Race Balancing Project Version 10.5

I was very disappointed with the races and birthsigns. Too many features and effects concerning races and birthsigns were equivalent from a game mechanic view, and the balancing in my humble opinion was horribly broken. This is my attempt to fix this.

Please do yourself a favour and read the installation guide. Seriously, otherwise trolls will come out of your monitor and eat your keyboard!

If you want to continue an existing character, be it from previous versions or from Vanilla, use this console command: startquest bgbupdate
Otherwise the trolls will appear. For any existing char, which wasn't stated with Version 10.0 (or above), this command has to be used. Except nonincluded custom races, that is. Also if you're playing a Xivilai or Daedra Seducer from 10.0, please use startquest bgbupdate, too.

Content:
1. Installation - must read
2. Compatibility - must read
3. General changes
4. Races
5. Birthsigns
6. Updating of an existing character
7. Tables
8. FAQ
9. Including custom races
10. Acknowlegdes

1. Installation:

1. Two separate downloads are required. One is the main download, which can be found here for the English version, and here for the German version. These are the plugin files. I have decided to use separate downloads, so you don't need to download everything again by every update. Meshes and textures don't have a habit of being changed once a month.
2. Make sure that you use the correct language. EV = English version, DV = German version. Other languages are not yet supported (see FAQ). If you install the wrong language, NPCs will become mute.
3. Additionally you need to download the installation files. Get the complete package here as regular file. Unzip all folders into your Oblivion directory. If you're updating from 9.x you can also just download only the new files, get them here. Remember, you're always needing the installation files, except when using the Light version (which is a separate download)!
4. All downloads come now in a "BAIN" ready format. BAIN is "bash installers", a feature of Wrye Bash. If you don't use it, then that's no problem. The new logic is this: The first folder (beginning with 00) contains the required core files, then all following folders contain optional files. Like body replacer textures when it comes to the installation files, or esp files with new features when it comes to the main files.
5. This project is supposed to be modular. Therefore there are a lot of options to customize it to your liking. Make sure that you understand what each is doing, before activating them or requesting anything.
   • Core files (they are the main plugin. Use only one of them):
     - the default one uses Capucines Eyes and is compatible with any Eye mod (via Wrye Bash) that is using the default eye mesh (former Bash tag Eye-D). It is required for both NPCDiversity modules. And about anything else.
     - the Light version does not include any new races, hairs or eyes. In a way it's "bash ready". You do not need the installation files for this. If you want to build up your own combination of cosmetic mods, this may be a good start. It's in a separate download.
     
   • Users without Shivering Isles have to use additionally bgBalancingNoSI_Core_still_required.esp, otherwise bad things will happen. As mentioned in the name, you will still need one Core file! (Not necessary for light version.)
   • What I should mention: Both normal and light versions are separate downloads. What's not part of the light version download, can't be used with the light version. Even more whenever something requires Race Balancing Project, it's always requiring the full version!
     
   • Optional files group I (additional features):
     - Less Health: A setting already part of many overhaul mods. Changed the starting health calculation from Endurance*2 to Endurance*1,5 (e.g.: A character with 40 Endurance will start with 60 instead of 80 hit points). One goal of this plugin is to make all races and birthsigns different, but equal in power. So while I made Bretons and Atronachs weaker, most other races and birthsigns are stronger than before. This shifts power from creatures to NPCs and the player. To counter that for the player, he gets less health. Which is what this Plugin does, so I recommend it.
     - OptionalClasses: Nearly all default classes of Oblivion were... let's say not advised to take. This plugin makes them at least playable, although not optimal - as ever it's still better to create a custom class, but should anyone really doesn't want to do that, this is an alternative.
     - OptionalNPCDiversity: Only use this as part of Wrye Bashs bashed patch feature! It gives NPCs the new eye colours included in this mod, and a selected few of them new hair styles, for more diversity in game. The assignment: Mage classes: Slightly glowing eyes (colour depending on race). Imperial: Default eye colours. Nord: Bright colour variants (brightgreen, brightblue, bluegreen, grey). Redguard: Dark colour variants (darkbrown, hazel, gold, lilac). Breton - all eye colours of Imperials, Nords, High Elves and Wood Elves (they have many different ancestors). Dark Elves - default, solid red, red and the lilac "Drow" styles. High Elves - normal variants of the new eyes (brightblue, brightgreen, bluegreen, grey, gold). Wood Elves - strange variants of the new eyes (magenta, lilac, yellow) and the dark eyes of morrowind fame (black, darkbrown). Argonian - default and new style, all Argonian colours. Orcs - default colour and all additional Orc colours. Khajiit: Default colour and all additional new Khajiit colours.
     There are several styles of NPCDiversity avialable. Use only one.
     
