[Wip] Dhaerrow - Traitor Of The Underdark

[James Bond]

To all mod authors who I have directed to this webpage, thank you for taking the time to check out this mod!  I sincerely hope that you'll consider allowing me to incorporate whatever I've asked to use from your mod, into this one.  I will of course give you all credit or give credit to whomever you wish to have credited.  I am a fan of your work and thank you for sharing what you have made with the public! 

 

I.  Intro

 

 

Per the Forgotten Realm's "Lady Penitent" series books, Dhaerrow was at one time a name for the Drow.  I believe the word's meaning is traitor in ancient eleven, but I'm not through all of the books yet, so don't quote me on it.  Although this mod is yet another version of a "Drow Race," I hope to make it special by eventually creating the majestic beauty of a treacherous Underdark city, filled with faerie fire, gargoyle statues, inter city power struggles and evil abominations.  I'd love for the "live another life" mod to be used to allow the player to start in this city as either a house noble or a renegade Dhaerrow living off the streets, or in slavery to another house that has destroyed the players origional matron mother.

 

Ideally, the Underdark will present itself as a high level dungeon for other races to attempt to defeat.  If using SkyRe (which I never take off my install list), the player will be able to use the Masquerade perk to kill a Dhaerrow and take his armor, so that he or she can infiltrate the city and use their Dhaerrow disguise, to initiate Dhaerrow only quests.  This will be the only way for non-Dhaerrow to reach the fabled Shadow Dragon. Mawhahahaha *Insert Evil Grin Here .

 

For those starting as a Dhaerrow, I want to make escaping the Underdark a challenge in not only overcoming monsters, but also in finding a way out.

 

 

III.  Racial Powers

 

 

To help with balance, these powers all have 6 different tier levels that are based on the player's level.  I'll try to give the minimum and maximum ranges that I've currently implemented, but everything's subject to change during testing.  Also, I tend to code in exponential growth, so that lower tiers are much less powerful than the higher tiers.

 

Tier 1 - level 1-9

Tier 2 - level 10-19

Tier 3 - level 20-29

Tier 4 - level 30-39

Tier 5 - level 40-49

Tier 6 - level 50-59

Tier 7 - level 60+

 

"Feared Heritage" // FINISHED  (Errr.... might not be working as intended)

 

Based on character level, intimation is between 50% to 350% more successful and bribes are between 30 to 90% cheaper.  Lets face it.  Bribing in Skyrim is rather lackluster and a Dhaerrow should be considered one of the most scary humanoid races.

 

"Faerie Fire" // FINISHED

 

I scrapped the autocast when getting hit version of Faerie Fire, in favor of a more powerful manually cast version on a cooldown timer.  This spell will dispell invisiblity within a 15 to 40 area of effect and has between a 25% to 50% chance of causing fear or frenzy, and if you're lucky also burning for X seconds.

 

 

"Levitate" // FINISHED

 

This spell lets that Dhaerrow go up, up, and away; while continuing to channel the spell.  If you stop channeling, you freefall to the ground.  For some reason, I cannot get this to work as a power.  Anyways, there is a cost per second, so you cannot just hover over massive amounts of space, but you can reach that little cliff ledge to scout ahead or to start snipping off enemies.

 

"Globe of Darkness" // ALMOST FINISHED

 

Based on character level, I'd like those in the globe to be blinded and miss with between 25% to 50% of their melee and ranged attacks.  Higher tiers could also provide a web inside the globe that slows between 25% to 50%. The highest tiers could also cause silence on enemies for between 10 to 20 seconds.  This would be a once per day power or maybe a lessor power on a long cooldown.  While I'm thinking about it, maybe I could create a "house insignia" amulet that would reduce the cooldown of racial powers by X%.

 

"Infravision" // ALMOST FINISHED

 

Dhaerrow can shift their eyes to pick up thermal heat sources.  Basically, I want almost exactly what "Gopher" did with this predator vision mod, but I don't want the player to see enemy heat sources through walls.  I'm done with the base "image space modifier:, but need to add the detect life effect with a different effect shader that looks like a thermal heat image.

 

"Dancing Light" // FINISHED

 

As I was skimming through old D&D skills that the Drow use, I saw dancing light and decided to put a similar concept in this mod.  I've made dancing light just like the candlelight mage skill, only it has a much larger radius, is a lessor power, has no time limit, is a purple colored light, and dispels invisibility. 

 

Future Potential Upgrade - If I can make it work, I plan to have this also dispel the Globe of Darkness spell, which would provide more dynamic combat when fighting against Dhaerrow.  This skill starts kind of small, but significantly increase in radius as the player levels up.  For role playing purposes, I wouldn't mind making this skill cause smaller creatures to stay away, as you pass through the Underdark caverns.

 

"Sunlight Adversion" // FINISHED ... but I would eventually like to have an MCM menu that allows people to turn this off if desired

 

Dhaerrow have keen eyesight that is adapted for the dim light sources of the Underdark.  For this reason, they gain an innate 30% bonus to their ability to perceive light.  Unfortunately, when venturing into the surface world, their eye's suffer harsh blindness from sun glare during bright daylight, but if one continues to endure the sunlight, this effect will gradually diminish until it's gone completely.

