Belua Sanguinare Revisited – Dynamic Vampires
A extensive dynamic Vampirism Overhaul Mod by Jakisthe and MofoMojo
1.3.9.3 Release is out and 1.4 Beta 3
1.4 Beta 2 does not require the DG Compatibility module but DOES require Dawnguard and SKSE
Note to Dawnguard Users: You must have Sumor Mortalis Forma UP when you enter Fort Dawnguard or you will be attacked.
Compatible with Vampire Predator Vision! Set BeluaVampireSightMode to 100.
-Heralded by TIME magazine as best vampire mod-
-Customize ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING-
-Interesting mechanics which WILL change the way you play, not just add one note spells-
-Fully fledged feed, fear, and starvation system-
-Multi-use abilities offering myriad tactical options-
-Extensively backchecked with intricate models to assure balance is #1 priority-
-Nothing is static, the world is alive, breathing and bleeding-
-Non linear, highly progression mechanics-
-Scare civilians about the monster in their town for actual gameplay effects-
Did you ever feel like vampirism in Skyrim is…lacking? That it, pardon the pun, kinda sucks? Well, your experience is about to undergo quite a change. No longer will vampires get the short end of the stick. No longer will they simply be “magic blood mages” with a idiosyncratic blood drinking ability. We didn’t think that was right for a game as grand as Skyrim. We looked to change that.
Where other mods either give you unrelated, overpowered, and entirely lore breaking abilities, BSR breaks new ground. Every vampire source from the last 2000 years has been examined to maintain the best possible consistency with real world lore, and the TES scrolls poured over time and time again to mesh it with that of Tamriel. From there, a professionally debugger with years of experience created an indepth, tactical, and intritcately interwoven skill and sustenence system to actually afford vampires options…not just giving them mechanically straightforward and overpowered abilities. This framework was then tested over the period of several weeks by dozens of beta testers, all of whom provided feedback, which we took aaannnnd…well. You see the result. A vampire mod to truly give them the place they deserve in the desolate north but distinct and useful. No, our vampires are a whole other being altogether. Man or monster, well, I can’t clarify that much, since it is up to you. After all, what is a man? But enough talk..!
Please read the included documentation for installation procedures, uninstallation, and deeper notes about the systems and spells. There are, however, some last minute changes that did not make it into the documentation, or were updated. Future revisions will include those changes.
PLEASE backup your save game. The scripting in this mod is extensive. Additionally, you MUST uninstall the mod via the uninstallation steps in the documentation once you’ve become a Belua Sanguinare Vampire.
COMPATIBILITY: Mods which alter the loot tables of all NPCs, and of course other vampire specific mods are not compatible yet! Custom races are working in the 1.3.2 Beta 4 and up. You needn’t activate the loot tables (it’s under a different load order), and…well, use this vampire mod 😛
First things first. In Belua Sanguinare, there are five levels or ranks, as opposed to the typical four from vanilla.
* Fledgling
* Risen
* Master
* Progenitor
* Sire
Doesn’t seem to be that different, but hang tight! Each level will grant new passive abilities, spells, powers and weaknesses but some things are shared between them all. More specifically, those general differences being:
Resistance to Disease
As a Vampire you are fully resistant to disease.
Weakness to Sunlight
In all stages of Vampirism you will possess a weakness to direct sunlight. Within the sunlight you will not regenerate Health, Stamina, or Magicka and you will take varying amounts of damage per second. These values DO NOT SCALE with your Player Level, only your Vampire Level. At the highest level of Vampirism you will take a larger amount of damage in direct sunlight
Trespassing
Vampires are mysteriously stricken with pain and suffering while forcing themselves into private locations. If you are trespassing you will take health damage at the same degree as you would with direct sunlight damage. As players are required to feed, you should think twice about trying to feed from victims that are in locations that you may consider having to trespass.
Weakness to Garlic
The common folk are very a superstitious lot, but they have good reasons to put their faith in lore. If they are carrying garlic, this can interfere with certain vampiric abilities you may have and you cannot feed from anyone carrying garlic.
Weakness to Silver
As a vampire, you will have a greater weakness to silver weapons that will become amplified as your rank increases.
Weakness to Fire
Similar to Garlic and Silver, vampires are less resistant to fire than normal. Don’t assume that Dunmer Blood will provide any protection.
Shrines
Shrines of the Nine can be deadly to the Belua Sanguinare Vampire. As you approach a shrine you will be blinded by it’s holy aura and begin to take damage relative to your proximity and Vampire Rank. In other words, get out of the Solitude temple!
Hunger and Satiation
As a vampire, you have a requirement for blood that must be satiated. If your satiation level gets too low you be warned by “Sangue Senso” being forced upon you. There is only one type of source that will provide the blood you need and those are living breathing victims.
