Skyrim Special Edition

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About this mod

A perk overhaul that transforms perks from generic character progression into a means to craft unique and specialized builds. Perks have multiple ranks, letting you push many aspects of your character to the extreme, but they also have drawbacks so specialization comes at a cost. Ultra compatible, it includes an MCM to respec perks at any time.

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Master of One is a perk overhaul that reimagines character progression. Rather than perks making you unambiguously more powerful, they instead let you enhance some traits at the expense of others. This makes perk selection an important choice because, depending on your playstyle, not all perks will help your character. It also creates more pronounced differences between builds (even those that use the same skills) as by taking different perks they end up with different strengths and weaknesses. Lastly, it slows the player's ascent to godlike power, as even in the late-game your character will have weaknesses you will need to defend against, and enemies you will need to prepare for. The key design principles are:

  • All perks have benefits and drawbacks. For instance, increasing weapon swing speed comes at the cost of decreased armor piercing, while enhancing fire spells brings a weakness to the other elements. This is the core mechanism by which perks facilitate specialization as opposed to simple progression.
  • All perks have 5 ranks, and while benefits grow steadily with rank, drawbacks start small but grow exponentially. Multiple ranks lets players choose the extent of their specialization, while the drawbacks creates differences between in builds in terms of how many ranks they want. For instance, a dedicated cryomancer may want to take all frost spell perks to their maximum rank, but the downsides mean a generalist mage or frost battlemage may only want the first 2 or 3.

The end result is that rather than "filling in" a perk tree by taking each perk as it becomes available, you will instead pick and choose from a wide variety of specializations, crafting a unique niche for your character.




  • Effects are largely passive. In vanilla, many important mechanics are locked behind perks (e.g. dual casting, sneak rolling). This is the exact kind of "perks-as-power-progression" I want to avoid. As such, many vanilla abilities are available from the start, although some remain behind low-level perks and some new perk-gated abilities are added (lock smashing, explosive arrows, framing targets for theft, etc.).
  • Perks only have skill requirements, not perk requirements. This means you don't need to take a perk you don't want in order to get one you do, while still saving the more extreme perks for the late-game. Perks are rated as "novice", "apprentice", "adept", "expert", or "master" according to their skill requirements, which, for the first rank, are 0, 10, 30, 55 and 80, respectively. Skills requirements grow with rank though, with top perk ranks requiring skill 80, 90, 90, 95 and 100.
  • MCM to respec your character. The double-edged nature of these perks means you may regret your choices! As such, the MCM lets you remove any chosen perk at any time and regain your perk points. This also means you can totally rebuild your character. Lastly, the MCM also lets you change the skill requirements for all 5 ranks of the different tiers of perks.
  • Compatible with everything. Compatibility was a priority throughout development, and Master of One should be fully compatible with everything, except for other perk overhauls. Even mod added spells (a common issue for perk overhauls) will work out-of-the-box provided they use vanilla keywords appropriately. 
  • Perk trees actually look like their skill symbol. Many vanilla trees look nothing like their skill symbol (e.g. illusion). This is fixed in Master of One, but note this means that the novice perks aren't always placed at the bottom of the tree.




All warrior skills' start with a novice "conditioning" perk that collectively force a trade-off between physical and magical prowess: Without these perks, using weapons, blocking or running in heavy armor all drain stamina*. Taking the conditioning perks removes these stamina costs, but replaces them with reductions in your magical capability. For pure warriors the choice is clear, but mixed builds will need to strike a balance.

*For players who want to start off proficient, the MCM lets you give yourself these perks for free, but you will still get the penalties associated with them.

Archery
The main trade off in archery is between the long-range sniping style, and the agile close-quarters style. Specialists can really invest, tweaking draw speed, effective range, movement speed, stagger chance, and so on, but pulling off a mixed style is harder. The master perks lets you modify arrows to produce exotic effects.

Perks
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Novice
Archery conditioning - Drawing a bow costs 50/75/90/95/100% less stamina per second (10 by default), but spells cost 0/5/10/15/20% more to cast.

Apprentice
Marksman - Deal 20/40/60/80/100% more damage with bows, but 0/5/10/25/50% less damage with melee weapons.
Longbows - Bows deal 10/20/30/40/50% more damage against enemies over 50 feet away, but 0/5/10/25/50% less damage otherwise.
Shortbows - Bows deal 10/20/30/40/50% more damage against enemies within 30 feet, but 0/5/10/25/50% less damage otherwise.

Adept
Quick draw - Draw speed is 20/40/60/80/100% faster, but arrows deal 0/5/10/25/50% less damage.
Powershot - Arrows have a 15/30/45/60/75% chance of staggering enemies, but draw speed is 0/5/10/25/50% slower.

Expert
Ranger - Move at 60/70/80/90/100% speed while a bow is drawn, but carry capacity is reduced by 0/10/25/50/100.
Steady hand - Drawing a bow slows time by 15/30/45/60/75% but incoming attacks deal 0/5/10/25/50% more damage while your bow is drawn.
Arrow to the knee - Shots to the back of enemies slow them by 10/20/30/40/50% for 5 seconds, but shots to their front deal 0/5/10/25/50% less damage. 

Master
Barbed points - Arrows cause unarmored, living enemies to bleed for 2/4/6/8/10 seconds, but deal 0/10/25/50/100% less damage against heavily armored enemies.
Corrosive coating - Arrows decrease the targets armor rating by 20/40/60/80/100 for 15 seconds, but you lose 0/0.5/1/2/4 health per second while your bow is drawn.
Explosive shafts - If hit by an elemental spell within 5 seconds of hitting their target, arrows will create a small/modest/moderate/large/huge elemental explosion, but the same is true if you are hit while your bow is drawn.


Notes
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Automatic perks: Eagle eye, Hunter's discipline

The vanilla implementation of Ranger has several issues: it cannot scale, it breaks if the player is sneaking when they take the perk, and once the perk is taken it cannot be removed. As such Master of One uses a different approach by giving the player abilities that decrease their speed when drawing a bow.  This works fine, but conditional ability effects are not immediate and so the player will continue to move at full speed for a fraction of a second when they start drawing a bow, and will continue to move slowly for a fraction of a second after firing a shot.

The effects of barbed points and corrosive coating will stack with successive arrow hits. For barbed points, an unarmored target is one whose armor rating is 0, so enemies wearing armor or with inherent armor (like chauruses) will not bleed. However, if you use corrosive coating to lower an armored target's armor rating to 0, they will become vulnerable to bleeding, even if wearing heavy armor means they take no direct damage.

The health damage caused by corrosive coating counts as poison damage and can be resisted if you achieve 100% poison resistance.

While explosive shafts can work if you quickly switch between bows and spells, that's a little dull. For less inventory management consider using magic followers or summons to trigger explosions, or place some runes and shoot enemies as they approach them, or cast a cloak spell and then use your bow at close range.


Block
Shields offer excellent protection against physical damage, and the apprentice and adept perks let the player customize this, enhancing defense contingent on positioning, adding mobility at the expense of defense, or trading between different elemental resistances. The expert and master perks focus on the offensive use of shields, enhancing bashing and counter attacks, but doing so places much greater demands on the user.

Perks
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Novice
Block conditioning - Raising your shield costs 50/75/90/95/100% less stamina per second (10 by default), but spells are 0/5/10/15/20% less effective.

Apprentice
Shield wall - Blocking is 20/40/60/80/100% more effective, but incoming attacks from behind deal 0/5/10/25/50% more damage.
Block runner - Move 20/40/60/80/100% faster while blocking, but blocking is 0/5/10/25/50% less effective.

Adept
Fire shield - Blocking with a shield negates 0/20/40/60/80/100% of incoming fire damage, but increases frost and shock damage by 0/10/25/50/100%.
Frost shield - Blocking with a shield negates 0/20/40/60/80/100% of incoming frost damage, but increases fire and shock damage by 0/10/25/50/100%.
Shock shield - Blocking with a shield negates 0/20/40/60/80/100% of incoming shock damage, but increases fire and frost damage by 0/10/25/50/100%.

Expert
Deadly bash - Bashing deals 2/4/6/8/10 times as much damage, but bashing costs an additional 0/5/10/25/50 stamina.
Disarming bash - Bashing has a 10/20/30/40/50% chance of disarming enemies, but deals 0/10/25/50/100% less damage.
Disorienting bash - Bashing helmetless enemies deals 50 magicka damage and prevents regeneration for 2/4/6/8/10 seconds, but deals 0/10/25/50/100% less damage.

Master
Rebound - Blocking converts 20/40/60/80/100% of incoming damage to stamina damage, but once out of stamina you take 0/10/25/50/100% more damage.
Mind over matter - While at full magicka, power bashes knock/push/shove/power/blast enemies back at the cost of 10/20/40/65/100 magicka.
Quick reflexes - Blocking during a power attack slows time and increases your damage by 20/40/60/80/100%, but you take 0/10/25/50/100% more damage too.


