Raw estimation of changes I plan to do (not the final tho):
Warrior - vanilla
Thief - vanilla
Atronach: - Spell Absorb 30 - Mana from INT 1.5 (or revert to 2.0) - Weakness to Elements and Magicka(?) 25% Weakness to elements a bit questionable choice, in terms of lore.
Lord: - Fire Weakness 50% - HP regen 0.5pt/s - Max Strength +10 (for 110 cap)
Shadow - as in mod, maybe with added temp Speed boost (10-25) to Power as well.
Apprentice - preserved new power. Helpful and not game breaking, still consistent with lore.
Lady: - Like in a mod, without changes, or; - +25 (for 125 cap) Personality, or; - Lowered value of Personality / replaced with Willpower
Lover: + 25 to Personality or Willpower or Agility (for 125 cap)
Serpent: - Constant buff to Agility/Willpower, with counter debuff. - some tweaks to new power (with removal of Power on Thief however, this might be not that much necessary)
Tower: - either without change, or removal of Power - to replace it with a constant effect of Reflect/Magick Resistance. (altho not that much lore accurate) Constant "Shield" effect would be probably best, but this could turn as a bothersome visually in a long term.
Ritual - as in mod, probably without any changes
Mage - as for the Currently established version: The idea was to force a different playstyle - avoiding engaging in a close combat, in exchange of a constant mana supplies.
A simple boost of "Mana from INT" to 1.0 would result in making Apprentice less appealing. Mage with its negative status stands quite well between Apprentice and Lord in terms of balance. Changing negative status to something between 15-20% could be perhaps a better solution, or adding something like +10 willpower as well.
Another option could be lowering Personality (or possibly related skills) to fit "arrogance" of Mage, rather than actually performing such change to Serpent.
Atronach: - Spell Absorb 30 - Mana from INT 1.5 (or revert to 2.0) - Weakness to Elements and Magicka(?) 25% Weakness to elements a bit questionable choice, in terms of lore.
I’d phrase it as an unstable equilibrium. Your character isn’t literally an atronach so much as they are volatile font of magic that both enjoys and suffers from the abundance of inherit magical power. Alternatively, you could view it as being a hybrid of Atronachs who are, for the most part, very weak to a specific element while being immune to their favored one. I would want to avoid making this birthsign too stacked in terms of perks/weaknesses, however, and compromise by just having the Weaknesses + Spell Absorption and Magicka bonus since that is enough to make it great for high-risk mages and off-tank blade-mage hybrids that won’t deliberate try to get themselves blasted but are decently likely to benefit from it rather than get hurt.
Tower: - either without change, or removal of Power - to replace it with a constant effect of Reflect/Magick Resistance. (altho not that much lore accurate) Constant "Shield" effect would be probably best, but this could turn as a bothersome visually in a long term.
This depends on your game. I found, with OpenMW 0.46, you wouldn’t see an actual Shield (like the spell) while under this effect but I did see it with Fire/Frost/Lightning Shield. When I tried it with the Patch for Purists, there wasn’t a visible Fire/Frost/Lightning shield. Haven’t tried it with OpenMW 0.48 and no idea how it affects the normal version of the game. Ultimately, I think it’s best to keep that Shield rather low since, unless you’re raising the difficulty slider, 50 points is huge. 10 is good enough to be attractive, though probably not on its own compared to, say, the Mage (or your version of the Apprentice) allowing you to more casually cast that as a standard spell instead.
Mage - as for the Currently established version: The idea was to force a different playstyle - avoiding engaging in a close combat, in exchange of a constant mana supplies. A simple boost of "Mana from INT" to 1.0 would result in making Apprentice less appealing. Mage with its negative status stands quite well between Apprentice and Lord in terms of balance. Changing negative status to something between 15-20% could be perhaps a better solution, or adding something like +10 willpower as well. Another option could be lowering Personality (or possibly related skills) to fit "arrogance" of Mage, rather than actually performing such change to Serpent.
I had a tough time with this one, myself, but I think 1.0 (alone) is good without stepping on Apprentice’s toes because 1.5 is a huge Magicka boost for the Apprentice. While the Mage might be more attractive than the Apprentice for High Elves, and maybe Bretons, the Apprentice would likely be more attractive for hardier races such as Nords, Redguards, Dark Elves, etc. that lack any innate boost to Magicka. Or Bretons who want to trade their Resist Magicka for more Magicka.
A penalty to Personality would fit what I recall of the one of the UESP’s description of it (in terms of how it tends to affect people born under it) and reinforce the idea that they’re socially awkward in exchange for being more innately magically capable.
That's what I thought too, so I think adding minor elemental weaknesses can actually work well (and technically, Atronachs tend to be weak to certain elements as well after all).
50 points is huge. 10 is good enough to be attractive
50 points was mostly to compensate a duration limit + make it a reasonable choice. The other abilities of Tower are just not good enough to make it really a desired choice. But I will change it, because it's indeed an overkill. And I didn't want to make shield a constant effect (even tho it would fit the most) because, as mentioned earlier - visual reasons.
Most of my tests I did on Vanilla engine (without CodePatch or anything) and OpenMW 0.48 & 0.49. So I have no idea if CodePatch or some MWSE mod removes barrier effect of "Shield", when it's set as a constant effect, Ability or a Curse.
When it comes to OpenMW, I think most people are using versions 0.48 and 0.49 nowadays, which are fairly similar. But I would still recommend using the 0.49 version over 0.48, since it now supports Lua, which opens doors to more advanced mods (including ports of some MWSE mods). So far, I've seen only a single mod which (temporarily) doesn't works on a newer version of openmw.
When it comes to OpenMW, I think most people are using versions 0.48 and 0.49 nowadays, which are fairly similar. But I would still recommend using the 0.49 version over 0.48, since it now supports Lua, which opens doors to more advanced mods (including ports of some MWSE mods). So far, I've seen only a single mod which (temporarily) doesn't works on a newer version of openmw.
I'd try it if it were available for the Mac version of OpenMW; I'm particularly curious about Ashlander Architect since city building is something I'm particularly fond of.
As for mods which don't work on a newer version, HQ Arsenal (https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/46308) is one I know of since it stopped working properly when I moved from 0.46 to 0.48. It may be fixed in 0.49 but that's one I know of :-P
The Tower is indeed tricky. I ended up using the Tarot version for inspiration (so, 25 Reflect + 10 Shield in exchange for 25-50% weakness to all elements + Magicka) since I thought it was more interesting than a niche treasure hunter/infiltrator build. You could focus more on the treasure hunter/infiltrator aspects with free a Night-Eye spell, maybe a boost to Security and Acrobatics.