   • Optional files group II (use to adjust this plugin to your preferences):
     - VanillaGMSTArmorPenalty: Resets my changes concerning the armour penalty to the default values.
     - VanillaGMSTMagickaperInt: With this you'll get two Magicka points for one Intelligence point.
     - VanillaGMSTMagickaRegeneration: Resets Magicka Regeneration to it's default, with a big base and really small Willpower bonuses.
     - VanillaGMSTSpellcostprogression: Restores the normal spell cost progression, which falls very slowly and crashes down in the last few levels.
     - OptionalHalvedMagicka: I used steps of hundred (100) between Magicka bonuses instead of Vanilla Oblivion's 50. This halves racial and birthsign bonuses back to steps of fifty (50).
     - OptionalNoRaceDisp: Deactivates race's disposition modifiers. Only use if another PlugIn of yours puts overly aggressive NPCs into the game, which normally should not attack the player or other NPCs. I don't know why they've been given the high aggression then, but in conjunction with the race dispositions it can lead to fatal results. Normally 99.9% of you won't need this file, because in Oblivion and most PlugIns there are no hyper aggressive NPCs which should regardless of their given aggression rating not attack.
     - WeakerOrcs and Weaker: One only halves Orc's regenaration, the other makes all race abilities about 33% weaker. No documentation, no support.
     
   • Extra files (mod integrations, unsupported extras)
     - extra files integrate RBP's new races as enemies into various other mods. Each requires the additional mod it's made for. You can't use the LAME addition without using LAME. They have to be loaded after their main files, after RBP's core file, and after FCOM_Convergence.esp. Yes, that can get quite tricky. Extra files exist for OOO &MMM (the FCOM file will also work without FCOM, as long as these two mods are installed). Also these are all unsupported - please keep that in mind. Example given LAME's addition may spawn new enemies too often, when you don't use any overhaul mod. I don't know, I haven't tested this, and I can't really test it at all.
     Additions are no "compatibility patches"! Only the Better Redguard one is a compatibility patch!
     
6. Usually I don't recommend using files from the optional group 2, unless you don't like a specific change.
7. The files are already in the correct load order. If you need to change load order for whatever reason, keep it intact. The core file comes first, the rest after it. This is also true for files used inside Wrye Bash.
8. Read the compatibility part of this readme!
9. There are a couple of folders prepacked for differend body replacer. If you're using these, the folders may interest you. Unfortunately I didn't succeed in getting all permissions, so you may need to search tesnexus for some missing textures, depending on the body mod you are using. Furthermore I decided to remove the textures for Dark Seducers and Golden Saints, so as to not overwrite whatever you're already using.
10. Also Capucine's old eyes are included as an extra folder, for those that like them more than the new ones.
11. Here comes a problematic aspect, the Daedra Seducer: They are supposed to have wings, and there are two packages coming with the installation files. Here are the three options you have:
    - either install none of them, then you don't have wings.
    - install only the wings without animations, then they won't flap while jumping etc. This will overwrite your skeletonbeast.nif. As far as I know "realistic physics and force" is the only other mod changing the skeletonbeast.
    - install wings with animations. This will conflict with some animation mods. Usually you don't need all of them (e.g. I'm running also a powerattack replacer + idle stance replacer without problem), but therefore installing them by hand is recommended.
    
    
    

2. Compatibility

General rule of thumb: Everything that doesn't touch races is fine. If it does touch races, it should be loaded before this plugin, and it's components which are changing something concerning the races won't work anymore.

