2021

I am thinking of playing this again over my christmas break. One thing I started and never got very far with was with a mage. The magic spells didn’t scale very well against the larger monsters. Are there any good magic mods anyone can recommend? I am also interested in mods that make the world more interesting as well as improve the look. Finally should I use the steam mod shop or is there a good mod manager that will make things fairly painless to mod skyrim with?

2022

I’m playing with Requiem+compatibility patches (for the n-th time), full mage. By lvl 40 I was like a demi-god, at 50 I’m a full blown god.

DO NOT use the steam workshop, stick with NMM or Mod Organizer. I also highly recommend Grimy Utilities which adds hotkey casting ability. Priceless if you want to focus on magic.

2023

I use Empowered Magic. It scales most spells with level and mostly stick with vanilla spells/theme.

I would also highly suggest moving to Mod Organizer if you have not already. Makes mods much simpler to manage than any of the other methods. Keeps your install directory clean.

2024

Welcome Arroneous!

2025

I am installing the requiem mod. I see there are a bunch of patches, but I can’t see to find any real description of what they do. Is there any you really recommend for a mage build?

2026

I liked the Apocalypse Spell Package series for new, more interesting than vanilla spells.

2027

You will mostly need the Dragonborn compatibility patch (DG one should be included on the main mod page) which is from a 3rd party, not mod author himself.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/58141/? - scroll down to Requiem - Unofficial Patches Patch and Dragonborn Reqtified. It’s a combo patch so you’l need to install http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/43053/? and http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/4719/? as well.

Note that I haven’t been to the dragonborn dlc area yet so I can’t confirm if this works 100%, but I haven’t seen any issues in vanilla game yet.

If you’ve never done skyrim modding before I suggest you read some tutorials first, STEP has a pretty nice guide to get you started.

2028

I do not have any DLC so I shouldn’t need it.

2029

Then you’re short out of luck, I’m affraid. Requiem requires Dawnguard. I suggest you look at STEP (and GEMS) anyway, they have subsections with gameplay enhancing mods with very detailed instructions on how to install them. I’ve used SPERG in the past and it was pretty great, but I’ve played a melee character with it so I can’t comment on any magic specific enhancements. Other than that, there’s SkyTweak which allows you to tweak a lot of options, including damage modifiers.

edit: You should also ALWAYS install all Unofficial patches that you need (for you that’s main USKP and the HD texture one), skyrim script extender and SkyUI. Most of the mods make the above a requirement anyway.

2030

Apparently I do need dawngaurd to use the requium mod. :(

2031

Yeah I just noticed that. I went ahead and bought that DLC. The Requiem mod looks cool enough. Its a shame I didn’t buy this on sale at some point for cheap.

What is that hotkey mod you mentioned for spell casting?

2032

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/36328/?

There’s also an autocast mod (I think it’s called Smartcast) but I haven’t found much use for it. Initially I thought I’d use it for auto-buffing but for some reason the timer only goes up to 30 or 40 seconds which makes it useless for buffs that last ~5-10 minutes. And requiem has a high enough magicka cost on spells that you can’t afford to spam them every 30 seconds, at least not in the beginning.

If you have the DG then you’re good to go I think, unless you’d like to add other mods like Immersive Armors and such. The link I gave you above links to Requiem Patch Central which has compatibility patches for the bigger mods - use that as a starting point to see if there’s anything that catches your interest.

However, if you’re new to modding I’d keep it as simple as possible. You can still apply visual tweaks if you want, STEP has you covered (wow I’m really shilling hard for it :D). Make sure you get BOSS which automatically sorts your load order.

Here’s mine in case you’re interested: http://imgur.com/mgidDUX . Notable graphical mods are - Climates of Tamriel, RealvisionENB with LightFX, SMIM, Real Water Two, Skyrim Flora Overhaul. I’m using a couple minor additions for each, such as weather/storm patches, so maybe visit their pages and see what’s on offer and then decide. Be sure to always read installation instructions for all mods! Requiem for example added SkyProc patcher in the last version which makes a merged patch at the end - very useful if you’re running several gameplay changing mods. The graphics mods usually have an optimal installation order because some change the same textures. I don’t know how MO handles it, but in NMM you have to overwrite some files so it’s highly recommended that you figure out and write down the installation order before you begin.

Another mod that I kinda wish I had installed is the one that makes you backpedal faster but I can’t for the life of me find it on nexus right now. I don’t really need it now that I’m oneshotting things but it would’ve been great in the beginning.

Lastly, Requiem is pretty brutal when you start out. Don’t be discouraged by this, with the right perks, spells and equippment you will feel like a real arch-mage in no time. It’s got probably one of the best power curves I’ve seen in games yet.

edit: Just noticed this while I was going through my load order - Expanded Carriage Service. It adds carriages to all the villages and towns such as Falkreath, Morthal, Dawnstar etc - basically the ones that are not big enough to have their own loading screen. Since Requiem disables fast travel (you can re-enable it though) this is a very nice mod to have.