I think your Shadow is interesting as a "ninja" of sorts so this angle would overlap with your version of the Shadow, but it might be interesting to make the Tower able to kickstart a minimally-violent treasure hunter/adventurer/archeologist-type build. It wouldn't be very competitive in actual combat, if taking this angle, but it might encourage more stealth play and combat avoidance and thus create an interesting shift in how you might normally approach Morrowind.
Aside from Detect Key/Enchantment and Open, maybe a Jump and Night Eye spell + constant effect Fortify Sneak and Security would do the trick.
Tbh, I think opening locks in Morrowind is already fairly easy, given so many available tools, so I preferred to avoid boosting Security skill directly.
You can grab experimental build of v0.49 for mac on official Gitlab (not Github) of OpenMW. Just be sure to backup your config files (and maybe saves too) and grab a Pipeline/Artifact which passed all stages "green".
Did you mod anything with Lua language btw? I was trying to implement direct Armor Rating buff through Lua, to bypass a purple "barrier" effect around character (as it's sadly still present) , but seems my knowledge is just not sufficient to make it right.
Curses seems to also not appear when picking choosing a Birthsign in game, which can be a bit misleading... but I would assume someone who downloads such mod will have a general sense as what each modified birthsign does anyway. EDIT: Nevermind, already found a bypass for that.
I apologize for not keeping up--I don't know how Luas work so I can't help that.
As for Curses, yes, that's a weakness of using them to change how Fortify Skill/Attribute works so it's necessary for end-users to have a reference sheet of some kind to know it's working properly. It's annoying, but it gets the job done so I'd just provide information in the ReadMe so people can easily refer to it.
As for the Lockpicking stuff, that's true, so an end user would need another mod which rebalances it so it's harder to use powerful Open spells that bypass the need for Security. Even then, it's easy in vanilla to pay for Security Training so another mod would be needed for that as well lol. Ultimately, it's beyond the scope of a mod aimed at Birthsigns unless it also has companion mods for other stuff as well (or the end-user independently modded this stuff on their own but, at that point, they could easily just make their own Birthsign mod and maybe use others' for inspiration).
As for having the Shields without the visual effects all the time... I can't remember too much other than I know it's possible to have them without the effect with some messing with things. I know the "Patch For Purists," for some reason, disabled the visual effect for me when I tested it while, without it, it seemed like a 50/50 chance if my character would have a permanent barrier or not after character creation. I THINK they don't have permanent barriers if set up via EnableRaceMenu but, obviously, this is a bit much to ask an end-user to get the intended experience out of a mod so I don't know if it should be issued as a constant effect.
I'm not sure if this applies to vanilla/non-OpenMW, but a thing you might want to know, in case you don't, is, if you designate a Fortify Skill/Atribute as a "Curse," it works by stacking on top like a buff rather than a permanent increase.Like, if the Lady had Fortify Personality as a Curse, you'd have X Personality (say, 30 as a male Dunmer) +(say, 25) Personality like a constant buff rather than 55. This means that, if he had leveled his Personality to 100, he'd have 125 as a "raised cap." Very useful to know when modding Birthsigns and Races.
The main criticism I have is that some of the Birthsigns are oddly balanced. Specifically, The Serpent, the Lover, and the Thief. In short, The Serpent is essentially a worse version of the Thief and Lover while the Thief’s Cult of the Stars plus the +10 Sanctuary Ability makes it mostly better than the Lover outside of the Lover’s potential to blow a 25 second paralysis kiss.
In the hit chance formula, 1 point of Sanctuary is equal to 1 point of Weapon Skill or Fortify Attack; 5 points of Agility; and 10 points of Luck. In other words, 5 Agility equates to an increased hit rate equivalent to 1 point of a given Weapon Skill (or Fortify Attack buff—they’re equivalent) while also being worth only 1 point of Sanctuary. So, add up Thief’s Agility + Power buff and it’s equivalent to 74 points of Agility in terms of evasion and 24 in terms of attacking successfully. In contrast, Serpent is only 25 of each and has only Cure Poison and Dispel (which is likely to be a negative more often than a positive since you can’t use it as a spell to remove Paralysis, though maybe you can to remove Silence since it’s a Power here) to compensate for the 100 Damage Fatigue weakness that the Thief doesn’t have to deal with.
The Lover, similar to the Serpent, suffers a big Damage Fatigue penalty (200) but it is part of the paralysis-shooting power rather than the 25 Agility-boosting power, so users of her can get the 25 points of favorable hit chance rates (for 30 times the duration, no less) with no penalities whatsover. Even so, it’s worse than the Thief who gets a constant (equivalent to) 50 points of Agility for evasion and almost-as-good 24 for attacking while using the Thief’s power. The only upside to the Serpent is that Agility also affects likelihood of being staggered/knocked down, so it provides a nice boost of protection against that is twice the value of what the Lover is getting and between twice and thrive of what the Thief is getting. Obvious downside being the Serpent inflicts Fatigue upon itself whenever it wants that 50 point Agility buff and its only 30 seconds versus 90 for the Thief and 15 minutes for the Lover (and they don’t hurt themselves for it either).
To rebelance them, I’d advise using “curses” as buffs; the Lover could have a constant-effect 25 points of Agility as an… obvious reference to their flexibility, and also as a way of competing directly with the Thief’s 10 points of Sanctuary. The Thief could lose the 25 points of Agility from its power. It’s already very nice to have 10 points of constant Sanctuary, so the occassional boost to Luck and Short Blade is basically just to reinforce that play style with the real attraction being getting hit much less often (especially if stacked with other means of evasion, like Blocking, Illusion magic for even more Sanctuary, and a focus on leveling Agility). As an aside, I’m a bit biased against Powers on principle (if it’s not because I dislike the “specialness” they give to the player character, it’s because it might as well be constant/for every fight because it’s easy, and not even tedious in Morrowind, to wait 24 hours each time you’re done using it) so I’d just have a constant effect Luck “curse” in its place. Not sure how much because I’m tempted to say “25” or even higher since Luck is very weak as a factor and only has its broadness (and being the hardest to level) as compelling reasons to favor it over anything else.
