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About this mod
An overhaul of the smithing system, along with arms and armor.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
Hephaestus is a comprehensive weapon and armor overhaul that builds off the system introduced in Immersive Jewelry - breaking down ingots into bars and tabs and using those to craft items. This, along with the creation of alloys, allows for a much greater variety of materials, which makes smithing more interesting and immersive.
Hephaestus covers two areas: the smithing system, and weapon and armor stats. It does not touch or alter perks in any way and is compatible with all perk mods. This spreadsheet has a complete list of all the weapons and armor, along with new items.
Weapons and armor are divided into six tiers, based on the smithing perks required to make them. This has no effect in game, but serves as a guideline for adjusting damage and armor stats.
Tier 1 (Basic): Fur, hide, forsworn, leather, guard/stormcloak, Imperial light, (Imperial) studded, shrouded, TG, vampire, iron
Tier 2 (Steel): Banded iron, steel, bonemold, Dawnguard light, Imperial heavy, SC officer, TG improved, vampire royal, ancient shrouded
Tier 3 (Elven/Dwarven): Blades, elven, scale, chitin/Morag Tong, dwarven, falmer, steel plate, DG heavy, Guildmaster's armor
Tier 4 (Advanced/Orcish): Orcish, nordic, snow elf, imp. bonemold, heavy chitin, falmer hardened, nightingale
Tier 5 (Glass/Ebony): Glass, ebony, stalhrim, falmer heavy, amber, madness
Tier 6 (Dragon/Daedric): Dragonscale, dragonplate, daedric, dark, golden
Smithing
As mentioned above, weapons and armor are now made with bars instead of ingots. Hephaestus introduces a number of alloys that are easily craftable and can be bought - some can also be found as loot. There's an article with all the information on alloys, to save space here.
Here's a quick reference of what's required for items in general. Some items use part of a bar or piece of wood, but you still need the whole bar/piece of wood - the rest is wasted. The Armor section only covers "standard" armors - things like falmer, chitin, bonemold, and dragon armors use differing amounts of materials. The article on making patches explains both these points in more detail.
Weapons
* Battleaxe: 2.5 bars, 2 strips, 1.5 wood
* Bow: 0.5 bar, 1 wood, 2 strips
* Crossbow: 0.75 bar, 2.5 wood
* Dagger: 0.4 bar, 2 strips (the recipe requires 1 bar, makes two daggers).
* Greatsword: 1.5 bars, 2 strips
* Katana: 0.9 bar, 1 strip
* Mace: 1.5 bars, 1 strip, 0.5 wood
* Scimitar: 0.9 bar, 1 strip
* Sword: 1 bar, 1 strip
* Waraxe: 1 bar, 2 strips, 0.5 wood
* Warhammer: 3.5 bars, 3 strips, 1.5 wood
Variant Weapons
* Battle Staff: 1 bar, 3 wood
* Changdao: 1.5 bars, 2 strips
* Claymore: 1.5 bars, 2 strips
* Club: 0.5 bar, 1 wood
* Cutlass: 1 bar, 1 strip
* Dadao: 1.5 bars, 2 strips
* Daito: 1.3 bars, 2 strips
* Double Axe: 3 bars, 2 strips, 1.5 wood
* Halberd: 2.5 bars, 2 strips, 1.5 wood
* Longsword: 1.1 bars, 2 strips
* Ninjato: 0.9 bar, 1 strip
* Nodachi: 1.1 bars, 2 strips
* Quarterstaff (metal-shod): 0.5 bar, 3 wood
* Saber: 0.8 bar, 1 strip
* Scythe: 2.5 bars, 2 strips, 1.5 wood
* Spear: 1 bar, 2 strips, 3 wood.
* Tanto: 0.5 bar, 1 strips (makes only one).