Specifics:
• This PI is compatible with character levelling mods like nGCD. If you want to be absolutely safe, open your console and type StartQuest bgbHealthToggle -> then deactivate retroactive Endurance. That's the only part which could theoretically cause problems.
• It is fully compatible with all overhaul mods like OOO, Fran's, FCOM, Warcry and everything else. Some of them make changes to races or birthsigns, so load them before the core file!
• When something does changes races, and you want to keep it's changes, you have to use Wrye Bash. Two examples:
  - Robert's Male body replacer: It's not a pure replacer, therefore you have to use Wrye Bash. Tag it with Body-M and load it before the Core file. Then it has to be included as part of the bashed patch. It still needs to be activated, but loaded before the core file.
  - any new hair pack: Tag it as hair mod, load it before the core file and use it as part of the bashed patch.
• Important notice regarding Beautiful People: BP is using the Elaborate Eye mesh (former bash tag Eye-E), but has changed it's filepath to the default Eye mesh (former bash tag Eye-D). This causes numerous problems. One of them is that using it as eye mod for the bashed patch can result in very strange oddities. Due to the highly problematic nature of BP (it's scripts are also borked), and due to fixed versions available, I do not offer any support regarding BP anymore. This has caused me enough support grief. Simply installing RBP will fix the eye mesh mess for good.
• These mods are included (in the full version), and doesn't need to be bash patched in: Capucine's eyes (including Cat eyes), Babe's hair pack, Soya's hair pack, Ren's beauty pack, throttlekitty's hair pack, kafeidot's short hair, corean Hairs, Saram hairs, 2ch hairs, Elven Eyes.
• These five bonus races are included from other mods, but were heavily modified. You can use their originals additionally: Slof's playable Xivilai, Luchaire's Tabaxi, Ren's Mystic Elves, Chingari's and Ismelda's Demon, Capucine's Aquamer. Also playable adaptions of Golden Saints and Dark Seducers are included - playable even without Shivering Isles (due to a texture trick)! Addtionally there's a homebrewn eight race, the Ohmes.
• Be wary of hidden race changes: Some mods modify races without notice. Mostly just to give custom NPCs new hair styles. Load them before the core file. Example given: Blood and Mud.
• Other race- and birthsign balancing mods are obviously incompatible. I don't want to think what could happen if both are taking effect.
• Again: Everything that doesn't touch races and birthsigns is fine. Even if it does, just load it before the Core file!
  

3. General Changes

This PlugIn has two goals: To make all races and birthsigns feel and play different, as player characters as well as as enemies, but putting them on the same general power level. And as an additional aspect I was very unhappy with the whole Magicka system, so I reworked it, too. In my opinion Vanilla's values are a joke. Much too few Magicka poins until you reach really high levels, were the casting cost suddenly drops to a playable niveau. Points of Intelligence give a higher spell point regeneration than points of Willpower. And so on...
And I discovered that much of Oblivion's greetings and goodbyes were nearly never played at all, because the general disposition in the game is so high even at the beginning that only the nicest and second nicest one were usually played.
So here is the list of changes which affect everyone:

