Tired of the College of Winterhold not actually teaching you any magic? Tired of jumping into Saarthal after your very first lesson? This mod provides 7 new starter magic lessons/quests to make your College of Winterhold feel like an actual school of magic.
Requirements
This mod does not have any known dependencies other than the base game.
Other user's assetsAll the assets in this file belong to the author, or are from free-to-use modder's resources
Upload permissionYou are not allowed to upload this file to other sites under any circumstances
Modification permissionYou must get permission from me before you are allowed to modify my files to improve it
Conversion permissionYou are not allowed to convert this file to work on other games under any circumstances
Asset use permissionYou must get permission from me before you are allowed to use any of the assets in this file
Asset use permission in mods/files that are being soldYou are not allowed to use assets from this file in any mods/files that are being sold, for money, on Steam Workshop or other platforms
Asset use permission in mods/files that earn donation pointsYou are not allowed to earn Donation Points for your mods if they use my assets
Author notes
Reach out and say hello! Most likely the answer is yes. Or 42. One of the two.
File credits
Jiffyadvent for the magic icons used in this mod page
College of Winterhold - Quest Expansion -Mandarin Translation
Changelogs
Version 1.15
ESL flagged. Small update. Safe to update mid-game.
Fixed a rare bug that could make the restoration quest impossible to complete if you killed the draugr while having one of the involved draugr raised as a zombie.
Made the teleport option from Arniel a bit more robust, including forcing Arniel to stop moving after teleporting and just wait for you there.
You can now ask Arniel to teleport after telling him you need more time before you embark on the quest.
Changed the objective text from "Complete 7/7 College Lessons" to "Complete The Last Lesson", because some of you were getting confused with the 7/7 part, thinking you had done the last one. Not sure if this helps... but maybe?
Also: Happy anniversary, Skyrim. I have a little something to celebrate your birthday: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/103440
Version 1.14
Safe to update mid-game. Small update.
Added an option to get Arniel to directly meet you at the location he wants you to go to. This is useful if you've got a lot of mods around Winterhold and can't get him to travel there on foot. Or if you can't stand travelling with NPCs.
You can select the option to meet him there from the start, OR if he's got stuck mid-travel, just talk to him a couple of times and the dialogue to go there directly will reappear.
Version 1.13
Safe to update mid-game. Tiny update.
Added two missing lip files for two minor dialogue lines. These are the files that make the lips of the characters move.
Reduced file size of the mod considerably (From 74mb to 10mb). You're probably going to see this trend in all my mods going forward.
My latest Quest Expansion is now out, BEHOLD: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/94863/
Version 1.12
Safe to update mid-game. Small update.
Fellow mod author io121 surprised me yesterday with a tweaked outfit for Adara, so it looks like it actually fits her. This will be noticeable if not using the RS patch, as RS uses its own body and a different set of clothes. However, both RS and non RS versions of Adara now benefit from amazing mage boots for kids. Woo! For those of you unaware of this mod author, they've made a bunch of hidden gems that deserve more recognition. I personally can recommend Juniper's Frostflow Lighthouse: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/59248
If skipping a lesson, the dialogue for starting that lesson would remain available (and no longer working). This is now fixed. Thanks to Belegost for the report!
Reminder that if Arniel gets stuck, spamming the activate/talk key on him will teleport him to his destination. He even has a custom fun lines for this. "This is... awkward. Let's forget this ever happened, alright?"
My new Quest Expansion now available, in case you're interested. Innocence Lost - Quest Expansion: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/80974
Version 1.11
Mini update, safe to update mid-game.
Reduced the frequency of Adara's lines once she's in the college, as well as her mother's idle lines. They should now repeat them way less than before.
"Enchantment Table Fix" as an optional file. If you're playing the VR version of the game or you're having issues with enchanting the weapon for Sergius, you should download this. This optional file basically bypasses the game checking if you actually enchanted the weapon or not. The only thing it checks is if you still have the dagger in your inventory before you can tell Sergius you've done what he asked. In theory, the dagger is used (and lost) while you enchant the item, but if you wanted to cheat, you could also throw it to the ground and talk directly to Sergius. But you could as well, you know, use a console command to bypass the entire mod, so don't.