 

 

III.  My 1st Quest Idea !

 

 

First let me say that I have zero dungeon modding or quest making experience.  Nevertheless, one of the primary Quests that I'd like to have would revolve around an ancient dragon that resides deep in the Underdark.  This "Shadow Dragon" can be found guarding his massive treasure horde and will kill anything entering his lair. Upon being found, he will become enraged and will begin to attack, but will immediately stop attacking, if he discovers that you're Dragonborn, which would be activated, if the player uses a shout. 

 

At this point the dragon will become intrigued with your powers and will spin his tale of betrayal, in an attempt to gain your trust and service.  I'm thinking maybe the dragon will tell you that other dragons were jealous of his beautiful shadow scales, so they banded together and drove him deep into the belly of the earth, were he would never be seen again.  Now, he not only wants them dead for this action, but is willing to pay you handsomely in exchange for killing them and giving him their souls.

 

In exchange for dragon souls (orbs?) that you collect from killing other dragons, you can trade with him for the following stuff.

• gold: 1 orb = 10,000 gold
• random magic weapon: 4 orbs = 1 random magic weapon (custom skinned from talented modders)
• skill points: 7 orbs = 1 skill point
• Dragon Gifted Power: 15 orbs and you can choose what "Shadow Power" you want, which will open up an associated quest line to unlock the level 40 through 60 tiers of the powers.  These power tiers scale much better than the level 1-39 tiers.  These quests might revolve around you assassinating the dragons who imprisoned him.

Here's the shadow powers that one can choose.  Only one power may be active at a time and each power has a maximum of 6 tiers.  Their intent is to create different play styles depending on how you are building your character.  Each one comes with a cool looking hit shader that activates when in shadows that are dark enough to trigger the associated power.

 

Right now tier 1 is the default for players between level 1-19, tier 2 for levels 20-29, tier 3 for levels 30-39.  If the associated quest is completed, tier 4, 5, and 6, for levels between 40-49, 50-59, and 60+.  These powers don't scale linear when progressing up the tiers, so despite my high end boosts looking over the top, one doesn't really unlock the higher power levels, unless leveling up significantly and completing the right quests.

 

These function like Auras that can be toggled on and off.  Once activated, one can equip and use another "non-Aura" power or shout without impacting the function of these aura like powers.  On a side note, these powers are very fun to use!    The Dhaerrow shall be especially feared when in dark corridors.

 

"Shadow Stalker" // FINISHED

Basic Spell - (always active) depending on player level, provides between +10% to +50% sneak bonus and +10% to 50% muffle bonus.

Upgrade I - (active when crouching in dark shadows) depending on player level, provides between +60% to +175% increased movement speed and between 2% to 18% maximum health regeneration per second.

Upgrade II - (Activates on a kill from the shadows) depending on player level, provides between 15 to 30 seconds of invisibility until an action is made, and increases total sneak damage by between 25 to 200%.  During this active effect, one can crouch to re-gain invisibility, at that cost of between 55% to 5% of the players max magica, for a duration of between 2-6 seconds

 

"Shadow Slayer" // FINISHED

Basic Spell - (always active) depending on player level, between +26% to +42% of melee damage from incoming attacks and arrows is avoided.

Upgrade I - (active while in dark shadows) depending on player level, provides between +9% to +24% critical strike chance, and critical strikes inflict between 50 to 300 extra damage.

Upgrade II - (Activates on a kill from the shadows) depending on player level, provides between 15 to 30 seconds of between 25% to 75% stamina cost reduction for power attacks & between 25% to 50% of critical hits cause stagger.

 

"Shadow Sorcerer" // FINISHED

Basic Spell - (always active) depending on player level, shout cooldown is reduced by between +10% to +40%.

Upgrade I - (active while casting from dark shadows) depending on player level, provides a ward that grants between 10% to 50% spell absorption and absorbs between 10 to 50 points of spell damage.  Note: These bonuses are doubled when dual casting.

Upgrade II - (Activates on a kill from the shadows) depending on player level, provides between 15 to 30 seconds of between 25% to 50% reduced magica costs & gain between 25% to 200% increased spell damage.

 

"Shadow Scourge" // BASICALLY FINISHED ... still needs a good explosion .nif that thematically fits

Basic Spell - (always active) depending on player level, poisoned targets are slowed by between 25% to 50%.

Upgrade I - (active while casting from dark shadows) depending on player level, Poisons are "amplified" in both duration and magnitude by between 30% to 100%, and applied poisons last between and extra 1 to 9 hits.

Upgrade II - (Activates on a kill from the shadows) depending on player level, poisoned targets explode dealing between 25% to 100% of the targets base health in poison damage, to anything within between 15 to 30 feet. 

 

In addition to these various exchanged items, the dragon will have SUPER AWESOME WEAPONS sticking out from around his treasure room, but if stolen the dragon will mercilessly attack and the player will not be able to trade with him again.  Optimally, the player will not want to attempt for these items until they've garnered what they wish from bartering (orbs?) with him.

 

Anyways, The dragon will grow in power as you trade with him and will become visibly bigger, while also unlocking new powers that he can use against his enemies.  Basically, on the outside he'll appear as a normal black dragon, but when killed he resurrects as a monstrous dragon lich.  As it turns out, he has been feeding on the souls of other dragons for centuries and is eager to consume the consumer of dragon souls, in order to take within himself, every soul that you've consumed! Mawhahahaha... *evil grin

 

Upon dying in Dragon Lich form, I'd like to pay a little homage to the Forgotten Realm's SellSwords series and have a dragon shaped gem lootable from the body.  This gem will allow the player to resurrect dead dragons and control them.