Notes
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Automatic perks: deflect arrows, power bash.

The vanilla implementation of block runner has several issues: it cannot scale, it cannot be removed once the perk is taken, and it breaks while sneaking. As such, Master of One takes a different approach, using an ability with conditional effects to modify your speed while blocking. Ability conditions update only once per second, which can create a lag between raising/lowering your shield and the resulting speed change. To get around this, the ability is linked to the blocking animations and is forced to update whenever your block is raised or lowered. With this approach the lag is minimal.

As with the vanilla elemental protection perk, the effects of fire, frost and shock shield are multiplicative, not additive like typical magical resistances or weaknesses. To illustrate, say you take the first three ranks of fire shield and frost shield, if you block an incoming fire spell it's magnitude will be 0.4*1.25=0.5 (i.e. half strength), the same is true of frost spells, while a shock spell will be 1.25*1.25=1.56 (i.e. 56% more powerful). This also means that if you max out all three perks, blocking grants immunity to all three elements (0*2*2=0), but at the cost of 15 perk points.

The stamina cost of deadly bash only applies when you bash a target, so bashing the air costs the regular amount.

The stamina damage from rebound takes into account the base weapon damage (for melee weapon attacks) or enemy mass (for fists or monsters). The best weapons (dragonbone warhammer) and heaviest enemies (mammoths) can do up to 50 stamina damage (assuming you have the top perk rank), but against enemies with less effective gear, less mass, or with a lower perk rank, the stamina damage is much less. Arrows are unaffected.


Heavy Armor
Heavy armor offers excellent protection, and the apprentice level perks enhance this provided you can find a complementary set. The adept perks take it even further, but at a cost to your mobility and carry capacity. The expert perks, on the other hand, support more offensive play, but you sacrifice some of heavy armor's defensive potency to get there. The master perk gives heavy armor itself some passive offensive capacity, but you must put yourself in danger to take advantage of it.

Perks
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Novice
Heavy armor conditioning - Running while in combat drains 50/75/90/95/100% less stamina (1 per piece per second by default) but spells are 0/5/10/15/20% less effective.

Apprentice
Juggernaut - Heavy armor protects 20/40/60/80/100% more, but light armor protects 0/10/25/50/100% less.
Well fitted - Heavy armor is 10/20/30/40/50% more effective if wearing all four pieces of heavy armor, but 0/5/10/25/50% less effective otherwise.
Matching set - Heavy armor is 10/20/30/40/50% more effective if wearing a matched set, but 0/5/10/25/50% less effective otherwise.

Adept
Tower of strength - Each piece of heavy armor worn reduces stagger by 5/10/15/20/25%, but slows you by 0/0.5/1/2/5%.
Reinforced plate - Each piece of heavy armor worn reduces damage from bladed weapons by 2/5/8/10/12%, but increases fall damage by 0/2/5/12/25%.
Impenetrable - Each piece of heavy armor worn grants 5/10/15/20/25% poison resistance, but weighs 0/10/25/50/100% more.
Insulation - Each piece of heavy armor worn grants 2/5/8/10/12% magic resistance, but makes spells cost 0/2/5/12/25% more to cast.

Expert
Second skin - Worn heavy armor weighs 20/30/60/80/100% less, reducing its speed penalty, but it is 0/5/10/25/50% less effective.
Momentum - Attacks while running forward are 10/20/30/40/50% more effective if wearing all four pieces of heavy armor, but 0/5/10/25/50% less if moving in any other direction.
Battlemage - Spells are 10/20/30/40/50% more effective while wearing a cuirass, but only if you are not wearing {}/{a helmet}/{a helmet or gauntlets}/{a helmet, gauntlets or boots}/{a helmet, gauntlets, boots or shield}.

Master
In harm's way - While wearing a full set of heavy armor, reflect 5/10/15/20/25% of unblocked damage back on the attacker at the cost of 10 stamina per strike, but unblocked power attacks have a small/modest/moderate/significant/sizable chance of knocking you to the ground when at low stamina.


Notes
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Automatic perks: None.

The speed buff from second skin can fully cancel the vanilla speed penalty from wearing heavy armor, but not that of tower of strength. The weight decrease from second skin can, however, fully cancel out the weight increase from impenetrable.

The effects of battlemage are not sensitive to armor type. So wearing a light cuirass can bring the benefit, but using other light items of armor can cause the debuff too.


One Handed
The one handed tree emphasizes timing and strategic, duel-like fighting, it also increases the differentiation between swords, war axes and maces. The expert perks reward well timed attacks, with each weapon excelling at different moments. Meanwhile, the master perks allow power attacks from each weapon type to cause additional effects that are doubled under the right conditions. Collectively this means each weapon type favors a different fighting style, but the apprentice perks prevent players from freely switching between all three. The adept perks, however, provide utility across weapon types and include an unarmed perk.

Perks
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Novice
One handed conditioning - Swinging a one handed weapon costs 50/75/90/95/100% less stamina (10 by default), but spells cost 0/5/10/15/20% more to cast.

Apprentice
Sword specialist - Swords deal 30/60/90/120/150% more damage, but war axes and maces deal 0/5/10/20/50% less damage.
War axe specialist - War axes deal 30/60/90/120/150% more damage, but swords and maces deal 0/5/10/20/50% less damage.
Mace specialist - Maces deal 30/60/90/120/150% more damage, but swords and war axes deal 0/5/10/20/50% less damage.

Adept
Endurance - Power attacks cost 10/20/30/40/50% less stamina, but deal 0/10/20/50/100% less damage when blocked.

Dual flurry - Dual wielding attacks, including fists, are 10/20/30/40/50% faster, but your armor is 0/5/10/25/50% less effective.
Spellsword - Weapon strikes increase elemental and vampiric spells affecting the target by 5/10/15/20/25 points, but deal 0/5/10/25/50% less physical damage.
Pugilist - Unarmed attacks cause 5/10/15/20/25 of stamina damage, at a cost of 0/2/5/10/25 stamina, and deal 20/40/60/80/100% more damage to targets out of stamina.

Expert
Counter - Swords deal 10/20/30/40/50% extra damage to targets currently attacking, but 0/5/10/25/50% less damage otherwise.
Press - War axes deal 10/20/30/40/50% extra damage to targets currently staggered, but 0/5/10/25/50% less damage otherwise.
Crush - Maces ignore 15/30/45/60/75% of armor, but using them costs 0/1/2/5/10% of the targets armor rating in stamina.

Master
Lunge - Unblocked power attacks with swords cause 2/4/6/8/10 points of bleeding damage that fades over 5 seconds, double if the enemy is unarmored, but blocked attacks deal 0/10/25/50/100% less damage.
Hack - Power attacks with war axes cost the target 10/20/30/40/50 stamina, double if the attack is blocked, but deal 0/5/10/25/50% less damage when below 25% stamina.
Stun - Power attacks with maces cost the target 10/20/30/40/50 magicka, double if the target is not wearing a helmet, but 0/5/10/25/50% less direct damage if the target is wearing a helmet.


Notes
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Automatic perks: Critical Charge.

For spellsword, "vampiric" spells are those that use the MagicVampireDrain keyword. These is rare in vanilla, but where mods add more drain spells, provided they use this keyword, they will be affected accordingly. This is the case for Mysticism.

Due to engine limitations, pugilist only activates on right handed attacks when you are dual wielding fists. Once a target is out of stamina you no longer pay the stamina cost when punching them until their stamina regenerates sufficiently. As such, it's a race: if you run out first then you are stuck with basic damage, if the enemy runs out first, you get to pummel them. 


Smithing
The smithing tree offers specializations in different materials and different items. A total specialist, for instance focussing on elven one handed weapons, can improve them far beyond vanilla limits. To make and temper wider variety of items, however, requires some sacrifice.

Perks
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Novice
Smithing conditioning - Can improve all items 10/20/30/40/50% more, but spells are 0/2/5/10/20% less effective.

Apprentice
Light armorer - Can improve light armor 10/20/30/40/50% more, but heavy armor and weapons 0/3/6/12/25% less.
Heavy armorer - Can improve heavy armor 10/20/30/40/50% more, but light armor, and weapons 0/3/6/12/25% less.
Light weaponry - Can improve one handed weapons and bows 10/20/30/40/50% more, but armor and two handed weapons 0/3/6/12/25% less.
Heavy weaponry - Can improve two handed weapons 10/20/30/40/50% more, but armor and one handed weapons 0/3/6/12/25% less.
Arcane blacksmith - Can improve enchanted items 20/40/60/80/100% as much as unenchanted items, but overall smithing is 0/3/6/12/25% less effective.

Adept
Nordic Smithing - Can create steel, scaled, bonemold, nordic and plate armor and weapons, and improve them 10/20/30/40/50% more, but armor and weapons made with other materials 0/3/6/12/25% less.
Meric Smithing - Can create dwarven, elven, chitin and orcish armor and weapons, and improve them 10/20/30/40/50% more, but armor and weapons made with other materials 0/3/6/12/25% less.

