About this mod
A more flexible and refined skill specialization system for Skyrim.
- Permissions and credits
- Mirrors
- Changelogs
In the previous Elder Scrolls titles, your skill choices at character creation would determine how fast skills increase. Skyrim removes the character creation aspect and instead gives you the Guardian Stones to choose a set of skills to increase faster. The new system has advantages in that it is simple and it allows you to change your character's focus over time. However, it is also bad because it lacks flexibility, and having the Guardian Stones co-exist with the other 10 standing stones means that you are forced to choose between skill increases and gameplay abilities, which makes no sense!
Skill specialization in Skyrim is mainly done through the Perk system, and this mod was designed to keep that pattern consistent. It implements a new skill learning system which is inspired by the old class system from Morrowind, but the skill choices are now tied to Perks instead of being determined by character creation or Standing Stones. In addition, the Guardian Stones have been reworked and various tweaks have been made to the Standing Stones in order to improve them.
TL;DR: Perks give skill bonuses, Guardian Stones give gameplay bonuses. Other Stones have been tweaked.
Dynamic Skill Specialization
Skill learning modifiers are determined by a combination of the level of the skill and investment in the primary Perks of the corresponding tree. Each skill is accordingly classified as Major (35% XP bonus), Minor (normal XP), or Auxiliary (20% XP penalty*). At low levels, only the first Perk is required for a Major Skill, but at higher levels, further investment is needed.
*If you prefer Auxiliary skills to gain no XP, set DSS_HardcoreMode to 1 either in the in-game console or in the plugin itself.
These transitions work as follows:
- Start: 1st Perk required for Major Skill
- Skill level 40+: 2nd Perk required for Major Skill, 1st Perk required for Minor Skill
- Skill level 60+: 3rd Perk required for Major Skill, 2nd Perk required for Minor Skill
- Skill level 80+: 4th Perk required for Major Skill, 3rd Perk required for Minor Skill
Note that for the Smithing tree, Perks on either side of the tree can count as primary Perks.
Standing Stones
Resting Bonuses
Since the resting bonuses are intertwined with skill learning and Standing Stones, some tweaks have been made to them to improve general quality of life. The vanilla bonuses were a bit too low and didn't last long enough to feel worthwhile, and requiring marriage for the best bonus creates an awkward clash between gameplay and roleplay motivations.
Rested: All skills improve 8% faster for 16 hours.
Well Rested: All skills improve 15% faster for 16 hours.
Lover's Comfort: All skills improve 15% faster, and buying and selling prices are 5% better for 16 hours.
Installation
This mod can be installed or uninstalled at any time.
Ability Condition Bug
It is possible that on a long-running save, your Major Skills will get stuck and fail to change when they should. They will likely still update on certain triggers, like changing equipment. It is recommended that you install Bug Fixes to fix the bug. If you can't use that mod for whatever reason, follow these steps:
- Disable the mod and load your game.
- Save your game and exit.
- Re-enable the mod and load your game again.
Compatibility
Almost all Perk mods require a patch, which may include functionality or just descriptions, depending on how much is changed. Standing Stone mods can be used on top of this mod by loading them later in your load order. Everything else should be trivially compatible.
- Andromeda - Unique Standing Stones of Skyrim - Partially compatible. Load after this mod so it overwrites the Standing Stones. Dynamic skill specialization will be retained.
- Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim - Patch available. Dynamic skill specialization is reworked so that you need both ranks of the base Perk for a Major Skill; this does not scale.
- Survival Mode - Compatible. The Lover Stone ability will be slightly different from Lover's Comfort, but everything else will work correctly.
- Vokrii - Patch available.
Special Thanks
ElectricSparx, testing, feedback, and title idea.
Simon Magus, testing, feedback, and ideas.