There are six levels of Satiation
Nomal or Satiated – Level 5 Satiation
Unsatiated – Level 4 Satiation
Hungry – Level 3
Famished – Level 2
Ravenous – Level 1
Starved/Starving – Level 0
By default, your level of satiation drops a small bit every hour in the game and various strengths, bonuses, and weaknesses are applied at each stage.
The degree to which you can hide your true nature from others may vary depending on your vampire level and your level of satiation. If you allow your satiation to drop too much, you will be revealed and may be attacked on sight by guards and certain other citizens. Of course, that’s not to say there isn’t certain benefits to being a starving aberration…
Harvesting Hearts
At the early onset of the game, harvesting hearts from fresh victims is not such a necessity, however it becomes a primary source of healing and restoring magicka and stamina as Potions will no longer work and Restoration Spells become less effective on yourself as you grow through your levels of Vampirism.
Vampire Feeding
Feeding is your only source of satiation and will harm your victim depending on how hungry you are. If you feed upon someone, you will regain a certain level of Satiation back. Be aware, that feeding on a victim will typically do a percentage of damage equal to how hungry you are. You can kill by feeding too much.
There are three times you have the opportunity to feed each with varying levels of effectiveness.
Sleeping Victims: Feeding from sleeping victims currently works very similar to vanilla vampirism. For that classic taste.
In Combat: In combat, if your combatant begins to bleed out, falling to their knees, you can approach and activate them. Doing so will provide you the opportunity to Feed, making a right bloody mess of things.
Sneaking upon a Victim: If you sneak upon a victim and activate them you will be given two choices. Sneak Feed and Pickpocket. You will only be given the Sneak Feed option if you are NOT detected by the individual you are sneaking up on. Others may still see you. Thieving types, this one’s for you.
Carrying Capacity
As you rise in the ranks of Vampirism you will be stronger, and thus able to carry additional load that others could not.
Attack and Block Effectiveness
Your vampiric strength will also provide increased effectiveness in damage done by melee and weapon attacks as well as blocking effectiveness.
Vampiric Sprint
Vampires can sprint at faster speeds than others. The speed at which you can sprint will vary based on whether you are indoors or outdoors.
Healing Rates
Depending on which rank you are, and having less effective restoration spells, potions, and even food, your healing rates both out of combat and in combat are improved and get better at each rank.
Of course, we couldn’t stop there. With over two millenia of vampiric abilities for us to sift through, it would be folly not to offer at least some of them to the player! Nope, we have a whole suite planned out for you. Hopefully, they’ll meet the macro-level, tactical, and mechanically interesting level that our testers swore to us that they would. Let’s have a look, shall we?
===Fledgling Vampires===
You’ve contracted some kind of degenerative disease. At least…the healers all claimed it was degenerative…
Dark Sacrifice
Should a victim die and be reanimated after feeding, you can use Dark Sacrifice to kill the reanimated corpse and consume a portion of its health, magicka, and stamina. Tasty! Or…uh..so I’m told.
Drain Lifeforce
This will allow you to drain the lifeforce from others, doing 10 damage per second.
Sumo Mortalis Forma
For Fledgling and Risens, Sumo Mortalis Forma is a dual purpose spell. It alters your outward appearance so that you appear to others as you did before you were turned. It drains magicka at a fairly slow rate except when hungered. When you are hungered, the drain on magicka is more severe.
===Risen Vampires===
That was no ordinary affliction. You can feel your humanity slipping away, but as it spills out, it’s replaced with…
Dark Gift
You can use this spell to consume a portion of your health upfront for three times the return over a period of ten seconds. Be wary as this consumes satiation in order to provide you with such a boon. The amount of health consumed and rewarded is dependent upon your stage of vampirism.
Vampiric Command (Animal)
Risens are giving Vampiric Command (Animal) which allows them to command up to three Skeevers.
Sangue Senso
You can detect the blood of the living within 150 feet. This consumes no magicka and can be turned on and off
Immortui et Morte Senso
You can detect both the dead and undead within 150 feet. This consumes no magicka and can be turned on and off
Vampire’s Sight
Risens gain access to Vampire’s Sight, the ability to see well in darkness. The sight improvement is much better at night and provides the ability to toggle off or on permanently.
Sense Garlic
Risen’s gain the ability to sense the presence of Garlic in possession by others.
Vampiric Evasion
This is a latent power of vampires which allows them to detect certain attacks and with a quick exertion of speed, avoid the attack if they are quick to move from harm’s way.
Breath of Frost
The cold grip of the grave has done wonders on your respiratory system.
Vampires Speed
Vampires Speed is a power that increases your speed, but rather than just increase it to uncontrollable levels it slows time down at the cost of draining stamina. Once your stamina is depleted it will stop being effective. This power can be toggled.
