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About this mod
The aim of this mod is to tweak the vanilla perk tree to feel more grounded and realistic without making it boring or significantly divergent from vanilla perks.
- Permissions and credits
The aim of this mod is to tweak the vanilla perk tree to feel more grounded and realistic
without making it boring or significantly divergent from vanilla perks.
New skills, not new powers
Replaces the effects of perks that provide passive magical buffs (e.g. poison resistance), ill-fitting magical powers (e.g. paralysis on weapons),
or downright unrealistic abilities (e.g. pickpocketing equipped armor) with more realistic-feeling and useful skills.
Minimal changes
Only 13 perks have been changed, so the effect on gameplay is fairly minimal.
No new perks have been added, and the structure of perk trees is unchanged.
Easy Install
Designed to be installed mid-playthrough if required, and can be uninstalled
without breaking your save.*
*Please see the Installation section below
for instructions on how to safely uninstall.
Requirements and Compatibility
No other mods or DLCs are required to use this mod, and it's fully compatible with all my mods.
Not compatible with mods that alter perk trees (e.g. Ordinator, Vokrii).
This mod is a tweak to the vanilla perk tree, not a perk overhaul.
In my view, perks should represent natural skills acquired from practice, so this mod
removes and replaces the effects of perks that feel broken or overly unrealistic, or
provide the player with new magical abilities.
For changes to Warrior perks,
press the spoiler button below
Spoiler:
Show
Two-Handed
1 perk changed:
OLD: Warmaster (100) - Backwards power attack has a 25% chance to paralyze the target.
NEW: Warmaster (100) - Backwards and sideways power attacks have a 25% and 15% chance of a critical hit that knocks down most targets.
Note: the Deep Wounds perks have been edited for compatibility with this perk, their effects are unchanged.
One-Handed
1 perk changed:
OLD: Paralyzing Strike (100) - Backwards power attack has a 25% chance to paralyze the target.
NEW: Masterful Strike (100) - Backwards and sideways power attacks have a 25% and 15% chance of a critical hit that knocks down most targets.
Note: the Bladesman perks have been edited for compatibility with this perk, their effects are unchanged.
Heavy Armor
1 perk changed:
OLD: Reflect Blows (100) - 10% chance to reflect melee damage back to the enemy while wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
NEW: Retaliation (100) - Enemy melee attacks briefly fortify your melee attacks while wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
Note: being struck with a shield bash / melee attack / power attack fortifies your one-handed, two-handed and unarmed damage by 15% / 25% / 50% for 5 seconds.
Block
1 perk changed:
OLD: Shield Charge (100) - Sprinting with a shield raised knocks down most targets.
NEW: Shield Charge (100) - Sprinting with a shield raised and sufficient stamina knocks down most targets.
Note: the main purpose of this edit was to remove the magical FX, but I took the opportunity to make some much-needed improvements to functionality:
- Removed the buggy delay from starting a charge to actually being able to knock down targets
- Improved collision when charging (only targets in front of you are struck)
- Targets will now be flung away from you, not up into the air as they sometimes are in vanilla
- Removed FX on bashing a target
- Knocked down targets can't be knocked down again for 5 seconds
- Changed how stamina cost works (vanilla Skyrim drains an additional 10 points of stamina per second while sprinting with a shield raised; this mod doesn't affect sprint cost, but knocking down a foe costs 35 points of stamina)
- Charging inflicts a small amount of health damage on the target
Archery
1 perk changed:
OLD: Bullseye (100) - 15% chance of paralyzing the target for a few seconds.
NEW: Bullseye (100) - 15% chance of a critical hit that knocks down most targets.
Note: the Critical Shot perks have been edited for compatibility with this perk, their effects are unchanged.
1 perk changed:
OLD: Warmaster (100) - Backwards power attack has a 25% chance to paralyze the target.
NEW: Warmaster (100) - Backwards and sideways power attacks have a 25% and 15% chance of a critical hit that knocks down most targets.