Version 1.10
Greetings Apprentice! This update brings some enhancements and small fixes to the mod. Thanks to everyone that has played the quest and provided feedback, you all rock <3
Safe to update mid-game.
PROTECTED ENEMIES: Some quest enemies that are part of lessons like draugr, ice-wraith or skeevers could be killed by other NPCs, preventing you from making use of your spells to finish their quests properly and resulting in angry scholars. I've marked these quest enemies (at least one of each group) as protected so only the player can kill them. This fix might not be applied in existing saves (unsure) but it's safe to update either way.
ADARA ANIMATION: Changed one Adara animation that could (possibly) cause a glitched animation during one of her scenes.
EASIER CRYSTAL MARKER: Moved the "general area" marker for finding the crystal closer to the location where the crystal is, to make the search less frustrating.
FROSTFALL/COLD MODS HELP: You can now ask Arniel to make a fire right away once you arrive at the quest destination. Alternatively, he makes the fire automatically once you recover the crystal. This should help with users of cold-needs mods.
FRENZY OR FURY?: Removed the name of the illusion spell from the quest description, as some mods change this and could make it confusing.
ONLY SCRATCHED THE SURFACE?: Deleted one instance of the line "Keep Studying, you've only scracthed the surface" and replaced it with something else to make it not as repetitive in the mod. Stop making fun of that dialogue, there are only so many available recorded lines in the game haha
FARALDA 2.0: Faralda has received 3 revamped lines with more exposition when returning to her after completing her quest the right way.
DAVID VS GOLIATH: Some of you smart people have managed to make the conjuration quest not make any sense by having the tiny and weak wolf familiar defeat the massive and powerful frost atronach. I've made the Atronach even more OP, so it's even less likely you will get to kill it. It's not a big deal even if you defeat it somehow, the quest progresses either way, but the dialogue will make no sense then :P
Version 1.07
Safe to update mid-game. Very minor update. Only real reason to update is if you often use the CenterOnWorld (cow) console command.
Fixed an issue that could prevent using the "CenterOnWorld" console command when abbreviated (COW) - This is super funny and an interesting learning for sure. If you ever want to disable a console command, just create a global variable that has its exact name.
Made it so you cannot "skip" other professors classes via dialogue. You can now only skip the class of the professor you're talking to.
Version 1.06
Safe to update mid-game.
BUGFIX: 1.05 introduced a bug that made it so Adara would be at the wrong place at the wrong time, fixed.
IMPROVEMENT: Noticed that Adara could use some animations for her scenes. She now will play 4 or 5 fitting animations when delivering her lines.
EASY MODE: Added an optional patch to act as an "easy mode". Some people are REALLY struggling finding the crystal and finding the "secret client", so installing this patch puts a marker straight to them when the quest stage comes, so you don't have to look for anything and can just follow the marker to its destination.
BUG FIX: Fixed one Faralda line that didn't have sound.
BUG FIX: Forwarded some missing records from the RS patch.
BUG FIX: Marked the optional AYOP patch as ESL.
BUG FIX: Adara shouldn't enter the same room as Ancano during a certain fight.
BUG FIX: Phinis will ignore combat while he's walking to the courtyard. This looks hilarious, but should help with his AI breaking in case of a dragon attack. It's a super short trip, but just in case.
Version 1.04
Safe to update mid-game
This update changes only one thing: If Arniel gets stuck on his way to the location where you need to dive, you can talk to him and he will attempt to get there using the shortest route and without waiting for you. If he's still stuck, talk to him and he will simply teleport there instantly as a last resort.
This is obviously not the ideal scenario, as I carefully planned a beautiful route for the both of you that is cool, not very dangerous and realistic (he tries to stay on the ground and not swim there haha). But if you have some mod that changes the layout of the place or something that adds ton of enemies along the way, he could get stuck. With this update, you have this "failsafe" to make him get there no matter what, just by talking to him while he's "stuck" aka not moving.
Version 1.03
Safe to update mid-game.
Drevis' illusion quest could be autocompleted if you already knew the spell when talking to him. This is the reason the Skeevers wouldn't spawn in some cases. Now fixed! Have fun getting those skeevers confused!
Version 1.02
Safe to update mid-game.
Fixed an issue that made it so Faralda would NOT accept ending her quest if you didn't use the spell she gave you for it. She was not having any of it lol.
Removed some unnecessary files.