Expert
Glass Smithing - Can create glass armor and weapons, and improve them 10/20/30/40/50% more, but armor and weapons made with other materials 0/3/6/12/25% less.
Ebony Smithing - Can create ebony and stalhrim armor and weapons, and improve them 10/20/30/40/50% more, but armor and weapons made with other materials 0/3/6/12/25% less.

Master
Dragon Smithing - Can create dragonscale and dragronplate armor and weapons, and improve them 10/20/30/40/50% more, but armor and weapons made with other materials 0/3/6/12/25% less.
Daedric Smithing - Can create daedric armor and weapons, and improve them 10/20/30/40/50% more, but armor and weapons made with other materials 0/3/6/12/25% less.


Notes
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Automatic perks: None.

The tempering system works by taking your skills and perks and using these to calculate your tempering ability, and rounding this down to calculate the tier to which you can temper gear. As such, taking a perk, or leveling smithing, doesn't always immediately increase the tier to which can temper gear and you may need a few skill increases before the effect of a perk becomes apparent. Still, in the long run, taking perks will increase your tempering ability. This is most clear once you get to skill level 100. Here are some examples (excluding enchanted items for simplicity):

No perks: Exquisite
Conditioning (5/5): Epic (all items)
Conditioning (5/5) + light armorer (5/5): Legendary (light armor), Flawless (all other items).
Conditioning (5/5) + light armorer (5/5) + glass smithing (5/5): Legendary+3 (glass armor), Epic (other light armors or glass items), Exquisite (all other items).
Conditioning (5/5) + light armorer (4/5) + light weaponry (4/5) + glass smithing (4/5) + dragon smithing (4/5): Legendary (glass or dragon 1h weapons or light armors), Epic (glass or dragon items other than 1h weapons or light armors, 1h weapons and light armors made of other materials), Flawless (all other unenchanted items).

Note in the 3rd example, you can take glass armor 3 tiers above the vanilla maximum. It will still be labelled as "legendary", but its armor rating will be higher.



Two Handed
The two-handed tree emphasizes all out attack and heavy burst damage, but you can burn through your stamina very quickly and so prolonged battles are a challenge. As with one handed, the perks provide additional differentiation between greatswords, battle axes and warhammers, which specialize against unarmored, blocking and heavily armored enemies respectively. The adept perks enhance the use of all two handed weapons, and also provide general support for a barbarian playstyle.

Perks
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Novice
Two handed conditioning - Swinging a two handed weapon costs 50/75/90/95/100% less stamina (15 by default), but spells cost 0/5/10/15/20% more to cast.

Apprentice
Greatsword specialist - Greatswords deal 30/60/90/120/150% more damage, but battle axes and warhammers deal 0/5/10/20/50% less damage.
Battle axe specialist - Battle axes deal 30/60/90/120/150% more damage, but greatswords and warhammers deal 0/5/10/20/50% less damage.
Warhammer specialist - Warhammers deal 30/60/90/120/150% more damage, but greatswords and battle axes deal 0/5/10/20/50% less damage.

Adept
All in - Two handed power attacks ignore 20/40/60/80/100% of the target's armor, but cost 0/10/25/50/100% more stamina.
Blood lust - Killing a target with a two handed weapon increases damage by 10/20/30/40/50% for 5 seconds, at the cost of 0/5/10/25/50 magicka.
Adrenaline - Your stamina regenerates 20/40/60/80/100% faster below half health, but 0/10/25/50/100% slower otherwise.
Frenzy - Incoming hits increase your swing speed by 10/20/30/40/50%, but drain 0/1/2/5/10 stamina per second, for 5 seconds.

Expert
Slash - Attacks with greatswords against unarmored living enemies cause 3/6/9/12/15 points of bleeding that fades over 10 seconds, but direct damage is reduced by 0/5/10/25/50%.
Batter - Attacks with battle axes against blocking enemies cause 10/20/30/40/50 stamina damage, but damage is reduced by 0/10/25/50/100% while enemies have stamina remaining.
Crumple - While you have stamina remaining, unblocked attacks with warhammers reduce an enemies armor by 5/10/15/20/25, but blocked hits cost you 0/5/10/25/50 stamina.

Master
Impale - Power attacks with greatswords have a 10/20/30/40/50% chance of causing living enemies below 25% health to bleed to death, but armor is 0/10/25/50/100% more effective at resisting them.
Cripple - Blocked power attacks with battle axes have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance of disarming targets below 25% stamina, but deal 0/10/25/50/100% less damage otherwise.
Smash - Sideways or backward power attacks with warhammers have a 10/20/30/40/50% chance of sending enemies flying, but cost 0/10/25/50/100% more stamina.


Notes
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Automatic perks: Great Critical Charge.

The effects of blood lust stack, allowing you to greatly increase your damage provided you have enough magicka. However, the effects of frenzy do not stack, to avoid excessive swing speeds and/or stamina loss.

The armor effects of crumple actually last 10 minutes, so unless you are in a particularly long fight they will appear to last indefinitely. This way if you accidentally hit a follower you won't gimp them forever.

Impale does not affect blocking enemies, though it does affect armored enemies.

Smash only works against non-massive enemies with a mass of 1.5 or less. This includes regular humanoids, but not giants or mammoths, etc.





All mage skills share a novice "conduit" perk that reduces casting cost but brings a weakness to magic. This encourages mages to specialize in fewer skills, until they can find a way round this weakness. The casting cost reduction decelerates with rank, this helps novice mages get their foot in the door, but also means the number of times you can cast a spell before running out of magicka grows linearly from 1.33x at rank 1, to 2.66x at rank 5.

Alteration
Early alteration perks enhance your defenses and can offset the magic weakness that comes from conduit perks. The mid-game perks allow you to develop element specific resistances, up to complete immunity, but you become weak to the others. The expert perks allow you to tune mage armor spells for different purposes while the master perks let you modify your own essence, gaining the traits of an atronach or plant.

Perks
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Novice
Alteration conduit - Alteration spells cost 25/40/50/57/62% less to cast, but you gain a 0/2/5/10/20% weakness to magic.

Apprentice
Bulwark - Resist 10/20/30/40/50% of incoming spells, but spells cost 0/5/10/20/50% more to cast.
Mage armor - Armor spells are 100/200/300/350/400% more powerful, but worn armor is 0/10/25/50/100% less effective.

Adept
Stability - Alteration spells last 50/100/150/200/250% longer, but you take 0/5/10/25/50% more physical damage while casting any spell.
Fire skin - Gain 20/40/60/80/100% fire resistance, but 0/5/10/25/50% weakness to frost and shock.
Frost skin - Gain 20/40/60/80/100% frost resistance, but 0/5/10/25/50% weakness to fire and shock.
Shock skin - Gain 20/40/60/80/100% shock resistance, but 0/5/10/25/50% weakness to fire and frost.

Expert
Stone Fist - Mage armor spells increase unarmed damage by 5/10/15/20/25, but are 0/5/10/25/50% less powerful.
Carapace - Mage armor spells reduce damage from arrows by 20/40/60/80/100%, but increase damage from maces and hammers by 0/10/25/50/100%.
Beast of Burden - Mage armor spells last 2/3/4/5/6 times as long and increase carry capacity by 25/50/75/100/125, but are 0/10/25/50/100% less powerful.

Master
Atronach - 10/20/30/40/50% chance to absorb incoming spells, but magicka regeneration is reduced by 0/10/25/50/100%.
Oak heart - Your stats regenerate 20/40/60/80/100% faster when illuminated, but 0/10/25/50/100% slower in the dark.


Notes
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Automatic perks: Alteration dual casting.

The light threshold of oak heart is 50. Sunlight, and even clear vanilla moonlight, will satisfy this, but in the shade, indoors or in dungeons you need a light source.

The transmute perks have stat requirements to stop you lowering your stats to 0 (or below). These check both your base stats and your effective stats, and the base stat requirement is visible in the skills menu. These requirements mean you cannot take a perk by using enchanted gear to artificially raise your stats, as otherwise removing the gear would create negative stats. Similarly, if a disease, or some other debuff, is lowering your effective stat, you cannot take a perk even if you base stat would be high enough otherwise.



Conjuration
Conjuration offers three branches: bound weapons, summoning, and necromancy. Bound weapons deal moderate damage, but can be tuned to target either the undead the living or mages, just not all at once. Summoning and necromancy are in mild opposition too, but both allow you to enhance the offenses and defenses of your minions at a cost to yourself. The master level perk lets you control up to 6 minions at once, but they constantly take damage.

Perks
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Novice
Conjuration conduit - Conjuration spells cost 25/40/50/57/62% less to cast, but you gain a 0/2/5/10/20% weakness to magic.