Note: the Deep Wounds perks have been edited for compatibility with this perk, their effects are unchanged.
One-Handed
1 perk changed:
OLD: Paralyzing Strike (100) - Backwards power attack has a 25% chance to paralyze the target.
NEW: Masterful Strike (100) - Backwards and sideways power attacks have a 25% and 15% chance of a critical hit that knocks down most targets.
Note: the Bladesman perks have been edited for compatibility with this perk, their effects are unchanged.
Heavy Armor
1 perk changed:
OLD: Reflect Blows (100) - 10% chance to reflect melee damage back to the enemy while wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
NEW: Retaliation (100) - Enemy melee attacks briefly fortify your melee attacks while wearing all Heavy Armor: head, chest, hands, feet.
Note: being struck with a shield bash / melee attack / power attack fortifies your one-handed, two-handed and unarmed damage by 15% / 25% / 50% for 5 seconds.
Block
1 perk changed:
OLD: Shield Charge (100) - Sprinting with a shield raised knocks down most targets.
NEW: Shield Charge (100) - Sprinting with a shield raised and sufficient stamina knocks down most targets.
Note: the main purpose of this edit was to remove the magical FX, but I took the opportunity to make some much-needed improvements to functionality:
- Removed the buggy delay from starting a charge to actually being able to knock down targets
- Improved collision when charging (only targets in front of you are struck)
- Targets will now be flung away from you, not up into the air as they sometimes are in vanilla
- Removed FX on bashing a target
- Knocked down targets can't be knocked down again for 5 seconds
- Changed how stamina cost works (vanilla Skyrim drains an additional 10 points of stamina per second while sprinting with a shield raised; this mod doesn't affect sprint cost, but knocking down a foe costs 35 points of stamina)
- Charging inflicts a small amount of health damage on the target
Archery
1 perk changed:
OLD: Bullseye (100) - 15% chance of paralyzing the target for a few seconds.
NEW: Bullseye (100) - 15% chance of a critical hit that knocks down most targets.
Note: the Critical Shot perks have been edited for compatibility with this perk, their effects are unchanged.
For changes to Thief perks,
press the spoiler button below
Spoiler:
Show
Lockpicking
1 perk changed:
OLD: Wax Key (50) - Automatically gives you a copy of a picked lock's key if it has one.
NEW: Burglary (50) - Briefly makes you 50% harder to detect after opening a locked door.
Note: effect lasts 15 seconds.
Pickpocket
1 perk changed:
OLD: Perfect Touch (100) - Can pickpocket equipped items.
NEW: Sabotage (100) - Inflict 50% more physical damage and receive 50% less from people you have pickpocketed.
Note: you only need to open a target's inventory with pickpocketing for this to work, you don't need to steal anything from them.
Sneak
1 perk changed:
OLD: Shadow Warrior (100) - Crouching stops combat for a moment and forces distant opponents to search for a target.
NEW: Shadow Warrior (100) - Crouch during combat to dodge enemy attacks. Ignore 50% of enemy armor while sneaking.
Alchemy
1 perk changed:
OLD: Snakeblood (80) - 50% resistance to all poisons.
NEW: Field Alchemy (80) - You can mix potions and poisons of inferior quality without an Alchemy Bench.
- Adds a Lesser Power called Field Alchemy, which allows you to craft potions and poisons anywhere when out of combat
- Potions/poisons crafted this way are 2/3 the strength of those crafted at an Alchemy Bench
- The Purity perk's description is changed to reflect that it only works at Alchemy Benches
1 perk changed:
OLD: Wax Key (50) - Automatically gives you a copy of a picked lock's key if it has one.
NEW: Burglary (50) - Briefly makes you 50% harder to detect after opening a locked door.
Note: effect lasts 15 seconds.
Pickpocket
1 perk changed:
OLD: Perfect Touch (100) - Can pickpocket equipped items.
NEW: Sabotage (100) - Inflict 50% more physical damage and receive 50% less from people you have pickpocketed.