The Serpent, on the other hand, is tough to balance because, from what I remember reading of its lore, it’s themeatically a blessing and a curse at the same time. It makes you faster, stronger, and smarter but also hurts you, makes people distrust you on principle, and generally reinforces a maverick lifestyle. Maybe you could have Magicka Bonus 0.5, Willpower 25, and Poison Resistance 75% in exchange for minus 50 to Personality, minus 25 Speechcraft, and minus 25 Mercantile, all as a “curse,” so that you’re pushed into a self-reliant lifestyle since it’s much harder to deal with NPCs (and you’ll have to pay up the nose for Enchanting, more than a normal character without the Star Curse) in exchange for being generally better at magic, less prone to Paralysis/Silence, and have an affinity to Poison (frankly not great in vanilla but has a niche with High Elves who have only Posion as an element they’re NOT weak to). I’m still not fully satisfied with what I propose but it’s hard to avoid overlapping with other Birthsigns. Maybe add in a 25 Agility boost if you don’t mind making the Strength all about Strength and have Lover be Fortify Attack 10 to Thief’s Sanctuary 10.
As for the rest, I think the Lord is pretty awful for vanilla game balance since an average healing rate of 0.5 per second is not worth the 50% Fire Weakness. I recommend rounding it up to 1.0 since it’d be more compettive with the rest of the signs, especially if using a mod that punishes excessive potion usage (like Alchemical Hustle). The Mage is likewise screwed since that that weakness to Normal Weapons is pretty serious while the 0.5 Magicka Restoration boost is awfully modest compared to the Apprentice and Atronach which not only have 1.5 Magicka Bonus but other impressive characteristics that utterly dwarf it for mage builds. I’d buff the 0.5 Magicka boost to 1.0 and remove everything else on the Mage so it can retain its niche as the “safe mage sign” against the riskier Apprentice and Atronach.
Between Apprentice and Atronach, I’d say they look decently balanced but I’m ultimately inclined to push for the Atronach because that 30% Spell Absorption is still very sweet while Stunted Magicka, unless using mods to punish excessive potion usage, is very easy to circumvent compared to 50% Weakness to Magicka. Fortifying magic skills via a power definitely makes Apprentice more approachable for using more powerful spells sooner, but it’ll ultimately be eclipsed in usefulness in the long run.
Since Stunted Magicka is cool as a lifestyle changer, I’d keep it, but I’d impose weaknesses to all the elements (at least Fire/Frost/Shock/Poison) onto Atronach to discourage intentionally taking enemy magic blasts. When Spell Absorption’s at 50, I’ve set the weaknesses all to 50% to compensate. Since you have it 30, I’d make the four weaknesses 25% each to be significant (but not too fatal) discouragements for facetanking enemy magic. As for the Apprentice, I’d remove the power and do nothing else since I think it’s good enough with 1.5 Magicka bonus and the 50% Weakness to Magicka isn’t TOO bad in vanilla. If you want Atronach to be the riskiest of the 3, without a doubt, then maybe give it 50% Weakness to Magicka as well on top of the 25% weakness to the other four elements. Ultimately, the idea is for the Mage to be a “safe” mage sign; the Apprentice to be risky (squishy mage); the Atronach to be the riskiest, and perhaps be better suited to warriors wanting to use magic for support without investing much into Intelligence and use the Spell Absorption for proection (but avoid getting hit too often due to the weaknesses).
I like what you did with the Ritual. I’m not a Power fan, but I like how it pushes for a Summoner build while also encouraging the usage of Alteration’s spells more often in active combat (like the elemental shields and Shield). Not sure of Conjure Skeletal Minion twice in the same spell results in 2 minions, though, because I know it doesn’t in OpenMW 0.46 (haven’t tested it on 0.48 yet to see if this was changed). Maybe replace it an Ancestor Ghost to keep the necromancy theme if it doesn’t work. EDIT: I tested it on 0.48 and it does work as it should.
The Lady is likewise interesting and good as it is, but I’d promote the Personality boost to a full-on buff (via “curse”) and ditch the Charm effect. I quite like the ninja-like theme of Shadow as well. Could be good for stealth builds attempting to get critical blows as well as general combat mobility. Charioteer’s an odd one; I recommend setting the 25 Speed to a “Curse” since I suspect you have it like that so it’ll be a buff rather than elevated base stat like in vanilla Morrowind.
The Tower is very interesting, though also potentially an example of a sign that could easily be abused to powerful effect. 50 Shield is huge in normal difficulty, effectively neutralizing most enemies’ physical damage, while the Tower Key is a nice-to-have and the Beggar’s Nose Spell is something that can prove surprisingly useful since it’s common to miss that hidden special item or key when exploring dungeons. Frankly, I’m not sure what to suggest with the Tower because I totally changed it to be the Reflect equivalent of Atronach on my end; 25 Reflect and Shield in exchange for 50% weaknesses to all elements.
Can’t see Strength to comment, but I can say Fortify Attack 10 is theoretically very powerful so it’s a shame enemies aren’t usually Sanctuary-buffed so it ends up being overkill once you have above 50 or so Weapon Skill. High potential in a modded game, however.
Hi and thanks for response! I didn't want to touch Curses; in case it doesn't work properly on all versions of the game, or could be "cured" (by some vanilla script, or another mod).
- To my knowledge, Fortify Attack is never affected by fatigue, which makes it superior over any other hit chance modifiers. We could say the "25 Agility buff" of the Lover stands between Warrior's fortify buff and sanctuary of the Thief. Altho I understand Thief Power could be still cheesed with a 24 hours wait/sleep (like almost any power anyway).
- As for the Serpent: the idea for it is to being a double-edged sword, given it is a "most blessed and cursed". I know Serpent (and perhaps The Tower too) is still one of the least attractive choices. But if a curses could actually prevent reaching max value on a chosen stats, then I will look to expand this idea.
When it comes to Luck attribute, making it a constant would be too impactful on the game; because it doesn't affect just a hit and evade rates - but other aspects of the game as well: such as a chance to successfully cast spells (and I think even that 90 sec on the Thief is already too long, being over the line).
Strength all about Strength
I guess You meant "Warrior" all about Strength?;) Shifting stats between is an option. Adding Strength to any sign, would devalue Feather effect on Steed however.
I’d buff the 0.5 Magicka boost to 1.0 and remove everything else on the Mage so it can retain its niche as the “safe mage sign” against the riskier Apprentice and Atronach.
Interesting idea, I will think it over.