Apprentice
Corruption - You can summon and reanimate at 2/3/4/5/6 times the distance, but lose 0/10/25/50/80% duration.
Necromancy - Reanimated minions last 50/100/150/200/250% longer, but summons lose 0/10/25/50/100% duration.
Atromancy - Summons last 50/100/150/200/250% longer, but reanimated minions lose 0/10/25/50/100% duration.

Adept
Oblivion binding - Bound weapons deal 40/80/120/160/200% more damage to summons, daedra, ghosts and the undead, but 0/10/25/50/100% less damage against other enemies.
Blood sacrifice - Reanimation spells are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but all conjuration spells cost 0/5/10/25/50 health to cast.
Overcharge - Summons deal 20/40/60/80/100% more physical damage and regenerate magicka 20/40/60/80/100% faster, but cost 0/25/50/100/200% more to cast.

Expert
Blood binding - Bound weapons cause 2/4/6/8/10 bleeding damage for 10 seconds against living foes, but deal 0/10/25/50/100% less direct damage.
Undeath
 - Reanimated minions gain 100/200/300/400/500 armor but healing spells and potions are ineffective for 0/5/10/25/50 seconds after casting a conjuration spell.
Void souls - Summons gain 10/20/30/40/50% magic resistance, but you are 50% weaker to magic for 0/5/10/25/50 seconds after casting a conjuration spell.

Master
Mystic binding - Bound weapons deal 10/20/30/40/50 magicka damage per hit, but your magicka regenerates 0/10/25/50/100% slower while wielding a bound weapon.
Soul Rend
- You can have up to 2/3/4/5/6 minions or summons, but they lose 0/1/2/5/10 health per second.


Notes
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Automatic perks: Conjuration dual casting, soul stealer.

Mod added spells are affected by atromancy if they have the keywords MagicSummonFire, MagicSummonFrost, MagicSummonShock or MagicSummonFamiliar. They will be affected by necromancy if they have the MagicSummonUndead keyword. Some mods add spells that let you summon undead minions with the MagicSummonUndead keyword. These will be affected by necromancy because of the keyword, but also overcharge and void souls because they are summons and not reanimated bodies. To have these be affected by atromancy instead, use this patch: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/79010/

Due to engine limitations, the effects of oblivion, blood and mystic binding will apply whenever you are wielding a bound weapon, even if you are striking with a regular weapon (held in your other hand).

If you invest in any combination of undeath, void souls and soul rend their temporary effects will combine whenever you cast a conjuration spell, but the effects of each perk won't stack with itself, even if you cast multiple conjuration spells in a short time period.


Destruction
The main trade off in destruction is between the three elements; the apprentice spells enhance one element to the detriment of the other two, while the master spells unlock exotic effects. The expert perks add situational utility and are great for a secondary skill/element (e.g. frost spells as mage killers), but be careful not to gimp your primary element. The adept perks facilitate different playstyles; serpent for sneaks, meteor for those who keep away from direct combat (summoners, illusionists or team leaders), and bull or fortress for battlemages who rely primarily on spells or weapons respectively.

Perks
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Novice
Destruction conduit - Destruction spells cost 25/40/50/57/62% less to cast, but you gain a 0/2/5/10/20% weakness to magic.

Apprentice
Pyromancy - Fire spells are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but frost and shock spells are 0/5/10/25/50% less effective. Drain spells are 5/10/15/20/25% more effective.
Cryomancy - Frost spells are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but fire and shock spells are 0/5/10/25/50% less effective. Drain spells are 5/10/15/20/25% more effective.
Electromancy - Shock spells are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but fire and frost spells are 0/5/10/25/50% less effective. Drain spells are 5/10/15/20/25% more effective.

Adept
Serpent - Cast up to 2/3/4/5/6 runes 2/3/4/5/6 times as far away, and runes deal 20/40/60/80/100% more damage, but all destruction spells are 0/10/25/50/100% less powerful in open combat. 
Meteor - Destruction spells are 10/20/30/40/50% more powerful against enemies more than 50 feet away, but 0/5/10/20/50% less effective against closer enemies.
Bull - Destruction spells are 10/20/30/40/50% more powerful against enemies less than 30 feet away, but 0/5/10/20/50% less effective against more distant enemies.
Fortress - Gain 50/100/150/200/250 armor, but lose 0/25/50/100/200 magicka while under the effect of a cloak spell.

Expert
Incinerate - Fire spells are 10/20/30/40/50% more powerful against enemies below 150 health, but 0/5/10/25/50% less powerful otherwise.
Glaciate - Frost spells are 10/20/30/40/50% more powerful against enemies below 100 stamina, but 0/5/10/25/50% less powerful otherwise.
Electrify - Shock spells are 10/20/30/40/50% more powerful against enemies below 100 magicka, but 0/5/10/25/50% less powerful otherwise.

Master
Fire Elemental - Fire spells have a small/modest/moderate/significant/sizable chance of setting enemies ablaze, harming all nearby, but you gain a 0/5/10/25/50% weakness to frost and shock.
Frost Elemental- Frost spells have a small/modest/moderate/significant/sizable chance of freezing enemies solid for 8 seconds, but you gain a 0/5/10/25/50% weakness to fire and shock.
Shock Elemental - Shock spells have a small/modest/moderate/significant/sizable chance of disintegrating enemies, but you gain a 0/5/10/25/50% weakness to fire and frost.


Notes
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Automatic perks: Destruction dual casting.

Regarding pyromancy, cryomancy and electromancy, drain spells are those that use the MagicVampireDrain keyword. This is rare in vanilla, but provided mod added spells use this keyword appropriately they will be affected to. This is the case for Mysticism.

The extra effects of fire, frost and shock elemental will only occur when enemies are at low health. The specific threshold ranges between 50 and 225 depending on your perk rank and the element (shock is lower than fire/frost). Below this threshold the probability starts very low, but increases as enemies lose health, increasing faster with shock spells to compensate for the lower threshold. The probability also increases with your perk rank, but goes down with enemy elemental resistance so you can't cheese fights against resistant enemies. The probability is checked on every spell hit, so repeating weak spells (like flames, frostbite, or sparks) are more likely to trigger them, and if using these spells at the max perk rank you will see the effects quite often against weak enemies.

The shock elemental effect suits a master wizard, vaporizing weak enemies. The fire elemental effect is good for crowd control as other nearby enemies are burned by (and will attack) the blazing enemy, but bad for teams as your summons and followers will get burned too. The frost elemental effect slows down combat as paralysis removes enemies from the battle until they recover (there's also a 16s cooldown to stop you freeze-locking them), but frozen enemies are immune to frost, so you might want a secondary attack or team mate to finish them while they're down.


Enchanting
Enchanters face trade offs between different elements, different items and different ways to enhance the wearer. You can create obscenely powerful enchantments if you truly specialize, but you will limit yourself to effectively a single enchantment and so the challenge is to maintain breadth. Master tier perks automatically recharge weapons and allow two enchantments on the same item, but for a steep cost.

Perks
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Novice
Enchanting conduit - Enchantments are 10/20/30/40/50% more powerful, but you gain a 0/2/5/10/20% weakness to magic.

Apprentice
Arcane armorer - Enchantments on weapons are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but enchantments on armor, robes, clothes and jewelry are 0/2/5/10/20% weaker.
Arcane smith - Enchantments on armor are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but enchantments on weapons, robes, clothes and jewelry are 0/2/5/10/20% weaker.
Rainbow cloak - Enchantments on robes and clothes are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but enchantments on jewelry, weapons and armor are 0/2/5/10/20% weaker.
Geomancy - Enchantments on jewelry are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but enchantments on robes, clothes, weapons and armor are 0/2/5/10/20% weaker.

Adept
Fire Enchanter - Fire enchantments are 10/20/30/40/50% stronger, but frost and shock enchantments are 0/3/6/12/25% weaker.
Frost Enchanter - Frost enchantments are 10/20/30/40/50% stronger, but fire and shock enchantments are 0/3/6/12/25% weaker.
Shock Enchanter - Shock enchantments are 10/20/30/40/50% stronger, but fire and frost enchantments are 0/3/6/12/25% weaker.

Expert
Artistry - Skill enchantments are 10/20/30/40/50% stronger, but stat enchantments are 0/5/10/25/50% weaker.
Potential - Stat enchantments are 10/20/30/40/50% stronger, but skill enchantments are 0/5/10/25/50% weaker.

Master
Soul siphon - Death blows to creatures trap 2/4/6/8/10% of their soul, but weapons deal 0/2/5/10/20% less damage.
Soul vessel - You can place two enchantments on the same item, at 40/55/70/85/100% strength, but you lose 0/10/25/50/100 health, magicka and stamina.


Notes
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Automatic perks: None.

The soul vessel perk has stat requirements to stop you lowering your stats to 0 (or below). These check both your base stats and your effective stats, and the base stat requirement is visible in the skills menu. These requirements mean you cannot take a perk by using enchanted gear to artificially raise your stats, as otherwise removing the gear would create negative stats. Similarly, if a disease, or some other debuff, is lowering your effective stat, you cannot take a perk even if you base stat would be high enough otherwise.



