[WIP] Shout Like A Dovah

[Thomas Kaira]

So, if you are like me and about 90% of the rest of the Skyrim-playing population, you agree that the game's Shouts, while great for the novelty and marketing of the game, are woefully underpowered AND quite lackluster in design. It doesn't take much effort to have you simple Spell-based magic totally outstrip what you can do with Shouts (and those themselves are outclassed by melee combat but that's beside the point), and really the only Shout that is remotely useful to you throughout the game is Unrelenting Force. A lot of mods change shouts, but I decided to go a step further.

 

I wish to overhaul the shouts entirely, adding new mechanics with each tier, and making each Shout truly unique. On top of that, I wish to make each shout something you would bother to use in combat because what they do is worth the trouble of going out of your way to hunt down the Words of Power, and then killing a few dragons to unlock them.

 

So, without further ado, these are my plans:

 

Globally - all offensive Shouts will be able to break Wards. Because the Thu'um cannot and should not be blocked by petty arcane trickery.

 

Animal Allegiance-

 

Tier 1: All creatures your Thu'um touches become your allies.

Tier 2: All creatures in the area become your allies.

Tier 3: Creates an aura of allegiance around yourself, all animals and beasts that enter will have their will bent to yours.

 

Aura Whisper- DONE

 

Tier 1: You can see the life essence of all lesser creatures and beasts.

Tier 2: Human life essence is made instantly aware to you.

Tier 3: Not even death can save one from your all-seeing eye, as you can now see Undead essence, as well.

 

Battle Fury- DONE

 

Tier 1: You imbibe your follower's weapons with the power of the winds, enabling faster strikes.

Tier 2: Your follower's weapons gains the power of the elements of Magic, granting bonus fire, frost, and shock damage.

Tier 3: The elements are as much your foe's enemy as they are your follower's friend, and your strikes grant weakness to all.

 

Become Ethereal- DONE

 

Tier 1: You shift your life essence to the Ethers of Tamriel, becoming immune to harm (though you may not harm others in turn)

Tier 2: Your life essence bonds with the Ethers during its brief visit, restoring all attributes.

Tier 3: Your plane-shift is complete, rendering you invisible.

 

Bend Will- DONE

 

Tier 1: Stones of the All-Maker are cleansed of Miraak's influence (story-centric tier, will not be altered).

Tier 2: All mortal creatures and men alike affected become your follower, for a great deal of time.

Tier 3: Not even the dragons are safe from the effects of your Thu'um, as you Shout them tame and mountable.

 

Disarm- DONE

 

Tier 1: Wrench the weapon from your opponent's grasp.

Tier 2: If your foe has a shield, it too will fly from their hands.

Tier 3: You claim your opponent's weapon as your own.

 

Dismay-

 

Tier 1: The lesser creatures of Skyrim flee before you.

Tier 2: Beasts and undead become subject to your heart-stopping cry.

Tier 3: No mortal can stand against your bringing of doom.

 

Dragonrend- DONE

 

Tier 1: You strike at a dragon's soul with your Thu'um, weakening its ability to fly (attempts to force a landing)

Tier 2: Your Voice heralds a dragon's ultimate fear: mortality. You sever a dragon's connection to its blood, granting crippling weakness and the loss of the ability to Shout.

Tier 3: No dragon, not even Alduin the World Eater himself, can experience your Thu'um without feeling it's ultimate peril.

 

Drain Vitality- DONE

 

Tier 1: Coax stamina from your foe and take it for yourself.

Tier 2: Coax stamina and magicka from your foe and take it for yourself.

Tier 3: Coax stamina, magicka, and health from your foe and take it for yourself.

 

Elemental Fury- DONE

 

Tier 1: You imbibe your weapon with the power of the winds, enabling faster strikes.

Tier 2: Your weapon gains the power of the elements of Magic, granting bonus fire, frost, and shock damage.

Tier 3: The elements are as much your foe's enemy as they are your friend, and your strikes grant him weakness to all.

 

Fire Breath- DONE

 

Tier 1: Burn your foes with the fierce fires of the Dovah.

Tier 2: Your flaming wrath lingers upon your foe long after the inital blast, causing slow damage over time.

