Hardcore Enchantment Rebalance for Mighty Magick Skyrim
Required Mod Version
SKSE Required: YES
SkyUI Required: NO
Author: Damar Stiehl

OVERVIEW:

This is an OPTIONAL module for Mighty Magick Skyrim that introduces some very hardcore-oriented adjustments to the Enchanting system, reworks the Enchanting perk tree and adds some new functionality.

During my playthroughs, I have found that once the player developed the Enchantment skill to 100 and purchased the requisite "central-line" perks, the game became very gear-oriented. Enchanting is very easy to abuse and with a sufficient supply of Grand Soul Gems, your character essentially becomes a "mount point" for various enchanted gear. Your own skills are easily overshadowed by enchanted equipment that elevates even the most inept character to the god-mode status. I often found myself staring at the Enchanting table more than actually adventuring, and once I did venture out, everything around me just fell over and died as soon as I looked at it. The game became trivial and unchallenging - once I was past the annoying part of collecting soul gems and grinding up the Enchanting skill, I might have as well opened the console and typed "tgm".

This mod is not for everyone. It contains a lot of significant alterations to the Enchanting system that - let's call a spade a spade - amount to drastic nerfs. It does not make Enchanting useless - not by a long shot - but it does impose some significant restrictions upon it which are meant to strike a balance between being able to craft  powerful equipment and eliminating exploits, or temptation thereof.

On the plus side, you'll find that you need to invest fewer perks to complete the Enchantment tree, and the perks themselves have been rearranged and re-worked to provide more tangible and logical benefits on all levels. Finally, there are a couple new spells and a whole new set of items up for purchase, intended to make an Enchanter's life both easier and more exciting.

BEFORE YOU GET STARTED, OR IN CASE YOU WERE NOT PAYING ATTENTION:

- THIS MOD IS A HARDCORE MOD
- THIS MOD WILL MAKE YOUR CHARACTER LESS POWERFUL
- THIS MOD WILL BLOCK SOME WELL-KNOWN AND BELOVED EXPLOITS
- THIS MOD IS NOT FOR EVERYONE
- THIS MOD CONTAINS SIGNIFICANT NERFS

IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE THIS, DO NOT USE THIS MODULE. IT IS OPTIONAL. DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT ITS EXISTENCE OR QUESTION WHY I MADE IT.

COMPATIBILITY:

This mod will conflict with anything that alters "Base" enchantments or enchantment restriction keywords. If in doubt, load it last.

INSTALLATION:

1. You must have Mighty Magick 4.0 or higher installed before installing this module.

2. Before installing the module, be sure to park your character somewhere safe, strip him naked, and use the console command "player.dispelallspells" to dispel all active magic effects. Afterwards, save the game in a new slot (because if you are affected by an enchantment which has been tweaked, the game might mess up your base attributes).

FAILURE TO DO SO MAY PERMANENTLY DAMAGE YOUR CHARACTER'S ATTRIBUTES.

2. Extract the ESP file included in the archive into the Data folder of your Skyrim installation or use Nexus Mod Manager to install.

3. Load the ESP in order specified on the main page of the mod.

THE NEXT STEPS DEPEND ON WHETHER YOU ARE STARTING A NEW GAME OR PLAYING AN EXISTING GAME. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY.

If starting a new game:

- Just load and play normally.

If playing an existing game:

- Load your game
- Visit Sergius Turrianus in Winterhold
- From Sergius, purchase "Enchanting: An Advanced Study" book and read it (or add it with a console command).
- Your Enchanting perk tree will be reset. All Enchanting perks will be removed, and you will receive the equivalent amount of available perk points.
- Now go to your Skills screen and re-purchase any perks in Enchantment tree that you want.
- Feel free to sell or throw away the book. But be aware that EVERY TIME YOU READ IT, YOUR ENCHANTING PERKS WILL BE RESET AGAIN.

UNINSTALLATION:

1. Before uninstalling the module, be sure to park your character somewhere safe, strip him naked, and use the console command "player.dispelallspells" to dispel all active magic effects. Afterwards, save the game in a new slot.

FAILURE TO DO SO MAY PERMANENTLY DAMAGE YOUR CHARACTER'S ATTRIBUTES.

2. Read the book "Enchanting: An Advanced Study". It can be bought from Sergius Turrianus or added through the console, or you could use the same book you used when you installed the mod if you still have it. This way you'll get all of the Enchanting perks refunded to you and can reallocate them once the mod is uninstalled.