Illusion
While all enemies are vulnerable to illusion spells, in order to manipulate high level targets, Illusionists must specialize in a target type. For early perks the hostility of the target matters, at higher levels the target's race comes in to play. The master perks unlock additional effects that suit different builds. But in no case do illusion spells deal direct damage, so an illusion mage will always need additional damage sources.

Perks
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Novice
Illusion conduit - Illusion spells cost 25/40/50/57/62% less to cast, but you gain a 0/2/5/10/20% weakness to magic.

Apprentice
Friend - Illusion spells last 1.5/2/2.5/3/3.5 times as long when cast on non-hostile targets, but are 0/10/25/50/75% shorter otherwise.
Foe - Illusion spells last 1.5/2/2.5/3/3.5 times as long when cast on hostile targets, but 0/10/25/50/75% shorter otherwise.
Specter - Self targeted illusion spells last 1.5/2/2.5/3/3.5 times as long, but are 0/10/25/50/75% shorter when cast on others.

Adept
Beast master - Illusion spells are 25/50/75/100/125% more powerful against animals, but 0/5/10/20/40% less powerful otherwise.
Grave keeper - Illusion spells are 25/50/75/100/125% more powerful against the undead, but 0/5/10/20/40% less powerful otherwise.

Expert
Devotee - Illusion spells are 25/50/75/100/125% more powerful against daedra, but 0/5/10/20/40% less powerful otherwise.
Machinist - Illusion spells are 25/50/75/100/125% more powerful against dwarven machines, but 0/5/10/20/40% less powerful otherwise.
Leader - Illusion spells are 25/50/75/100/125% more powerful against playable races, but 0/5/10/20/40% less powerful otherwise.

Master
Insulate - Illusion spells grant 10/20/30/40/50% magic resistance and 40/80/120/160/200 armor for 30s, but you lose 0/5/10/25/50% magic resistance and 0/25/50/100/200 armor for 30s.
Invigorate - Illusion spells increase the movement speed and physical damage of the target by 10/20/30/40/50% for 30s, but you lose 0/20/50/100/200 stamina and the effect only applies if you have sufficient stamina.
Consume - Illusion spells drain 4/8/12/16/20 magicka from the target for 30s, but your natural regeneration is 0/10/25/50/100% slower.


Notes
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Automatic perks: Illusion dual casting, Master of the mind.

For friend and foe, a hostile target is considered to be one who should attack the player and who has detected the player. As such, enemies unaware of your presence are considered non-hostile, while typically unaggressive townspeople will be considered hostile if you start a fight with them.

The combined effects of beast master, grave keeper, devotee, machinist and leader can be seen in the MCM page for illusion.

The effects of insulate, and invigorate will stack, so you can spam spells to hypercharge the target, but the costs to the player stack too, so be careful!

None of these perks rely on spell effects (frenzy, calm, etc). This is to maintain compatibility with spell mods that add new effects (silence, command).


Restoration
Novice and apprentice Restoration perks enhance your regeneration, while reducing your stat pool. The top ranks of these perks only make sense if you have increased your base stat to around 200, otherwise the penalty is too great. Adept perks and up offer two complementary paths. One is defensive, allowing you to augment your wards by increasing their efficacy but decreasing their cost. The other is offensive, specializing is damaging the undead, with options for magic and melee based builds.

Perks
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Novice
Restoration conduit - Restoration spells cost 25/40/50/57/62% less to cast, but you gain a 0/2/5/10/20% weakness to magic.

Apprentice
Regeneration - Self-targeted healing spells are 30/60/90/120/150% more effective, but your total health is reduced by 0/10/25/50/100.
Meditation - Magicka regenerates 30/60/90/120/150% faster, but your total magicka is reduced by 0/10/25/50/100.
Respite - Stamina regenerates 30/60/90/120/150% faster, but your total stamina is reduced by 0/10/25/50/100.

Adept
Physician - Healing spells are 20/40/60/80/100% more effective if you are not the target, but sun and poison spells are 0/10/25/50/100% less effective.
Warrior priest - Sun and poison spells are 20/40/60/80/100% more effective, but healing spells targeted at NPCs are 0/10/25/50/100% less effective.
Ward armor - Wards reduce incoming damage by 10/20/30/40/50%, but reduce your movement speed by 0/5/10/25/50%.
Necromage - All spells are 20/40/60/80/100% more effective against undead, but 0/5/10/25/50% less effective against the living.

Expert
Barrier - Wards absorb 20/40/60/80/100% of the magicka from incoming spells, but reduce the power of your outgoing spells by 0/10/25/50/100%.
Smite - Melee weapons deal 10/20/30/40/50 sun damage to the undead, but 0/5/10/25/50% less physical damage to all enemies.

Master
Vortex - Wards drain 2/4/6/8/10 magicka per second from nearby enemies, but make you 0/5/10/25/50% weaker to magic.
Purification - Turn spells incinerate undead below 50/100/150/200/250 health, but damage the caster 0/10/20/50/100 points on casting.


Notes
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Automatic perks: Restoration dual casting.

The regeneration, meditation and respite perks have stat requirements to stop you lowering your stats to 0 (or below). These check both your base stats and your effective stats, and the base stat requirement is visible in the skills menu. These requirements mean you cannot take a perk by using enchanted gear to artificially raise your stats, as otherwise removing the gear would create negative stats. Similarly, if a disease, or some other debuff, is lowering your effective stat, you cannot take a perk even if you base stat would be high enough otherwise.

The spell enhancing effects of regeneration will not show up in the spells' descriptions, but they will be shown in your active effects list when you cast the spells.

The ability of physician and warrior priest to affect sun and poison spells is hampered by the fact vanilla does not have keywords for poison or sun damage. Other perk mods get round this by adding these keywords, and warrior priest uses KID to detect these keywords where present. This does mean that warrior priest will miss spells added by certain mods. Mysticism, Apocalypse and Arcanum are fine. Odin has a keyword for poison spells, but not sun spells. Triumvirate has no reliable keywords for either.

As in vanilla, barrier restores your magicka when hit by a spell, but it does not negate the spells effects (unlike spell absorption which does negate spell effects).




All thief skills tree start with a concentration perk that provides general proficiency in the skill, at a cost to the players offensive or defensive capacities. As such, dedicated stealth characters can find themselves frail in open combat, becoming dependent on remaining unseen. Across all the trees this is the challenge to being a successful thief: balancing investment in your strengths against the need for a viable plan B should things go wrong. 


Alchemy
Each tier of the alchemy tree has a different flavor. The initial perks get the new alchemist up and running and greatly enhance foraging, taking the tedium out of ingredient gathering. The apprentice perks encourage specialization between four kinds of potions: those that heal, harm, buff and debuff. The adept perks favor different delivery methods. The expert perks change how your potions and poisons work. While the master perks allow you to bias your physiology towards either potions or poisons.

Perks
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Novice
Alchemy concentration - All potions and poisons you make are 10/20/30/40/50% more powerful, but you are 0/2/5/10/20% weaker to magic.

Apprentice
Herbalist - You harvest around 2/2.5/3/4/5 ingredients at a time and eating an ingredient has a small/modest/significant/large/100% chance of revealing each additional effect, but carry capacity is reduced by 0/5/10/25/50.
Healer - Potions you make that restore health, magicka or stamina are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but all other potions and poisons are 0/5/10/25/50% less powerful.
Poisoner - Poisons you make that damage health, magicka or stamina are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but all other potions and poisons are 0/5/10/25/50% less powerful.
Benefactor - Potions you make that do not restore health, magicka or stamina are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but all other potions and poisons are 0/5/10/25/50% less powerful.
Corrupter - Poisons you make that do not damage health, magicka or stamina are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but all other potions and poisons are 0/5/10/25/50% less powerful.

Adept
Needle points - Poisons delivered via bows are 10/20/30/40/50% more powerful, but arrows are 0/10/25/50/100% less likely to be recovered.
Resin coating - Poisons on melee weapons last for 1/2/3/4/5 additional hits, but they deal 0/5/10/25/50% less physical damage.

Expert
Seeping venom - Enemy poison resistance is capped at 90/80/70/60/50%, but poisons act 0/25/50/100/200% more slowly.
Stimulants - You gain 5/10/15/20/25% movement and swing speed while under the effects of a beneficial potion, but lose 0/10/25/50/100% of your stamina and magicka once the effect wears off.

Master
Snake blood - Gain 20/40/60/80/100% poison resistance, but consumed potions are 0/10/25/50/100% less effective.
Attunement - Consumed potions last 10/20/30/40/50% longer, but you gain a 0/10/25/50/100% weakness to poison.


Notes
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Automatic perks: None.

The effects of herbalist are stochastic. The number of bonus ingredients you collect is drawn from a binomial distribution with n=5 and p=0.15/0.3/0.45/0.6/0.75. The number of addition effects revealed is drawn from a binomial distribution with n=3 and p=0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8/1.