 

 

IV. Desired Dhaerrow Spell Lines

 

 

I've got four spells planned for each of the following spell lines, and I've thought up 10 modifications for each spell.  My hope is to contact the author of Forgotten Magic Redone, and possibly get permission to use the same framework for spell power advancement, where a player levels up spells by using them and choosing what power up to unlock for each spell. If 3JIou or sward66 is reading this topic, you guys rock and I would love any help or guidance that you might be willing to provide.

 

To get back on topic, at max level, the player can only choose 4 out of the 10 power ups. Unfortunately, I have no scripting experience, outside of the few I've managed to do for the above racial and shadow powers, so without help, none of the spell ideas may ever see the darkness of the Underdark.

 

• Cleric Spells
• Wizard Spells
• Psychic Spells

On a side note, I don't want to have these spells be purchasable or obtained via books.  I'd much prefer for Dhaerrow "mentor" followers to be unlocked via completing quest lines specific to each set of spells.  When these followers adventure with the player and cast their special spells against enemies, the player will progress in their understanding of the spells, and will eventually automatically "learn the base spells" form their mentor.  At that point, to get the power ups, they still have to use the spells to level them up like in Forgotten Magic Redone.  I think this mentoring method of spell unlocks could add a lot of immersion and sense of accomplishment for the player.  Without further ado, here's the concept spells. Obviously they're not balanced, but I had to toss something in there...

 

CLERIC SPELLS - These priestess are typically women, who worship the Spider Queen. 

 

"Arachnophobia" - Summons 1 medium sized melee spider

 

Power Ups

1. Strong Limbs - Melee spider's movement speed and base damage are increased
2. Invigorate Melee spider's base hit points and health regeneration are increased
3. Vampiric Touch - Melee spider's  converts X% of damage dealt into health for the player
4. Enfeebling Fangs - Melee spiders attacks cause "weakness" for 2 seconds, which decreases melee damage output by 66%.
5. Toxic Spitter - Summons 1 medium sized poison spitting spider ( ranged attacks that inflict a 15 second poison that deals very small poison damage per second  / black base with green spots)
6. Web Weaver - Summons 1 medium sized web spitting spider (very long ranged attacks that inflict a 5 second "immobilize" / grey base with light red spots)
7. Paralyzing Bite - Summons 1 medium sized paralyze bitting spider (melee attacks inflict 2 second paralyze / black base with red spots)
8. Frigid Footsteps - Summons 1 medium sized ice spider (melee attacks inflict a 4 second "ice hazard" that deals low frost damage and are chilled (35% slow) / grey base with light blue spots)
9. Magma Spewer - Summons 1 medium sized lava spewing spider (ranged attacks inflict a 3 second "burning" heavy fire damage / red base with yellow spots)
10. Vile Explosion - On death spiders explode and deal X poison damage to surrounding enemies, for 15 seconds

"Blood is Power" - Sacrifice 66% of your current life to increase target ally's melee damage by 50% for 15 seconds (fire and forget on target ally; zero magica cost)

 

Power Ups

1. Haste - Target also gains +50% melee attack speed
2. Iron Hide - Target also gains +100 armor
3. Resilient - Target also gains +75% fire, frost, shock resistance
4. Blood Bond - Target gains heath equal to half of the players sacrificed health
5. Extend - Blood is power duration is doubled
6. Awaken the Blood - Blood is power melee damage bonus is doubled
7. Vital Donation - Blood is power can be cast on a dead ally to resurrect the ally with half of their max health
8. Blood Ritual - Blood is power increases your magicka regeneration by X% for Y seconds
9. Blood Renewal - Blood is power increases your health regeneration by X% for Y seconds
10. High Hemoglobin - Halves sacrifice cost

"Unholy Armor" - Attacking enemies take 4 seconds of  X "disease" damage, but bluffed target ally suffers X damage per second and cannot cast restoration spells (fire and forget on target ally)

 

Power Ups

1. Soul Hungry - Attacking enemies suffer from soul trap for 10 seconds
2. Flesh of Decay - Attacking enemies suffer from "weakness" for 3 seconds, which decreases melee damage output by 66%
3. Resistant Will - Bluffed ally does not suffer health loss from Unholy Armor
4. Vile Redemption - Bluffed ally can cast restoration spells
5. Dark Pact - Bluffed ally gains invincibility from spell damage for 5 seconds
6. Mark of Fury - ally gains X absorb stamina on each of their attacks
7. Death Nova - Allies dying with Unholy Armor explode dealing X disease damage to adjacent enemies
8. Rotting Flesh - Doubles disease damage
9. Aura of the Lich - Diseased humanoid targets that die will resurrect as a skeleton to fight by your side for 60 seconds (does not impact conjuration limit)
10. Tainted Flesh - Diseased targets that die will spread disease to adjacent foes (duration is refreshed on new targets) 

"Life Siphon" - Absorb X health per second from targetted foe, but the player is immobilized while casting

 