* Wakizashi: 0.75 bar, 1 strip
* War Pick: 1.75 bars, 2 strips, 1 wood
Armor
* Cuirass (partial, like iron and steel): 7 bars, 3 leather, 3 strips
* Cuirass (full, like steel plate and most others): 10 bars, 3 leather, 3 strips
* Boots: 2 bar, 1 leather, 2 strips
* Gauntlets: 1 bar, 1 leather, 1 strip
* Bracers: 1 bar, 1 leather, 1 strip
* Helmet: 2 bars, 1 leather
* Shield: 4 bars, 2 strips
Breaking Down Items
Most items can be broken down for bars using the forge or leather strips using the tanning rack. Note that you only get 3/4 as much metal from an item as goes into it - this is a feature, not a bug. Weapons are a bit more cost-efficient; a sword, for example, gives you back a full bar.
* Ancient Falmer armor and weapons: Mairanium
* Ancient Nord armor and weapons: Iron
* Blades armor and weapons: Steel
* Daedric armor and weapons: Daedric metal
* Dawnguard armor and weapons: Steel
* Dragonbone weapons (battleaxe and warhammer only): Ebony. Other pieces cannot be broken down.
* Dragonplate cuirass/shield: Ebony, but other dragonplate armor pieces cannot be broken down.
* Dragonscale cuirass/shield: Quicksilver, but other dragonscale armor pieces cannot be broken down.
* Dwarven armor and weapons: Dwarven metal
* Ebony armor and weapons: Ebony
* Elven armor and weapons: Celestite.
* Glass armor and weapons: Moldavite
* Guard cuirass and helmet: Iron. Shields cannot be broken down.
* Imperial Heavy armor and weapons: Steel
* Imperial Studded armor: Iron
* Iron armor and weapons, including banded iron: Iron
* Nord Hero (armor) and weapons: Steel
* Nordic armor and weapons: Mythril
* Orcish armor and weapons: Azarim
* Scaled armor: Steel. Bracers cannot be broken down.
* Stalhrim armor and weapons: Light or heavy stalhrim.
* Steel armor and weapons: Steel. Bracers cannot be broken down.
* Steel plate: Steel
* Stormcloak armor: Iron
* Stormcloak officer cuirass: Steel
* Studded armor: Iron.
* Wolf armor: Steel
Tanning rack, leather strips
* Dark Brotherhood armors
* Fur armor
* Guard's fur boots and gauntlets
* Hide armor
* Imperial Light Armor
* Leather armor
* Stormcloak Officer Armor (all but cuirass)
* Vampire armor (all)
Weapon and Armor Stats
Weights: Weapon and armor weights now reflect the sum of the materials that comprise them, and no more. A steel sword, for example, is now 1.3 feathers: 1.2 for the steel bar, and 0.1 for the leather strip.
Values: Weapon and armor values are calculated from the cost of materials, plus a multiplier based on the tier (for armor), or the tier and type of weapon (for weapons). ALL items are now profitable to make, regardless of type or tier, though the profit margin goes down as the tier increases. In short: if you want to make money, craft weapons; if you want to make XP, craft armor.
Armor Rating: AR is based on the armor's value, instead of just being a random number. Vanilla hide armor (the lowest craftable armor) has 40% of the protection that daedric (the highest) does - AR 20 vs. AR 49. A little absurd, right? Fur armor, which is now the lowest, has AR 5, vs. dragonplate's AR 50. (Yes, dragon weapons and armor hold the top spot.)
Weapon damage: Weapon damage has been rebalanced. "Heavy" weapons (dwarven, orcish, ebony, daedric, dragonbone) generally do more damage than their "light" counterparts (elven, nordic, glass, stalhrim). Further tweaks may be forthcoming.
As part of the rebalancing, I wanted to make weapons more attractive by giving individual bonuses and drawbacks by type (you know, like they have in most other games). This was too much work, however, so I settled on a simpler system: the weapon's weight in relation to iron/steel (see the article on making patches for more details). They're divided into five categories, listed by material type:
Very Light (+0.1 speed, -0.1 stagger): Malachite, moldavite, mairanium, amber
Light (+0.05 speed, -0.05 stagger): Celestite, moonstone, quicksilver, stalhrim, tenebrium
Normal (no change): Iron, steel, corundum, corundum steel, dwemer metal, falmer, mythril, honed silver, azarim, vesanium
Heavy (-0.05 speed, +0.05 stagger): Silver, ebony, daedric
Very Heavy (-0.1 speed, +0.1 stagger): Forsworn, orichalcum, amentium, dragonbone
All "honed" weapons, like the falmer war axe and honed ancient nord swords, also have +0.1 crit multiplier.