- As for The Lord; fire weakness comes from being a "Trollkin". I don't think a weakness to just a single element is as bad as weakness to magic. It simply makes you more careful when dealing with certain types of enemies, rather than just chilling almost all the time with a constant regeneration. Passive 0.5 pts/s health regeneration is meant to be a support during and between fights, not an OP advantage. In early, to mid game 1 pt/sec could be really strong effect during a combat, and in a late game (after getting stronger armors etc) could potentially eliminate need of other hp restoration tools.
- Ritual should work well even in a late game, given how hard it's to cast some of a summon spells. For that reason I thought to add some INT or magicka buff as well (even a temporary one); but maybe I should just leave this problem for a players to resolve by themselves.
Skeletal summons seemed to be the most neutral option - good help early on, and working as a short distraction later. Ancestral Ghost and its normal weapons resistance felt a bit too cheesy for my taste.
Hi and thanks for response! I didn't want to touch Curses; in case it doesn't work properly on all versions of the game, or could be "cured" (by some vanilla script, or another mod).
That’s understandable. I know, in OpenMW 0.48 and later, Curses work in such a way that they’re basically Abilities but with different rules for Attributes/Skills so to resemble how the vanilla game does it. When I was playing 0.46 (until very recently), vanilla signs like the Lady were much less desirable because the Fortify Endurance was treated as a buff (not a permanent increase) so it only increased Fatigue rather than HP per level. I’m not sure how many different playable versions of the game there are, engine-wise, so I’d assume every player’s version of the game is either vanilla or OpenMW + mods and, therefore, there’d be little unforeseen issues as far as Birthsigns/Races are concerned.
We could say the "25 Agility buff" of the Lover stands between Warrior's fortify buff and sanctuary of the Thief. Altho I understand Thief Power could be still cheesed with a 24 hours wait/sleep (like almost any power anyway).
I don’t know offhandedly how Fatigue affects the formula—I’d assume it’s a percenatage buff or debuff depending ofwhether above or below 50%—but that reinforces my point about Sanctuary’s power and why the Thief is so much better than the Warrior or Lover in your Birthsign rebalance. I’m honestly not sure if sleeping 24 hours is even cheese since it’s standard practice to rest after every fight (unless you really like fighting new enemies with a foot int he grave) prior to having a steady supply of potions and it’s the early game where Powers really have the most use potential.
If you’re playing a mage, resting for days per dungeon is standard fare since Magicka takes in-game longer to replenish than Health when sleeping. It’s a big reason why I just cut all Powers and replaced them with mild passives. Like, turn Dark Elf’s Ancestral Guardian into a 10 point passive Sanctuary. A bonus for doing this (in the case of races) is that NPCs benefit as well since, unless you have a mod that makes it otherwise, NPCs don’t use Powers (and don’t have Birthsigns either).
I know Serpent (and perhaps The Tower too) is still one of the least attractive choices. But if a curses could actually prevent reaching max value on a chosen stats, then I will look to expand this idea.
No, I’d say your Tower is actually super attractive; that Shield power is insnae unless you have the difficulty maxed since 50 points ought to mean hitting the effective armor cap against most enemies’ physical attacks. Nothing short of Glass/Ebony/Daedric would seriously threaten you with that active. If anything, I’m tempted to recommend nerfing it because you’d have to mod the game so enemies hit way more often (GMST edit) or adjust the slider to be in actual danger with it active.
Serpent, though, is mostly tricky (in my mind) because it’s hard to balance a high contrast sign without making it too good or too bad (or too much or too mild). My working idea is “lone wolf;” you’re a natural at combat (magic and weapons) but people instinctively mistrust you and will actively screw you over (Mercantile penalty). The hard part is making it balanced and avoid overlapping with other signs too much. Presently, I gave it a 5 to Fortify Attack AND Sanctuary + 0.5 Magicka Boost but with Drain Personality (25) and Speech (50) plus 50% Weakness to Magicka so it’s basically a chaotic fusion of Warrior, Thief, and Apprentice with severe weaknesses to Personality and Speech. Frankly, I think it might be best if I added Drain Meranctile as well, but it’d be particularly cruel due to the sharp increases in Training/Enchanting costs. Having play-tested 0 Personality and Speech, I can say it makes much more difficult (but not impossible, since bribing still works even if you need 100 per gift to have a feasible success rate) but I think Mercantile might ought to be there as well. Lore-wise, it depends on how you interpret “Mercantile” as opposed to Speechcraft and Personality.
When it comes to Luck attribute, making it a constant would be too impactful on the game; because it doesn't affect just a hit and evade rates - but other aspects of the game as well: such as a chance to successfully cast spells (and I think even that 90 sec on the Thief is already too long, being over the line).
Luck affects just about everything, but at a trifling rate. Remember, you need 5 points of Agility to equal 1 Weapon Skill. You need 10 Luck to equal 1 Weapon Skill. Even a 30 Luck bonus would be equivalent to merely 15 Willpower and Agility in day-to-day, and Willpower is rather impotent compared to Magic Skills at affecting success rates and minor (not sure how much since I haven’t seen the formula) for resisting Paralysis or Silence. Basically, it’s a mild buff to the dump stats of the game.
I guess You meant "Warrior" all about Strength?;) Shifting stats between is an option. Adding Strength to any sign, would devalue Feather effect on Steed however.
I did—I got the Tarot cards mixed up with Bethesda’s Birthsigns for a minute lol. Doesn’t help I actually made a Tarot card-based Birthsign mod so I could have a little Persona/Shin Megami Tensei and, potentially, more Birthsign diversity in my game lol.
Feather’s best in large doses, and probably better as a spell than a constant. I think Steed being all about speed and maneuverability is fine as it is—no need to do anything more—while the Warrior could mix Strength and Fortify Attack to reinforce the weapons-using lifestyle. Maybe. Otherwise, I’d shift Fortify Attack to somewhere else and make the Warrior a Strength-focused Birthsign while Fortify Attack goes for one themed after precision and accuracy. Besides, it also works to differentiate a Strength-boosting Birthsign from a Speed one in terms of what kind of build it encourages; the former makes you faster by virtue of less encumbrance while the latter will make you faster overall if you can maintain a low encumbrace in the first place. In other words, Strength-boosting favors a heavy weapons user while Speed favors minimal/light weapons/armor users.
- As for The Lord; fire weakness comes from being a "Trollkin". I don't think a weakness to just a single element is as bad as weakness to magic. It simply makes you more careful when dealing with certain types of enemies, rather than just chilling almost all the time with a constant regeneration. Passive 0.5 pts/s health regeneration is meant to be a support during and between fights, not an OP advantage. In early, to mid game 1 pt/sec could be really strong effect during a combat, and in a late game (after getting stronger armors etc) could potentially eliminate need of other hp restoration tools.