3. Save the game and exit Skyrim.

4. Disable the module.

5. Load the save game, and allocate your refunded perk points as you see fit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

1. Reduced Enchantment Stacking

The biggest change perhaps is that under the new rules, most enchantments no longer stack with themselves. When you wear two items enchanted with the same non-stackable effect, you only receive the benefit of the effect of the highest magnitude. For example, a character wearing a Gloves of Fortify Smithing +25 and a Ring of Fortify Smithing +35 will receive a bonus of +35 to their Smithing skill, not +60 like they would in Vanilla Skyrim.

Because of this, you no longer benefit from creating whole suits of armor that fortify the same skill to godlike values. The same rule applies to most enchanted gear you find or buy in the game.

The following enchantments no longer stack:

- All Fortify Skill enchantments
- Resist Magic enchantments
- Fortify Heal Rate, Fortify Stamina Rate, Fortify Magicka Rate

To compensate, any non-stacking enchantment can be placed on an item in ANY SLOT.

2. Existing Enchantment Changes

Most enchantments have had their base values tweaked to be about 10% - 25% better than the best enchantments that you can find or buy in game. To do so, your character has to have purchased all appropriate perks and should be under a the effect Fortify Enchantment potion or spell.

For example, if the best possible "stock" enchantment produces a 40 points effect, a character with Enchanting Skill 100, Enchanter and Insightful Enchanter perks will probably produce a 45 points effect, and if he drinks an Enchanter's Elixir or casts Fortify Skill: Enchanting, he might be able to get a 50-55 point effect.

Some enchantments have also been renamed to have more lore-friendly and nicer-looking names. For example, Robes-only enchantments that fortify a Magic School and Magicka Regen have been renamed to "Empowered Alteration", "Empowered Conjuration", and so on.

Coincidentally, when enchanted by player, these enchantments produced a pitiful 10% boost to Magicka Regeneration, because of a bug. Now, they will always produce a non-scaling, fixed 125% boost to Magicka Regeneration. Amount of the corresponding skill boost will vary with your Enchanting Skill however.

3. New Enchantments

A few new enchantments have been added:

- Empowered Arcana: fortifies your Magicka and Magicka Regen Rate. Can only be applied to a Chest piece. Obtain by disenchanting some of the College robes.
- Berserker: fortifies your Health and Health Regen Rate. Can only be applied to a Chest piece. Can be purchased from Sergius Turrianus.
- Implacable: fortifies your Stamina and Stamina Regen Rate. Can only be applied to a Chest piece. Can be purchased from Sergius Turrianus.

4. Sergius Turrianus

Winterhold's Enchanting Trainer, Sergius Turrianus, used to a rude bastard who hung around Hall of Elements, gave you lip even if you were an Archmage, and became useless after you reached Enchanting skill of 100.

Alas, with this mod, his manners have not improved at all. However, after seeing the success of his colleagues, he finally decided to expand his operation and open up a shop of his own (or perhaps he simply deemed you worthy of trading with). Besides scrolls, soul gems and an ocassional staff, Sergius now sells an array of unique items that you won't find anywhere else: Enchantment Primers.

Enchantment Primers are fake weapons and otherwise worthless rings imbued with every available enchantment. Their purpose is to be disenchanted by you. You can wield the Weapon Enchantment Primers like a regular dagger, but they produce no damage and have no charge. You can also wear an Enchantment Primer ring, but as a rule, the bonus it will provide is pitifully small - you are better off disenchanting it and making a magic item of your own.

This will, of course, give you a chance to relatively easily collect all available enchantment effects in Skyrim. It also gives you access to two new and otherwise unobtainable effects - Berserker and Implacable. On the downside, Sergius' prices are pretty steep.

Additionally, Sergius will sell you two spell tomes, containing new Lesser Powers:

- (Enchantment) Imbue Soul Gem: with this power, you can charge any empty Soul Gem in your inventory except Azura's Star/Black Star. The size of the soul gem depends on your Enchanting skill (so a neophyte will only be able to charge Petty gems, whereas a master can charge everything, incluing Black gems). Depending on the size of the Soul Gem, you will need sufficient Magicka to charge it - from 25 Magicka for a Petty gem to 500 Magicka for a Black gem.

- (Enchantment) Manipulate Soul Gems: with this power, you can fuse and transform Soul Gems in your inventory, again excluding Azura's Star/Black Star. Initially, you can only fuse two empty gems into one larger gem. With appropriate perks (see below), you can fuse filled gems, and also liquefy them, essentially transforming them into simple potions.

Finally, Sergius will sell you a new book, "Enchanting: An Advanced Study", which will reset your Enchanting perk tree as described above. It's also an Enchanting skill tome.