Specific Changes of Note
* Corundum is back. Copper is no longer native to Skyrim and can only be bought or found as loot. Corundum can be mined as before and is used in various alloys.
* All armors require leather, not just light armors.
* Banded iron is now in Tier 2, steel.
* Scale and steel plate are now in Tier 3 (they require Elven and Dwarven Smithing, respectively) and use corundum steel.
* Silver weapons are steel coated with silver (one tab per bar of steel) and can be made with either Elven or Dwarven Smithing.
* Nordic armor is now light. After moving scaled and steel plate, there are only two light armors that can be made with the Advanced Armors perk - snow elf and nightingale - and both of those have special prereqs. Nord armor's EditorID and keywords imply that there was supposed to be a light version, and quicksilver is a "light" metal, so it made more sense to move it over to the light side. Also, it matches nordic weapons, which require Advanced Armors, not Orcish Smithing. I didn't make a heavy version because, according to lore, ebony doesn't mix with metals, and there wasn't anything else I could've used.
* Likewise, stalhrim has been changed - the light version uses malachite (quicksilver is a Tier 4 material, whereas malachite is Tier 5, a "light" material, *and* crystalline - it made much more sense), and the heavy version uses ebony. Stalhrim weapons are still made with ebony, but you can have either the Glass or Ebony Smithing perks, as opposed to just Ebony.
* Daedric items are made of daedric metal, instead of ebony and daedra hearts. Daedric metal ingots can only be forged at night, but items that use daedric metal can be crafted at any time.
* As mentioned before, dragon weapons and armor sit at the top, because they're worth the most.
* Madness arms and armor are now Tier 5; golden saint items were moved to Tier 6, because they use daedra hearts like dark seducer items.
Load Order
Hephaestus should be placed near the bottom of your load order, after any mods that alter metals, weapons, or armor so its changes take precedence. It is partially compatible with WACCF, since it doesn't touch clothing.
All esps have been cleaned and esl-flagged.
Patches for the following mods are forthcoming:
* Black Sacrament armor
* LotD
If you want to make a patch for anything else, feel free. The article on how to make patches should explain everything, or at least give good enough guidelines.
Hephaestus covers two areas: the smithing system, and weapon and armor stats. It does not touch or alter perks in any way and is compatible with all perk mods. This spreadsheet has a complete list of all the weapons and armor, along with new items.
Weapons and armor are divided into six tiers, based on the smithing perks required to make them. This has no effect in game, but serves as a guideline for adjusting damage and armor stats.
Tier 1 (Basic): Fur, hide, forsworn, leather, guard/stormcloak, Imperial light, (Imperial) studded, shrouded, TG, vampire, iron
Tier 2 (Steel): Banded iron, steel, bonemold, Dawnguard light, Imperial heavy, SC officer, TG improved, vampire royal, ancient shrouded
Tier 3 (Elven/Dwarven): Blades, elven, scale, chitin/Morag Tong, dwarven, falmer, steel plate, DG heavy, Guildmaster's armor
Tier 4 (Advanced/Orcish): Orcish, nordic, snow elf, imp. bonemold, heavy chitin, falmer hardened, nightingale
Tier 5 (Glass/Ebony): Glass, ebony, stalhrim, falmer heavy, amber, madness
Tier 6 (Dragon/Daedric): Dragonscale, dragonplate, daedric, dark, golden
Smithing
As mentioned above, weapons and armor are now made with bars instead of ingots. Hephaestus introduces a number of alloys that are easily craftable and can be bought - some can also be found as loot. There's an article with all the information on alloys, to save space here.
Here's a quick reference of what's required for items in general. Some items use part of a bar or piece of wood, but you still need the whole bar/piece of wood - the rest is wasted. The Armor section only covers "standard" armors - things like falmer, chitin, bonemold, and dragon armors use differing amounts of materials. The article on making patches explains both these points in more detail.
Weapons
* Battleaxe: 2.5 bars, 2 strips, 1.5 wood
* Bow: 0.5 bar, 1 wood, 2 strips
* Crossbow: 0.75 bar, 2.5 wood
* Dagger: 0.4 bar, 2 strips (the recipe requires 1 bar, makes two daggers).