Seeping venom modifies enemy poison resistance when the enemies are first loaded. If you take a perk mid-combat, the new effect will not apply, even if you save and reload or exit the area and return later (unless the area resets). Similarly, if an enemy uses a spell, potion or other means to increase their poison resistance after being loaded their poison resistance will increase beyond the cap. Seeping venom only reduces the poison resistance of NPCs who, under normal conditions, would attack the player, so it does not harm townspeople or followers. It makes poisons act more slowly by multiplying their duration by 1/1.25/1.5/2/3, however their magnitude is divided by the same factor to keep the total damage constant. Note that this means that durationless poisons are simply weakened because their duration will remain at 0 while their magnitude goes down. As such, while seeping venom is in some ways an insanely powerful perk (it lets you poison all enemies), you need to be careful with how you use it.

The decrease in potion efficacy from snake blood is visible in the inventory view of potions, but it only affects the player, so potions will still affect NPCs and follows and you can sell them at regular prices.

The buff from attunement affects all potions whether you find or create them and is visible in the inventory, although it only affects the player and does not increase potion prices. The buff is smaller than that from snake blood as it is far more useful, but note that durationless potions are not enhanced.


Light Armor
Light armor sacrifices raw defensive potential in favor of supporting a wide variety of playstyles oriented around speed, agility and rapid attacks. While it can't  do much to stop the blow of a giant's club, light armor is still defensively potent when the player has plenty of stamina. Concerning offense, light armor perks can enhance your unarmed attacks, movement speed, stamina regeneration, sprinting, perception and weapon speed. It is also a flexible skill with relatively few perks requiring a full set, instead most perks require only that you wear a light cuirass and abstain from heavy armor.

Perks
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Novice
Light armor concentration - The stamina regeneration penalty from running in light armor is 50/75/90/95/100% less (25% per piece by default), but spells are 0/2/5/10/20% less effective.

Apprentice
Like a feather - Worn light armor weighs 20/40/60/80/100% less, reducing its speed penalty, but worn heavy armor weighs 0/25/50/100/200% more.
Well fitted - Light armor is 20/40/60/80/100% more effective if wearing all four pieces of light armor, but 0/5/10/25/50% less effective otherwise.
Matching set - Your movement speed is increased by 4/8/12/16/20% if wearing a matching set, but reduced by 0/2/5/10/20% otherwise.

Adept
Wind walker - Each piece of light armor worn increases stamina regeneration by 2/5/8/10/12%, but melee hits prevent regeneration for 0/1/2/5/10 seconds.
Tireless - Sprinting costs 20/40/60/80/100% less stamina while wearing no heavy armor, but take 0/5/10/25/50% more damage while sprinting.
Soul Strike - Unarmed attacks cause 5/10/15/20/25 magicka damage, at a cost of 0/2/5/10/25 magicka, and deal 20/40/60/80/100% more damage to targets out of magicka.

Expert
Dynamo - Incoming melee attacks give you 5/10/15/20/25 stamina, but getting hit costs 0/5/10/25/50 stamina.
Cushioning - While wearing a light cuirass and no heavy armor, take 10/20/30/40/50% less damage while over 50% stamina, but 0/5/10/25/50% more damage otherwise.
Blur - If wearing all light armor, magic resistance is increased by 20/40/60/80/100% while running, but is 0/5/10/25/50% lower otherwise.

Master
Deft movement - While wearing a light cuirass and no heavy armor, incoming melee attacks slow time by 10/20/30/40/50%, but deal 0/5/10/25/50% more damage if they hit.
Dancer - Each piece of light armor worn increases your weapon swing speed by 1/2/3/4/5%, but enemy armor is 0/10/25/50/100% more effective.


Notes
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Automatic perks: None.

Due to engine limitations, soul strike only activates on right handed attacks when you are dual wielding fists. Once a target is out of magicka you no longer pay the magicka cost when punching them until their magicka regenerates sufficiently. As such, it's a race: if you run out first then you are stuck with basic damage, if the enemy runs out first, you get to pummel them.


Lockpicking
The lockpicking tree is versatile, supporting both a thief playstyle that specializes in unlocking doors, avoiding detection, and trespassing, and a more general adventurer playstyle that specializes in unlocking chests, finding useful items, and exploring dungeons. While the novice and apprentice perks support basic proficiency, the adept perks increase the chances of finding spell tomes for mages, weapons and armor for warriors, and ingredients for alchemists. For those who hate lockpicking, there's even a perk to smash locks open, but it is difficult to break high tier locks without investment. The master perks, favor dedicated thieves and allow you to pick locks quickly and without being detected.

Perks
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Novice
Lockpicking concentration - Lockpicking is 10/20/30/40/50% easier, but you deal 0/2/5/10/20% less damage with weapons.

Apprentice
Break and enter - Doors are 20/40/60/80/100% easier to pick, but chests are 0/10/25/50/100% harder.
Safe-cracker - Chests are 20/40/60/80/100% easier to pick, but doors are 0/10/25/50/100% harder.
Weak point - When wielding a blunt weapon, axe, or your fists, activate a locked door or container to try to smash the lock. Lock smashing is 1/2/3/4/5 times as effective, but lock picking is 0/10/25/50/100% harder.

Adept
Magpie - Unlocked chests have a small/better/even better/good/very good chance of containing extra jewelry, but selling prices are 0/2/5/10/20% worse.
Moonshine - Unlocked chests have a small/better/even better/good/very good chance of containing extra potions and ingredients, but selling prices are 0/2/5/10/20% worse.
Secret knowledge - Unlocked chests have a small/better/even better/good/very good chance of containing extra spell tomes and soul gems, but selling prices are 0/2/5/10/20% worse.
Warrior's hoard - Unlocked chests have a small/better/even better/good/very good chance of containing extra ingots, weapons or armor, but selling prices are 0/2/5/10/20% worse.

Expert
Dungeon delver - You are more/even more/even more/even more/even more likely to find extra items of any kind in dungeons, but less/even less/even less/even less/even less likely to elsewhere.
Burglary - You are more/even more/even more/even more/even more likely to find extra items of any kind while trespassing, but less/even less/even less/even less/even less likely to elsewhere.

Master
Habitual thief - Lockpicks start a little closer/closer/even closer/close/very close to the sweetspot, but you are 0/10/25/50/100% more noticeable while picking a lock.
Nothing to see here - You are 20/40/60/80/100% less noticeable while picking a lock, but take 0/2/5/10/20% more damage from physical attacks.


Notes
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Automatic perks: None.

Here's how the lock smashing enabled by weak point works. First, to try smashing you must be:
  • Wielding a blunt weapon, axe, or fist in your right hand (bladed weapons will not work).
  • Standing (i.e. not sneaking).
  • Not currently attacking (this stops the player spamming smash to quickly break locks).
If these conditions are satisfied and you activate a locked door or container, the player will perform a right-handed attack animation and the lock level of the door/container will be recalculated. The game rates locks from 0 (novice) to 100 (master), and smashing changes the lock level as follows:
  • Smashing can either increase or decrease the lock level, although decreasing (weakening the lock) is always more likely.
  • As your perk rank increases, smashing becomes more likely to weaken the lock (as opposed to strengthening it), and the extent of the weakening becomes larger.
  • The effect of smashing on lock level increases with the player's "strength" (the sum of the player's health and stamina), but strength does not change the chances of weakening or strengthening the lock.
  • As such, a weak player with perk rank 1 will require multiple smashes to break even a weak lock, while a strong player with perk rank 5 will break most locks quickly, and weak locks immediately.
The results of smashing are indicated by a sound and a notification in the top left. The possible outcomes are as follows:
  • The lock smashed/breaking sound: lock level < 0.
  • The lock is almost broken/weakening sound: lock level < 10.
  • The lock is weakening/weakening sound: lock level decreased by at least 5, but is still > 10.
  • Nothing happened/thud sound: lock level changed by less than 5.
  • The lock is becoming misshapen/thud sound: lock level increased by at least 5.
Some additional things to note:
  • Lock smashing is considered a violent crime, and if you are seen smashing locks you will gain 40 bounty and may be attacked.
  • Followers will not object to lock smashing per se, but if others see you doing it then followers may join in against you.
  • Lock smashing is noisy and will alert enemies to your presence.

The adept perks (magpie, moonshine, secret knowledge and warrior's hoard) apply whether you pick or smash into a chest, and may also apply if using mod added unlocking spells, depending on how the spell is implemented. The added items are levelled, particularly for secret knowledge and warrior's hoard, meaning you won't stumble across super high tier items or spell tomes until well into a playthrough. At rank 1, the chance of finding extra items is ~10%, but at rank 5 it is ~30%. If you take all four perks to rank 5 you'll be finding extra items most of the time, but your selling prices will be terrible and you'll have sunk 20 perk points into it.