That does make sense from what i know of typical Troll lore in Western fantasy—rapidly regenerates itself but is weak to fire—but it’s a sign that’s easily surpassed by merely drinking potions. You need a mod that supresses potion usage for such a buff to be seriously attractive compared to the much more useful other signs. Like, if you want to have a good healing-over-time (besides drinking potions), you could go Mage, Apprentice, or Atronach for more Magicka to cast Restoration spells. A 2 per second spell that lasts 90 seconds isn’t unreasonable for a ~30 Restoration user to cast, after all, and it can be stacked with duplicate spells prior to hard fights.
I’m not sure if I’m in the minority for resting after every fight (at least until I can just drink potions casually), but that elimiantes the attractiveness of restoring HP between fights right there. And even a cheap pre-made health potion will surpass it in actual usefulness, never mind anything homebrew.
An idea I’ve presently settled on, for “Vitality,” is 1 HP Restoration constant effect + 50% Paralysis Resistance with “Vanity” having 25% Weakness to Fire and Poison. Basically, the Lord has potential to be built into a great paraysis-dealer (since the main drawback to using Paralysis is potentially having it reflected back at you) but has a small weakness to Fire and Poison. The real appeal is the Paralysis Resistance, basically.
- Ritual should work well even in a late game, given how hard it's to cast some of a summon spells. For that reason I thought to add some INT or magicka buff as well (even a temporary one); but maybe I should just leave this problem for a players to resolve by themselves. Skeletal summons seemed to be the most neutral option - good help early on, and working as a short distraction later. Ancestral Ghost and its normal weapons resistance felt a bit too cheesy for my taste.
Conjuration’s easy to the lion’s share of if you just make custom variants that last ~20 seconds rather than the default versions, since that greatly decreases their costs. By the time you have 50 Conjuration, you should have no trouble spawning Golden Saint after Golden Saint in vanilla. Alteration, on the other hand, is mostly about the Shields (and Levitation) as far as combat is concerned. Really, I like how you did the Ritual because it encourages more experimental builds than a conventional summoner (which would be better serviced by Mage/Apprentice/Atronach for the Magicka bonus anywya) or buffer. In contrast, I ended up settling for the very milquetoast combo of Restore Health and Fatigue 1 point per second (constant effect) and 50% Disease Resistance. Really, I just wanted it to be a relatively “generic” birthsign so I could have a less build-defining option. Instead, it was the Shadow I'm most proud of modding since I like the combination of 10 Sanctuary + 15 Fortify Illusion + a free Night-eye spell pushing for a stealth or dodge-tank build. However, my original version of it was probably OP (25 Sanctuary and Fortify Illusion).
Ancestral Ghosts are immune to normal weapons but they’re really weak and slow. Really, their main use is to be a distraction for weak enemies in the early game, while Skeletal Minions make for fantastic soldiers since they can reliably gang up on and beat down enemies with their random weapons. They’re basically weaker versions of Dremora and Golden Saints in terms of function. Ultimately, I’d actually say 2 Skeletal Minions is more attractive than 1 Skeleton and 1 Ghost, but I’m not picky either way provided it works as intended.
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I’d phrase it as an unstable equilibrium. Your character isn’t literally an atronach so much as they are volatile font of magic that both enjoys and suffers from the abundance of inherit magical power. Alternatively, you could view it as being a hybrid of Atronachs who are, for the most part, very weak to a specific element while being immune to their favored one. I would want to avoid making this birthsign too stacked in terms of perks/weaknesses, however, and compromise by just having the Weaknesses + Spell Absorption and Magicka bonus since that is enough to make it great for high-risk mages and off-tank blade-mage hybrids that won’t deliberate try to get themselves blasted but are decently likely to benefit from it rather than get hurt.
This depends on your game. I found, with OpenMW 0.46, you wouldn’t see an actual Shield (like the spell) while under this effect but I did see it with Fire/Frost/Lightning Shield. When I tried it with the Patch for Purists, there wasn’t a visible Fire/Frost/Lightning shield. Haven’t tried it with OpenMW 0.48 and no idea how it affects the normal version of the game. Ultimately, I think it’s best to keep that Shield rather low since, unless you’re raising the difficulty slider, 50 points is huge. 10 is good enough to be attractive, though probably not on its own compared to, say, the Mage (or your version of the Apprentice) allowing you to more casually cast that as a standard spell instead.
I had a tough time with this one, myself, but I think 1.0 (alone) is good without stepping on Apprentice’s toes because 1.5 is a huge Magicka boost for the Apprentice. While the Mage might be more attractive than the Apprentice for High Elves, and maybe Bretons, the Apprentice would likely be more attractive for hardier races such as Nords, Redguards, Dark Elves, etc. that lack any innate boost to Magicka. Or Bretons who want to trade their Resist Magicka for more Magicka.
A penalty to Personality would fit what I recall of the one of the UESP’s description of it (in terms of how it tends to affect people born under it) and reinforce the idea that they’re socially awkward in exchange for being more innately magically capable.
And I didn't want to make shield a constant effect (even tho it would fit the most) because, as mentioned earlier - visual reasons.
Most of my tests I did on Vanilla engine (without CodePatch or anything) and OpenMW 0.48 & 0.49. So I have no idea if CodePatch or some MWSE mod removes barrier effect of "Shield", when it's set as a constant effect, Ability or a Curse.
When it comes to OpenMW, I think most people are using versions 0.48 and 0.49 nowadays, which are fairly similar.
But I would still recommend using the 0.49 version over 0.48, since it now supports Lua, which opens doors to more advanced mods (including ports of some MWSE mods).
So far, I've seen only a single mod which (temporarily) doesn't works on a newer version of openmw.
I'd try it if it were available for the Mac version of OpenMW; I'm particularly curious about Ashlander Architect since city building is something I'm particularly fond of.
As for mods which don't work on a newer version, HQ Arsenal (https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/46308) is one I know of since it stopped working properly when I moved from 0.46 to 0.48. It may be fixed in 0.49 but that's one I know of :-P
The Tower is indeed tricky. I ended up using the Tarot version for inspiration (so, 25 Reflect + 10 Shield in exchange for 25-50% weakness to all elements + Magicka) since I thought it was more interesting than a niche treasure hunter/infiltrator build. You could focus more on the treasure hunter/infiltrator aspects with free a Night-Eye spell, maybe a boost to Security and Acrobatics.
