Eight New Lore-Friendly and Balanced Races by Budcat
Eight non-intrusive, lore-friendly and balanced new playable races.
Eight New Playable Races — Version 4.0
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Now with working Werewolf Beast Form and Vampire Lord Form
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Narcissistic Diatribe:
If you played Oblivion like me then you had over fifty characters.
Anticipating that, I created this mod in the hopes of creating a few new playable races that were intrinsic to the universe in which Skyrim takes place and do not defeat the experience of the game. That way I would have even more diversity than just perk selection to differentiate my characters. This brings the available races count to 18.
Relevant Mod Information:
My goal was a “plug-in and forget” mod with no complications or incompatibilities. All of them were made by swapping the bodies of existing races and altering their tint and proportions, so this should be compatible with just about any other mod.
Only the Sea Elf and Lilmothiit utilize new textures, but with the right customization in character creation you can start to find a good feel for the new racial features.
I read up on Elder Scrolls canon to make sure that everything felt true to the universe.
Each new race has brand new working racial abilities, daily powers and/or lesser powers. Everything is fully functional and has working in-game sound and graphical effects.
With the exception of the Sea Elf and Lilmothiit race, which glitch if you adjust the Complexion bar during character creation (but are otherwise adjustable,) every race can be fully customized at character creation, like any other race. If for any reason it seems like some features are frozen, try adjusting the preset character in the beginning of character creation and then retry, it should work.
All new races have a unique size and weight unshared by other Budcat or Vanilla races, giving them a unique size and graphical feel. The character creation pictures I uploaded don’t seem to do the scaling of the races justice.
The New Options:
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For those who wish to have their new races become vampire lords or werewolves, a necessary script update has been added. Including this mod with the race mod will ensure full functionality as a werewolf or vampire. The script changes will conflict with any mod that changes the two relevant scripts (PlayerVampireQuestScript and CompanionsHouseKeepingScript).
I have also uploaded a Lilmothiit-free Seven Races by Budcat file for people who do not find the Lilmothiit to their taste. It has all of the other seven and is otherwise unchanged. A Script Fix for the Seven Races Edition is also available.
Also, I have uploaded a new unarmed fighting mod called New Unarmed Hand to Hand Skill by Budcat, and have created compatible versions of this mod to go along with it. If you want to use this mod with the new unarmed fighting mod, download and install both and ensure that the New Hand to Hand Skill mod is loaded before your New Playable Races w/ Unarmed Compatibility mod. I.e., make sure New Hand to Hand Skill is higher up the list. I created compatible versions for both the regular and No Lilmothiit editions of this mod.
A detailed description of each new races’ features below:
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Ayleid
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Skill Bonuses
Altr:+10 Dest/Conj/Illu/Rest/Ench:+5
Racial Bonus
Ayleid SpellWeaving: Spell Absorption 20%
Daily Power
Ayleid Snuff: Restores magicka to full.
Note: Using magicka before the bar refills will stop it refilling.
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Deep Elf
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Skill Bonuses
Smit:+10 Bloc/HvyA/Lock/Ench/2Hnd:+5
Racial Bonuses
Dwemer Craftsmanship: 20% Bonus to Smithing.
Daily Power
Steam Contraption: Fires a blast of steam.
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Forsworn
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Skill Bonuses
1Hnd:+10 2Hnd/Bloc/Snek/Alch/Lite:+5
Racial Bonuses
Resist Magic and Frost: 25% Frost Resistance in addition to 10% Magic Resistance
Soft Step: Muffled Movement
Daily Power
Forestwalk: Can go invisible for 90 seconds outdoors only.
NOTE: Using Forestwalk indoors will do nothing but use up the Power for that day.
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Half-Giant
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Skill Bonuses
2Hnd:+10 Lite/1Hnd/Alch/Bloc/Ench:+5
Racial Bonuses
Giant Blood: +40 Health
Hamfisted: +20 Unarmed Damage
Daily Power
Summon Spirit Mammoth: Summons a mammoth to assist in combat, for two minutes, outdoors only.
Note: Using Summon Spirit Mammoth indoors will also do nothing but use up the power for the day.
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Half-Goblin
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Skill Bonuses
1Hnd:+10 Alch/Dest/Conj/Arch/Bloc:+5
Racial Bonuses
Mixed Blood: 20% Resistance to Fire, Frost, Poison, and Disease
Racial Power
Goblin Frenzy: Attack speed is increased 25% for 60 seconds.
