0 of 0
File information
Created by
ijustwanttodownloadbrahUploaded by
ijustwanttodownloadbrahVirus scan
Safe to use
About this mod
My attempt to lengthen the Mages Guild, making my mage playthroughs more immersive and rewarding.
- Permissions and credits
I designed this mod for my latest mage playthrough. While I love being a mage, some parts of the mage storyline are wasted opportunity. This mod aims to fix that in several ways.
1) Made most recommendation quests teach you a useful spell, like Skingrad's Weak Fireball. You're now freely taught an apprentice-level spell in Leyawin and Chorrol, plus a custom spell in Anvil. Similarly I've buffed the Bravil Spell "Captivate" to be useful. This is meant to make the recommendation process rewarding, increase a sense of faction identification, and improve the atmosphere of a mage learning.
2) Advancement comes more slowly. At 3 points your advancement will demand you to have done a set amount of chores for the guild. You have several options: ingredient collection (avg 12 ingredients, -> 1 pt), delivery quest (1 pt each), delving into a necromancer dungeon (3 pt each), and simple gold donation (500 gold -> 1 pt). You'll need a total of 10 points for warlock, 5 points for evoker, and 3 points for journeyman. This is meant to slow the pace of advancement.
3) These chores continue on as a radiant quest system (for meager gold, once you've got your 10 chore points). This is meant to improve the atmosphere of the guild being a part of society, as well as giving a reason to keep revisiting the arcane university throughout the game.
4) Advancement to evoker requires requires a quest of revisiting each guild hall for a commendation signifying journeyman-level mastery of their skill - most rewarding a powerful custom spell. Each and every one does have a potential workaround, though. This is meant to slow pacing, but more importantly to improve immersion - asking that you grow as a mage, though I'll not force you into any particular school.
5) There is a final prerequisite before Traven hands the fate of the Mages Guild to "the arcane unversity's newest recruit". Traven demands excellence in one magical skill of your choice before sending you to the wolves. Again there is a workaround - working with Raminus to show Traven the need for urgency over caution.
6) Improved the arch-mages quarters by adding i) a 2-way teleport spell, usable outdoors, ii) a static alchemy table, iii) an assortment of safe storage chests and a display case, iv) a door that lets you exit the quarters directly, bypassing the council-room and the lobby. Activating the "alchemy tools" in sneak will let you access the storage chest it pulls the equipment of of. Otherwise activating "alchemy tools" will dump into your inventory all the "random access ingredients" chest's inventory.
This mod is not a one-stop shop. It doesn't address the underwhelming final fight vs Mannimarco, for example. Other mods already handle that better than I could. On a smaller note, I really must recommend installing https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/35393, TheNiceOne's Soulgem Magic, to make it viable and profitable to harvest souls for resale. It seems eminently reasonable for a mage to profit from that.
Further walkthrough/spoilers:
Standard commentations: Automatically advanced at 50+ skill. I've left it open to work with [fortify skill], not just base skill.
Cheydinhal: Fetch quest to the nearby ayleid ruin of Kemen.
Anvil: Find a mage in Anvil with the Commendation topic. He'll advise that you steal an unsigned commendation from Carahil's desk and bring it to her.
Skingrad: Kill quest in Bleak Flats Cave.
Leyawin: Blackmail Dagail for the copious alcohol behind her bed.
Nonstandard commendations: These will not automatically be granted based on skill level.
Chorrol: Be near Teekeeus while under the effect "Summon Skeleton Guardian". Don't be fooled by the vanilla mistake of calling it Skeletal Archer. Workaround: I've added a scroll with this effect on the top floor, though it must be stolen.
Bravil: Be near Kud-Ei while under the effect "invisibility". Workaround: Find or brew a potion of invisibility.
Bruma: Simple delivery quest, no magic required. As befits the Bruma mage hall. Oh, and her reward - it's either skipping 2 commendation quests OR a grand ring of feather.
Mastery workaround: Raminus's response to "mastery" gives you the topic "breton mage" which sends you to the Imperial Bridge Inn, then to Cadlew Chapel (letter on the table with the corpse), then finally Fort Doublecross (another letter next to another corpse), after which you return to Raminus and then Traven before skipping to advancement. However you still need your 10 points of chores before continuing.
Other little things:
On becoming a mage apprentice, you are given a book of tips-and-tricks for oblivion spellcasting. You won't be punished for ignoring or deleting that book, but it's full of tidbits I found useful.
I also adjusted a few spells in the Dark Brotherhood as well, to make them more viable.
I highly recommend the usual "silent voice dialogue" fix mod. (https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/file.php?id=16622)
While there are two excellent other mods for the mages guild (https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/14560)(https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/42870), I've had my troubles with both of them. If you prefer either of them, wonderful. If you prefer this one, wonderful. They aren't compatible though.
>Are there any requirements for this mod?
No requirements, not even OBSE. Shouldn't even need the DLC, if I understand things. I did try to make it minimalistic in design.
>Is this safe to install/uninstall partway through my game?
I'm not sure. As far as I can tell, uninstalling will safely return your game as it was. Installing late result in missing out on the quest rewards, particularly custom spells. Installing after entering the arcane university may fail to add the radiant quest dialogue options. An attempted reinstallation is likely to break progress in mod quests.
>Why is this giving me an error?
I do not know. I'm kind of selfish - I made this for myself. I'm not learned in diagnosing conflicts, and I'm not going out of my way to try. On that note, I also don't know how to make compatability patches, and I've no interest in learning. This is my first real oblivion mod. It's here for me. I just posted it in case others enjoy it as-is. I've spent many hours learning how to do it, and I'm out of energy to learn more. If you wish to make a patch I'd host it here under your name, but that's it.
