Skyrim is a game famous for many things, having sold ridiculous amount of copies in its life time and the average player spending over 150 hours in game. To say that The Elder Scrolls 6 has a lot to live up to is an understatement. And while many players are satisfied with the vanilla copy of the Elder Scrolls 5, the most popular Skryim mods boast over 23 million downloads respectively. So, despite an enduring popularity, these fan changes say something about Skyrim.

Aside from UI and general bug fixes, the most popular mods in the game focus around Skyrim's magic. If there is one thing that The Elder Scrolls 6 should learn from Skyrim's modding community, it is to make magic more interesting. Unfortunately, many of the Skyrim schools of magic are underwhelming. This is especially true with the alteration school. When alteration magic appears in Skyrim, it tends to disappoint, with high-magic costs and relatively weak player character effects. Due to the popularity of magic/melee builds within the Skyrim community, it would make sense for The Elder Scrolls 6 to develop a more robust set of spells and arcane schools.

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The Odin mod for Skyrim is a popular one that reimagines Skyrim's magic system, and taking cues from how the Odin mod revitalizes magic would be a great idea. This revitalization includes radically changing alteration magic, the duration of spells, and how they scale between caster levels. The modder in question, Enai Siaion, aims to recreate spells that reference and reflect the lore of the Elder Scrolls games. For a game like The Elder Scrolls 6, respecting the lore of the series in its mechanics will be essential. As such, it would be no surprise to see an increase in the quantity and quality available for spellcasters in The Elder Scrolls 6.

Alteration Magic Needs To Change In The Elder Scrolls 6

Magic in Skyrim

The shimmering fields of alteration magic look incredible, but are unfortunately underpowered in vanilla Skyrim. The durations and effects do not quite match the potency of other schools of magic. Unfortunately, this makes alteration a much less popular form of magic among Skyrim players. For many players, this was disappointing, due to the series' history of amazing alteration spells in The Elder Scrolls. In previous games in the series, "alteration" had a whole host of effects. Unfortunately, these were lost in Skyrim. In The Elder Scrolls 5, there are 11 different magical status effects that alteration can imbue. In contrast, older titles like Morrowind contain over 18 discrete status effects that alteration spells can cause.

If The Elder Scrolls 6 took notes from "Odin - Skyrim Magic Overhaul," its range of playstyles could be even more diverse than the Skyrim mage builds. Obviously, spell-sword, destruction, and summoner builds are very popular in the game, as the respective schools these draw from are often flashier and more effective. However, in spite of the occasional spell use-case, alteration goes largely overlooked in Skyrim builds. While the other types of magic are certainly impressive, it is a shame to see a school of magic that has an important place in The Elder Scrolls series be left to the wayside by Skyrim.

How Does The Odin Skyrim Mod Change Alteration Spells?

atleration perk tree with all perks listed

In older Elder Scrolls titles, alteration spells did not just slightly enhance player abilities. Players could throw spells that increased enemy encumbrance, and even make their opponents fall straight asleep. These spells are not really available in vanilla Skyrim. Most of of the time, alteration spells are used to apply light buffs to the caster. Furthermore, the spell skill leveling in Skyrim for alteration scales poorly. This is due to how the spells are used: small pre-combat buffs do not lend themselves to repeated casting. As such, this skill falls behind other schools of magic that get cast more often.

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The Odin mod for Skyrim spell-craft harkens back to these abilities. New alteration spells can halt or confuse foes and even make them drop their weapons or equipment, and respecting the deep spell mechanics of previous games would be a huge boon for The Elder Scrolls 6. Old magic systems are not the only thing that The Elder Scrolls 6 should take from other games, but it would massively increase the range of magic playstyles available to fans of the series.

Magic from Skyrim to The Elder Scrolls 6

Left: storm atronach; right: Dragonborn casting a spell

Epic melees with titanic dragons was a main focus of Skyrim. The game's cinematic elements heavily relied on these huge creatures, and this feature certainly succeeded in selling the game. As these massive creatures were so pivotal in Skyrim, it seems likely that dragons will not be as important in The Elder Scrolls 6. In short, players might end up fatigued with dragons if the next Elder Scrolls title was also several hundred hours of fighting the winged serpents. If that is indeed the case, this game would be the perfect opportunity to make magic a focal point of The Elder Scrolls series again.

In previous games, the spell-crafting systems were so intricate that players could make their own spells. Interestingly, there are several rumors about making spells in The Elder Scrolls 6. These rumors imply a return to the spell creation mechanics of earlier games. For example, in Morrowind, players could combine up to 8 different spell effects from various schools of magic. The continued popularity of mods like Odin and Apocalypse for Skyrim show that fans are yearning for more diverse spells and arcana. If Bethesda choose to shift the focus of its series towards manufacturing magic, and the creativity associated with that from older titles, The Elder Scrolls 6 might have even better magic than Skyrim.

Skyrim is available on every major platform. The Elder Scrolls 6 is still in development.

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