* Greatsword: 1.5 bars, 2 strips
* Katana: 0.9 bar, 1 strip
* Mace: 1.5 bars, 1 strip, 0.5 wood
* Scimitar: 0.9 bar, 1 strip
* Sword: 1 bar, 1 strip
* Waraxe: 1 bar, 2 strips, 0.5 wood
* Warhammer: 3.5 bars, 3 strips, 1.5 wood
Variant Weapons
* Battle Staff: 1 bar, 3 wood
* Changdao: 1.5 bars, 2 strips
* Claymore: 1.5 bars, 2 strips
* Club: 0.5 bar, 1 wood
* Cutlass: 1 bar, 1 strip
* Dadao: 1.5 bars, 2 strips
* Daito: 1.3 bars, 2 strips
* Double Axe: 3 bars, 2 strips, 1.5 wood
* Halberd: 2.5 bars, 2 strips, 1.5 wood
* Longsword: 1.1 bars, 2 strips
* Ninjato: 0.9 bar, 1 strip
* Nodachi: 1.1 bars, 2 strips
* Quarterstaff (metal-shod): 0.5 bar, 3 wood
* Saber: 0.8 bar, 1 strip
* Scythe: 2.5 bars, 2 strips, 1.5 wood
* Spear: 1 bar, 2 strips, 3 wood.
* Tanto: 0.5 bar, 1 strips (makes only one).
* Wakizashi: 0.75 bar, 1 strip
* War Pick: 1.75 bars, 2 strips, 1 wood
Armor
* Cuirass (partial, like iron and steel): 7 bars, 3 leather, 3 strips
* Cuirass (full, like steel plate and most others): 10 bars, 3 leather, 3 strips
* Boots: 2 bar, 1 leather, 2 strips
* Gauntlets: 1 bar, 1 leather, 1 strip
* Bracers: 1 bar, 1 leather, 1 strip
* Helmet: 2 bars, 1 leather
* Shield: 4 bars, 2 strips
Breaking Down Items
Most items can be broken down for bars using the forge or leather strips using the tanning rack. Note that you only get 3/4 as much metal from an item as goes into it - this is a feature, not a bug. Weapons are a bit more cost-efficient; a sword, for example, gives you back a full bar.
* Ancient Falmer armor and weapons: Mairanium
* Ancient Nord armor and weapons: Iron
* Blades armor and weapons: Steel
* Daedric armor and weapons: Daedric metal
* Dawnguard armor and weapons: Steel
* Dragonbone weapons (battleaxe and warhammer only): Ebony. Other pieces cannot be broken down.
* Dragonplate cuirass/shield: Ebony, but other dragonplate armor pieces cannot be broken down.
* Dragonscale cuirass/shield: Quicksilver, but other dragonscale armor pieces cannot be broken down.
* Dwarven armor and weapons: Dwarven metal
* Ebony armor and weapons: Ebony
* Elven armor and weapons: Celestite.
* Glass armor and weapons: Moldavite
* Guard cuirass and helmet: Iron. Shields cannot be broken down.
* Imperial Heavy armor and weapons: Steel
* Imperial Studded armor: Iron
* Iron armor and weapons, including banded iron: Iron
* Nord Hero (armor) and weapons: Steel
* Nordic armor and weapons: Mythril
* Orcish armor and weapons: Azarim
* Scaled armor: Steel. Bracers cannot be broken down.
* Stalhrim armor and weapons: Light or heavy stalhrim.
* Steel armor and weapons: Steel. Bracers cannot be broken down.
* Steel plate: Steel
* Stormcloak armor: Iron
* Stormcloak officer cuirass: Steel
* Studded armor: Iron.
* Wolf armor: Steel
Tanning rack, leather strips
* Dark Brotherhood armors
* Fur armor
* Guard's fur boots and gauntlets
* Hide armor
* Imperial Light Armor
* Leather armor
* Stormcloak Officer Armor (all but cuirass)
* Vampire armor (all)
Weapon and Armor Stats
Weights: Weapon and armor weights now reflect the sum of the materials that comprise them, and no more. A steel sword, for example, is now 1.3 feathers: 1.2 for the steel bar, and 0.1 for the leather strip.