• You don't get the full Magicka bonus at the beginning anymore. It's now (small) level and (huge) intelligence dependent. For example, to get from the lowest to the second lowest bonus, you'll have to be level 3 and have at least 40 intelligence. It's now much more like in Morrowind. No more huge Magicka bonuses for anyone who doesn't invest in Intelligence!
• Endurance works now retroactive. There won't be a difference if you max out Endurance between level 1 and 10 or between level 40 and 50, at the end you'll have the same amout of health. The formula is: Health = PCBaseHealth + Endurance * 0.1 * (Level-1) - Diminishfactor.
  - PCBasehealth is usually Endurance * 2, but some PlugIns (example given OOO or the OptionalLessHealth module of this plugin) changes that to 1.5
  - the Diminishfactor takes into account that you can't have a full health gain of ten points in the early levels. The difference for a character starting with Endurance 50 who maxes out Endurance as soon as possible and a constant +10 bonus is 30. Depending on level, actual Endurance and race this factor takes care that you don't gain much more health by the retroactive Endurance than a Vanilla charakter with early maxed out Endurance would have.
  - all races fall into one of five Endurance classes, dependent on starting Endurance. This modifies the Diminishfactor. An Orc will have a lower Diminishfactor than a Breton. The Diminishfactor builds up to a certain point (Endurance 100), and is then a static variable. It's unimportant when you raise endurance. It's only there to take into account the early levels where you normally can't have a full bonus.
• How much health you gain through Endurance can be adjusted in the console. See console commands later in this readme.
• One point of Intelligence grants five Magicka points.
• Fatigue affects spell effectiveness.
• Regeneration of spell points works different now. With a Willpower of 55 it's like in Vanilla Oblivion. Above the regeneration ist quicker (up to 50% more with Willpower 100), but a lower Willpower will result in a much, much slower regeneration. A character with a Willpower of 25 will need 500% more time than in Vanilla Oblivion. We're talking about several minutes here.
• Armour Penalty for spell effectiveness is four times higher.
• The decrease of casting costs depending on skill is more linear. Until skill level 70 the new casting costs are lower, but don't fall down afterwards nearly as much as before (in the end they fall down to .4 instead of .2 - means they're doubled compared to Vanilla). All these changes here work together: For me playing mages in medium levels (which takes with OOO a couple of hundred hours) and without reload orgies before taking sigil stones was extremely frustrating, so I gave everyone more Magicka. Nevertheless I don't like the idea that everyone is therefore an uber mage, so I placed new obstacles for "not really devoted" mages in the game (higher armour penalty, much slower Magicka regeneration if one doesn't invest in Willpower, and at last changing the casting cost decrease so that the in my opinion balanced Magicka pool in medium skill levels doesn't lead to an overkill with skill level 95-100).
• The world is now much less friendly dialog wise in the beginning. Every race will be liked and not liked by a different set of other races. So sticking to kin and communities which have culturally more in common will result in a significantly higher disposition. You'll also observe this when NPCs meet. An Imperial and a Nord? They'll get along well together. A Dark Elf and an Argonian? There'll be much more tension in the air.
• I have changed every race and every birthsign. A Nord will now be more deadly in melee than a Breton, and a Breton will be a more dangerous wizard than an Orc. Details will follow. Although I think this is the place to say three things: First attribute points are distributed more different, there's now much more variance. Most races can now be identified just by looking at the attributes. Second is that I also changed all skill bonuses. I have spread them more. Every race will have a strength in one specialization, but also a few bonuses outside of it. That was done to make the races with the same specialization more different from each other. Third is I tried to keep lore in mind, but my understanding of balancing and variety considering the game mechanics came first. There will be some dramatic changes which will cause some lore buffs to jump out of the window. Sorry for that. Lore friendlyness was more a secondary than a primary goal.

General Settings in one look:

Old: 2 Magicka points per intelligence Magicka Regeneration = 0.75 + 0.02 * Willpower Armor Penalty min = 0.05, max = 0.30 Skill spell cost decrease: 0.2 + ( 1 - Skill / 100 ) * 1.2 Dialog wise friendly world in the beginning Full Magicka bonus at the beginning Endurance does not work retroactively Fatigue does not affect spell effectiveness New: 5 Magicka points per Intelligence Magicka Regeneration = -1.00 + 0.05 * Willpower Armor Penalty min = 0.20, max = 1.00 Skill spell cost decrease: 0.4 + ( 1 - Skill / 100 ) * 0.75 Dialog wise a bit more unfriendly world in the beginning Magicka bonus is Intelligence dependent. Endurance works retroactively Fatigue does affect spell effectiveness

4. Races

I categorized the races in three categories: Wizard races, fighting races, and stealth races - but because there are (unlike in Morrowind) nearly none stealth bonuses, they are more like "Jack Of All Trades" which are somewhere between the wizard and the fighter races. These are only cultural tendencies. And please keep in mind that there weren't any differences at all in Vanilla Oblivion. Bretons were the best fighters and thieves too. And only because I gave Dark Elves some spellcasting advantages they don't became suddenly worser warriors.

Please keep something in mind: Resist Magicka in Oblivion is just plain broken and doesn't work like it used to be in good old Morrowind days. Resist Magic 50, like the Bretons used to have, reads in Morrowind or in game mechanic terms Resist Fire 50 + Resist Frost 50 + Resist Shock 50 + Resist Magic 50 + Resist Poison 50. I think now it's understandable why I toned down the Bretons, eh? Same goes for Weakness to Magic. Everytime Weakness to or Resist Magic appears in combination with weaknesses or other resists, they are given with the calculated in game effect, not the editor values. Example given: Resist Fire 50 + Weakness to Magic 25 = Resist Fire 25 + Weakness to Magic 25. (Actually these are only approximations. The real calculation is a bit different, but trust me, unless you really love math, this would be extremely boring...)