The expert perks (dungeon delver and burglary) modify the impact of the adept perks, and so won't have any effect if you haven't already taken at least one of the adept perks. The expert perks raise the probability of finding extra items from 10-30% (depending on your rank in the relevant adept perk) to 30-70% in favorable conditions (at rank 5), but lower it to 2-8% in unfavorable conditions (at rank 5). Unless you can find dungeons where you can trespass it is really not worth taking both, and remember that many locations are neither dungeons nor locations where you are considered trespassing.

Habitual thief uses the same mechanism as the vanilla locksmith perk, by which the lockpick starts at a random location within an arc of a specified width centered on the sweet spot. The vanilla perk sets this to 45 degrees, the 5 ranks of habitual thief set it to 120/80/50/30/15 degrees. What this means is that the first couple of ranks give you a clue, but some searching will likely still be required, however by the 5th rank your lockpick starts in basically the correct position with only minor adjustments required even for master locks.


Pickpocket
Pickpocketing emphasizes the pilfering of small valuables. In this way it is differentiated from lockpicking which favors finding practical items on your travels. Early game pickpockets will focus on gold and keys, and will rely on remaining hidden to get away with their crimes. By the mid-game, however, you can step out of the shadows, using crowds to divert attention and fine clothes to avoid suspicion. The expert perks allow for more elaborate schemes; using reverse pickpocketing to poison targets or frame them for a crime. Only at the highest levels does it become practical to steal larger items like equipped weapons and armor.

Perks
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Novice
Pickpocket concentration- You are 10/20/30/40/50% better at pickpocketing, but weapons deal 0/2/5/10/20% less damage.

Apprentice
Night thief - You are 10/20/30/40/50% better at pickpocketing sleeping targets if your encumbrance is below 50%, but 0/5/10/25/50% worse otherwise.
Unseen, Unheard - When in the dark and not wearing or carrying armor you are 10/20/30/40/50% better at pickpocketing, but 0/5/10/25/50% worse otherwise.
Cut purse - You are 10/20/30/40/50% better at pickpocketing gold and keys, but 0/5/10/25/50% worse at taking other items.

Adept
Blend in - Pickpocketing is 4/8/12/16/20% easier for each NPC within 20 feet, but is 0/2/5/10/25% harder overall.
Wolf in sheep's clothing - You are 10/20/30/40/50% better at pickpocketing if wearing high class clothes, but 0/5/10/25/50% worse otherwise.
Easy mark - You are 10/20/30/40/50% more likely to succeed at pickpocketing a target who is unaware of you, but 0/5/10/25/50% less otherwise.

Expert
Deadly gift - Poisons placed on targets have 50/75/100/125/150% strength, but they are 0/5/10/25/50% weaker otherwise.
Plenty - Friendly NPCs, except beggars and children, carry more/even more/yet more/yet more/lots of gold and jewelry for pickpocketing, but pickpocketing is 0/5/10/25/50% less likely to succeed.
Deep pockets - Gain 20/40/60/80/100 carry weight, but move 0/2/5/10/20% slower.

Master
Stitch up - Place items totaling 500/400/300/200/100 gold on an NPC to frame them for theft, causing others to attack them, but you have a one in Inf/20/15/10/5 chance of being caught.
Unburden - You can pickpocket equipped 1h weapons/jewelry/2h weapons/clothing/armor, but pickpocketing is 0/5/10/25/50% less likely to succeed.


Notes
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Automatic perks: None.

Blend in maxes out once 5 NPCs are within 20 feet of the player, but this includes followers as well as the target themselves. It relies on a custom system for figuring out how many NPCs are within 20 feet of the player. To avoid accumulating errors, the system resets whenever a cell loads, so for a couple of seconds after entering a new cell the perk will behave as if no NPCs are nearby, but if you wait a couple of seconds it will kick in again.

The buff from wolf in sheep's clothing applies provided you are wearing at least one item of rich clothing and no armor.

Easy mark considers an NPC to be aware of you if they currently detect you or if you are in their line of sight.

There is no simple way to check whether a poison was delivered by a weapon or reverse pickpocketed. As such, deadly gift assumes the poison was reverse pickpocketed if the player is sneaking and not attacking. This means you can check the strength of your poison in your inventory for weapon delivery (if the player is standing) or reverse pickpocketing (if sneaking). Finally, very long distance bow shots may land after the players attack animation has completed, causing the perk to assume the poison was reverse pickpocketed. I tried to get this error to happen and failed, so it should be extremely rare, but let me know if it occurs.

Plenty will update NPCs inventories as you take new ranks in the perk, even if you have already encountered and/or pickpocketed them. However, if you return the perk, NPCs will keep the extra items (but they won't get even more if you re-take the perk). If an NPC's inventory is reset they will regain extra items, so you can pickpocket them repeatedly, however, named NPCs rarely reset their inventory.

Here's how stitch up works:
  • Every time you place an item on an NPC, the item's value gets added to a count that appears as a notification in the top left.
  • When you exit the pickpocket menu the count resets to 0, so to frame someone you need to do it all in a single session.
  • Once the count passes the required threshold, the pickpocket menu closes and your attempt to frame someone will either fail or succeed.
  • If it succeeds, nearby NPCs may attack the target.
  • If it fails, nearby NPCs will very likely attack you and you will gain a bounty. 
Notes:
  • Stitch up only works on non-hostile NPCs, bandits, the forsworn, falmer and warlocks.
  • Due to engine limitations, the effect of enchantments on item value is ignored, so placing enchanted items on NPCs is not as useful as you might hope.
  • For non-hostile NPCs, bystanders need to be within 50 feet to notice the stitch up, those further away tend to flee if a brawl breaks out. Crowded markets and inns are ideal spaces.
  • For hostile NPCs (i.e. bandits, forsworn, falmer and warlocks) the NPC is stripped of their faction membership and all other faction members will attack them on sight indefinitely.
  • NPCs might not attack the target if they are very friendly. For instance, if you frame Sven, Hilde typically won't attack him even if she is within range. Faendal, on the other hand, usually will. Similarly, while a stitched up bandit will lose their Bandit Faction membership, they may still be in other factions friendly with Bandits (though this is quite rare) and so nothing will happen.
  • Inciting public brawls can trigger bugs in NPC behavior. Sometimes bystanders take a long time to calm down. Other times the fighting spreads to unrelated parties. Other times bystanders might attack you. Best to save shortly before doing it, just to be safe.
  • As with deadly gift, there is no easy way to confirm an item was reverse pickpocketed. Stitch up assumes that if you are sneaking when an item leaves your inventory and enters that of an NPC then you reverse pickpocketed it.


Sneak
Sneaking gameplay has two key elements: first approaching enemies while remaining undetected, and second using this to your advantage with high damaging sneak attacks. Perks for both of these are across the tree. Sneaking can be muffled at the cost of speed, or sped up at the cost of carry weight, and so on. Perks that increase sneak damage enhance bows, daggers and spells. Daggers in particular can become very powerful; penetrating armor and assassinating sleeping targets, however their utility in open combat is lowered. The master perks unlock special abilities that rely on reserves of magicka and stamina to execute.

Perks
Spoiler:  
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Novice
Sneak concentration - You are 10/20/30/40/50% harder to detect, but armor is 0/2/5/10/20% less effective.

Apprentice
Muffled movement - You make 20/40/60/80/100% less noise when you move, but sneaking is 0/2/5/10/20% slower
Backstab - Sneak attacks with daggers are 2/3/4/5/6 times as powerful, but regular attacks are 0/10/25/50/100% less effective.
Silent casting - Spells are silent to others and are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful if you are undetected, but they cost 0/5/10/25/50% more to cast.

Adept
Cat - You move 5/10/15/20/25% faster when sneaking, but carry weight is reduced by 0/5/10/25/50.
Deadly aim - Sneak attacks with bows are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful, but bows shots are no louder/louder/even louder/loud/very loud.
Goodnight - Daggers deal 30/60/90/120/150% more damage to sleeping targets, but swing 0/5/10/25/50% slower.

Expert
Chameleon - You are 10/20/30/40/50% better at avoiding detection due to illumination, but move 0/2/5/10/20% slower in the dark.
Shiv - Daggers ignore 20/40/60/80/100% of an unaware target's armor, but armor is 0/10/25/50/100% more effective otherwise.
Statue - You are 20/40/60/80/100% harder to detect while standing still, but 0/5/10/25/50% worse when moving quickly.

Master
Ghost - Crouching when out of combat grants invisibility for 3/6/9/12/15 seconds at the cost of 0/10/25/50/100 magicka.
Sever - Dagger power attacks from behind permanently paralyze unaware targets up to level 5/10/15/20/25 at the cost of 0/10/25/50/100 additional stamina.


Notes
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Automatic perks: Silent Roll.

Backstab grants sneak multipliers of x6/9/12/15/18. This is higher than in vanilla (maxes at x15), but note that one-handed no longer increases base dagger damage, so total damage is actually lower albeit with fewer perks (5 vs 7 in vanilla). The effects of shiv and sever further improve daggers, however.