Cheers.
1) Made most recommendation quests teach you a useful spell, like Skingrad's Weak Fireball. You're now freely taught an apprentice-level spell in Leyawin and Chorrol, plus a custom spell in Anvil. Similarly I've buffed the Bravil Spell "Captivate" to be useful. This is meant to make the recommendation process rewarding, increase a sense of faction identification, and improve the atmosphere of a mage learning.
2) Advancement comes more slowly. At 3 points your advancement will demand you to have done a set amount of chores for the guild. You have several options: ingredient collection (avg 12 ingredients, -> 1 pt), delivery quest (1 pt each), delving into a necromancer dungeon (3 pt each), and simple gold donation (500 gold -> 1 pt). You'll need a total of 10 points for warlock, 5 points for evoker, and 3 points for journeyman. This is meant to slow the pace of advancement.
3) These chores continue on as a radiant quest system (for meager gold, once you've got your 10 chore points). This is meant to improve the atmosphere of the guild being a part of society, as well as giving a reason to keep revisiting the arcane university throughout the game.
4) Advancement to evoker requires requires a quest of revisiting each guild hall for a commendation signifying journeyman-level mastery of their skill - most rewarding a powerful custom spell. Each and every one does have a potential workaround, though. This is meant to slow pacing, but more importantly to improve immersion - asking that you grow as a mage, though I'll not force you into any particular school.
5) There is a final prerequisite before Traven hands the fate of the Mages Guild to "the arcane unversity's newest recruit". Traven demands excellence in one magical skill of your choice before sending you to the wolves. Again there is a workaround - working with Raminus to show Traven the need for urgency over caution.
6) Improved the arch-mages quarters by adding i) a 2-way teleport spell, usable outdoors, ii) a static alchemy table, iii) an assortment of safe storage chests and a display case, iv) a door that lets you exit the quarters directly, bypassing the council-room and the lobby. Activating the "alchemy tools" in sneak will let you access the storage chest it pulls the equipment of of. Otherwise activating "alchemy tools" will dump into your inventory all the "random access ingredients" chest's inventory.
This mod is not a one-stop shop. It doesn't address the underwhelming final fight vs Mannimarco, for example. Other mods already handle that better than I could. On a smaller note, I really must recommend installing https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/35393, TheNiceOne's Soulgem Magic, to make it viable and profitable to harvest souls for resale. It seems eminently reasonable for a mage to profit from that.
Further walkthrough/spoilers:
Standard commentations: Automatically advanced at 50+ skill. I've left it open to work with [fortify skill], not just base skill.
Cheydinhal: Fetch quest to the nearby ayleid ruin of Kemen.
Anvil: Find a mage in Anvil with the Commendation topic. He'll advise that you steal an unsigned commendation from Carahil's desk and bring it to her.
Skingrad: Kill quest in Bleak Flats Cave.
Leyawin: Blackmail Dagail for the copious alcohol behind her bed.
Nonstandard commendations: These will not automatically be granted based on skill level.
Chorrol: Be near Teekeeus while under the effect "Summon Skeleton Guardian". Don't be fooled by the vanilla mistake of calling it Skeletal Archer. Workaround: I've added a scroll with this effect on the top floor, though it must be stolen.
Bravil: Be near Kud-Ei while under the effect "invisibility". Workaround: Find or brew a potion of invisibility.
Bruma: Simple delivery quest, no magic required. As befits the Bruma mage hall. Oh, and her reward - it's either skipping 2 commendation quests OR a grand ring of feather.
Mastery workaround: Raminus's response to "mastery" gives you the topic "breton mage" which sends you to the Imperial Bridge Inn, then to Cadlew Chapel (letter on the table with the corpse), then finally Fort Doublecross (another letter next to another corpse), after which you return to Raminus and then Traven before skipping to advancement. However you still need your 10 points of chores before continuing.
Other little things:
On becoming a mage apprentice, you are given a book of tips-and-tricks for oblivion spellcasting. You won't be punished for ignoring or deleting that book, but it's full of tidbits I found useful.
I also adjusted a few spells in the Dark Brotherhood as well, to make them more viable.
I highly recommend the usual "silent voice dialogue" fix mod. (https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/file.php?id=16622)
While there are two excellent other mods for the mages guild (https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/14560)(https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/42870), I've had my troubles with both of them. If you prefer either of them, wonderful. If you prefer this one, wonderful. They aren't compatible though.
>Are there any requirements for this mod?
No requirements, not even OBSE. Shouldn't even need the DLC, if I understand things. I did try to make it minimalistic in design.
>Is this safe to install/uninstall partway through my game?
I'm not sure. As far as I can tell, uninstalling will safely return your game as it was. Installing late result in missing out on the quest rewards, particularly custom spells. Installing after entering the arcane university may fail to add the radiant quest dialogue options. An attempted reinstallation is likely to break progress in mod quests.
>Why is this giving me an error?
I do not know. I'm kind of selfish - I made this for myself. I'm not learned in diagnosing conflicts, and I'm not going out of my way to try. On that note, I also don't know how to make compatability patches, and I've no interest in learning. This is my first real oblivion mod. It's here for me. I just posted it in case others enjoy it as-is. I've spent many hours learning how to do it, and I'm out of energy to learn more. If you wish to make a patch I'd host it here under your name, but that's it.
Cheers.