Power Ups

1. Energy Tap - Absorb X magica per second from targeted foe
2. Stamina Leech - Absorb X stamina per second from targeted foe
3. Power Sap - Target suffers from weakness, which reduces melee damage output by 66%, for 2 seconds (stacking)
4. Boiling Rage - Target becomes frenzied
5. Injured Inspiration - Absorption doubles when the player falls below 50% max health
6. Soul Theft - Killed targets will fill soul gems
7. Blood Bond - For 5 seconds, if the target dies they will heal you and your nearby allies for 15% of their max health (non-stacking)
8. Feast of Flesh - For 5 seconds, your allies attacking the target to will absorb X health (non-stacking)
9. Life Tranfer - Spell becomes AOE
10. Unchained - The player can now move while casting

WIZARD SPELLS

 

"Blink" - Teleport behind targeted foe

 

Power Ups

1. Recall - Return to your original location, by activating blink again within 5 seconds.  (Second cast costs no magica // may have to script two "rotating" spells…?)
2. Extend - Increases casting distance by 3 times the normal amount
3. Shifty Stalker - Reduces base magica cost by 50%
4. Shadow Form - After teleporting, you take only half damage for 4 seconds
5. Shade - After teleporting, you become invisible for 4 seconds
6. Neurotoxin - Target is paralyzed for 2 seconds
7. Dark Tentacles - Foes in the area of the targeted location get hit with dark tentacles, which slow and poison enemies.
8. Stealth Approach - Allies near casting location become invisible for 4 seconds
9. Stealth Escape - Allies near target location become invisible for 4 seconds
10. Wicked Strike - Your next attack deals double damage

"Hellfire" - Shoots a long range, slow moving ball of fire to target location, which explodes dealing X damage to everything within Y distance (very long charge time, ~4 seconds, and a steep magica cost)

 

Power Ups

1. Ignite - Causes burning to hit targets for X seconds
2. Expansion - Increases blast diameter
3. Kindle - Halves casting time
4. Immolation - Causes the ground to burn, dealing X fire damage for Y seconds
5. Atomic Force - Hit targets ragdoll and are launched by the explosion
6. Consuming Fire - Gain X magica, for each enemy hit by the initial blast
7. Inner Flame - Blast deals +X% more damage, which is equal to 2 times your missing health
8. Phoenix Protection - Once per battle, if the player has less than 10% health after casting a fireball, restore all health & cure all diseases.
9. Fire Walker - After casting a fireball, you leave a trail of fire where ever you travel, for 10 seconds
10. Third Degree - Targets hit by Hellfire have their fire resistance decreased by 50%, for 10 seconds (non-stacking effect)

 

"Forked Lightning" - casts a lightning bolt toward the targeted location, which  richocheys to one other target (spell is aimed and can miss)

 

Power Ups

1. Static Charge - Increases damage dealt by 5% of the targets max health
2. Positive Power - Bigger / more powerful bolts
3. Muscle Spasm - 10% chance to paralyze a hit target for 2 seconds
4. Buzz Blaster - Doubles the spells distance
5. Charge of Carnage - Targets take +20% damage to shock, for 10 seconds (stacking effect)
6. Lightning Hands - Increases the players attack speed by 10% for 10 seconds after casting chain lightning (stacking effect)
7. Lightning Feet - Increases the players movement speed by 10% for 10 seconds after casting chain lightning (stacking effect)
8. Charged Weapon - Imbues your weapons with lightning, which deals +X lightning damage per swing
9. Chain Lightning - Forked lightning will now bounce up to 4 more targets
10. Storm Shield - After 5 casts, gain a shield for 10 seconds, which shocks adjacent enemies for X damage and increases lightning resistance by 50%

 

"Ray of Frost" - Deals X damage per second and slows the target by 30% (Channeled Spell)

 

Power Ups

1. Frostbite - Doubles slow percentage
2. Snow Blast - Causes an explosion of frost around target, which deals X damage to nearby enemies
3. Encapsulate - 5% chance to freeze the target for 6 seconds
4. Spinal Shivers - Increases frost damage against the target by 50% for ~10 seconds  (non stacking effect)
5. Subzero - Doubles ray of frost's base damage
6. Frozen Ground - Freezes the ground causing an ice hazard for 10 seconds, which slows movement by 30% and deals X damage per second
7. Lethargic - Target attacks 35% slower for 10 seconds  (non stacking effect)
8. Extension - Reduces spell cost by 90% when below 20% magica
9. Hypothermia - Reduces the targets frost resistance by 50% for 10 seconds  (non stacking effect)
10. Cold Cleanse - Casting ray of frost dispels slow effects from the player

PSYCHIC SPELLS 

 

"Empathy" - For 10 seconds, target foe takes X damage per swing (Fire and Forget with no-projectile & near instant cast)

 

Power Ups

1. Fragment - Whenever the target swings, adjacent foes also take X damage (does not effect target)
2. Reckless Haste - Target moves 33% faster, but suffers from X psychic burning damage per second while moving
3. Illusionary Burden - Target is crippled, which slows movement by 50%
4. Faint Grip - Target has a 10% chance of being disarmed when attacking
5. Reckless Swing - Target attacks 100% faster, but has a 50% chance to miss
6. Enfeeble - Target suffers from weakness for 6 seconds, which decreases melee damage output by 66%
7. Weak Minded - Targets suffering from Empathy take +35% increased psychic damage
8. Eternity - Empathy duration is doubled
9. Mental Block - Casting Empathy gives the player 80% psychic damage reduction for Y seconds
10. Shared Suffering - Casting Empathy gives the player X% damage reflection for Y seconds