5. Perk Tree Changes

The Enchanting perk tree has received a substantial overhaul. It still has two branches. Left branch focuses on improving player-made Enchantments. Right branch focuses on getting the most out of your Soul Gems. Below is the list of all perks:

- Enchanter: only has one rank now. Your enchantments become 1% stronger for every 1 skill point, up to a maximum of 100%.

Left Branch:
- Elemental Mastery: your Fire, Frost and Shock-based enchantments on weapons and armor are 25% stronger.
- Insightful Enchanter: no changes from vanilla.
- Corpus Enchanter: no changes from vanilla.
- Extra Effect: no changes from vanilla.

Right Branch:
- Soul Fusion: allows fusing filled Soul Gems as well as empty ones using the Manipulate Soul Gems power.
- Soul Gem Mastery: renamed (used to be Soul Squeezer), functionality is the same.
- Soul Siphon: traps a portion of enemy's soul upon deathblow and recharges the weapon. Now works on all enemies and not just on creatures.
- Soul Sustenance: allows you to liquefy filled Soul Gems using the Manipulate Soul Gems power, transforming them into simple potions of Health, Magicka and Stamina. The most powerful potions are produced from Black Soul Gems, and they restore 500 points of their respective attribute.

The following perks are now obsolete and produce no effect:

- Enchanter 4
- Enchanter 5
- Storm Enchanter

6. Disenchanting.

When you use an Enchantment Workbench, you will now be given an option to Cleanse Enchantments. If selected, this option will present you with a "container" into which you may add an item that you want cleansed. It will be immediately returned to you, minus any enchantments that YOU YOURSELF applied. This is a rather disruptive process, so all upgrades will be gone from the item you cleanse. You cannot disenchant pre-enchanted items or artifacts because, presumably, it reqires a much greater skill than Dovahkiin has and a lot more lab equipment. That said, if you stick a fully upgraded artifact or a pre-enchanted item into the disenchanter, you'll lose all upgrades and gain absolutely nothing.

FAQ:

Q: I already bought Enchanter 4 and 5 or Storm Enchanter perks. But they disappeared from the tree and produce no effect. Can I get my perk points back?
A: Sergius Turrianus sells a book "Enchanting: an Advanced Study". Purchase it, and read it. Your Enchanting tree will be reset and you will get as many available Perk Points as you invested into it. Now you can re-purchase whatever perks you want.

Q: Why do you have to reset the whole tree?
A: Because it's a cleaner solution than mucking about with individual perks.

Q: What happens if I don't reset the Enchantment tree in an existing game?
A: Your Enchantment magnitudes may be incorrect and you also may have wasted some Perk Points.

Q: This is a huge nerf. Why would I use it?
A: Only if you are in the same place as me and want more challenge in your game.

Q: How does this affect Bandolier and Cloak mods?
A: Unenchanted items from the Bandolier mod (notebooks and book holders) are keyworded as Gloves and will accept corresponding enchantments. Cloaks are keyworded as the Necklaces and will also accept corresponding enchantments.

Q: Why does it cost more to charge a Black Soul Gem than it does to charge a Grand Soul Gem? Why do Black Soul Gems produce more powerful potions?
A: Because Black Soul Gems contain humanoid souls... or equivalent thereof. They are the equivalent of a "special sauce".

Q: Why can't I fuse Soul Gem Fragments into Soul Gems?
A: Because there are actually 7 varieties of Soul Gem Fragments. Creating a recipe for each one of them would be a nightmare.

Q: I use a mod that adds new types of soul gems. Can I recharge or manipulate those?
A: No, you cannot.

Q: Did you edit Sergius Turrianus? If I have a mod that changes him, will this module conflict?
A: No, I did not edit him. There should be no conflict.

Q: Did you edit Soul Gem entries? If I have a mod that changes STOCK soul gems, will this module conflict?
A: No, I did not change Soul Gem entries. There should be no conflict.

Q: Why can't I charge or manipulate the Azura's Star/Black Star?
A: Because it's a Daedric Artifact and you are a but a bumbling mortal. Azura's Star only accepts real souls. NO SUBSTITUTIONS!

Q: Isn't charging soul gems not lore-friendly?
A: I haven't seen any evidence to the contrary. Plus, Sergius doesn't look like a guy who goes out to hunt monsters every day to keep his soul gem collection stocked. But he has to have filled gems on hand in order to continue to ply his trade, so he must have a way to charge them.

Q: Why can't I conjure soul gems out of thin air? I mean, nobody knows where they come from, right?
A: Wrong. Soul gems are mined from Geode Veins. You can find a lot of them in Blackreach.