So this is my first mod ever. Hooray! It aims to make the mutation mechanic of legendary enemies a little more, dare I say, "uh-mersive"? I always thought the legendary enemies were more annoying than challenging. Their tendency to mutate feels more like a waste of ammo than anything else. Sure, they get a new perk that might make them do radiation damage or they get a big buff to defense, but the only thing you really notice is the fact that you wasted your time and ammo shooting someone or something to 50% health, only to have them regain most, if not all of it back when they "mutate". It's so annoying, I found myself sneaking around trying to get one-hit stealth kills on legendary enemies, rather than actually trying to fight them straight up.

What does this mod do?

Better Legendary Mutations does three things.

• Edits the spells that grant legendary enemies a ridiculous amount of health regen when they mutate. They still receive the aura and whatever damage/defense buffs they normally receive, and legendary human enemies can still use stimpacks, but the health regen is gone.
• Changes the mutation message to state that the enemy is now enraged instead of mutating.
• Gives legendary robots a unique mutation message that indicates their on-death self-destruct sequence has been activated.
  

What might this mod do in the future?

Nothing. This mod is now officially discontinued. I began the process of updating this mod with the intention of buffing the defense/attack of legendary enemies upon "mutation". That process led to a lot of new ideas for abilities I would like to implement for Legendary enemies based on actor types and subtypes.

What this essentially means is I'm reworking this mod from the ground up with a different philosophy. I'm not sure when it will be finished, but when it is, I'll upload it as a separate mod (I think the changes are enough to warrant it), and link it here.

Why does this mod exist?

Because legendary enemies are silly to begin with, let alone their mutation habit. The first time I saw a legendary enemy, it was a radroach. I figured it was some strange ability that legendary creatures had, and as I gained levels, it would change their appearance or behavior. I was obviously wrong, and as I continued playing, I became more and more annoyed by the mechanic. Not to mention the stupidity of a human enemy "mutating" and regaining all of the health I just took from them. Or worse, a Deathclaw.

Legendary enemies as a vessel to deliver magical loot still bugs me, but seeing as I'm not adept with the CK, and this is my first mod, I figured I would start with simpler things.

Video Evidence:



Installation:

Use NMM, or download the file manually and stick the BetterLegendaryMutations.esp in your FO4 Data folder.

Compatibility:

This mod edits the mutation messages and the legendary spells that are granted to legendary enemies when they mutate. It doesn't edit the enemies themselves, nor any leveled lists, so it should be compatible with pretty much everything except mods that do the same thing, of course.

This mod is also compatible with Automatron and Wasteland Workshop. Far Harbor remains to be seen.

Permissions:

This mod literally took me an evening to make, so I don't really feel right calling it "mine". That being said, if anyone wants to build upon this mod and make something cool, be my guest. Shooting me a link to that mod and maybe giving me a special thanks would be neat though.

NOTE: This mod is now available for the Xbox One on the bethnet website. It is posted under the author name "Grouse", which is me.

Special Thanks:

Wolfkraut for helping me test this by killing literally one legendary Deathclaw...