Introduction

There is evidently a lot of untapped potential in familiars for Skyrim. There are two spells and they tend to fall out of use later in a playthrough. It seems to have spurred mod authors on the Nexus to greatly expand on their functionality in innovative ways. I was particularly frustrated with the visuals.

The vanilla ghost wolf is pretty good, it matches with the effects applied to Skyrim's ghosts, but like those ghosts their unique look is ruined the moment they are hit by a spell. We see glimpses of what could have been in the 'Flaming Familiar' spell. The resulting creature looks like an element made manifest as a beast. The effect is achieved by applying a scrolling fire texture on to the base mesh of the creature, which also means that the effect works independently from Skyrim's shaders. The objective of these files are apply the same technique to Skyrim's other spirit animals and to modded familiars too.

In summary, Here are some advantages and disadvantages you may want to consider before downloading this mod.

Advantages

• Aesthetics: This is subjective, but I do feel they look more the part now of being magical entities of some kind.
• Shader Independent: The new spell effects are scrolling textures which are applied directly to the mesh, so the visuals won't cancel out when your familiar or ghost creature is hit by a spell.
  

Disadvantages

• Plugin: This is mostly a model replacer at heart, but I need an esp to connect the familiars to use my new meshes. By default, Skyrim's ghost wolf uses the ordinary wolf model.
• Expensive: Every new familiar needs a new model. The execution is cumbersome when compared to how dynamic Skyrim's shaders are.
  

The still images may not do the visuals justice, so please check the video to see these textures in motion.

All files will have modified the following Skyrim creatures...

• Companion Wolf Spirits
• Howl of the Pack Summons
• Kyne's Guardians
• The Wolf Familiar
  

When applying these visuals I had to remove the ghost scripts applied to each of the actors. I've been able to replicate all of the most important effects manually, by using abilities without recourse to scripts, but it will mean that these creatures won't turn in to a puddle when they are defeated.


Currently, I have support for...

• AndrealphusVIII's 'Fabulous Familiars': https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/52320
• Option2's 'Patronus Expanded': https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/38747
• SimonMagus616's 'Mysticism - A Magic Overhaul'. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/27839
• GoldenDragonRider's 'Enhanced Familiars SE'. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7355
  

With time I aim to add support for more mods.

I use Skyrim's vanilla effect and gradient textures to achieve my effects, therefore if you have downloaded a mod that changes them, then your results may differ from the screenshots. They likely might look better!

I've used the vanilla models for my new visuals, which will mean that if you've downloaded a custom mesh for an animal, then it won't be represented in familiar form. This is a temporary setback, as with the mod author's permission providing, I can make compatibility patches for those in time.

The Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch is not a prerequisite, but my files will not override any important bug fixes it applies to the aforementioned Skyrim actors.

Skeleton mods are fully compatible


These models arose as a biproduct of my work in to Heritage 2; that said, I encourage users who want to use my mod in the future to download a familiar mod of their own preference. My spells are designed for use by NPCs and any possible compatibility issues presented by familiar mods with Heritage 2 will be dealt with before release.


AndrealphusVII: Thank you for allowing me to work on the visuals for Fabulous Familiars.
Option2: Thank you for allowing me to work on the visuals for Patronus Expanded.
JPSteel2: Thank you for allowing me to use his models for the 'Bears of the North' optional replacer file.
GoldenDragonRider: Thank you for allowing me to work on the visuals for Enhanced Familiars SE.
SimonMagus616: Thank you for allowing me to work on the visuals for Mysticism.
Jonwd7: Thank you for releasing Nifskope, otherwise this mod wouldn't be possible.
Bethesda: For Skyrim and the Creation Kit.