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About this mod
This mod tweaks birthsign bonuses and adds detriments to make lackluster signs more appealing and add interesting gameplay consequences to birthsign choice.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Birthsigns RESPECted
Description
Morrowind makes a big deal out of birthsigns, being one of the first choices you make to define your character, and an integral part of the prophecy which identifies the Nerevarine. It's a real shame then that some signs are clearly superior to others, discouraging changing up your decisions in different playthroughs in favor of choosing the most useful buffs. Take the Lord for example: 100% weakness to fire and all you get is a mediocre healing spell? Or the Apprentice: 1.5x Magicka Multiplier and the only downside is 50% weakness to magicka, which because Morrowind does not count elemental spell damage as magicka damage, is an extremely negligible weakness. In this entry of my RESPEC series, I have endeavored to fix the glaring imbalances between the signs, in the process adding detriments to all signs that lacked them to give birthsign choice a more meaningful and dynamic impact on gameplay.
Stats
Description
Morrowind makes a big deal out of birthsigns, being one of the first choices you make to define your character, and an integral part of the prophecy which identifies the Nerevarine. It's a real shame then that some signs are clearly superior to others, discouraging changing up your decisions in different playthroughs in favor of choosing the most useful buffs. Take the Lord for example: 100% weakness to fire and all you get is a mediocre healing spell? Or the Apprentice: 1.5x Magicka Multiplier and the only downside is 50% weakness to magicka, which because Morrowind does not count elemental spell damage as magicka damage, is an extremely negligible weakness. In this entry of my RESPEC series, I have endeavored to fix the glaring imbalances between the signs, in the process adding detriments to all signs that lacked them to give birthsign choice a more meaningful and dynamic impact on gameplay.
Stats
Much like my race mod, the whole writeup of changes this mod makes would be too long for this mod page. For a list of all the changes, please refer to this google doc. But as an example, let's look at how this mod handles the Lord.
Fortify Endurance 15
Fortify Endurance 15
Fortify Strength 15
Weakness to Blight Disease 100%
Weakness to Blight Disease 100%
The Lord is the final charge of the Warrior, and those born under his sign are stronger and healthier than others. For stronger and healthier, I chose fortify strength and endurance, respectively. For a detriment, I chose weakness to blight 100%, replacing weakness to fire. I chose this because I think it represents how when people who rarely get sick occasionally do, they get really sick and handle it poorly. From a gameplay standpoint, this is a pretty conditional penalty; for the most part it's pretty lenient, only being a threat when you come up against blighted opponents. I think it balances well against the two fortify effects, which are good but not game altering. Overall, this is a pretty moderate risk for moderate reward kind of sign.
As an example of the other end of the spectrum, let's look at this mod's approach to the Serpent.
Sun Damage 2
Resist Normal Weapons 50%
Reflect 50%
My full reasoning for these choices are in the doc, but suffice it to say I had to dig fairly deep into the lore for inspiration on this vague and poorly described not-star sign. Given its uniqueness, I opted to make it the most extreme by far of all the signs. Reflect is extremely useful as a defensive and offensive buff against mages and enchanted weapons, with resist normal weapons rounding out the Serpent's defenses against the most mundane of weapons. In return for this exceptional defensive setup, sun damage will turn the environment itself into the Serpent's number one enemy.