Each race falls more or less into a role. They are not limited to that - a High Elf can become a really good pure fighter, although he'll never be as good as a Nord. On the other hand a Nord can become a mighty wizard, but he'll have a hard time at the beginning (low mental stats, no innate magicka bonus except birthsigns). The roles help the races as enemies and player characters to feel different from each other. In Vanilla Oblivion there weren't many differences between a Imperial and a Khajiit. Now there will be some.

Powers can only be used once a day, so I feel it's important to make them important. Unless specified all last for whole 120 seconds and are targeted on self. Same is true for birthsigns.

I know that some things seem to be too strong, but I can say with a clear conscience that everything is below the power level of Vanilla's Bretons, and at the birthsigns below the old Atronach. Exception is the Magicka pool, which is explained above.

Beside new hair styles and eyes there are also eight new races included, all rebalanced to the rest of the mod.

• First of all the two new races of the Shivering Isles expansion, the Golden Saints and Dark Seducers. Both are new race entries, default Golden Saints and Dark Seducers were not touched (it's unbelieveable how messed up the implemenation of the original races are). Note: In the NoSI-Version they use textures from Dark Elves / Imperial (same as High Elves), therefore they will lose their unique appearance - but are playable nonetheless!
  
• The "Mystic Elves" of the integrated Cosmetic Compilation (credits go to Ren, see "Acknowledges") debut as "Hidden Elves". As explained somewhere above, I try to not cut every connection to lore, so now they are a race of Elves which actually exist(ed) in Tamriel. And with completly new stats.
  
• Slof's playable Xivilai is included as Xivilai. There are several important differences between these and Slof's original ones. The option to wield two handed weapons in one hand is not included (because that works for all races, and it would be funny to see a Bosmer wielding an Ebony Warhammer with one hand). They are still extremely tall, but a little bit less so (baseheight 1.25 instead of 1.45 - the second tallest race is at 1.11). Also all stats are completely changed. You can use Slof's Xivilai additionally to these.
• Luchaire's Tabaxis are included as Ohmes-raht, because they're exactly how I imagined the Ohmes-raht with Oblivion's graphics. They have also completely new stats.
  
• Capucine's Aquamer are included as Sea Elves (aka Tropical Elves, aka Maormer).
• Chingari's and Ismelda's Demon race is included as Daedra Seducer (last leen in Daggerfall ;))
• Ohmes are homebrewn. You won't find them anywhere else. Textures are made by alexscorpion and daemondarque.
  

Please note: The ten standard races can also be encountered as enemies, so their bonuses do not only help the player, but can also be an obstacle. The additional races on the other hand won't appear as enemies, and are therefore a bit weaker.

Custom Race Fix is included. Also the new races are also integrated into all race specific dialogue and script conditions (example given the Boethia quest).

Please keep in mind that only the highest possible Magicka bonus is given. Without a high intelligence the in game bonus will be much lower. Example given the Imperial's bonus will without raising your intelligence never exceed 10. Wait. Because no one has ever read these lines, I have changed the informations completely.

Race Endurance is a variable which affects the retroactive endurance. The worser the condition, the less health they'll have.

Wizard Races:

High Elves / Altmer Advantages Disadvantages Considerable Magicka Bonus Resist Disease Resist Shock 50 Resist Poison 25 Weakness to Frost 50 Skills Speechcraft +5 Destruction +10 Acrobatics +5 Alchemy +10 Armourer +5 Mysticism +5 Blade +5 Power: Fortify Magicka 100, Magicka x1.5, Fortify Willpower 50, Fortify Destruction 10, Fortify Mysticism 10, Weakness to Fire, Frost, Shock 50 Power: Create Potions (skill based chance to create a random selection of potions). Endurance: Fragile Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 30   50   50   25   35   35   50   45   Female 25   50   50   30   40   35   50   40

Breton Advantages Disadvantages Medium Magicka Bonus Resist Magicka 25 [none] Skills Security +5 Restoration +10 Sneak +5 Conjuration +10 Mercantile +5 Alteration +5 Heavy Armour +5 Power: Fortify Armor skills 5, Shock Shield 15 Power: Damage Magicka 250, chance to dispel all spells, nova. Endurance: Fragile Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 30   45   55   30   35   35   50   40   Female 25   45   55   25   40   35   50   45

