Magic overhaul recommendations

[Crimson13]

What do you guys recommend for bettering Skyrim's magic system? Personally for me I like using something that scales how powerful a spell is to my level in that school, the Uncapper helps in this case.

 

I've heard good things about Requiem with it's more role-playing feel but that adds so much more than just magic. Also heard that SPERG is good too.

[kryptopyr]

I've always been a fan of Balanced Magic by mysty.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/2275/?

[Allsunday]

Balanced Magic is excellent but I prefer SPERG in my non-requiem profile.

[Redferne]

I'm a fan of Mighty Magic but now I'm trying TheThirdRace Skill Overhaul wich look very interesting an light weight. And I like what the author did for the staves.

[Muladhara86]

I want to second TTRSO.  I use it with Stealth Skills Rebalances, Less Tedious Alchemy, and Smithing Perks Overhaul and it works wonderfully.  I've merged all the TTRSO esp's without incident.

[kryptopyr]

For those who have tried different magic mods, what is it in particular about a certain magic mod that you feel makes it better than the others?  These are a few that have been recommended here and in other topics: Balanced Magic, Better Magic, Mighty Magic, Empowered Magic, TTRSO and SPERG.  But the recommendations are generally made without providing any specific reasons. 

 

I've always used Balanced Magic and have been happy with it, but I also don't tend to play magic-centered characters.  However, I'd like to try playing a pure mage character and have been looking at some of the other magic mods that have been recommended.  For those who have a particular magic mod that they really like, I'm curious what features from that mod are the determining factors in your choice? 

 

For example, the reason that I've always been satisfied with Balanced Magic are that I feel it does a good job scaling the spells and the dual casting cost seems much better balanced than vanilla.  I also like that it still feels very much like a simple improvement to the vanilla magic system rather than a complete replacement of the vanilla structure.  Unfortunately, it's no longer getting updated and doesn't have support for Dragonborn, which as far as I'm aware are the two major points against it.

[Crimson13]

For myself the big deal-breaker would be scaling. By the time you're, for example, lv.81 a bunch of spells are the equivalent of poking someone hard for alot of enemies. Having something that raises the damage as your skill increases makes sense. Really gets fun when you have the Unleveler mod, haha.

 

It's not necessarily a magic mod but Skytweak has so many things you can change around, including changing how much magic costs, scales, duration, how many runes you can use, sneak damage for spells, and the like. It does way more than just magic though. I tried out TTRSO and I found that I like that alot, especially because it's modular so if you don't like the way, for example, Illusion works you don't have to add it. I use Skytweak for the fine-tuning and TTRSO for the perk abilities.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Crimson13

[Kelmych]

I've always felt that magic use was never designed properly in any of the TES games, so for me having something that's only a little better and more balanced than vanilla isn't enough. You can see some of my ideas here that I've been assembling as I plan to introduce a Magic-related Pack for Skyrim (although it needs some updating). I haven't looked yet at TheThirdRaceOverhaul ; I'll look and and see how it seems. It primarily bothers me that archers and magic users need to also be fairly good at melee fighting to survive. I'm not saying they shouldn't need to be somewhat versatile, but I want any magic overhauls I use to better address survivability.

 

As an example, In the old gold box D&D games, when you (or an enemy) got hit by a spell (or arrow) they certainly became very alert and they might know roughly the direction (but not range) where it came from but unlike Skyrim they didn't know exactly where the spell came from. I always though of magic as being in the category of "action at a distance". Gandalf's magic isn't accompanied by a ray of light and loud sounds sufficient to wake the dead.

[TechAngel85]

I used to use SkyRealism - Perk Trees for a completely perk overhaul. Would like to find a good mod that balances magic with the rest of the game in a very lore-friendly way. STEP could use a good mod to balance this out as magic seemed to be more of a side skill in Skyrim rather than being able to go full on mage as you can with archer/ranger or warrior.

[phazer11]

The last time I played a mage centered character was a while back. It was similar to but not exactly the same as Iroha's Skyrim Revisited + Skyre and ASIS guide. To me the problem lie in the entire system, the perks weren't the most efficient, the spells were merely OK for the most part. Master level spells sucked for what you had to invest in them and the amount of mana you used per second; the master level spells also required a channel time IIRC so lol - it's been so long since I played an unmodded magic character I can't remember.

[Aiyen]

I only use Empowered magic. The reasons are simple 

It does not add silly OP spells. But changes the default spells in ways that make sense. 

It adjusts most things that make magic OP (Mainly spell staggering, and dual cast effects) 

contains fixes for various vanilla issues. 

Have full support for every DLC. 

Since it only really changes or adds to content already in the game then it is simpler to control how it works with other mods in conflict resolution.

 

Another thing I enjoy is that most of the changes work really nicely with the shouts I have tried... some of the other magic mods that add super silly spells tend to become even more silly once you throw shouts into the mix as well. 

[kryptopyr]

Thanks for all the information!  That helps clarify some of the high points for the various mods.  Kelmych, your page is a very nice summary of the different options.  Thank you for providing a link to it.

[EssArrBee]

If you like Dishonored, then try out Gifts of the Outsider. Great little mod that adds some new spells. Also, Phedrix Magic Transendence has new spells, new world space, and new bosses to fight. I like the idea of anything that can completely replace the magic system. You shouldn't be able to make $800 million dollars off something with a combat/magic system so broken as Skyrim. 

[Muladhara86]

I liked TTRSO's magic modules because they don't stray too far from vanilla.  It adds scaling and armor penalties to casting, but there are hardly any new spells (mostly conjuration).  It fiddles with master level spells in an attempt to make them more practical, but I've never gotten far enough to try any.

 

Mage Armor won't work with armor on; it also increases your unarmed damage.  There's a perk in alteration that prevents you from being staggered while unarmored.

 

The Enchanting perk tree now has a staff branch that gives you passive bonuses/quasi-dual-casting in your other hand, stuff like that.  There's also a general rework of staves as well, and skill modules related to crafting attempt to shut down some of the loopholes.

 

The heal living/dead spells damage the opposite kind of creature now.

 

I'm not sure exactly how it interacts with ASIS, or if it even needs it.