SKYRIMLE The Last Altar by KhalEdos

[rootsrat]

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49032/?

 

Fresh upload :)

 

This mod brings back spell creation altar. It does it in an immersive and thought out way, being also well balanced. Judging by the mod description.

 

You don't just get access to the altar straight away either. You have to complete a quest first, and a few conditions must be met before the quest will activate:

 

The quest is fully-voiced. It becomes available after the Player has become Archmage of Winterhold, learned there first shout, and has attained an expert level one school of magic schools of magic.

Some more quotes from the modpage:

 

To elaborate, the mod works like this; you will be able to choose one primary effect (which is how the spell will look and cast) and the combine up to 3 secondary effects onto it, adjusting their magnitude, and duration. I've also added a number of new and unique effects to the game to make up for the lack of customizable area. Fireballs that paralyze enemies in their blast radius, runes that apply weakness to magic and fear, Wall/barrier spells that absorb magicka from enemies who cross them, Cloak spells that silence and drain stamina from enemies that get to close, even flamethrower spells that make enemies invisible, all are possible with this mod.

 

You may ask yourself; “Why would any right-minded mage want a flames spell that would turn an enemy invisible.”

 

The answer of course is: BECAUSE YOU CAN! It’s your game, get creative, go nuts.

The spell creation system has been designed to eliminate some of the more ridiculous exploits of spell creation from the ground up

-no consecutive stacking (spellstacking)

-spells created thru the altar are tied to ALL Magic skills(not just the first effect)

-perks still upgrade the applicable aspects of your spells

-higher magnitude and durations to select

-The ability to delete unwanted spells

-Customizeable runes, cloaks, sprays, barriers, AOE AND Wards

Also Spellmaking, though awesome in its potential, is inherently unpredictable; your Crafted spells can mis-cast, backfire, and even kill you outright if you're not careful.

As an optional limitation them to prevent abuse, the mod features Temporary Immunity effects on Paralysis and illusion effects crafted thru spell making.

 

The reason for this, is that before you can make a balanced spellmaking system, you need to have balanced base game effects.

 

These effects render the victim of such spell effects immune to subsequent applications for a moderate duration (Example: An enemy who has just been paralysed by a crafted spell would become immune to paralysis for 30secs – 2 mins).

 

Again, this is an optional limitation, with different durations selectable through the MCM Settings menu. These effects only work with crafted spells, so base game spells would still be viable.

The quest is fully-voiced. It becomes available after the Player has become Archmage of Winterhold, learned there first shout, and has attained an expert level one school of magic schools of magic. I wanted the player to get an appreciation for the limits of the magic system before being able to make spells. Also, one of the reoccurring notions in consideration for spellmaking was that in previous games, spellmaking was too accessible for all characters and play styles from the GO.

The quest does require a high proficiency in magic and has been made very challenging for this reason. Expect enemies to use silence, paralyse, weakness to magic/fire frost shock, and summon small armies to keep you from reaching the altar. Good magic resistance is a must.

[swiftfoxmark2]

Looks promising.  Spell crafting was something that was sorely missed in this game and there aren't many mods that attempted to rectify it.

[DocClox]

Damn, but this thing's tough! Early stages and I just walked into a well signposted but unavoidable ambush. Lvl 48 char, two pre-summoned dremora lords, stoneflesh running and a ward up.

 

The dremora were each downed in about one hit each so far as I could see. As was my PC. This is at adept level.

 

That's not making it tough. That's incitement to use god mode. I'm torn between uninstalling and cleaning my save file, or just cheating my way through the rest of the quest to see how it works out.

 

[edit]

 

I persevered a little (possible plot spoilers):

 

 

 

• More insanely tough bad guys.
• A time-stopping super vampire that seems to have infected me with some sort of stealth sanguinare vampiris
• A scripted to lose dragon fight
• A long blackout scene while the NPCS have a nice long discussion about which particular horrible thing they're going to do to the PC

I'm sure you get a chance to turn the tables at some stage, but my perseverance ran out at about this point. I mean, why did anyone need me to stop Alduin? Any one of these dudes could have done it blindfolded and with one hand tied behind their back.  

 

 

 

 

Balance issues aside, it's a very well put constructed mod, and I've done enough modding of my own to appreciate the amount of effort expended in its creation. For that matter, I expect it will appeal to the legendary-is-too-easy crowd. I can't really say it's my idea of fun, though. Maybe I'll re-load it when next I get to level 80 and see if that helps at all.

 

[edit edit]

 

Corrected a typo where I gave my PC's level as "4" rather than "48".  Although to be fair, anyone who can get to be Arch-Mage before level 5 probably isn't going to have much trouble from this mod, either :)

Edited June 25, 2014 by DocClox