Note: you only need to open a target's inventory with pickpocketing for this to work, you don't need to steal anything from them.
Sneak
1 perk changed:
OLD: Shadow Warrior (100) - Crouching stops combat for a moment and forces distant opponents to search for a target.
NEW: Shadow Warrior (100) - Crouch during combat to dodge enemy attacks. Ignore 50% of enemy armor while sneaking.
Alchemy
1 perk changed:
OLD: Snakeblood (80) - 50% resistance to all poisons.
NEW: Field Alchemy (80) - You can mix potions and poisons of inferior quality without an Alchemy Bench.
- Adds a Lesser Power called Field Alchemy, which allows you to craft potions and poisons anywhere when out of combat
- Potions/poisons crafted this way are 2/3 the strength of those crafted at an Alchemy Bench
- The Purity perk's description is changed to reflect that it only works at Alchemy Benches
For changes to Mage perks,
press the spoiler button below
Spoiler:
Show
Alteration
2 perks changed:
OLD: Magic Resistance (30/50/70) - Blocks 10%/20%/30% of a spell's effects.
NEW: Magic Protection (30/50/70) - Protection spells like Stoneflesh block 10%/20%/30% of magical damage.
OLD: Atronach (100) - Absorb 30% of the magicka of any spells that hit you.
NEW: Master Wizard (100) - All spells cost 20% less magicka to cast.
Restoration
2 perks changed:
OLD: Avoid Death (90) - Once a day, heals 250 points automatically if you fall below 10% health.
NEW: Breath of Life (90) - Time between shouts is reduced 20%.
OLD: Necromage (70) - All spells are more effective against undead.
NEW: Necromage (70) - All spells are more effective against enemy undead.
Note: the Necromage perk no longer affects player-targeted spells (e.g. enchantments, perk abilities)
2 perks changed:
OLD: Magic Resistance (30/50/70) - Blocks 10%/20%/30% of a spell's effects.
NEW: Magic Protection (30/50/70) - Protection spells like Stoneflesh block 10%/20%/30% of magical damage.
OLD: Atronach (100) - Absorb 30% of the magicka of any spells that hit you.
NEW: Master Wizard (100) - All spells cost 20% less magicka to cast.
Restoration
2 perks changed:
OLD: Avoid Death (90) - Once a day, heals 250 points automatically if you fall below 10% health.
NEW: Breath of Life (90) - Time between shouts is reduced 20%.
OLD: Necromage (70) - All spells are more effective against undead.
NEW: Necromage (70) - All spells are more effective against enemy undead.
Note: the Necromage perk no longer affects player-targeted spells (e.g. enchantments, perk abilities)
Installing
This mod can be installed with a new playthrough
or midway through an existing playthrough.*
Uninstalling
Unlike most perk mods, this mod can be safely uninstalled midway
through an existing playthrough* with the instructions below.
For uninstallation instructions,
press the spoiler button below
Spoiler:
Show
- Load up your game and open the console
- Type in "set ZPerks to 100" (without quote marks) and press enter
- Wait until you receive a message confirming the mod has been deactivated (takes a few seconds). At this point, any perks you had that are edited by this mod will be removed and replaced with perk points
- Save your game, close, uninstall this mod, then reload your save
- Re-add your perks in-game
- Type in "set ZPerks to 100" (without quote marks) and press enter
- Wait until you receive a message confirming the mod has been deactivated (takes a few seconds). At this point, any perks you had that are edited by this mod will be removed and replaced with perk points
- Save your game, close, uninstall this mod, then reload your save
- Re-add your perks in-game
*Warning: All perk mods can cause serious, possibly game-breaking issues if installed/uninstalled mid-playthrough. This mod has been designed to be safely
installed/uninstalled at any time, but I can't guarantee it's safe for all players, especially if you're running a lot of mods. Make sure you save your progress
before installing/uninstalling this mod mid-playthrough.