Version 1.01
Nothing big, don't feel the need to update.
Forwarded some minor USSEP changes.
Added optional compatibility patch for At Your Own Pace (hopefully)
Removed some files that were not used from the folder.
These quests are not your "save the world" epic questlines, but basic entry-level College of Winterhold apprentice lessons.
They all mostly follow the basic principle of: Talk to the magic professor, they will lecture you about their school of magic, teach you a new spell and provide you with a problem where you need to use the spell to succeed. Learn by doing!
You must complete these 7 quests to unlock the continuation of the vanilla College of Winterhold quest line (Going to Saarthal). This means when you first join the College, you will be "forced" to learn a bit about magic before being thrown into Saarthal.
All new quests are fully voiced using spliced dialogue.
There are no dead ends: Quests can be completed in any order and there's always an objective marker guiding you towards what you need to do next. In some cases, you can opt out of some of these quests or take alternative paths resulting in different outcomes.
Compatible with practically all college and spell mods, no patch needed.
SPELLS, LESSONS & QUEST BREAKDOWN
As mentioned, all quests follow the basic template of: 1) SPELL: Scholar teaches you a spell 2) LECTURE: They give you a mini lecture on one important aspect of their field of expertise. 3) QUEST: They give you a task where you can put the new spell to the test.
If you don't mind spoilers, a very summarized version of each quest and lectures can be found in the spoiler below.
Spoiler:
Show
(!)
1. ALTERATION: Tolfdir will teach you Waterbreathing, then ask you to journey with Arniel Gane north, where you will be asked to put the spell to the test and find some dwemer artifact in the Sea of Ghosts. An early variation of this quest can be watched in the video above.
2. DESTRUCTION: Faralda will teach you Firebolt, then teach you about the importance of using the most effective element against the right enemy. Then she will ask you to kill an enemy using your newly learned spell.
3. ILLUSION: Drevis will teach you Fury, then lecture you about the ways illusion influences the minds of your enemies. Lastly, he will ask you to put the spell to the test by making a bunch of confused skeevers be so confused that they hurt themselves.
4. ENCHANTING: Sergius is in a bit of a mood. He's VERY busy. If you manage to convince him that you can help, he will give you a simple task: enchant a weapon for a client of his. He will then ask you to deliver the weapon to said customer. However... things will not turn out the way you might expect in this quest.
5. CONJURATION: Phinis is not one to waste time. He will teach you how to conjure a familiar, then laugh in your face give you a lesson in humility. His lesson, besides the spell, is that every conjured creature has a purpose to serve... including the weakest familiar.
6. RESTORATION: Yes, this is a valid school of magic! Colette will share with you that not all restoration spells involve healing. She will teach you turn lesser undead and ask you to talk to Tolfdir, who's having a bit of a draugr infestation problem you might be able to help with.
7. KNOWLEDGE: Urag won't teach you any new spells, but he will give you an equally important lesson: the ability to judge and analyze the content of books as a true mage scholar. I hope you brought your reading glasses.
COMPATIBILITY
The basics you need to know: This mod does NOT modify spells, NPCs, the layout of the College or pretty much anything else. The only exception is one scene and one property in the initial vanilla quest (MG01). What this means is... this mod is pretty much compatible with everything. No patches needed.
COMPATIBLE (NO PATCH NEEDED)
- Improved College Entry - Questline Tweaks (Load my mod AFTER this mod!) - College of Winterhold Entry Requirements (Load my mod AFTER this mod!) - Spell Research - Better Spell Learning / Immersive Spell Learning / Chewing Sounds for Spell Tomes - Immersive College of Winterhold - Obscure's College of Winterhold - Ultimate College of Winterhold - Bibliophile's Arcanaeum - College of Winterhold NPC overhauls
INCOMPATIBLE - Not So Fast - Mage Guild > Not currently compatible.