2033

OK, played Skyrim for approximately a million hours on the 360. Played as a stealthy archer, one character the entire playthrough. Walked everywhere, all DLC, played through the main campaign, the civil war (rebel side,) DB campaign, Thieve’s Guild, Blades, Dawnguard/Vampire (anti-vampire side), Dawnguard, and I think the Bards quests. Did not do the mages line, as I was not a mage. Married Mjoll and we wandered Skyrim as a very badass couple, then she stayed in our home I built on the lake with our adopted son and daughter. I continued to adventure and explore Skyrim solo, walking everywhere, continued to find little things here and there, and with heavy heart walked home one day, gave gifts to my kids, went upstairs to the bedroom where my wife was waiting, and took off my dragonscale armor, hung up my weapons, and retired. One of the top 10 gaming experiences in my gaming life, which started with my Apple ][ in about 1981 or so.

I miss that world, so I decided to purchase the full Skyrim package on Steam and play it on my Alienware M17x that is about 2 years old. I just started it up with no mods, and it autodetected my hardware and chose ultrahigh graphics settings, so I think I’m good to go. I will go through this thread, but if anyone is willing to give me a jump start, I’d appreciate some mod suggestions for my playstyle.

  1. I’m all about the first person, you are the character, role playing aspect. I don’t min-max, don’t try to “win”, I create who I am in my mind and role play that way. I make the choices I would make as that character. So, for example, as a stealthy archer (I hate melee combat, and I loved it when I was level 50 and could be the baddest guy on earth) I would not steal gold from the home of a poor family. But I would steal everything from some rich SOB. I played the main story and the civil war, but I was more about just wandering the world as an explorer. So the more alive the world is, the better,

  2. Weather and graphics that can enhance that experience would be great.

Not sure what else, I’ll go through the thread. But suggestions to get me started with mods for my style would be great. Also, I’m on a two year old Alienware playing at 1920x1200 or whatever the native res is on this, so obviously don’t want anything that will bog down the machine.

Thanks! (Like I NEED another game right now - playing FC4, have the new GTAV for my PS4 with the first person view I want to try out, etc. but I have yet to find another open world game that scratches my Skyrim itch (after going back and playing the other Bethesda games like Fallout NV and Fallout 3 and already played Oblivion.)

2034

That requiem mod is up and running. I am not sure I have the stomach for it. I the intro where you fight the guards in the cave, I died about 20 times. Then it was the bear and spiders and that was about 8 more deaths. Now I did make it to the starting town and I am a mage with no spells. The vendor who sells them charges crazy prices which I can’t even come close to affording.

2035

Requiem gives you two spell choices for each mastery rank in a tree and you start with 3 (or 2?) perks right off the bat. I recommend you spend one in destruction and grab flames + something else, probably the ice version. Second one either in conjuration or restoration for the healing aura since there’s no health regen either ;). Alteration in Requiem is also amazing, I highly recommend you get Mage Armor asap. It’s also one of the easiest trees to lvl up and has amazing passives.

@JeffL: Have a look at my posts on the last page, I think you’ll find a few useful mods among the ones I posted.

2036

Yeah I found those. I went with conjuration, destruction and resto for the healing auras. Ill pick up the other schools as I level up. I am not sure if I should even bother with the armor tree if the mage armor spell is good as you say.

2037

JeffL, I’m not sure if my mod list matches your playstyle, but I keep a minimal amount of mods, all run through the highly-recommended Mod Organizer:

That’s it. My machine is older than yours, and these run fine. I go with vanilla graphics because it all looks fine to me.

2038

You should ignore it. Alteration has an Improved Mage Armor perk which adds a ~2.5x multiplier on Mage Armor if you’re wearing cloth only (no shield either). Besides, you will want the mage specific equipment because magicka regen and fortify magicka are so crucial in the beginning. And that, apart from some uniques that you won’t find for a couple dozens of hours, only comes on cloth items, circlets and other caster specific equipment.

Another thing - Destructions levels up really slowly. I recommend you get Raise Dead spell asap and always keep a raised bandit/draugr with you. It lasts much longer than your own summons and you can raise them again if they die. If you manage to raise a relatively high lvl (not “high” high, but high relative to your level, if that makes sense :p) bandit you should be able to clear a few early dungeons relatively easily. I still recommend you use destro at every opportunity you get and don’t be afraid to visit trainers either. Once you get a fireball at lvl 50 Destruction things become really fun.

2039

So if I am not wearing any armor, my magic regens much faster? Right now I tried to take on some basic bandits and it was like summon 1 skelleton who kills 1 dude and then expires. My fire spell doesn’t seem to do diddly squat compared to the mana cost. Then its run away and hide until my magic regens and then summon another skeleton. I hope removing that armor helps a lot in the regen department.

I also suppose I should get a pip or two in speech because vendor prices are ridiculous, although maybe my next point (I made it to level 2) should be in alchemy.

2040

I never found much use for alchemy, it takes way too long to level it up. I don’t know if wearing armor lowers your natural magicka regen or not, but it’s so low that it probably doesn’t matter anyway. What you need are the robes that you can find in Helgen Keep and then touch the mage stone on your way to Riverwood. Those two things should provide a considerable boost in the start. As for destro dmg - it’s much better to pulse those channeling spells than hold down the mouse button.