"Fevered Dreams" - For 10 seconds, the target takes X psychic damage when casting spells (Fire and forget - 1 second cast)

 

Power Ups

1. Power Block - Cast spells are interrupted
2. Vivid Imagination - Doubles Fevered Dreams base psychic damage
3. Psychic Instability - When the target casts spells, adjacent enemies are knocked down (does not affect the target)
4. Magika Leech - When the target casts spells, drain X magicia from the target
5. Burning Beating - Melee attacks against the target have a X% chance to cause psychic burning, which causes X damage for Y seconds
6. Freezing Frenzy - Melee attacks against the target have a X% chance to cause a psychic freeze, which incapsulates the target in ice for X seconds
7. Splinter Strike - Melee attacks against the target cause X psychic damage to adjacent foes
8. Illusion of Pain - For 10 seconds, the target's max health is decreased by 35% (health is restored at the end of duration)
9. Insecurity - The target take +75% damage from all sources, if they're not moving.
10. Wastrel's Worry- If the target fails to cast a spell within X seconds, they take Y psychic damage

 

"Illusionary Dagger" - Summons an Illusionary Dagger for 30 seconds, which deals armor ignoring psychic damage (Fire and Forget with a 3 second cast)

 

Power Ups

1. Fragment - Basic dagger attacks with Illusionary Dagger also hit adjacent enemies
2. Blurr - Attack X% faster with Illusionary Dagger
3. Psychic Tentacles - Sideways power attacks release phychic tentacles that root the target for 3 seconds.
4. Psychic Wave - Backwards power attacks cast a wave of energy that pushes enemies a short distance backwards
5. Ray of Disruption - Forward power attacks unleash a long range psychic blast dealing X damage and dispelling enemy enchantments
6. Desperate Tactics - Power attacks while sprinting will hurl Illusionary Dagger causing a large AOE explosion at the target location, which deals X damage and sends enemies flying, but destroys Illusionary Dagger
7. Persistance - Illusionary Weapon lasts until dropped
8. Ripple - After summoning Illusionary Dagger, send out an AOE ripple that knocks down foes in the area
9. Feel the Heat - After summoning Illusionary Dagger, foes in the area suffer from psychic fire dealing X damage for Y seconds
10. Distortion - After summoning Illusionary Dagger, time is slowed by 50% for 5 seconds

 

"Force of Will" - Telepathically pull distant enemies towards your location (Fire and Forget with a 1 second cast)

 

Power Ups

1. Shell Shock - Target is paralized for 3 seconds
2. Crushing Will - Target take X psychic damage
3. Mind Blast - Increases incoming spell damage by 35% for 10 seconds  (non stacking)
4. Atomic Implosion - Target suffers from X psychic fire damage for Y seconds
5. Air of Superiority - Target is silenced and cannot cast spells for 7 seconds
6. Inverse Polarity - Force of Will becomes a push spell, rather than a pull spell
7. Power Struggle - When you have less health than your target, gain health equal to half the difference between you and target, and your foe loses an equal amount.
8. Inner Harmony -Reduces magica cost of Force of Will by 50%
9. Mind of Might - Increases spell casting distance and the amount of force applied to the target
10. Break Lock - Force of Will can be cast on locks up to master level and will break them

 

 

V.  Potential Underdark Monsters

 

 

1. Hook Horror -
2. Drider -
3. Beholder -
4. Duergar -
5. Illithid -
6. Svirfneblin -
7. Myconid -
8. Pech -
9. Giant Lizard -
10. Monstrous Spider -
11. Draegloth -
12. Kuo-toa -
13. Adamantine Spider -
14. Chwidencha -
15. Draegloth -
16. Dragon -
17. Goblin -
18. Bugbear -
19. Vril -
20. Husk Vermin (variety of carapaces) -
21. Quaggoth -
22. Venom Ooze -
23. Troll -
24. Rothe -
25. Stalactoid -
26. Cave Fisher -
27. Elemental -
28. Umber Hulk -
29. Stone Giant -
30. Giant Worm -

 

 

[James Bond]

[saved for later #1]

[James Bond]

[saved for later # 2]

[James Bond]

[saved for later # 3]

[ZigNewton]

As someone who attempted to learn to script and bombed horribly, I must say that this looks extreeeeeemely ambitious for a single person to take on, and I would be mad impressed if you successfully pulled off even a fifth of this. It's all very interesting to say the least, and I wish you luck with putting it all together. I'll be keeping track.

[Kai Lin]

This is a very ambitious and extremely interesting project. I don't know a thing about modding skyrim. I have tinkered with the creation kit a few times but nothing ever came of it....this makes me want to try again just to help you. I love this idea and would very much like to see it finished with a drow race, underdark and quests for both drow and other races maybe a drow companion too. I would love to help out and am willing to try and help you but as I said I'm very new to modding skyrim so it will likely be a slow thing on my end. Still if you want help let me know. I can try and work on whatever you need done at the moment. Whether I help or not I still wish you luck on finishing this!

[James Bond]

Do you have anything in particular that you'd like to learn in the creation kit?

 

For example, some people like making terrain, others like fiddling with spells, another person might like making NPCs... ect.   Being my first mod, I cannot teach you to much, but I've used the creation kit enough to probably get us started in the right direction, for whatever sparks your interest.  I've found that the best way for me to learn how to use the creation kit, is to download mods similar to what I'm trying to do and then look at what files they've edited or added.

