced. Most of my changes fall somewhere between Ozram's very powerful shouts and vanilla Skyrim's mediocre shouts.

But rather than forcing you to take my word that my mod is well balanced, I've listed the changes I've made, as well as my reasoning for making them, on this page.



--- Change Log ---

v1.3 Changes:
- Storm Call no longer hurts your followers and teammates.
- Clear Skies will now clear inclement weather, removing snow/rain/clouds and returning you to weather type 'SkyrimClear'.

v1.2 Changes:
- Kyne's Peace now affects Spriggans.

v1.1 Changes:
- Cooldown times on Drain Vitality have been returned to their vanilla values. I felt the shortened cooldowns made this shout too strong relative to other offensive shouts.



--- Changes ---

Here is a comparison between vanilla Skyrim and Dragon Shouts Rebalanced. If a certain variable is not listed, that means I haven't changed it from its vanilla value(s).

Animal Allegiance

Raan - MaxLvl: 20 > 20 Duration: 30 > 45 Radius: 75 > 100 Cooldown: 50 > 30
Mir - MaxLvl: 20 >30 Duration: 45 > 60 Radius: 150 > 200 Cooldown: 60 > 45
Tah - MaxLvl: 20 > 40 Duration: 60 > 90 Radius: 250 > 300 Cooldown: 70 > 60

Not a shout people usually think to use, so I wanted to make it more attractive. To that end, I've given small buffs to all of the relevant variables.

Aura Whisper

Laas - Duration: 10 > 5 Radius (exterior): 500 > 200 Radius (interior): 300 > 100 Cooldown: 30 > 20
Yah - Duration: 20 > 10 Radius (exterior): 500 > 350 Radius (interior): 300 > 200 Cooldown: 40 > 25
Nir - Duration: 30 > 15 Radius (exterior): 500 > 500 Radius (interior): 300 > 300 Cooldown: 50 > 30

This is one of few shouts that I thought was actually too powerful in vanilla Skyrim. As it detects both living and undead over a long distance and can be cast silently, it rendered the detect life and detect dead spells all but useless. Therefore, I've reduced the radius on the first two words of the shout, and the duration on all three. Cooldown has been decreased to compensate, however.

Battle Fury

Mid - Duration: 60 > 30
Vur - Duration: 120 > 60
Shaan - Duration: 180 > 90

This shout was already quite good, especially if you use multiple followers. The duration was too high, though, at least given the cooldown times. I had to nerf one or the other, so I chose to cut the duration in half.

Become Ethereal

Feim - Duration: 8 > 10 Cooldown: 20 > 20
Zii - Duration: 12 > 15 Cooldown: 30 > 25
Gron - Duration: 16 > 20 Cooldown: 40 > 30

I love this shout. I thought it was already pretty well balanced, so all I did was increase the duration of each stage by a small amount and cut the cooldowns on the 2nd and 3rd words.

Additionally, the "Eternal Spirit" buff that you get from meditating with Paarthurnax has been improved. Whereas it used to increase health regeneration by 25% while under the effects of Become Ethereal, it now increases health regeneration by 100%.

Bend Will

Gol - Cooldown: 10 > 10
Hah - Cooldown: 90 >60
Dov - Cooldown: 120 > 90

Cooldown decreased. Waiting two minutes was too long.

Call Dragon

Od - Cooldown: 5 > 5
Ah - Cooldown: 5 > 5
Viing - Cooldown: 300 > 180

Cooldown drastically decreased. I know it's a powerful shout, but waiting 5 minutes was ridiculous.

Call of Valor

Hun - Cooldown: 180 > 90
Kaal - Cooldown: 180 > 90
Zoor - Cooldown: 180 > 90

Cooldown cut in half. Additionally, I've slightly buffed the heroes of Sovngarde by giving them extra health, stamina, and magicka. Also, I've applied the proper combat classes to Felldir the Old and Hakon One-Eye (they were previously marked as 1H warriors despite using 2H weapons).

Clear Skies

Lok
Vah
Koor

This shout will now revert your weather back to 'SkyrimClear' (weather type 0000081A). Can be used to clear up rain, snow, overcast skies, etc. Useful if you use Frostfall or any other cold weather mod.

Cyclone

Ven - Cooldown: 30 > 30
Gaar - Cooldown: 45 > 40
Nos - Cooldown: 60 > 50

I figured Cyclone was plenty powerful already, so all I did was lower the cooldowns of the second and third words by a bit.