Dark Elves / Dunmer Advantages Disadvantages Medium Magicka Bonus Resist Fire 75 Resist Disease Restore Magicka 2 Weakness to Shock 50 Skills Light Armour +5 Mysticism +10 Marksman +5 Illusion +10 Armourer +5 Destruction +5 Block +5 Power: Fire Shield 10, Restore Magicka 8 Power: Summon Ancestor Guardian Endurance: Weak Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 35   35   40   40   40   45   50   35   Female 40   35   35   35   45   40   50   40

Fighter Races

Orc Advantages Disadvantages Strong Restore Health Weakness to Magic 25 Weakness to Fire 75 Weakness to Poison 75 Skills Blunt +5 Block +10 Hand to Hand+5 Armourer +10 Conjuration +5 Athletics +5 Acrobatics +5 Power: Fortify Strength 25 (90 sec), Fortify life 50 (90 sec), Restore health 3 (90 sec), Resist normal weapons 25 (90 sec), weakness to magic 50 (90 sec) silence (120 sec), stunted magicka (90 sec), Damage Magicka 1000, Dispel 1000. Using this power causes Orcs to fall down exhausted at it's end! Power: Frost Damage 5 on touch, chance to knock enemy down. Endurance: Strong Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 50   30   35   30   35   55   50   35   Female 45   30   30   35   40   55   50   35

Nord Advantages Disadvantages Resist Frost 75 Resist Shock 25 Resist Disease Resist Normal Weapons 10 [none] Skills Marksman +5 Heavy Armour +10 Alteration +5 Blunt +10 Mysticism +5 Hand to Hand +5 Alchemy +5 Power: Fortify Weapon Skills 5, Frost Shield 10 Power: Drain Fatigue 250 (no duration), Frost Damage 5 / 10 seconds, Shock Damage 1 / 5 seconds, Weakness to Frost 30 / 30, Weakness to Shock 15 / 15, nova Endurance: Strong Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 55   30   30   35   30   50   50   40   Female 55   25   30   30   35   50   50   45

Redguard Advantages Disadvantages Resist Poison 50 Resist Paralysis 50 Resist Disease Restore Fatigue 5 Weakness to Frost 50 Skills Speechcraft +5 Athletics +10 Light Armour +5 Blade +10 Acrobatics +5 Block +5 Restoration +5 Power: Fortify Fatigue 100, Restore Fatigue 5, Fortify Speed 25 Power: Bound Sword, Drain Endurance 40, Silence Endurance: Good Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 45   25   30   30   55   40   50   45   Female 40   30   25   35   55   45   50   40

Stealth Races

Wood Elves/ Bosmer Advantages Disadvantages Resist Fire 25 Resist Frost 25 Resist Shock 25 Resist Disease Restore Fatigue 1 Restore Magicka 1 Weakness to Magic 25 Weakness to Poison 75 Skills Acrobatics +5 Marksman +10 Alteration +5 Light Armour +10 Restoration +5 Security +5 Hand to Hand +5 Power: Fortify Agility 100, Fortify Marksman 50, Drain Speed 75 for 90 sec. Power: Craft Bone Arrows (creates a random number of random arrows from each bone you have in your inventory) Endurance: Fragile Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 35   35   30   55   50   35   50   30   Female 35   30   35   55   45   35   50   35

Argonian Advantages Disadvantages Immunity to Poison Water Breathing Resist Disease Small Magicka Bonus Resist Magic 25 (ineffective against fire or frost) [none] Skills Illusion +5 Security +10 Athletics +5 Alteration +10 Blunt +5 Sneak +5 Hand to Hand +5 Power:Fortify Magicka 100, Restore Magicka 250, Fortify Alteration 10, Fortify Illusion 10 Power: Invisibility and Detect Life 90 / 30 sec Endurance: Strong Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 40   35   35   40   35   50   50   35   Female 35   40   40   35   30   50   50   40

Khajiit Advantages Disadvantages Small Magicka Bonus Resist Frost 50 Resist Fire 25 Shield 3 [none] Skills Illusion +5 Sneak +10 Mysticism +5 Acrobatic +10 Alchemy +5 Mercantile +5 Hand to Hand +5 Power: Demoralyze up to Level 40, 50 feet, 30 sec. on touch Toggle: Night Eye Endurance: Weak Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 35   40   35   45   40   35   50   40   Female 30   40   40   40   45   40   50   35