 

Additonally, if you just want to help out with the mod and don't want to deal with the creation kit, I could use help with quest design. This would probably initally focus on thinking up several backstories for NPCs and coming up with ways for the player to interact with him.    The drow are a society of power hungry traitors, who have no qalms about stabbing a family member in the back, if it will advance their status or give them some sort of advantage.  Right now quest design is on my backburner because I want to focus on finishing the race's racial powers, mapping the male body parts, and then get a better understanding of what's needed for a "Forgotten Magic Redone" sort of MCM spell system.  Personally, I've really enjoyed making spells and powers, so I'm really looking forward to creating and balancing the different spell lines that I posted above. 

 

I guess just send me a message with what you'd like to do and I'll try to figure out how to make it so we can work together on the project.

 

 

[Kai Lin]

I would like to learn NPC creation and quest making and design the most. I will download a few companion and quest mods and examine them to see how its done to start with. Hopefully I can figure things out eventually.

[James Bond]

I was able to use this to make a preset.

 

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/10592-exporting-character-faces-and-creating-new-presets/

 

You might want to check it out.

[James Bond]

UPDATE: I got warpaint working and with Raven's permission the Dhaerrow are now rocking about 22 of my favorite warpaints that were choosen from Raven's 5 released packages.  These are standalone for the race.  Right now they only have 8 different default colors because these take forever to map in the CK.  Nevertheless, I'm not really thinking that's a problem because with Racemenu, one can just pick the color sliders and make their own color.

 

Additionally, I just learned how to use Race Menu with CharGen and I'm quite happy with the results!  The elf ears that we'll be able to make with the extra ECE morphs are much better than the default dark elf ears.  Check out my newest picture of my Dhaerrow.  It's in the main post.  I spent several hours editing her face and also decided to bump up my weight slider to close to max.    My custom CBBE BBP body aims to allow for a very drastic change between min and max weight, while still always keeping the females in a sexy frame.

 

Finally, I decided to go forward with a castable version of faerie fire in addition to the automatic triggered version.  I'm making it an area of effect lesser power (will get some sort of cooldown), that causes the harmless purplish pink flames, while also having a percentage chance to cause fear, frenzy, and even illusionary burning damage, if the weakminded target is tricked into thinking it's real.  This power will not have an effect on other Dhaerrow, Dragons, Undead, or Automations.  The first two aren't effected because they're to smart to know it's a trick and the latter two aren't effected because they lack a large enough brain to realize they're in trouble. 

 

On a side note, I made the skill also generate a light souce that sticks to the target and follows them around.  It's the candlight spell only with an altered color and no little floating ball.  Unfortunately, the light doesn't go away ever after the effect wears off.  I've got the effect set to "recover" and do not have "no death dispel" checked, so I'm at a loss as to why it's not stopping.  Anyways, although it looks fantastic, to many of these light sources really cause a FPS loss, so they either need fixed or removed.  Might anyone have a suggestion to fix this issue?

[James Bond]

Update: The racial power "Faerie Fire" had to have the light source that stuck to the target removed because it was causing a FPS drop and even frequent CTD's on my machine .  Nevertheless, I re-tooled the magic effect into a lesser racial power called "Dancing Lights", which is basically just a souped up version of candlelight, that emits a purple glow, rather than white, and has the dual function of being able to dispel a "Globe of Darkenss", if the player happens to be fighting other Drow.  I'm going to figure out how to make the orbiting effect a different color than white.  Since the light source gives off a purplish red glow, I'm leaning towards a blackish hue.

 

Also, I'm having some success with the shadow dragon power called "Shadow Scourge."  I found a nice tutorial on how to make explosion spells and currently have the power proccing "oil trap" hazards when enemies die under my desired conditions.  My next goal is to replace the oil trap with a poison trap and remove the damage from the trap.  Hopefully, I can then use a script to damage surrounding enemies by a percentage of the expoded targets max health, to those within the hazard traps radius. 

[James Bond]

Update: I've been working on different face combinations for NPC's that might make good candidates to be a "mentor follower."   These would be the followers that teach youto cast their spells, as you watch them use the spells in combat.  These mentors will act as a character customization tool, since it'll take time fighting with your mentor, before you're able to learn all of their spells.  I'm thinking of making these follower's that you have to hire or complete a quest line to unlock.

 

So far I've just got six different women, but please let me know what spell line (cleric, wizard, psychic) you think each character's appearance fits with the best.  Also, which one is your favorite and least favorite?  What do you think about their skin tones?  I've tried to make a variety to hopefully hit everyone's tastes.  

 

Do you have any name suggestions?  If you want to write up a little back story to go with the name you've provided, please do so!  Maybe you ideas will spark a future quest or plot line. 

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

***Please keep in mind that I'm not using an ENB, so my screenshots are not meant to impress***

[itt1968]

The Lady Penetent... Awesome Series!!!  Wish you guys the very best of luck with this one! I was always hoping someone would make a Drow City.  Hope you do it justice.

[James Bond]

Update: Thanks to MilletGtR's release of his mod "Make Haste," I was able to take a look at a working mod that uses SM Event Nodes to trigger quest's on player level up.  This was exactly what I needed to make the racial powers level up automatically as the player levels.  They're now working beautifully! 

