Ace Sneak Tree Overhaul
More Thief-y, less Assassin-y.
Overhauls the sneak tree allowing a more passive approach rather than relying on sniping or multiplier stacking. Makes changes to how sneaking is handled to be more realistic at earlier levels while also nerfing some enchantments.
I made this mod because I wasn’t happy with my stealth builds becoming pseudo assassins. I saw that most perk mods continued this trend and I can understand the reason behind it being quests and events require killing but I wanted to try and avoid combat as much as possible. I removed the perks based around sneak kills completely, you can still get the base sneak multipliers and enchantments but no more x30 stabs. The other problems with sneak was heavy armour and traps. It was too easy to become a tanky thief and traps were a void with the light foot perk, those had to be changed. Then I started to brainstorm and research thief related tools and skills and made them part of the skill tree. The last problem is quests and events require killing so I made some powerful mines for different situations and purposes. One can still use a bow or daggers but mines remove the ‘combat’ part, you need to place the mines and then try to get the enemies to walk into them. I did my best to make everything as intuitive as possible and left information within the game itself through a custom voiced vendor named Rak. Get the perk and then ask Rak for an explanation. I had to make some edits to sneaking in general to make it more realistic and harder. I have not altered the other stealth trees, I’m fairly happy with how other modders have made them. If it wasn’t clear before, this is meant to be for thief characters. You have to play with that in mind, you’re going to have choose your quest wisely and not wait until your level is sufficient before you attempt to complete the quest. Roleplay!
I hope you have fun using this mod, it was quite a challenge for me to make but I learnt a lot. Let me know what you think and stroke my ego if you enjoyed it.
Perks:
A Kickstart perk – Receive all 5 surrounding perks to start your journey to becoming a master. You don’t have to take this perk to receive the other perks.
Stealth 1 and 2 – Similar to vanilla except less impacting and almost necessary to take at low levels.
Spit Out – Gain the ability to Spit out fires.(will be changed to blow out when I find the right projectile, blowing out makes more sense, right?)
Mine Placing – You gain the ability to use mines. Noise maker mines.(Mines are not good against dragons, do not waste them)
Heart Beat – If you listen closely, you can hear the heartbeats of those nearby. Gain the listen ability.(toggleable)
Light Gem – You gain access to the light gem which will tell you whether you’re in the shadows or not.
Sprint Away – You have learnt to sprint at a much faster pace at the exchange of some stamina.
Gadgets – Holy water mines, water arrows, and acid arrows are at your disposal.
Advanced Gadgets – Fire Powder and alchemical mines are at your disposal.
Silent Roll – No changes
Silence – Walking, running and armour weight affects detection a lot less.
Seek Cover – While sneaking and not moving, you can hug a wall a lot better allowing others not to spot you with the corner of their eyes.
Leap – You can now leap further and jump higher while sneaking.
Scout – A small sneaky animal scout can now be used to look around dangerous corners and activate traps for you.(Activate for invisibility)
Shifty Scout – You have trained the animal to safely pickpocket keys.(Activate to pickpocket)
Smart Landing – You learn to land on your soles better, preventing some of the damage from falling.
Empty Hands – While unarmed, you can sneak much faster.
Dash – While sneak jumping or rolling, you temporarily become invisible.(1min cool down)
*NEW* Enhanced Vision – Lightly detect others through walls(toggleable)
Items/tools:
Noise Maker Mine – Place the mine, wait 20 seconds, it’ll go off will bring nearby enemies towards the mine as you make your escape.
Water Arrow – Used for dousing flames.
Acidic Arrow – Used for getting rid of corpses. An anti necromancer arrow.
Scout – A small skeever scout that the player controls. Sneak+activate to pick back up, activate to check inventory. You should only ever have 1 in your inventory. If you wait around at the same spot you dropped it from your inventory, it should come back. You can still use it if it dies, just pick it up.
Holy Water Mine – Place the mine, when an enemy gets too close it’ll go off and damage all nearby undead greatly.
Fire Powder Mine – Place the mine, when an enemy gets too close it’ll go off and damage all nearby greatly except some races and dragons.(Cross coverage)
Alchemical Mine – Place the mine, when an enemy gets too close it’ll go off and damage all nearby greatly except some races and dragons.(Cross coverage)
Light Gem – Lets you know if the game considers the player to be in the dark or not despite what it looks like. Only weldable on the left hand.
A custom voiced vendor(Rak) at the entrance of the Ratway will sell you these every 24 hours when you get the perks. The light gem requires a diamond. Bring 1000+. You can find some basic items in other vendors and chests but Rak is your number one supply.
Mines are very powerful because it makes the assumption that the player will not have the combat skills required to complete certain quests. I tried to make it so the player doesn’t have a plethora of them by limiting the amount you can buy but it’s up to you. You’re only meant to use them when you have to, try to keep the damaging mine count below 5.
Changes to sneaking:
-You need to sneak into dungeons, don’t run or walk in or you will be detected.
-Lower levels need to walk more, wear light clothing, stay out of the enemies view, stay in the dark.
-Don’t bother sneaking close by behind an enemy at low levels, they can hear you now. Sneak level 65+ and some perks are needed.
-Wait times slightly adjusted, attacking enemies while hidden is punished more so.
-Always stay out of the enemies view cone. The view cone is closer to a human view cone now.
-‘God mode’ is a lot harder to achieve now through the nerfing of silence, muffled enchantments, smaller perk boosts. At level 100 you can’t just walk passed an enemy. You might get away with standing still in the dark though. I don’t think you can be a tanky thief without OP gear.
-Make user of arrows to draw enemies away.
-There are other minor changes, if you’re failing to sneak at lower levels you should probably get some training. Level 25 in sneaking is not going to cut it.
Known bugs:
Light gem needs to be re-equipped to get it to work sometimes. I don’t think I can change this.
Requirements:
SKSE
Suggestions:
I highly recommend the following for any sneaking based character. Gives the player more of a challenge.
ELFX – I will be uploading an ELFX version soon, you can still use the regular version but it’ll be easier since it’s so much darker.
Traps make noises and are dangerous – Traps are great.
Wiseman303’s Trap Fixes – Indiana Jones style swapping.
Better Stealing – Makes things easier, best to keep the threshold low.
Suspecious gaurds – Think like a thief and you won’t have any troubles with this.
Skytweak – Allows you to alter values I’ve changed to a more personal
If you like class and build related mods, check my other mods out!
