Changes
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See Changelog (i.e., click on version number above) for update notes.

What This Does
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In vanilla Skyrim, as you increase your difficulty from Adept to Expert or Master, the damage enemies do to you increases, but also the damage you do to enemies decreases. Setting your difficulty on Master means you are only doing 50% of the damage you would do on Adept! That means you have to hack away at enemies forever to kill them, or you have to have top-end gear and maxed smithing/enchanting to get the job done before dying.

This mod does three things:
1) Increases the damage enemies do to you as you increase difficulty; but the damage you do to enemies is not decreased.
2) Perk increases for combat skills are reduced (as a partial offset to change #1.)
3) The XP Multiplier is reduced, in order to slow leveling somewhat at Expert and Master Difficulty.

The result is (hopefully) a game with a more natural feel, where you improve as you level, and lower level enemies becomes easier, fights are quicker, but you do not become overpowered or unchallenged with current-level enemies. Smithing and enchanting should feel more naturally helpful since the raw increases from combat perks are reduced.

This should work with either a new or an existing game.


Who This Is For
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1) Anyone who wants to increase the difficulty beyond Adept but find that the vanilla difficulty gap from Adept-to-Expert or from Expert-to-Master is too much.
2) Anyone who find that vanilla Master difficulty results in tediously long battles.
3) Anyone who finds it annoying that town guards with iron swords deal more damage than you do when on Master.
4) Anyone who want to add combat difficulty enhancer mods (e.g., PISE, Deadly Combat, etc.) but find that adding those mods makes vanilla Master too difficult.
5) Anyone who agrees that when fighting a bear or troll you should feel like your weapon is sharper than a butter knife.

Who This Is NOT For
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With the addition of the alternate higher damage versions, this should be appropriate for most anyone except the folks that like an "insane mode". (I'd recommend a mod like Intense Difficulty if this is your situation.)


The Details
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Difficulty Changes
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The damage done BY the player is:
........Vanilla Mod
Adept 100% 100%
Expert 75% 100%
Master 50% 100%

The damage done TO the player is:
......Vanilla..Mod
Adept 100% 100%
Expert 150% 160% (or 180/210/230 if using an alternate version)
Master 200% 220% (or 250/280/300 if using an alternate version)


Combat Skill Perk Changes
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Since you no longer do half-damage on Master difficulty, some of the 5-tier perks are modified to reduce their total effect.

In vanilla, these perks are 20% per tier, resulting in doubling (200%) of the effect for that perk at the last tier.

In the mod, these perks are 15%/15%/10%/10%/10%, resulting in 160% of the effect for that perk at the last tier.

Modified Perks:
* Armsman
* Barbarian
* AgileDefender
* Juggernaut
* Overdraw

(Note: the perk Shield Wall also shows in my mod as modified, but all I did was correct the perk descriptions; I did not modify any values. See http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Block#Bugs)

XP Multiplier Reductions
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The XP multiplier are reduced for Expert and Master to slow leveling somewhat.
fDiffMultXPH = 0.75 (Expert)
fDiffMultXPVH = 0.50 (Master)


Magecraft
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Conjuration is a special case, since the summons are not affected by the above changes. This may make a conjuration mage overpowered. If so, you may want to add the mod Summons Difficulty Adjustment to reduce the health of summons.

Destruction Magic does not seem inherently overpowered, so I did not alter anything to do with magic.


Compatibility
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The mod is compatible with most anything that does not affect the GMST or perk settings described above. Specifically, it is compatible with mods such as:
PISE
Deadly Combat
Warzones
Wars in Skyrim
No Helmets Required
Unlevelled World
and so on...


Do not upload this mod to any other site, including Steam Workshop.