This mod is really simple, just adds another birthsign, but almost 20 years of playing experience are poured into the idea, smooth playstyle, and overall feeling it brings to your game. I was always on the verge of just getting a mod that brings regenerating magicka into Morrowind, but it just didn't feel right, so I felt something needs to be done about it.

The core mechanic is about restoring Magicka, of course. You still have stunted Magicka, but summoning ghosts and hitting them has really gotten old. So what you get is a spell with 2 effects simultaneously: first, it fires a ranged Absorb Magicka. If you hit something, you will drain Magicka from it for the next 12 seconds or until it dies. Second, weaker effect, it just replenishes your Magicka over 12 seconds (see below for exact numbers). I have tested it a lot in early, mid and late game, tweaked the spell and the numbers many times, and this is it - something I am always happy to play with as a mage, not too weak, not too strong, and feeling like an actual mage and not a ghost-spamming n'wah. So these are the effects and thorough explanation of all of them:


*Passive*
Fortify Maximum Magicka 1.0x INT
Spell Absorption 25%
Stunted Magicka
Weakness to Normal Weapons 25%

*Spell*
Spellsteal: Restore Magicka 4 pts for 12 seconds on self
                   Absorb Magicka 6 pts for 12 seconds on target (5 ft area)
                   Cost: 15 Magicka (always succeeds)


So, first things first. For 15 Magicka, you restore 48 Magicka over 12 seconds. I wanted to evade instantly restoring Magicka as it would feel too strong. But now you don't need to summon a ghost and wait for it to attack you (easy to do but a chore), you can just cast this and slowly regain some of your Magicka over time. If the ranged aspect hits something, you also steal drastically more Magicka (total of 72 over 12 seconds) because, you know, you just attacked someone/something and you're in a combat. So if you hit something and absorb it for the whole duration, you regained a total of 110 Magicka (self effect plus ranged effect). Sounds like too much? Let's analyze the passive effects.

Stunted Magicka - It is Atronach-inspired after all.

Fortify Max Magicka 1.0x INT - Compared to the original Atronach (2.0x INT), this is less total Magicka. With the improved way of regaining lots of your Magicka, especially during combat, this keeps you on your toes - it is still a lot of bonus Magicka (Mage for example giving you only 0.5x INT), but if you use your Spellsteal actively, you will actually have a big reservoir of Magicka in a prolonged combat. I think this way of handling your Magicka adds to how you approach your combat, and you have more decisions to make - compared to just having a flat 2.0 INT bonus and just summoning a ghost after the battle.

Spell Absorption 25% and Weakness to Normal Weapons 25% - Again, 25% Spell Absorption is less than what the Atronach gives you (50%), simply because it is not your primary way of restoring Magicka. You will still absorb 1/4 of the spells cast at you, but don't count on it. Weakness to Normal Weapons is there because of 2 reasons. First, to counteract the Spell Absorption - you are stronger vs mages, let's have a weakness vs hitters. Second, if you pick Atronach/Spellborn, you are probably going for full mage/glass cannon type of character, you have lot of Magicka, neat way of restoring it, let's have some weakness. If you can't keep your enemies at a distance, they will hurt more.



Personally, I am very satisfied with the balance and overall feel of this birthsign in all stages of the game. Before it, I had spent hours at the character creation, thinking if I should just pick Mage or Apprentice, oh but Atronach is so strong, but I reeeally don't want to condemn myself to it for the rest of my game and the clunky way of restoring Magicka...my intention was to relieve you, fellow Morrowinders, of that headache, in a way that doesn't feel overpowered but still brings something special to your character compared to just picking Apprentice or Mage. Feel free to discuss any or every aspect of the mod, what feels good, what feels that it can be improved. And I love you all for still playing this gem of a game almost 2 decades after the release and reading this very long text about a simple mod, we all know why we're here and let's keep having fun and improving the game and everything that we made as a result :)