Imperial Advantages Disadvantages Small Magicka Bonus Reflect 5 Absorb 10 Resist Poison 25 Resist Paralysis 25 Weakness to Fire 25 Skills Heavy Armour +5 Speechcraft +10 Block +5 Mercantile +10 Blade +5 Security +5 Alteration +5 Power: Fortify Weapon and Armor Skills 5, Fortify Mercantile 10, Fortify Speechcraft 10 Power: Absorb Fatigue 100 Pts, Damage Fatigue 75 Pts, Absorb Magicka 50 Pts, Damage Magicka 25 Pts on touch. Endurance: Weak Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 35   35   30   35   45   40   50   50   Female 40   35   35   35   40   35   50   50

Additional Races

Hidden Elves Advantages Disadvantages Medium Magicka Bonus Reflect 10 Absorption 15 Weakness to Fire 50 Weakness to normal Weapons 10 Skills Destruction +5 Mysticism +10 Sneak +5 Conjuration +10 Speechcraft +5 Illusion +5 Armorer +5 The Hidden Elves are revamped "Mystic Elves". I heard many requests to include them (the Mystic Elves), but I'd wanted them a bit more lore friendly. So I made an ignorant, hidden and isolated splinter group of Ayleids out of them, who passes as Bosmers to the unknown eye. The base race, the Mystic Elves, are the creation of Ren. They have been heavily modified. Power: Chameleon 5, Shock Shield 10, Absorb 10, Reflect 15, Weakness to Magica 25 Power: Summon Skeleton Archer / 60 sec Power: Enchant Item (skill based chance to enchant an item once per day) Endurance: Average Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 35   35   40   40   35   45   55   35   Female 30   35   45   35   40   50   55   35

Xivilai Advantages Disadvantages Absorb 25 Huge Magicka Bonus Immune to Paralyze Weakness to Magic 50 Weakness to normal Weapons 5 Skills Alchemy +5 Destruction +10 Blunt +5 Conjuration +10 Athletics +5 Alteration +5 Mercantile +5 Heavily modified version of AlienSlof's "Playable Xivilai", to integrate this really fantastic race into the balancing frame of this mod. For compatibility reasons I have excluded some functions (like changes to the Xivilai creatures, starting items and wieldung two handed weapons in one hand), also I made them a little bit shorter. They're still many times taller than anyone in Cyrodiil, but a little bit less so. It's possible to use AlienSlof's original Xivilai alongside with this plugin. Should you want to use Slof's original additionally: In the character creation menu the last sentence of the two Xivilai races are different, the original talks about summoning Clannfears, while I wrote something about the weakness to magic. Power: Resist normal Weapons 5, Absorb 25, Summon Clannfear Power: "Void Weapon", summons level and skill dependent weapon for 60 seconds (warning, a bit uninteresting without the LameGlue!) Endurance: Good Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 40   40   40   30   40   50   50   30   Female 35   35   45   35   45   45   50   30

Ohmes-raht Advantages Disadvantages Shield 5 Resist Frost 25 Resist Shock 75 Immune to Paralyze Weakness to Poison 150 Skills Armourer +5 Block +10 Alchemy +5 Hand to Hand +10 Restoration +5 Athletics +5 Marksman +5 Heavily modified version of Luchaire's great Tabaxi race mod, to bring them into the balancing frame of this mod and to make them more lore friendly. The original race looks exactly like I pictured the Ohmes-raht in Oblivion's graphics, so they are now Ohmes-raht (a Khajiit subspecies). Power: Chameleon 10, Shock Shield 15, Drain Heavy and Light Armour 25 Toggle: Night Eye Endurance: Good Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 40   30   25   50   45   40   50   40   Female 40   35   30   45   40   45   50   35