Values: Weapon and armor values are calculated from the cost of materials, plus a multiplier based on the tier (for armor), or the tier and type of weapon (for weapons). ALL items are now profitable to make, regardless of type or tier, though the profit margin goes down as the tier increases. In short: if you want to make money, craft weapons; if you want to make XP, craft armor.
Armor Rating: AR is based on the armor's value, instead of just being a random number. Vanilla hide armor (the lowest craftable armor) has 40% of the protection that daedric (the highest) does - AR 20 vs. AR 49. A little absurd, right? Fur armor, which is now the lowest, has AR 5, vs. dragonplate's AR 50. (Yes, dragon weapons and armor hold the top spot.)
Weapon damage: Weapon damage has been rebalanced. "Heavy" weapons (dwarven, orcish, ebony, daedric, dragonbone) generally do more damage than their "light" counterparts (elven, nordic, glass, stalhrim). Further tweaks may be forthcoming.
As part of the rebalancing, I wanted to make weapons more attractive by giving individual bonuses and drawbacks by type (you know, like they have in most other games). This was too much work, however, so I settled on a simpler system: the weapon's weight in relation to iron/steel (see the article on making patches for more details). They're divided into five categories, listed by material type:
Very Light (+0.1 speed, -0.1 stagger): Malachite, moldavite, mairanium, amber
Light (+0.05 speed, -0.05 stagger): Celestite, moonstone, quicksilver, stalhrim, tenebrium
Normal (no change): Iron, steel, corundum, corundum steel, dwemer metal, falmer, mythril, honed silver, azarim, vesanium
Heavy (-0.05 speed, +0.05 stagger): Silver, ebony, daedric
Very Heavy (-0.1 speed, +0.1 stagger): Forsworn, orichalcum, amentium, dragonbone
All "honed" weapons, like the falmer war axe and honed ancient nord swords, also have +0.1 crit multiplier.
Specific Changes of Note
* Corundum is back. Copper is no longer native to Skyrim and can only be bought or found as loot. Corundum can be mined as before and is used in various alloys.
* All armors require leather, not just light armors.
* Banded iron is now in Tier 2, steel.
* Scale and steel plate are now in Tier 3 (they require Elven and Dwarven Smithing, respectively) and use corundum steel.
* Silver weapons are steel coated with silver (one tab per bar of steel) and can be made with either Elven or Dwarven Smithing.
* Nordic armor is now light. After moving scaled and steel plate, there are only two light armors that can be made with the Advanced Armors perk - snow elf and nightingale - and both of those have special prereqs. Nord armor's EditorID and keywords imply that there was supposed to be a light version, and quicksilver is a "light" metal, so it made more sense to move it over to the light side. Also, it matches nordic weapons, which require Advanced Armors, not Orcish Smithing. I didn't make a heavy version because, according to lore, ebony doesn't mix with metals, and there wasn't anything else I could've used.
* Likewise, stalhrim has been changed - the light version uses malachite (quicksilver is a Tier 4 material, whereas malachite is Tier 5, a "light" material, *and* crystalline - it made much more sense), and the heavy version uses ebony. Stalhrim weapons are still made with ebony, but you can have either the Glass or Ebony Smithing perks, as opposed to just Ebony.
* Daedric items are made of daedric metal, instead of ebony and daedra hearts. Daedric metal ingots can only be forged at night, but items that use daedric metal can be crafted at any time.
* As mentioned before, dragon weapons and armor sit at the top, because they're worth the most.
* Madness arms and armor are now Tier 5; golden saint items were moved to Tier 6, because they use daedra hearts like dark seducer items.
Load Order
Hephaestus should be placed near the bottom of your load order, after any mods that alter metals, weapons, or armor so its changes take precedence. It is partially compatible with WACCF, since it doesn't touch clothing.
All esps have been cleaned and esl-flagged.
Patches for the following mods are forthcoming:
* Black Sacrament armor
* LotD
If you want to make a patch for anything else, feel free. The article on how to make patches should explain everything, or at least give good enough guidelines.