Disarm

Zun - MaxLvl: 12 > 15Cooldown: 30 > 20
Haal - MaxLvl: 20 > 25Cooldown: 35 > 25
Viik - MaxLvl: 30 > 35Cooldown: 40 > 30

Shortened cooldowns, heightened effectiveness. I didn't get too carried away with the max level buff, since this is the same shout that enemies use against you. This means that your character needs to exceed the max level of the third word to be immune to having your weapon ripped from your hand at an inopportune moment.

Dismay

Faas - MaxLvl: 7 > 10 Duration: 30 > 30 Cooldown: 40 > 30
Ru - MaxLvl: 15 >20 Duration: 30 > 45 Cooldown: 45 > 35
Maar - MaxLvl: 24 > 30 Duration: 30 > 60 Cooldown: 50 > 40

Across-the-board buffs to make this shout more appealing.

Dragon Aspect

Mul
Qah
Diiv

No changes. I thought this shout was fine as it was.

Dragonrend

Joor
Zah
Frul

Again, no changes. It does its job and already has a short cooldown.

Drain Vitality

Gaan
Lah
Haas

The damage and cooldown values of Drain Vitality have not been changed. However, this shout now absorbs things from your opponents, whereas in vanilla, all it does is deal damage. I don't know if Bethesda intended this shout to absorb, but I like it better this way. NPCs don't obey the same mechanics for using and restoring stats, and as far as I can tell, have virtually unlimited pools of stamina and magicka. This made the first two words of the shout nearly useless, and the third word unfitting of its 90 second cooldown time.

So yeah, Drain Vitality now absorbs stuff.

Elemental Fury

Su - Duration: 15 > 15
Grah - Duration: 15 > 20
Dun - Duration: 15 > 25

I thought this shout was really strong already, so the only thing I changed was the duration on the 2nd and 3rd words.

Fire Breath

Yol - Damage: 50 > 50 Cooldown: 30 > 30
Toor - Damage: 70 > 75 Cooldown: 50 > 40
Shul - Damage: 90 > 100 Cooldown: 100 > 50

Massive cooldown reductions, slight damage buffs. Previously, the player had no reason to ever use any more than the first word of this shout due to the very long cooldowns. I opted to keep the damage output about the same, as it matches the output of destruction damage fairly well. If it still feels ineffective, that's not because the shout's too weak, but because the enemy has too much health. I'm not going to balance this around master or legendary difficulty, since that would make it OP on lower difficulties.

Frost Breath

Fo - Damage: 50 > 50 Slow: 50 > 50 Cooldown: 30 > 30
Krah - Damage: 70 > 75 Slow: 50 > 60 Cooldown: 50 > 40
Diin - Damage: 90 > 100 Slow: 50 > 70 Cooldown: 100 > 50

Same deal as with fire breath. Additionally, the magnitude of the slowness debuff applied to enemies is now slightly higher on the 2nd and 3rd words.

Ice Form

Iiz - Duration: 15 > 15 Damage: 2/sec > 2/sec Cooldown: 60 > 45
Slen - Duration: 30 > 30 Damage: 2/sec > 3/sec Cooldown: 90 > 60
Nus - Duration: 60 > 45 Damage: 2/sec > 4/sec Cooldown: 120 > 75

Shortened cooldown times a little bit, but also shortened the duration on the 3rd word. Also, the passive damage is now higher on the 2nd and 3rd words.

Kyne's Peace

Kaan - MaxLvl: 20 > 20 Radius: 75 > 100 Cooldown: 40 > 20
Drem - MaxLvl: 20 > 30 Radius: 150 > 200 Cooldown: 50 > 30
Ov - MaxLvl: 20 > 40 Radius: 225 > 300 Cooldown: 60 > 40

In vanilla, this shout was only useful for pacifying wild animals when you didn't have Voice of the Sky active. Now, in addition to pacifying wild animals, you can also calm down nature's less-than-benevolent guardians, the Spriggans. Kyne's Peace also got buffs to magnitude, radius, and cooldown. The first word will pacify all animals except mammoths, as well as some of the lower level Spriggans. The second word will pacify higher level Spriggans, including those added by Dawnguard and Dragonborn. All three words are needed to pacify mammoths.

Marked for Death

Krii - Damage (health): 1/sec > 2/sec Damage (armor): 25 > 30
Lun - Damage (health): 2/sec > 3/sec Damage (armor): 50 > 60
Aus - Damage (health): 3/sec > 4/sec Damage (armor): 75 > 90

This shout's already quite strong, even after they removed the 'negative armor glitch.' It now deals slightly more damage and weakens armor by a bit more, but cooldown and duration remains the same.