I think your Shadow is interesting as a "ninja" of sorts so this angle would overlap with your version of the Shadow, but it might be interesting to make the Tower able to kickstart a minimally-violent treasure hunter/adventurer/archeologist-type build. It wouldn't be very competitive in actual combat, if taking this angle, but it might encourage more stealth play and combat avoidance and thus create an interesting shift in how you might normally approach Morrowind.
Aside from Detect Key/Enchantment and Open, maybe a Jump and Night Eye spell + constant effect Fortify Sneak and Security would do the trick.
You can grab experimental build of v0.49 for mac on official Gitlab (not Github) of OpenMW.
Just be sure to backup your config files (and maybe saves too) and grab a Pipeline/Artifact which passed all stages "green".
Curses seems to also not appear when picking choosing a Birthsign in game, which can be a bit misleading... but I would assume someone who downloads such mod will have a general sense as what each modified birthsign does anyway.
EDIT: Nevermind, already found a bypass for that.
As for Curses, yes, that's a weakness of using them to change how Fortify Skill/Attribute works so it's necessary for end-users to have a reference sheet of some kind to know it's working properly. It's annoying, but it gets the job done so I'd just provide information in the ReadMe so people can easily refer to it.
As for the Lockpicking stuff, that's true, so an end user would need another mod which rebalances it so it's harder to use powerful Open spells that bypass the need for Security. Even then, it's easy in vanilla to pay for Security Training so another mod would be needed for that as well lol. Ultimately, it's beyond the scope of a mod aimed at Birthsigns unless it also has companion mods for other stuff as well (or the end-user independently modded this stuff on their own but, at that point, they could easily just make their own Birthsign mod and maybe use others' for inspiration).
As for having the Shields without the visual effects all the time... I can't remember too much other than I know it's possible to have them without the effect with some messing with things. I know the "Patch For Purists," for some reason, disabled the visual effect for me when I tested it while, without it, it seemed like a 50/50 chance if my character would have a permanent barrier or not after character creation. I THINK they don't have permanent barriers if set up via EnableRaceMenu but, obviously, this is a bit much to ask an end-user to get the intended experience out of a mod so I don't know if it should be issued as a constant effect.
The main criticism I have is that some of the Birthsigns are oddly balanced. Specifically, The Serpent, the Lover, and the Thief. In short, The Serpent is essentially a worse version of the Thief and Lover while the Thief’s Cult of the Stars plus the +10 Sanctuary Ability makes it mostly better than the Lover outside of the Lover’s potential to blow a 25 second paralysis kiss.
In the hit chance formula, 1 point of Sanctuary is equal to 1 point of Weapon Skill or Fortify Attack; 5 points of Agility; and 10 points of Luck. In other words, 5 Agility equates to an increased hit rate equivalent to 1 point of a given Weapon Skill (or Fortify Attack buff—they’re equivalent) while also being worth only 1 point of Sanctuary. So, add up Thief’s Agility + Power buff and it’s equivalent to 74 points of Agility in terms of evasion and 24 in terms of attacking successfully. In contrast, Serpent is only 25 of each and has only Cure Poison and Dispel (which is likely to be a negative more often than a positive since you can’t use it as a spell to remove Paralysis, though maybe you can to remove Silence since it’s a Power here) to compensate for the 100 Damage Fatigue weakness that the Thief doesn’t have to deal with.
The Lover, similar to the Serpent, suffers a big Damage Fatigue penalty (200) but it is part of the paralysis-shooting power rather than the 25 Agility-boosting power, so users of her can get the 25 points of favorable hit chance rates (for 30 times the duration, no less) with no penalities whatsover. Even so, it’s worse than the Thief who gets a constant (equivalent to) 50 points of Agility for evasion and almost-as-good 24 for attacking while using the Thief’s power. The only upside to the Serpent is that Agility also affects likelihood of being staggered/knocked down, so it provides a nice boost of protection against that is twice the value of what the Lover is getting and between twice and thrive of what the Thief is getting. Obvious downside being the Serpent inflicts Fatigue upon itself whenever it wants that 50 point Agility buff and its only 30 seconds versus 90 for the Thief and 15 minutes for the Lover (and they don’t hurt themselves for it either).
To rebelance them, I’d advise using “curses” as buffs; the Lover could have a constant-effect 25 points of Agility as an… obvious reference to their flexibility, and also as a way of competing directly with the Thief’s 10 points of Sanctuary. The Thief could lose the 25 points of Agility from its power. It’s already very nice to have 10 points of constant Sanctuary, so the occassional boost to Luck and Short Blade is basically just to reinforce that play style with the real attraction being getting hit much less often (especially if stacked with other means of evasion, like Blocking, Illusion magic for even more Sanctuary, and a focus on leveling Agility). As an aside, I’m a bit biased against Powers on principle (if it’s not because I dislike the “specialness” they give to the player character, it’s because it might as well be constant/for every fight because it’s easy, and not even tedious in Morrowind, to wait 24 hours each time you’re done using it) so I’d just have a constant effect Luck “curse” in its place. Not sure how much because I’m tempted to say “25” or even higher since Luck is very weak as a factor and only has its broadness (and being the hardest to level) as compelling reasons to favor it over anything else.
The Serpent, on the other hand, is tough to balance because, from what I remember reading of its lore, it’s themeatically a blessing and a curse at the same time. It makes you faster, stronger, and smarter but also hurts you, makes people distrust you on principle, and generally reinforces a maverick lifestyle. Maybe you could have Magicka Bonus 0.5, Willpower 25, and Poison Resistance 75% in exchange for minus 50 to Personality, minus 25 Speechcraft, and minus 25 Mercantile, all as a “curse,” so that you’re pushed into a self-reliant lifestyle since it’s much harder to deal with NPCs (and you’ll have to pay up the nose for Enchanting, more than a normal character without the Star Curse) in exchange for being generally better at magic, less prone to Paralysis/Silence, and have an affinity to Poison (frankly not great in vanilla but has a niche with High Elves who have only Posion as an element they’re NOT weak to). I’m still not fully satisfied with what I propose but it’s hard to avoid overlapping with other Birthsigns. Maybe add in a 25 Agility boost if you don’t mind making the Strength all about Strength and have Lover be Fortify Attack 10 to Thief’s Sanctuary 10.