 

Additionally, Shadow Scourges explosion effect is triggering successfully to deal damage, but I haven't yet got a script working to make it deal a % of the killed target's total health pool.

[blabba]

I remember back n the day reading the Forgotten Realms and R.A. Salvatore's classic Drizzt series.

Totally would love to see a kick ass globe of darkness spell

[James Bond]

I remember back n the day reading the Forgotten Realms and R.A. Salvatore's classic Drizzt series.

Totally would love to see a kick ass globe of darkness spell

 

Anyone remember the Lilium companion? 

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/36058/?

 

I think she is my ticket for coding the creation kit with a good Globe of Darkness spell.  Basically, I'll need replace her castable tree with a big bubble that's textured black on the inside and outside.  Then I strip out the "death forest" spell's heath/stamina/magicka drain and add magic effects that make enemies attacks miss X% of the time and at higher levels add slow and maybe silence.

 

P.S. - What type starting gear do you guys want?  I was thinking a little assortment of poison's and a devilish looking dagger would be nice.  Also, do you like having the healing and flame spell, right at the start or would you rather have a blank slate?

[James Bond]

Update: I finally managed to get the Shadow Scourge Power to work.  If an enemy was poisoned from the shadows, while the Shadow Scourge Power is active, and they die before the poison wears off, then they'll release a putrid cloud of bile, which damages nearby actors by a % of the dead enemies max health!

 

1. Since I cannot create my own nif's, I've been fishing through the games standard files, to hopefully find one that could be duplicated and then edited to work...
2. I was just thinking that it would be awesome for the dead actor's body to also explode.  Does anyone know of any mods that cause actors bodies to explode into little chunks of flesh?

Another Update: Globe of Darkness successfully animates a rather awesome looking black bubble.  I'm not sure how to fill the insides of the bubble with darkness, but the bubble properly deflects light sources.  For example, if candlelight is outside of the bubble, the light from candlelight will not penetrate through it.

 

1. I think the biggest difficulty finishing this spell will be figuring out how to make the area within the globe of darkness periodically apply a magic effect.  I can make a spell that lasts a very short durations (like 1 second) successfully do what I need it to do, but I don't know how to make that spell constantly reapply every second for X number of seconds.  Basically, I need the those entering the bubble to be de-bluffed while inside the bubble, but they should lose that de-bluff when exiting the bubble, or gain it again when re-entering.    Am I overthinking this issue?  Maybe there's a simple way to make the CK handle such a task?

Another Update: I fiddled with the Dancing Light power until I was able to change the color to a deep purple.  Also, I fiddled with the Faerie Fire power until I was able to turn the flames into a pinkish color. I'm not sure what I screwed up on the gradients, but the flames kind of look bubbly now.  Regardless, they still look good.

[James Bond]

Globe of Darkness Update: Thanks for Heromaster's help, Globe of Darkness is successfully adding a de-bluff effect to enemies which causes x% of their attacks to deal no damage, which was the closest thing that I could think of that would be considered a "dodge."  Additionally, I need to test some more, but I think the level 30 "silence" upgrade now works. 

 

This is all subject to change, but I'm going to make the spell start at a 30% miss chance and gain +5% every 10 levels for up to level 60.  Right now I'm debating a initial 60 second cooldown and a 10 second duration.  At level 20, I plan to maybe halve the cooldown, at level 30 I plan to add the silence, at level 50 I plan to double the duration and at level 60 I plan to double the bubble size, which is currently set to a CK radius of 14 (feet?).

 

On a side note, I noticed someone made a mod to remove the "blindess" effect when triggering word walls.  I'm going to track down what files he edited in that mod and hopefully find the image space modifier that the game uses to dramatically darken the player's vision.  This might be the best way to truly black out the player's vision when inside the globe of darkness...  Right now it's just a big hollow bubble that cannot be seen out of when in first person view from inside of it, but can be seen into, when in third person view, when looking towards the bubble, from the outside.

[Trualiah]

This sounds and looks spectacular. Cannot wait for the finished products. I loved Salvatore's books and I feel like im going to love your mod just as much.

[James Bond]

Infravision Update: The Dhaerrow now have a working racial power to toggle their infravision on and off.  It's basically a powerful night vision like "image space modifier" effect, which not only increases the brightness level, but also tweaks saturation in such a way that dimly lit caves can be easily navigated via fervent hue's of varying bright colors.  The goal was to make one feel that the Dhaerrow's eye's have shifted to a different light spectrum that can pick up heat sources.  Although not done, I plan to add a effect that operates like Gopher's Predator vision mod, so that living enemies emit a thermal like color.  Preferably, this will be influenced by line of sight, so that it's not possible to see people through walls.

 

NOTE: This power was developed to function with the darkest setting of the mod called "Realistic Nights."  I'd highly suggest using this mod, so that your enemies will have trouble finding you, while you'll have a much easier time finding them.  It's very fun to hid in the shadows, while an alerted enemy wanders right past you.  The mod also has synergy with the "Shadow Powers" that I made to be unlocked by completing parts of the Shadow Dragon quest line. 

 

I'm working on figuring out how to make the game check for the various Realistic Nights ESP files.  If it finds the files, then my brightest version of Infravision will be applied to the player's character.  If it doesn't find the file, then a less bright version will be bestowed to the player.