- Andrew, Ares, Connor, Macpherb, RedNick, Panda Pancakes & everyone who is supporting me on Patreon or through other means Thank you! Your support means a lot
- Mern, EriBees, GreatPadinski, Urgie & RaccoonDance for helping out with testing If there any issues with the mod, redirect your questions and complaints to them directly. (Please, don't) - Parapets and Andrealphus for helping with some coding functions
- Is this the Ultimate College Mod Epic Quest I've been dreaming of? Probably not. I know some of you wanted a fundamental super expanded version of the College of Winterhold questline with new epic quests. If that's the case, I'm sorry but this mod is probably not what you wanted. Most of the new quests that I've added are quite simple. Don't get me wrong, they do their job just fine, but these are mostly "apprentice" quests, meant to make you use magic, get familiar with the scholars and give you the "feeling of being a magic student". In that regard, I think this IS a good mod, but if you were expecting something else, you might be disappointed.
- Does this modify what happens in the College of Winterhold vanilla narrative? No, the vanilla quests remain exactly the same as in vanilla. My problem with the vanilla College of Winterhold guild is that it's too fast, it doesn't feel like a magic school at all (you don't learn anything) and magic is not required to advance in the guild. This mod EXPANDS the College of Winterhold vanilla quest experience by adding a section at the very beginning where I try to address these issues, but the rest remains the same. Once you've completed these 7 new "apprentice" quests, the vanilla quests will continue as normal.
- Can I install the mod mid-playthrough? Yes, as long as you haven't joined the College yet.
- Do I NEEDto use the spells I learn in each new quest to succeed in the quest? Yes... and no. The quests provide the perfect opportunity and case study for you to use the spell that the scholar is teaching you in a relatively safe setting. It's up to you if you use it or not. The mod however DOES detect if you don't use the spells. Scholars will call you out and be disappointed if you ignore their lessons. There's also a final reward if you don't skip any quests and complete them in the proper way.
- Reward? What reward? So the real reward is all the friends you make along the way! (Lol). Also, you will end up knowing at least one basic spell in each magic school. However, there's a possible extra small bonus at the end. This reward, like in most of my mods, is mostly symbolic and non-permanent. "Apprentice's Boon" lasts 3 in-game days and will make your skills increase slightly faster (5% boost) during those 3 days. It's similar to the vanilla effect you receive after sleeping in a bed. But keep in mind you only receive this reward if you don't skip a single quest and complete them all in the intended way (by using the intended spells for each quest.)
- I'm lost. I don't know how to advance the quest. If you can't find the next quest giver, talk to Tolfdir. He can help you by showing you what quests you're missing. He can enable quest markers to any scholars you haven't talked to yet. If you're lost in the middle of a given quest, check the journal. Every step of every quest has a clear journal entry and objective marker.
- I'm stuck, I can't find the crystal for Arniel Gane. Good thing you have a waterbreathing spell with you! Okay, I'll give you some tips. It's in a dwemer chest that is brownish in color. There's a total of 2 chests underwater. The one you want is in the furthest part of the Dwemer underwater ruins near a half-buried broken head of a dwemer centurion. North-ish. If you really can't find it, watch the video showcase above. Or you can install the "easy mode" patch, that will put a quest marker on the crystal.
- Is it compatible with X college mod? Check the compatibility section above. Probably yes.
- What happens if I already know the spell the scholar wants to teach me? The scholar will be impressed/happy and will ask you to practice the spell, so everything will continue as normal. I've accounted for these situations.
- What happens if I want to skip a quest because it doesn't suit my character? (Eg: I don't want my character to learn a conjuration spell) I've added support to skip some of the quests via dialogue. If you're worried you might choose the wrong dialogue... Don't. It will be very easy to tell when this is the case, as it's very clearly indicated. Pretty lame of you to miss some of the quests though. Shame on you and your highland cow! I recommend doing all the quests, obviously. Some are quite the unexpected surprise.
- Why do scholars give me a spell tome instead of just magically giving me the spell? For native support with mods such as Better Spell Learning or Immersive Spell Learning. This way it works for both vanilla and modded setups, and it makes sense that you actually have to study the tomes and all.
- How natural do the new lines sound? Well, as natural as I could make them. I recommend checking the video above to see some examples for yourself. I'd argue I've gotten pretty good at it after making 500 lines for Bandit Lines Expansion, but there's always room for improvement.
I just checked the URL of this modpage... Do you worship the Devil? Did you join the illuminati? It was just a coincidence, of course... Hahaha HAHAHA HAHAHAHA
I want more mods! If you're interested in this mod, you might be interested in my other mods too. Here's a summary of all my main releases these past 2 years! Yep, it's been 2 years since I published my first mod. It's been quite the journey. Take a look.