Unlike vanilla, silent casting only applies to spells, so shouts cannot be silent. You'll see the cost increase in your inventory, but not the power increase.

Deadly aim grants sneak multipliers of x2.4/2.8/3.2/3.6/4. This is much lower than for daggers (although better than in vanilla), but is compensated by the fact the archery skill can greatly increase the base damage of bows. It makes bows louder by creating detection events when the player fires a bow. The detection event volumes are 0/20/30/50/80.

The light threshold for chameleon is 50, so daylight and even clear moonlight will avoid the speed debuff, but dungeons, caves and interiors will all trigger it.

The stamina cost of sever is in addition to the base cost of power attacks. The paralyze effect can last indefinitely, but is typically removed when the player leaves and re-enters the cell. Note that the affected NPC will know you did it and will remember it.


Speech
Half of the speech tree is based around interactions with other NPCs. The entry level speech perks let you specialize as a buyer, seller or a fence. Adept perks create a tension between persuasion and intimidation. The expert perk lets you bribe guards, but knowing you are a shady character, they will watch you more closely. The master perk merges investor and master trader letting you invest in the global economy. The other half of the tree focusses on shouts. There is a conduit perk, mirroring those in the mage skills, that increases casting rate. Later perks increase shout power and unlock secondary effects; accelerating stat regeneration or blasting nearby enemies back. The master perk lets you drain your targets to recharge your shouts at the cost of your defenses.

Perks
Spoiler:  
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Novice
Speech concentration - Buying prices are 10/20/30/40/50% better, but spells are 0/2/5/10/20% less effective.

Apprentice
Supplier - Selling prices are 10/20/30/40/50% better, but buying prices are 0/5/10/25/50% worse.
Fence - Can sell to fences at 20/40/60/80/100% price (0% by default), but overall buying and selling prices are 0/2/5/10/20% worse.
Sacred conduit - Shout cooldown is reduced by 25/40/50/57/62%, but you are 0/2/5/10/20% weaker to magic

Adept
Charmer - Persuasion attempts are 20/40/60/80/100% easier, but intimidation attempts are 0/10/25/50/100% harder.
Thug - Intimidation attempts are 20/40/60/80/100% easier, but persuasion attempts are 0/10/25/50/100% harder.
Embodiment - Shouts are 20/40/60/80/100% more powerful at the cost of 0/5/10/25/50 stamina.

Expert
Silver tongue - You can bribe guards and bribes cost 0/20/40/60/80% less, but you are 0/2/5/10/20% worse at evading detection when pickpocketing and lockpicking.
Sonic vessel - All stat regeneration is increased by 20/40/60/80/100% while under the effect of a shout, but it is 0/10/25/50/100% slower otherwise.
Resonance - Shouts knock/push/drive/power/blast back enemies within 3/6/9/12/15 feet, at the cost of 0/10/25/50/100 magicka.

Master
Land of riches - All merchants gain 400/800/1200/1600/2000 gold for bartering, but this costs you 0/2000/5000/10,000/20,000 gold.
Stormbringer - Killing anything accelerates your shout cool down by 10/20/30/40/50%, but lowers your armor rating by 0/50/100/200/500, for 10 seconds.


Notes
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Automatic perks: Bribery.

Note that if you try to sell to fences without the fence perk everything you sell will have 0 value.

For both embodiment and resonance you pay the cost even if you don't have enough stamina or magicka to get the benefit, so be careful with stat management.

The radius of resonance is very small at low ranks, so it may seem to activate stochastically depending on precisely how far away enemies are, but at high ranks it effects enemies at moderate distances and is more reliable.

Merchants' inventories reset every 48 in-game hours, so the extra gold from land of riches may not appear immediately. If you return the perk you will not get your invested gold back, but merchants will keep their extra gold until their inventory resets and you will need to repay the investment price if you decide to retake the perk. As with the vanilla Master Trader perk not all NPCs who sell things are affected, but most are.

Stormbringer stacks with itself (and with sacred conduit) so you can get to a shout cooldown of 0. However, there is a fixed baseline cooldown of about 1.5 seconds, so you won't be able to machine-gun shouts.






Requirements

SKSE - Several perks and the MCM will not work without SKSE.
SkyUI - The MCM requires SkyUI.
Spell Perk Item Distributor - Several perks rely on NPCs being given other perks or spells by SPID.
Keyword Item Distributor - Without this the Warrior Priest, Poisoner and Shout related perks won't work.
Scrambled Bugs - You must turn on "Perk Entry Points: Apply Multiple Spells" within ScrambledBugs.json. Without this fix many perks will cancel each other out.
Attack Speed Framework
 or any other mod that fixes the vanilla weapon speed bug - Without this fix all perks affecting weapon speed will not work.

Optional suggestions:
Configurable Perks Per Level - At 1 perk point per level, you shouldn't become very strong until level 75. For faster power growth, give yourself extra perk points; 2 per level will make you very strong by about level 40. Alternatives: the (fixed) uncapperSkyShards, or the Radiant Quest Point System.
Know Your Enemy 2 - Master of One facilitates extreme character specialization, but without something to penalize this your character can end up very strong. That's where Know Your Enemy comes in: it encourages breadth by giving enemies resistances to different elements and weapon types meaning you cannot rely on a single skill alone.
NPC stat rescaler - Many of Master of One's perks let you deplete an enemies magicka or stamina, but this isn't very useful given that enemies typically have huge regen rates compared to the player. The stat rescaler fixes this, and lets you tune other stats too.

Installation
Install through your mod manager of choice. If installing on an existing save, you'll probably want to return all your existing perks in order to choose new ones.

Uninstallation
Use the MCM to return all your perks. Then, in the "general" page of the MCM, untick the "installed" toggle and a message box will let you know the mod is uninstalled. After that just save, exit, and uninstall the mod.

Compatibility
Master of One edits only the 18 actor value records that contain the perk trees and the single record for the "unarmed" weapon. As such, conflicts with other mods should be rare to nonexistent, provided you don't install another perk overhaul. If you install Master of One but some of the trees are missing, then some other mod in your load order is editing these records. You can either resolve the conflict manually, or just move Master of One lower in your load order.

Master of One is inherently compatible with mod added spells, provided they are given appropriate keywords.

Expansions
Lilmetal has made an expansion that converts some Vokrii perks to Master of One's "five ranks with drawbacks" style and adds them across the trees to facilitate more playstyles.

Performance impact
Little to none. Most perks rely on basic entry points and magic effects. Some perks involve scripts, but these are simple and only run when relevant events occur.



Building Your Character - diverse and fun builds with strengths and weaknesses
Master of One - A perk overhaul that transforms perks from generic character progression into a means to craft unique and specialized builds.
Curse of the Firmament - A standing stones overhaul that emphasizes tough choices.
Legacy - A race overhaul that bring strengths and weaknesses to each race.
Acolyte - A progressive-yet-unobtrusive religion overhaul with a long path to divinity.

Enemies and Combat - challenging, varied and fair combat
Know Your Enemy (armor modulepatcher version) - A resistance and weakness overhaul for enemies and armors.
Know Your Enemy 2 (armor moduleintegration patch) - An upgraded resistance overhaul: more damage types, more configuration, more polish.
NPC Stat Rescaler - A patcher that adjusts player and NPC stats for faster, fairer, and less spongy combat.
Enemy Releveler - A patcher that adjusts NPC levels to truly delevel the world.

Stats and stat growth - drawing out character growth to stave off premature godhood
Exhaustion - Incremental Fatigue - An ultra-lightweight injury/fatigue system.
Exercise - Incremental Growth - An add-on for Exhaustion that converts fatigue into stat growth.
Geometric Stat Growth - Stats grow by a configurable percentage on level up, instead of a fixed value.

Miscellanea
Challenging Spell Learning
 - Spell Tomes trigger a costly ritual you must pass to learn spells.
Trainers Galore - An expansion of the training system designed for "training only" leveling.
Pick Your Poison - An alchemical handbook to support strategic foraging.
Configurable Perks Per Level - An MCM to edit how many perk points you get on level up.
XP Editor - A patcher that adjusts xp gain and leveling.
Sightseer - Standing Stones - Guidebooks for the standing stones, collectibles to find, and a hidden quest to unite them.

Mod Lists
Thoughtful Skyrim - A small, gameplay-focussed modlist that rewards preparation and planning.




Thanks to KernalsEgg for rebuilding and reintroducing the "Apply Spell Perk Entry Point: Multiple Spells" fix to Scrambled Bugs; to SimonMagus for feedback on early perk drafts and for including alchemy keyword fixes in Apothecary; to nightman0 for feedback on all perk trees; to r/skyrimmods for feedback on perk drafts and for technical help when I ran into a variety of problems; to the authors of all mods on which this work depends; to the authors of other perk overhauls who have provided inspiration and enjoyment - perk overhauls are a lot of work; to the creators of xEdit and zEdit; to Nexus Mods; to Bethesda.