Spell Research
Adds a completely new system to research and discover spells from any supported spell mod. As well as adding an in-built spell tome and scroll crafting system, a Victorian-Era style alchemy system, where you can dissolve items, and mix or analyze the resultant solutions, and expands the lore of magic with dozens of texts and artifacts to find.
I always felt that there was something missing in the magic game play of Skyrim. You could become the arch-mage, ally of the Psiiic Order, and a master of every single school of magic, but you only ever got spells by buying them off of other mages. Other mods have already tried to alleviate this through other methods. Requiem gives you new spells whenever you get a new perk in a magic skill. And of course the excellent mod Spell Crafting for Skyrim adds in the simplistic yet effective spell crafting system from previous games. However there was something missing from these mods as well. Magic is not something you can simply understand by taking a perk, or meticulously craft to fit your each and every need. It is elusive, complex, it defies simplicity. To even attempt to understand it, you need to do what seemingly every other mage in Skyrim is doing; you need to do some research.
So, after over a year and a half of on and off coding, balancing, and testing, I bring you Spell Research, a truly different spell crafting system. With this system, by the time you actually become a master of magic, you will feel like you earned your place among legends. You will have spent days, weeks, or possibly months, of game time frantically spent studying spells and relics just to add one more spell to your repertoire. Additionally, new avenues of game play are opened up. You can finally roleplay as the cowardly scholar, spending all his time studying alone in a dusty tower. You can finally effectively utilize scrolls, once you write enough of them yourself with this mod’s in-built scroll crafting system. Alchemists will also have reason to use this mod, as you can now dissolve items using Alembics and Cauldrons, then analyze and mix them in a Victorian-Era-esque system to mass produce powerful alchemical solutions, or further enhance your knowledge of the magical world.
Still confused on what this mod does? Check out this guide by Goldymires:
In this mod, spells are not simple mixtures of cantrips or effects, but each spell is a completely unique piece of art, and each mage casts each spell slightly differently. Instead of studying what spells are ‘made’ of, you study how to manipulate and invoke magic. This system is told in terms of Archetypes, the elements and techniques you need to understand in order to cast spells. You can discover and study these elements and techniques through several ways. You can spend several in-game days studying your own spells in a comfortable tower. You can dissolve and analyze the tons of ingredients and potions you have stored. Or you can go out to find and study ancient text, tomes, and artifacts.
Once you have discovered and studied enough Archetypes you can then compose magical Theses. Using these you can try to compose a spell. The theses you use will determine what kind of spell you are trying to find, and what rank the spell will be. Even this is not cut and dry. Spell composition is not an easy task, and by default it will take a lot of trial and effort to compose your first spell. Even then, you may not fully succeed. The spell you end up getting will be drawn from a pool of spells, from your favorite spell mods, that utilize the archetypes you used.
You can also use the added alchemy system to gain more experience, or gain powerful solutions. Using the added Alembic or Cauldron, you can dissolve ingredients and artifacts you have found into distilled liquids. You can then analyze these liquids to learn more about spell research, or you can experiment with them to create and ultimately mass-produce powerful alchemical ingredients.
Adventurers will also be able to use this system, as they will find several relics of past experiments and research. Use these to gain more knowledge of spell research, or sell them for a fair few septims. Be warned that some of these relics are fragile and can break easily, while others are more than eager to break you.
This can be a confusing and difficult system. Thankfully I added several options via the MCM to alleviate this. You can change the difficulty of spell crafting at any time, you can add a hotkey to utilize some of your tools without opening the inventory, you can check your progress in researching spell archetypes, and if you are ever confused you can look at the comprehensive in-game guide.
Ultimately, this mod adds in unique and useful crafting systems, adds in dozens of interesting items to find, and opens up whole new avenues of game play. I hope you enjoy it.
This mod can be installed at any point, except when Urag is translating some of Shalidor’s notes.
You should install it with your preferred mod manager.
You should also install any supported spell mods that you want to import into Spell Research, as well as SKSE and SkyUI.
The supported mods are listed under the Compatibility section.
Once you have installed everything and loaded up the game, open the MCM menu, and click “Import Spells” under the options page.
Importing spells may take a few minutes, so wait until you are in a safe location before importing spells.
You should re-import these spells from the MCM menu anytime you install or uninstall a supported spell mod.
This mod can be uninstalled at any point, as long as you are not importing spells, researching, or are mentally exhausted.
Before you start your research into magic, you need to get some supplies.
A Research Journal: Can be bought from spell vendors or general merchants, or made at a tanning rack using leather and paper
A Quill, Ink, and Rolls of Paper or several Ruined Books
To start your research, you need to get discover and study some spell archetypes.
The easiest way to do this is to study the spells you know.
To do this select your research journal in your inventory, and select “Begin Research” while you have supported spells equipped.
(You can set up a hotkey in the MCM menu to use your Research Journal or Alembic without opening your inventory)
You can study your spells in two ways:
You can repeatedly cast the spells you have equipped. However, this can be very monotonous and tedious.
You can use your Research Journal again, and select “Perform Research”, you will then be able to study your spells for a number of in-game hours. However, this will leave you “Mentally Exhausted”, lowering your maximum Magicka. Simply sleep to recover.
When you are done researching, use your Research Journal and select “Stop Research”.
Once you have enough experience with spell archetypes, you can compose a thesis on one.
Use your Research Journal, and select “Compose Thesis”. You will then be able to write a thesis on any archetypes you have discovered.
Theses require writing materials, as well as sufficient mental energy, or Magicka, to write out the magical theory.
Writing theses will also leave you mentally exhausted.
You can attempt to write a thesis of any complexity as soon as you discover the archetype. However, more complex theses require more materials, and if you do not have the necessary experience with that archetype when you try a spell composition, then that thesis will likely have mistakes and the composition will fail.
Once you have enough theses you can attempt to compose a spell.
Again, use your Research Journal, and select “Compose Spell”. You will then choose which theses you will use in the spells composition.
The theses you use will determine what spell you are trying to find, as well as its complexity.
The complexity of the spell will be the same as the lowest complexity among the theses:
If you use all novice theses, you will get a novice spell. If you use several adept theses, and one apprentice thesis, you will get an apprentice spell.
Composing a spell will also require sufficient mental energy, or Magicka, and will leave you mentally drained.
To increase chances of success, use as many theses as you can, there is no consequences for using too many.
You should also have sufficient experience of all the archetypes you plan to use, and experience in the school of magic you are looking in.
To further increase your knowledge of spell archetypes, you can continue studying your spells, or expand your repertoire of studying techniques. However, I’ll let you discover them for yourselves, you can find the in-game books by Feros Nightfall to learn about these other techniques as well as some lore explanation. Alternatively, you can just look at the guide in the MCM to tell you about all of the items and systems this mod adds.
Or, if you are really curious and want to spoil the exploration, you can click the spoiler below:
Spoiler: Show
Well wishes on your studies.