===Master Vampires===
Vampirism. That’s what it is. Having embraced that fact, you have cast aside your mortal coil for one which is, if not springier, one at least a lot more versatile.
Vampire’s Kiss
Vampire’s kiss provides a way to charm an individual, forcing them to find the nearest bed and sleep. If you are trespassing and can charm the owner of the location you are in, the owner will no longer consider you as trespassing while under the effects. If the location is owned by a faction, you merely need to charm a member of that faction. Hot.
Sumo Mortalis Forma
Additionally serves to enthrall others by providing an increase in speech that counters your speech weakness.
Breathless
You may stay submerged under water indefinitely.
Slow Fall
Slow fall is a channeled spell that can be used to slow the rate of descent when falling.
Vampire’s Light Foot
As a Master, your feet can move quickly and with little effort. Also great at dances.
Ianuae Magicae
You gain the ability to teleport small distances up to 50 feet.
Spectralem Arma
You may summon an Etheral Axe to follow and serve you. It cannot be commanded but will attempt to protect and engage enemies.
Lumen Extinguere
With this power you can extinguish flames from sconces and carried torches. Doing so will also restore a bit of magicka. The amount restored depends greatly on your vampirism stage.
Darken
Using magicka you summon the powers of darkness to envelop you and your weapons. As you attack with them, you will deal extra damage and absorb that amount in health.
Blood Rend
Blood Rend is a Cloak Like spell which will rend the lifeforce/blood from victims within a certain radius, transferring their health to you.
===Progenitor===
So this is power, hmm?
Ianuae Magicae
You can now teleport approximately 150 feet away.
Vocare Caligo
This is a Power and as such can only be used once a day. It will alter weather allowing you to turn a bright and sunny day into a foggy, overcast one. It does not last forever, so use wisely.
Subvolo
While slow fall provided the ability to slow your descent, channeling your powers will allow you to levitate for a short time.
Dual Cast Perk
Currently only employed for Spectralem Arma. This perk allows you to dual cast certain vampiric spells if you do not already contain the Dual Cast perk for the schools that they belong to.
===Sire===
No, this is power. You can see why vampires were once so feared…and that fear will make a return.
New Command
Sire’s can command up to three of any combination of Sabrecat, Bear, Wolves, or Skeevers. None will attack the player unless directly provoked (attacked).
Absorb Racial Trait
When feeding on another, you will gain their racial powers and bonuses for three hours. If you use their racial power you will not be able to use it again for that 3 hour duration.
Ianuae Magicae
You can now teleport 300 feet away
Vocare Tempestat
Similar to the ability Vocare Caligo, this allows the Sire to also conjure a storm, providing twice as much available protection from sunlight.
Quasi Caligo
Outdoors, the Sire is able to transform themselves into a mist and fly around. They cannot do so if they are IN combat, but once in Mist form they will only turn back if they run out of magicka, get caught in direct sunlight or switch the power off (use power again).
Naturally, we were also on the lookout for players to be able to make a choice, as choice is the main tenant of the TES games to begin with. Depraved soul, desperate for redemption but unable to fully give up that delicious, delicious power? Will you steal men’s souls and makes them your slaves? Or will you be the only one left? Either way, that bloody path is never set in stone. This is accomplished through a dynamic and natural progression and regression system.
Progression and Regression through each of the levels requires certain conditions that must be met.Besides being noted in the incredibly helpful journal you receive, those conditions are:
FeedCount: Feed count represents how many times you’ve fed in a given level and how many times you must feed in order to progress to the next stage of vampirism.
SatiationDamage: Satiation Damage represents a total percentage of damage you have done to your victims when feeding on them.
SatiationKills: Satiation Kills represent how many people you need to kill or have killed by feeding, to progress to the next level.
Starvation: Starvation is the only means by which you can regress levels. You are considered to be starving when your Satiation Level is 0. In order to regress, you must starve yourself for a certain number of days.
Sleep: Sleep is the primary means to trigger a progression or regression once the other appropriate conditions have been met.
The Vampire’s Journal
The aforementioned Vampire’s Journal is added to your inventory on becoming a Belua Sanguinare Vampire. It is primarily used to track your progress through each of the stages, know your satiation level, how close you are to starving and to know what is required of you to get to the next stage.
Belua Sanguinare can be modified to suit your personal tastes in progression. Do you think it’s too easy to progress? Do you want to disable the ability to REGRESS altogether or do you simply want to cheat your way to the top? Disable Attack on Sight or enable Attack on Sight ALL THE TIME?
Well, I can’t tell you! At least, not here. That’s what the [much more in depth] release document is for! There are ways to alter juuuust about everything, so take a look.