As for the rest, I think the Lord is pretty awful for vanilla game balance since an average healing rate of 0.5 per second is not worth the 50% Fire Weakness. I recommend rounding it up to 1.0 since it’d be more compettive with the rest of the signs, especially if using a mod that punishes excessive potion usage (like Alchemical Hustle). The Mage is likewise screwed since that that weakness to Normal Weapons is pretty serious while the 0.5 Magicka Restoration boost is awfully modest compared to the Apprentice and Atronach which not only have 1.5 Magicka Bonus but other impressive characteristics that utterly dwarf it for mage builds. I’d buff the 0.5 Magicka boost to 1.0 and remove everything else on the Mage so it can retain its niche as the “safe mage sign” against the riskier Apprentice and Atronach.
Between Apprentice and Atronach, I’d say they look decently balanced but I’m ultimately inclined to push for the Atronach because that 30% Spell Absorption is still very sweet while Stunted Magicka, unless using mods to punish excessive potion usage, is very easy to circumvent compared to 50% Weakness to Magicka. Fortifying magic skills via a power definitely makes Apprentice more approachable for using more powerful spells sooner, but it’ll ultimately be eclipsed in usefulness in the long run.
Since Stunted Magicka is cool as a lifestyle changer, I’d keep it, but I’d impose weaknesses to all the elements (at least Fire/Frost/Shock/Poison) onto Atronach to discourage intentionally taking enemy magic blasts. When Spell Absorption’s at 50, I’ve set the weaknesses all to 50% to compensate. Since you have it 30, I’d make the four weaknesses 25% each to be significant (but not too fatal) discouragements for facetanking enemy magic.
As for the Apprentice, I’d remove the power and do nothing else since I think it’s good enough with 1.5 Magicka bonus and the 50% Weakness to Magicka isn’t TOO bad in vanilla. If you want Atronach to be the riskiest of the 3, without a doubt, then maybe give it 50% Weakness to Magicka as well on top of the 25% weakness to the other four elements. Ultimately, the idea is for the Mage to be a “safe” mage sign; the Apprentice to be risky (squishy mage); the Atronach to be the riskiest, and perhaps be better suited to warriors wanting to use magic for support without investing much into Intelligence and use the Spell Absorption for proection (but avoid getting hit too often due to the weaknesses).
I like what you did with the Ritual. I’m not a Power fan, but I like how it pushes for a Summoner build while also encouraging the usage of Alteration’s spells more often in active combat (like the elemental shields and Shield). Not sure of Conjure Skeletal Minion twice in the same spell results in 2 minions, though, because I know it doesn’t in OpenMW 0.46 (haven’t tested it on 0.48 yet to see if this was changed). Maybe replace it an Ancestor Ghost to keep the necromancy theme if it doesn’t work. EDIT: I tested it on 0.48 and it does work as it should.
The Lady is likewise interesting and good as it is, but I’d promote the Personality boost to a full-on buff (via “curse”) and ditch the Charm effect.
I quite like the ninja-like theme of Shadow as well. Could be good for stealth builds attempting to get critical blows as well as general combat mobility.
Charioteer’s an odd one; I recommend setting the 25 Speed to a “Curse” since I suspect you have it like that so it’ll be a buff rather than elevated base stat like in vanilla Morrowind.
The Tower is very interesting, though also potentially an example of a sign that could easily be abused to powerful effect. 50 Shield is huge in normal difficulty, effectively neutralizing most enemies’ physical damage, while the Tower Key is a nice-to-have and the Beggar’s Nose Spell is something that can prove surprisingly useful since it’s common to miss that hidden special item or key when exploring dungeons. Frankly, I’m not sure what to suggest with the Tower because I totally changed it to be the Reflect equivalent of Atronach on my end; 25 Reflect and Shield in exchange for 50% weaknesses to all elements.
Can’t see Strength to comment, but I can say Fortify Attack 10 is theoretically very powerful so it’s a shame enemies aren’t usually Sanctuary-buffed so it ends up being overkill once you have above 50 or so Weapon Skill. High potential in a modded game, however.
I didn't want to touch Curses; in case it doesn't work properly on all versions of the game, or could be "cured" (by some vanilla script, or another mod).
- To my knowledge, Fortify Attack is never affected by fatigue, which makes it superior over any other hit chance modifiers.
We could say the "25 Agility buff" of the Lover stands between Warrior's fortify buff and sanctuary of the Thief.
Altho I understand Thief Power could be still cheesed with a 24 hours wait/sleep (like almost any power anyway).
- As for the Serpent: the idea for it is to being a double-edged sword, given it is a "most blessed and cursed".
I know Serpent (and perhaps The Tower too) is still one of the least attractive choices.
But if a curses could actually prevent reaching max value on a chosen stats, then I will look to expand this idea.
When it comes to Luck attribute, making it a constant would be too impactful on the game; because it doesn't affect just a hit and evade rates - but other aspects of the game as well: such as a chance to successfully cast spells (and I think even that 90 sec on the Thief is already too long, being over the line).
- As for The Lord; fire weakness comes from being a "Trollkin". I don't think a weakness to just a single element is as bad as weakness to magic. It simply makes you more careful when dealing with certain types of enemies, rather than just chilling almost all the time with a constant regeneration.
Passive 0.5 pts/s health regeneration is meant to be a support during and between fights, not an OP advantage.
In early, to mid game 1 pt/sec could be really strong effect during a combat, and in a late game (after getting stronger armors etc) could potentially eliminate need of other hp restoration tools.
- Ritual should work well even in a late game, given how hard it's to cast some of a summon spells.
For that reason I thought to add some INT or magicka buff as well (even a temporary one); but maybe I should just leave this problem for a players to resolve by themselves.
Skeletal summons seemed to be the most neutral option - good help early on, and working as a short distraction later. Ancestral Ghost and its normal weapons resistance felt a bit too cheesy for my taste.
That’s understandable. I know, in OpenMW 0.48 and later, Curses work in such a way that they’re basically Abilities but with different rules for Attributes/Skills so to resemble how the vanilla game does it. When I was playing 0.46 (until very recently), vanilla signs like the Lady were much less desirable because the Fortify Endurance was treated as a buff (not a permanent increase) so it only increased Fatigue rather than HP per level. I’m not sure how many different playable versions of the game there are, engine-wise, so I’d assume every player’s version of the game is either vanilla or OpenMW + mods and, therefore, there’d be little unforeseen issues as far as Birthsigns/Races are concerned.
I don’t know offhandedly how Fatigue affects the formula—I’d assume it’s a percenatage buff or debuff depending ofwhether above or below 50%—but that reinforces my point about Sanctuary’s power and why the Thief is so much better than the Warrior or Lover in your Birthsign rebalance.
