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The Elder Scrolls III
MORROWIND
Raym's Invisible Shields

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Index:

1. Description
2. Installation
3. Known Issues
4. Credits and Usage

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DESCRIPTION

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This is a very simple mod: it adds 4 "invisible" shields for sale to Arrille, Seyda Neen.
These shields work exactly as normal shields, but for the fact that they are not visible when equipped: so, your character will try and block with them when they equip one of these shields, the shield gets damaged when hit, count as armor, and you can even enchant it (you will still NOT see anything, not even the glow for the enchantment); the only difference is that your character will look like they haven't a shield on them.

So... why would you want to use this stuff? Basically, it's just roleplaying.
You may want an invisible shield to simulate your character blocking with a left hand gauntlet or bracer, for example. Or you may want to use it to simulate the supernatural hand to hand or unarmored skill of some monk character or whatever, capable of blocking bare handed. Your choice, really.

There are 4 types of invisible shield: they are called "Mystic Guard" and use the icon and ground mesh of the Heartrime Amulet.
No real reason for this choice, I needed some icon to manipulate these shields in the inventory, and some ground mesh to be able to pick it up again in case you drop them... and thought that one looked cool!

The "light", "medium" and "heavy" Mystic Guards have exactly the same stats of a Glass Towershield for Light, Ebony Towershield for Heavy, and something inbetween for Medium (since there's no really good, high-end medium shield in Morrowind). They are, of course, light, medium and heavy armor, respectively: I made them so you can use whatever armor class you prefer.
These 3 shields are made for those who want a bit of "balance" and want to "earn" them with the need to pay for them.

The fourth shield is called "Supreme Mystic Guard": it has the stats of a Daedric Towershield, 9999 Health (so it can take A LOT of punishment without breaking), weights only 1 (is Light Armor) and costs only 1 gold.
This one if for those who are not so bothered by balance and think they can judge how to best enjoy this little addition to their game by themselves.

Personally, I'll just add the "Supreme Mystic Guard" to my character when she reaches 100 in both Unarmored and Hand to Hand, so I think this keeps things balanced.
As I said, it's your game, your choice. I'm not your mommy to tell you how to use this mod, so do with it what you think will be fun for you.

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INSTALLATION

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Nothing fancy: drop the plugin in your "Morrowind/Data Files" directory, check it so the game loads it, and you're done.
The mod is clean and only requires Morrowind.

The 4 types of invisible shield are added in a barrel in Arrille's Tradehouse in Seyda Neen; the barrel is owned by Arrille, so he'll sell you the shields. There's 10 of each and they will restock everytime you open the "barter" window with Arrille, so you have a neverending stock of them.
The barrel itself is placed a looong way up, out of sight and, almost certainly, out of the way of any possible modification to Arrille's Tradehouse that other mods may do.

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KNOWN ISSUES

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Shouldn't be any at all. This mod is so simple.

Just remember that, while not visible when equipped, these shields are still exactly like the shields in vanilla: for example, even if you use one of these to simulate your character blocking bare handed, the shield will *still* be damaged by each hit, and you will need to repair it.

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CREDITS AND USAGE

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The idea for this mod came from Carnithus' Armamentarium, which added a gauntlet scripted so that it would give you an invisible shield when equipped: this way, you had the illusion of blocking with the gauntlet. I liked the idea a lot and decided I wanted an invisible shield like that to reproduce other situations (like blocking bare handed, or with any kind of bracer/gauntlet).

So I did a mod for this and used it for myself, for quite a long time. Some time later, in a post at the Official Forums, DemonKnightLord asked about being able to block with a gauntlet; so, replying to the thread I discovered someone else could like this. Elaura at Wolflore then asked me to release the plugin.
So you have to thank mostly DemonKnightLord and Elaura for the release of this mod!

And as always, my thanks to Jac and the other people at Wolflore for advice, support and just being the way they are. Love you, folks!

As for usage terms: do with this as you please, no need to ask me.

If you have questions, the easiest way to reach me is on the Morrowind Modding Community Discord server (name: Raym).