Why did I make this mod?

This target is too powerful for your illusion spells no more! 

Doesn't fury frenzy and calm magic kinda just feel horribly designed? Imagine being 4 perks into the illusion tree and at level 10, you can probably turn a level 50 giant into a fleeing chicken with a dual cast apprentice level spell. But if you're level 30 and you didn't put any perks in, none of your frenzy fury or calm spells work on even basic archer on the wall enemies.

Frenzy, Fury, and calm's "work if magnitude is greater than level, else, don't work" effects are a hallmark of horrible design, because level is part of how the game scales and combined with the fact that higher level spells provide marginally more magnitude and most of the ability to target higher level enemies is in the perks instead of higher level spells all comes together to mean that if you want to use mind altering effects to any non zero degree what so ever, there is a minimum amount of investment in the perk tree you have to do that only grows as the game grows later, and eventually outpases the perks in the perk tree all together. Otherwise you are locked out of the entire illusion tree save invisibility and muffle as you don't have access to any mind influence spells that work against any leveled enemies. It makes it very difficult to pick up illusion magic late into the game, use it sparingly as a secondary skill, and very daunting to ever legendary it. And while other mods have tried to fix it, they only lightly lesson the problem by adding a random component to the magnitude so that the magnitude becomes a new 'minimum level' by which higher level targets likely resist, but might not if you're lucky. But the entire mechanic is still dependent on you having the investment necessary to inflict these powerful effects in a single shot, and if you don't then you can't.

To me it felt akin to if a two handed weapon didn't do any damage to any enemy that a power attack doesn't one shot. Sure you can make the weapon randomly do a lot more damage, but it's still just not the best design. If I can kill people with two fireballs, why can't I frenzy people with two frenzy spells?

The Solution?


Now the fear frenzy and calm spells accumulate points of frenzy fury or calm effecting the targets mind once it's over a threshold, and the exact threshold is different for each effect. 

Frenzy is opposed by experience and it's threshold is twice the targets level (Accumulate same amount as spells previous magnitude) 
Fears is opposed by bravery and it's threshold is the targets current remaining health (accumulates 10x the spells previous magnitude)
Calm is opposed by the will to fight and it's threshold is stamina (accumulates 10x the spells previous magnitude)

So if a target is level 13 and you have a 4 level fury spell if you can cast it on them 7 times in 30 seconds they will begin to fury. The base spells are unchanged, and all the perks and abilities that effect illusion magnitude still effect the magnitude in this mod. It works for spells, poisons, and enchantments, and you can even mix and match them, put a poison of fear on an enchanted axe of fear and build the fear faster. Finally get some use out of those pitifully small frenzy poisons you see everywhere that are just always a level so low they only work on stuff that you one shot anyways. And thanks to the new design changes, poison resistance and magic resistance also can protect your enemies from your illusion effects, so illusion mages have much more to consider and don't just one tap effect any target regardless of circumstances. The degree to which this improves your game play weather you sparsely use or exclusively rely on these magics can't be understated! 



Compatibility: 
Load this mod at the very bippity bottom of the load order. This mod only changes the vanilla magical effects, and not the spells.
That means it is incompatible with mods that change the fury calm fear mechanics at a fundamental level without a patch, such as Odin (Patch exists) and Path of Sorcery (Patch does not exist)

but is compatible with stuff that changes the spells (things that buff the numbers), or that add new spells.

It is not compatible with path of sorcery at this time, and I may need some help from the other mod author to insure that his mod works with mine.

It is compatible with Apocalypses spells of skyrim, because Apocalypses, despite it's large spell count, does not add any frenzy fury or calm effects. 

An ESL compatibility patch for Mysticism Odin and Ordinator are included on the mod page, I'll be making more soon. 

If you have any questions about compatibility, you can ask, and I'll try to answer.

If a mod adds new illusion spells that work similarly to vanilla ones and use the vanilla magic effects, they will use the new mechanic, but if they add a new magic effect that triggers on that binary threshold then this mod won't effect it in anyway, and it will function by the mod authors intended mechanics. 

It's very difficult to tell if a new spell uses a new magic effect. You can be certain it does if the spell makes different sounds, uses different visual effects, or applies the effect in a new way such as touch contact or an aura or cloak, but when a mod like mysticism has spells that look, sound, and behave similarly to existing spells it's impossible to know without testing it or opening the creation kit. If you have any questions about compatibility with mods that add spells (or perks) feel free to ask. 
Note however: If a mod adds a spell with a new effect thus being incompatible, the spell from that mod will simply use the old mechanics while functioning perfectly, alongside my mod and the spells my mod effects, it won't break your game. And since calm fury frenzy mechanics that actually rely on the levels aren't that popular in other mods, this mod is compatible with most spell mods. 
If you encounter a spell that uses the old mechanics, (it's description isn't changed), tell me and I will make a patch as soon as possible. 

If you encounter a compatibility issue, as long as this mod is on the bottom, it shouldn't damage your game or create anything funky, if it does please lower it in the load order and see if the issue persists before commenting. The most likely thing you will see is if you have an incompatible mod, as long as mine is on the bottom, is just that one of the mental effects added by a different mod still using the old mechanics or something very adjacent while my mod continues to work. If you do encounter that however, please let me know what mod and I'll make a patch when I have the time.

Full disclosure, I'm also very new to modding and far more game designer than programmer. The kind of technical difficulties that happen before you even push play might happen. But if you're more knowledgeable about that stuff and find i do something bad with the file. Tell me. I'll learn. I'll fix it. I fix things fast

I'm currently making a full game perk overhaul that will incorporate this mod because the illusion perks will be built around it. So that's exciting. Hope to see you guys soon!

ADDITIONAL COMPATABILITY NOTE: This mod uses the player exclusive actor values HeavyArmorSkillArmorAdvance, SpeechSKillAdvance, and BlockSkillAdvance as place holders for points of fear fury and calm so that the number does not have to be stored in a script that would slow the game down. This means that A: this mod is inherently incompatible with mods that cause illusion spells to work on the player because the effects will cause the player to level up their skills. (do note that, mods that simply allow NPCS to use illusion against each other, such as a follower that has an illusion spell in their arsenals should still work, since the player is tagged to be immune to every illusion effect) and B: That any mod that uses these same unused actor values will be incompatible due to illusion spells triggering the features of other mods, and other mods causing targets to become easier or harder to influence. 

I had a look through of several mods that are known to use unused actor values, such as thunderchild an summermyst, and chose these actor values in particular due to not being able to find any mod that uses them. If you use an illusion spell, and any effects from another mod activate that are not supposed to, tell me and the author of said mod, however I'm not aware of any mod that would be incompatible, and the odds that one exist are widely improbable 

There is a mod that allows for the creation of new actor values called the Actor Value Generator that can remove this concern, in the future I plan to create a patch to remove this particular incompatibility, especially if I receive any complaints about incompatibility caused by unused actor values. However, I wanted the mod to have a version that contains no requirements. I'm currently working on college, and other mod projects though, so if anyone would like to make an Actor Value Generator patch for this mod, I encourage you to do so, just send me a message or leave a comment, and i'll update the description to link to your mod