I’m honestly not sure if sleeping 24 hours is even cheese since it’s standard practice to rest after every fight (unless you really like fighting new enemies with a foot int he grave) prior to having a steady supply of potions and it’s the early game where Powers really have the most use potential.
If you’re playing a mage, resting for days per dungeon is standard fare since Magicka takes in-game longer to replenish than Health when sleeping.
It’s a big reason why I just cut all Powers and replaced them with mild passives. Like, turn Dark Elf’s Ancestral Guardian into a 10 point passive Sanctuary. A bonus for doing this (in the case of races) is that NPCs benefit as well since, unless you have a mod that makes it otherwise, NPCs don’t use Powers (and don’t have Birthsigns either).
No, I’d say your Tower is actually super attractive; that Shield power is insnae unless you have the difficulty maxed since 50 points ought to mean hitting the effective armor cap against most enemies’ physical attacks. Nothing short of Glass/Ebony/Daedric would seriously threaten you with that active. If anything, I’m tempted to recommend nerfing it because you’d have to mod the game so enemies hit way more often (GMST edit) or adjust the slider to be in actual danger with it active.
Serpent, though, is mostly tricky (in my mind) because it’s hard to balance a high contrast sign without making it too good or too bad (or too much or too mild). My working idea is “lone wolf;” you’re a natural at combat (magic and weapons) but people instinctively mistrust you and will actively screw you over (Mercantile penalty). The hard part is making it balanced and avoid overlapping with other signs too much. Presently, I gave it a 5 to Fortify Attack AND Sanctuary + 0.5 Magicka Boost but with Drain Personality (25) and Speech (50) plus 50% Weakness to Magicka so it’s basically a chaotic fusion of Warrior, Thief, and Apprentice with severe weaknesses to Personality and Speech. Frankly, I think it might be best if I added Drain Meranctile as well, but it’d be particularly cruel due to the sharp increases in Training/Enchanting costs. Having play-tested 0 Personality and Speech, I can say it makes much more difficult (but not impossible, since bribing still works even if you need 100 per gift to have a feasible success rate) but I think Mercantile might ought to be there as well. Lore-wise, it depends on how you interpret “Mercantile” as opposed to Speechcraft and Personality.
Luck affects just about everything, but at a trifling rate. Remember, you need 5 points of Agility to equal 1 Weapon Skill. You need 10 Luck to equal 1 Weapon Skill. Even a 30 Luck bonus would be equivalent to merely 15 Willpower and Agility in day-to-day, and Willpower is rather impotent compared to Magic Skills at affecting success rates and minor (not sure how much since I haven’t seen the formula) for resisting Paralysis or Silence. Basically, it’s a mild buff to the dump stats of the game.
I did—I got the Tarot cards mixed up with Bethesda’s Birthsigns for a minute lol. Doesn’t help I actually made a Tarot card-based Birthsign mod so I could have a little Persona/Shin Megami Tensei and, potentially, more Birthsign diversity in my game lol.
Feather’s best in large doses, and probably better as a spell than a constant. I think Steed being all about speed and maneuverability is fine as it is—no need to do anything more—while the Warrior could mix Strength and Fortify Attack to reinforce the weapons-using lifestyle. Maybe. Otherwise, I’d shift Fortify Attack to somewhere else and make the Warrior a Strength-focused Birthsign while Fortify Attack goes for one themed after precision and accuracy. Besides, it also works to differentiate a Strength-boosting Birthsign from a Speed one in terms of what kind of build it encourages; the former makes you faster by virtue of less encumbrance while the latter will make you faster overall if you can maintain a low encumbrace in the first place. In other words, Strength-boosting favors a heavy weapons user while Speed favors minimal/light weapons/armor users.
That does make sense from what i know of typical Troll lore in Western fantasy—rapidly regenerates itself but is weak to fire—but it’s a sign that’s easily surpassed by merely drinking potions. You need a mod that supresses potion usage for such a buff to be seriously attractive compared to the much more useful other signs. Like, if you want to have a good healing-over-time (besides drinking potions), you could go Mage, Apprentice, or Atronach for more Magicka to cast Restoration spells. A 2 per second spell that lasts 90 seconds isn’t unreasonable for a ~30 Restoration user to cast, after all, and it can be stacked with duplicate spells prior to hard fights.
I’m not sure if I’m in the minority for resting after every fight (at least until I can just drink potions casually), but that elimiantes the attractiveness of restoring HP between fights right there. And even a cheap pre-made health potion will surpass it in actual usefulness, never mind anything homebrew.
An idea I’ve presently settled on, for “Vitality,” is 1 HP Restoration constant effect + 50% Paralysis Resistance with “Vanity” having 25% Weakness to Fire and Poison. Basically, the Lord has potential to be built into a great paraysis-dealer (since the main drawback to using Paralysis is potentially having it reflected back at you) but has a small weakness to Fire and Poison. The real appeal is the Paralysis Resistance, basically.
Conjuration’s easy to the lion’s share of if you just make custom variants that last ~20 seconds rather than the default versions, since that greatly decreases their costs. By the time you have 50 Conjuration, you should have no trouble spawning Golden Saint after Golden Saint in vanilla. Alteration, on the other hand, is mostly about the Shields (and Levitation) as far as combat is concerned. Really, I like how you did the Ritual because it encourages more experimental builds than a conventional summoner (which would be better serviced by Mage/Apprentice/Atronach for the Magicka bonus anywya) or buffer. In contrast, I ended up settling for the very milquetoast combo of Restore Health and Fatigue 1 point per second (constant effect) and 50% Disease Resistance. Really, I just wanted it to be a relatively “generic” birthsign so I could have a less build-defining option. Instead, it was the Shadow I'm most proud of modding since I like the combination of 10 Sanctuary + 15 Fortify Illusion + a free Night-eye spell pushing for a stealth or dodge-tank build. However, my original version of it was probably OP (25 Sanctuary and Fortify Illusion).
Ancestral Ghosts are immune to normal weapons but they’re really weak and slow. Really, their main use is to be a distraction for weak enemies in the early game, while Skeletal Minions make for fantastic soldiers since they can reliably gang up on and beat down enemies with their random weapons. They’re basically weaker versions of Dremora and Golden Saints in terms of function. Ultimately, I’d actually say 2 Skeletal Minions is more attractive than 1 Skeleton and 1 Ghost, but I’m not picky either way provided it works as intended.
Feedback for eventual changes is welcome.