Tier 3: Your Thu'um flashes with the strength of Red Mountain itself, incinerating lesser foes.

 

Frost Breath- DONE

 

Tier 1: Your breath is of Atmora, freezing the life out of your foes.

Tier 2: Your foes extremities become frostbitten, severely hampering their movement and damage potential.

Tier 3: Your Breath is pure ice, briefly freezing your opponent solid.

 

Ice Form- DONE

 

Tier 1: Freeze your opponent solid.

Tier 2: The frigid ice bites away at your foe while he is encased, dealing damage over time.

Tier 3: Yours is the ice of Atmora, and cannot be broken by any mortal means.

 

Kyne's Peace-

 

Tier 1: All creatures your Thu'um touches are pacified.

Tier 2: All creatures in the area are pacified.

Tier 3: Creates an aura of peace around you, all animals and beasts that enter will be pacified.

 

Marked for Death- DONE

 

Tier 1: Your foe's physical armor vanishes, rendering him quite vulnerable.

Tier 2: Your foe's willpower is stunted, granting him a further massive weakness to magic attacks.

Tier 3: The air of doom overcomes your opponent's very mind, sending him into a blood-crazed frenzy.

 

Slow Time-

 

Tier 1: Time is slowed.

Tier 2: While time is slowed, your damage output is increased.

Tier 3: While time is slowed, any who gets close to you gets staggered.

 

Soul Tear- DONE

 

Tier 1: Bind you foe's life essence, allowing for a soul trap to be performed.

Tier 2: Your voice heralds death, striking down all but the most hardy.

Tier 3: Your dead foe's body becomes your slave in reanimation.

 

Storm Call-

 

Tier 1: Summons a devastating lightning storm.

Tier 2: While the great storm rages, your followers will be immune to its effects.

Tier 3: Your voice marks targets, who will take massively increased damage from the lighting.

 

Throw Voice-

 

Tier 1: Create an illusionary sound nearby.

Tier 2: Your Voice creates a decoy, enticing those nearby to battle.

Tier 3: Any who hit your decoy will become confused, unable to discern friend from foe and will attack anyone in range.

 

Unrelenting Force- DONE

 

Tier 1: Stagger your foe.

Tier 2: Knock your foe to the ground (very mild push effect). Your Voice now staggers very large foes.

Tier 3: Sweep your foes off their feet and send them flying. Your Voice will now also knock down very large foes and potentially stagger dragons.

 

Whirlwind Sprint- DONE

 

Tier 1: Dash forward with unheard of speed.

Tier 2: Your speed becomes forceful, staggering anyone who gets too close.

Tier 3: You ride a current of raw power, knocking away anyone who dares come too close.

 

If a shout is not listed here, it is because the effects it provides in its vanilla state were deemed to be sufficiently powerful enough to be worth use, and as such were not changed, their use is strictly story-related and did not warrant changing, or was a summoning Shout that would cease making sense if empowered at lower levels. These include:

 

Call Dragon

Call of Valor

Clear Skies

Summon Durnehviir

Cyclone

Dragon Aspect

[Thomas Kaira]

Update: unfortunately the damage reduction for Frost Breath had to be scrapped due to engine limitations (NPCs cannot receive new perks at runtime and perks are the only way to give out damage multipliers).

[Thomas Kaira]

Musing: The Shouts as I am changing them are to be considered this game's "Ultimate Abilities" in a way. At their final, most powerful tiers, they are meant to be game-changers, used in clutch situations to change the course of battle completely and entirely. The first two tiers are the warm-up, and what you will want to use if the battle at hand does not require much extra intervention, and will also allow you to Shout much more frequently. The final tier, the most powerful iteration of the Shout, can sow mass destruction and is not to be used lightly. As such, almost all final-tier Shouts (only the completely passive ones will be unaffected) will have VERY long cooldown times of at least 3 minutes.

 

Every RPG needs its Ultimates. Skyrim's are Shouts, and I intend to make them so.

[Ysne58]

Nice.  You still have your own sub-forum over at DC.  Feel free to also post there.

[Deathbydestiny]

This looks awesome indeed. Shouts were the main focus of the game and yet they seem like tacked on gimmicks. With this, you already had me sold at the fact that they break wards! One of the biggest annoyences