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Lilmothiit
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KNOWN ISSUES:
Changing the complexion bar during character creation will screw up the Lilmothiit race.
I included them mostly as a curiosity because they look hilarious and are mostly functional. They do not have a daily power because of the unique way in which Lilmothiit were modified as a race in the Creation Kit.
Skill Bonuses:
Snek:+10 Pkpk/Lock/1Hnd/Illu/Rest:+5
Racial Bonuses:
Vulpine Agility: Lilmothiit are quick on their feet.
Vulpine Heart Rate: Stamina regenerates 25% faster.
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Sea Elf
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KNOWN ISSUES:
Changing the complexion bar during character creation will screw up the Sea Elf race in Version 2.0 or later.
Skill Bonuses
Rest:+10 Altr/Conj/Dest/Ill/Ench:+5
Racial Bonus
Tropical Adaptation: Resist Disease 100%, Fortify Magicka 30
Racial Malus
Intolerance of Cold: Weakness to Frost 20%
Racial Lesser Power
Hold Breath: Waterbreathing for 180 seconds.
Racial Power
Nullify Mage: Reduce enemy’s magicka to 0 and reduce enemy’s magicka regeneration rate by 50%.
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Snow Elf
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Skill Bonuses
Arch:+10 Alt/Conj/Rest/Dest/HvyA:+5
Racial Bonuses
Arcane Predilection: Magicka +20 and Magicka Regeneration increased by 20%
Falmer Skin: Resistance to Frost 75%
Racial Malus
Sensitivity to Heat: Weakness to Fire 25%
Racial Power:
Eye of the Falmer: Double damage from bows for 30 seconds.
Installation Issues:
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Fresh installations can sometimes have issues that can usually be resolved by manually copying the .esp over from the .rar before installing through the Download Manager.
On “Lore-friendliness”:
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I say these are lore-friendly because they are built upon preexisting concepts in The Elder Scrolls. Not because they are all common citizens of Tamriel. A little imagination is required to accept a few of them, I admit, but it is not a Uruk-hai Race or Rat-man Race mod. If you are truly concerned with being “lore-adherent,” which I would differentiate from “lore-friendly,” then only play as Sea Elves, who live in abundance even in Skyrim’s era, or Forsworn, who I don’t have to convince anyone exist in Skyrim. Really I just think this comes down to semantics.
None of these races are added to the game as NPCs. You will not run into a Lilmothiit follower, or shop keeper, or enemy. They are only for character creation. So if you don’t want to use one or more particular race, that is entirely up to you.
I include this only because people seem to be feeling as though I included “lore-friendly” as a sort of lure to a deceitful mod. That was not the intention. It is merely a dispute over what qualifies as “lore-friendly.”
Converting to Master File/Creating NPCs using This Mod
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People have asked me about creating NPCs with this mod. Many who have attempted get unexpected crashes and it is indeed impossible without some tweaking. It is a bit of a complicated process, a lot of steps, but they are easy steps. It involves creating a master file so Skyrim has essentially constant access to the mod information, preventing crashes. Custom race mods should be converted to master files if you have interest in creating anything other than a Playable Character. This process is universal for all custom race mods. The process is as follows:
1. Duplicate my race mod’s .esp (i.e. New Playable Races by Budcat.esp and New Playable Races by Budcat – Copy.esp)
2. Rename mod copy and change file extension from .esp to .esm (NPR by Budcat – Copy.esp ==> NPR by Budcat Master.esm)
3. Download tesvsnip from Nexusmods
4. Open mod copy file (NPR by Budcat Master.esm) in tesvsnip
5. Find and double click on the tes4 header on the tree on the left, a dialog box with lots of checkable boxes should appear
6. Check top left box : esm
7. Save file as .esm (Master File)
8. Bring the new .esm to the top of your mod load order, just below other esm’s
9. Create npc esp’s with esm loaded as master file in the Creation Kit
You can also change the original without duplicating the mod but it will corrupt any prior saved games. It will also become impossible to edit the file without converting it back, as the Creation Kit will not allow you to overwrite a master file. If you make changes to customize your .esp, you must delete your master file and duplicate a new one or they will conflict and likely cause a crash.
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Known Issues
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1) Cannot change the complexion slider for the Sea Elf and Lilmothiit race.
2) Female Lilmothiit head does not mesh perfectly with the body, and
3) Lilmothiit can look messed up if you try to make them bald.