Slow Time

Tiid - Duration: 8 > 10 Cooldown: 30 > 30
Klo - Duration: 12 > 15 Cooldown: 45 > 40
Ul - Duration: 16 > 20 Cooldown: 60 > 50

This was already a strong shout, so I was conservative with the buffs. Duration and cooldown times have been improved slightly on the 2nd and 3rd words.

Soul Tear

Rii
Vaaz
Zol

No changes. Bethesda got this one right.

Storm Call

Strun - Duration: 60 > 90 Radius: 100 > 100 Cooldown: 300 > 180
Bah - Duration: 120 > 135 Radius: 100 > 150 Cooldown: 480 > 240
Qo - Duration: 180 > 180 Radius: 150 > 200 Cooldown: 600 > 300

TEN MINUTE COOLDOWNS...are no longer a reality, thankfully. Cooldowns have been reduced drastically. Radii and durations have been tweaked so the power progresses better as you learn new words. Damage output remains the same.

Additionally, this shout will no longer harm your followers or teammates. The lightning still strikes them, but it does no damage. If I figure out how to make the lightning stop targeting them altogether, I'll release an update.

Summon Durnehviir

Dur - Cooldown: 5 > 5
Neh - Cooldown: 5 > 5
Viir - Cooldown: 300 > 180

Same as with Call Dragon, all I did was cut the cooldown time from 5 minutes to 3.

Throw Voice

Zul
Mey
Gut

No changes. A fun shout, but not terribly useful. I couldn't think of any way to make it better, but that won't stop me from yelling "HEY SKEEVER-BUTT!" at my enemies.

Unrelenting Force

Fus - Damage: 2 > 5 Cooldown: 15 > 15
Ro - Damage: 5 > 10 Cooldown: 20 > 20
Dah - Damage: 10 > 25 Cooldown: 45 >40

The shout that started it all, and one that was already fairly well balanced. I've reduced the cooldown on the 3rd word from 45 to 40 seconds. I've also increased the damage that this shout deals, but the damage is still negligible.

Whirlwind Sprint

Wuld - Cooldown: 20 > 10
Nah - Cooldown: 25 > 15
Kest - Cooldown: 35 > 20

Heavily reduced the cooldown. It's not like this shout is powerful or abusable, so I saw no reason for it to have such a long cooldown time.



--- Conflicts ---

Dragon Shouts Rebalanced should only conflict with other mods that alter the characteristics of shouts. If you are using any such mods, you'll probably have to put Dragon Shouts Rebalanced later in your load order if you want its changes to take effect, or make a merged mod with TES5Edit.

Otherwise, though, this is a fairly unobtrusive mod. There is one script, but it's harmless.



--- Installation ---

If you're installing manually, all you need to do is drop DragonShoutsRebalanced.esp and the scripts folder into the data folder within your Skyrim directory. After that, be sure to activate the .esp. This mod can be placed anywhere in your load order, so long as it comes after the master files (.esm).

If you're installing with a mod manager, then, well, let the manager do its thing.



--- Uninstallation ---

The only special precaution I can think of when uninstalling would be to make a clean save in which there are no dragon shout effects active. This should remove any possibility of problems when you reload your game. Once you do that, you can go ahead and delete the files or deactivate the .esp.



--- Other Recommended Dragon Shout Mods ---

Here I'll list some other shout mods that make nice complements to Dragon Shouts Rebalanced.

Dragon Soul Relinquishment, by Alek
If you'd like to use your leftover dragon souls, or to use them for something other than unlocking new words, then Dragon Soul Relinquishment is what you want. This is a great mod that is highly customizable and adds all of its features in a lore-friendly manner.



--- Credits ---

As stated earlier, the creation of this mod was inspired by Ozram's Improved Dragon Shouts mod, so he deserves a mention.

Also, thanks to MannyGT for the idea behind the Clear Skies fix. If you'd just like a fix for Clear Skies and don't want to install DSR, you can get Manny's mod here.

The actual work was my own, however, and all assets belong to Bethesda.



--- Other Mods by the Author ---

RACISM: improves and balances the racial abilities/powers
Numerical Smithing Upgrades: improves the weapon and armor improvement names
Neapolitan ENB: the best ENB preset I'm willing to endorse