 

Sunlight Glare Update: Although the Dhaerrow are the master's of the darkness, the surface world's sunlight (interior cells are not effected) now cause the Dhaerrow to see worth @#$#.  Around noon, I nearly died to an archer that I couldn't find, who was about 25 feet away!  This "mega" brightness will fade over time as the player gradually adjusts to the sunlight of the surface world, but prepare to be un-happy during the day for a good chunk of time.  As a bonus for enduring this lore friendly penalty, I increased a Dhaerrow standard ability to perceive light by 30%.  This bonus is good enough that most dark caves can be navigated with only minimal light and when outside at night with the Realistic Nights mod, one can see much better than without the bonus.  Nevertheless, unless I'm running over the snow on a clear night, I still prefer flipping on infravision to expand my field of view. 

[Askan Vulrel]

This has great potential! I'll be rooting for you with this.

 

One question I have, why is this posted in the Adult Mods? Will it have adult content in it?

[Ashkandii]

i actually feel like helping you do this Sept i haven't made a single mod

so if theres anything you need help with i could possibly try,

but so far all i suggest is give the shadow dragon, Red or Silver Eyes. it would look epic

[James Bond]

This has great potential! I'll be rooting for you with this.

 

One question I have, why is this posted in the Adult Mods? Will it have adult content in it?

 

The standard bodies will have either bouncing boobs or swaying slongs.  For this reason I posted the mod in the adult section.  However, due to developing purposes, I will avoid making the mod dependent on another ESP (such as SexLab).  It's hard enough to keep up with my own changes, let alone try to keep pace with another mod's version changes that might create incompatibility with my mod.  Additionally, I don't use any sex mods, so I have no experience with what sort of requirements would be necessary to make various quests compatible with those other sorts of mods. 

 

Regardless, the Dhaerrow are a wicked, sadistic, and lustful race.  I am fine with other people making patches for such activity.  A big orgy initiation between Lolth's clerics and the males who graduate from their ruling house's wizard or warrior training academies, would mix nicely into the race's lore.  Likewise, if the Dhaerrow sent a night raiding party against the surface world, they would probably be expected to screw the surface elves either before or even while slitting their throats.  All those wickedly sexy Matron rulers also deserve their male consorts and should be regularly sacrificing naked subjects to their deities.  Yep, there's all kinds of room for lust, sex, ect., but I'm just not the person to make it happen.

 

i actually feel like helping you do this Sept i haven't made a single mod

so if theres anything you need help with i could possibly try,

but so far all i suggest is give the shadow dragon, Red or Silver Eyes. it would look epic

 

Silver eyes sound good, so silver they shall become. 

 

In regards to helping with the mod, I would love to have help  , but please keep in mind that this is my first mod, so I'm learning as I go.  I don't have the modding experience or the time to be a teacher.  You would need to identify what sort of things you're willing to learn to do and then spend time figuring out how to make those things happen, within the limits of the creation kit.  Nevertheless, I will support anyone supporting this mod as much as my limited time and modding experience allows.  If you're not wanting to help with creation kit type of stuff, there's still plenty of other things that could make the mod better. 

 

On the bright side, just about anything you might desire to learn to do, would offer aid to the mods completion.  For example, the mod needs dungeons, creature models, creature animations, textures, quest writing, voice acting, quest creation, spell making, script design, ect... Basically, anything you'd be interested in learning would probably be of value.

 

Fortunately, there's lots of good Youtube tutorials that teach people how to do a lot of this stuff.  I either used Google or posted questions on various Skyrim forums, to figure out everything that I've done so far.  Actually, opening up other people's mods in the creation kit and looking at their edits is IMO the fastest way to learn how to make a similar change.

 

If I could make a wish, having someone making underground caverns that would house various Dhaerrow cities, would be terrific. 

 

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SkyrimCKPublic/discussions/1/882957625866535917/

 

This is of course not easy and so I shall put off learning to do it until either someone else volunteer's or I'm 100% done finishing everything about the new race.  I have enjoyed spell creation and making scripts the most out of what I've learned so far, so after I finish the race, figuring out how to create the cleric/psychic/wizard spells will be my next biggest area of interest.  After those spells are done, I'll start making NPC's to be the follower/mentors who teach the spells. 

 

Err... so many things to do and so little time... Why the @#$# did I decide to do this again?

 

On a side note, here's a link to a PDF of a Dungeon and Dragon's handbook titled "Drow of the Underdark."  Reading through that 200+ page document will provide all sorts of ideas that could enhance the mod.

 

http://www.feuros.com/D&D/Drow%20of%20the%20Underdark.pdf

 

Well, shoot me an email here on L.L. if you're still interested in helping.

[Askan Vulrel]

Hmm. Yes, mods like Defeat, Dangerously Nude, Lovers' Comfort, Lovers' Victim, etc. would most likely work without any editing.

I've been messing around with the creation kit lately. Maybe I can try on that one, once this mod's out. I could definitely make some interesting scenes with this world. Only, I myself am not one for BDSM, so that's going to be something I'll either have a hard time with, or just cut out completely.

[Trualiah]

On the bright side, just about anything you might desire to learn to do, would offer aid to the mods completion.  For example, the mod needs dungeons, creature models, creature animations, textures, quest writing, voice acting, quest creation, spell making, script design, ect... Basically, anything you'd be interested in learning would probably be of value.

I MAY be able to help with quest writing and creation. Just need to find some crash course videos. Maybe dungeons also.