Aureal / Golden Saint Advantages Disadvantages Reflect 20 Resist normal Weapons 10 Weakness to Shock 75 Skills Armourer +5 Heavy Armour +10 Restoration +5 Blade +10 Mercantile +5 Athletics +5 Marksman +5 A playable adaption of the image given in the Expansion Pack They are extra race entries! I did not modify or change anything regarding the original Golden Saints or Dark Seducers. Note: Appearance is entirely different in the NoSI-Version, and you can only get the Frost Atronach summon! Power: Summon Golden Saint for 120 sec OR Summon Flame Atronach Power: Disintergrate Armor, Weapon & Dispel 100 Points on touch Lesser Power: Sense Danger Endurance: Average Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 35   40   40   30   40   40   50   45   Female 45   30   30   40   45   45   50   35

Mazken / Dark Seducer Advantages Disadvantages Small Magicka Bonus Absorption 20 Weakness to Frost 75 Skills Speechcraft +5 Light Armour +10 Security +5 Blunt +10 Alchemy +5 Sneak+5 Destruction +5 A playable adaption of the image given in the Expansion Pack.They are extra race entries! I did not modify or change anything regarding the original Golden Saints or Dark Seducers. Note: Appearance is entirely different in the NoSI-Version, and you can only get the Faded Wraith summon! Power: Summon Dark Seducer for 120 sec OR Summon Skeleton Guardian Power: Absorb Fatigue 4, Absorb Magicka 3, Absorb Health 2, Weakness to Weapons 5 for 25 Seconds on touch Lesser Power: Detect Attitude Endurance: Average Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 30   35   35   35   50   40   50   45   Female 40   30   30   45   40   45   50   40

Ohmes Advantages Disadvantages Medium Magicka Bonus Resist Fire 50 Resist Frost 25 Shield 1 Restore Fatigue 1 Weakness to Poison 50 Skills Speechcraft +5 Marksman +10 Acrobatics +5 Restoration +10 Mercantile +5 Blunt +5 Alteration +5 The Khajiit in the Elder Scrolls series are of different breeds, that's why their different appearance (well, lore wise, at least). The one in Morrowind were Suthay-raht, in Daggerfall Ohmes-raht (see above), and in Arena Ohmes. Very elvish appearance, but heavily tattoed. A speciality of the Ohmes race is that you're able to use about any tattoo texture you want. Just drop them into textures\characters\OhmesTT\male\ or \female\. So e.g. if you like a Dragon tattoo instead of the default one (like the one shown in screenshots), then that's no problem. Or other face textures? This race is made to be adapted! Power: Dispel 1000 / Invisibility 60 seconds Toggle: Night Eye Endurance: Average Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 35   30   30   50   45   35   50   45   Female 30   30   35   45   45   40   50   45

Daedra Seducer Advantages Disadvantages Small Magicka Bonus Resist Fire 75 Immunity to Poison Resist Weapons 5 Weakness to Frost 50 Weakness to Shock 50 Skills Speechcraft +5 Light Armour +10 Acrobatics +5 Blade +10 Conjuration +5 Mercantile +5 Illusion +5 Heavily modified version of Chingari's and Ismelda's Demon race. Additional Abilities: Can use "forms", which enhance some aspects, while lowering others. Example given Mage Form gives additional Magicka and a higher Intelligence and Willpower, but lowers Strength, Agility, Endurance and Speed, also gives Weakness to Weapon 10. Enabling a form comes with a short drawback. Using it in combat is likely to knock you out. Toggle: Featherfall (while active doesn't take falling damage) Toggle: Daedric Leap (requires that Featherfall is active) Toggle: Wings (only a visual effect, cancels Featherfall) Power: Absorb Health, Magicka and Fatigue 10 / 5 sec, chance to knock enemies down, nova Power: Fire Damage 5 / 10 sec, Soultrap 15 sec, Weakness to Fire 25 / 30 sec, Drain Health 25 / 10 sec, Disintegrate Weapon & Armor 25, nova Endurance: Strong Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 40   35   30   35   35   50   50   45   Female 40   30   35   30   40   45   50   45

Maormer / Sea Elves Advantages Disadvantages Considerable Magicka Bonus Resist Frost 50 Waterbreathing Restore Fatigue 3 Weakness to Fire 25 Weakness to Shock 50 Skills Destruction +5 Illusion +10 Security +5 Sneak +10 Heavy A. +5 Mysticism +5 Athletics +5 Heavily modified version of Capucine's "Aquamer" race. Power: Waterform (short time invulnerability, but can't fight or cast spells while being so) Power: Spellmaking, once per day skill dependent chance to create a spell. Power: Drowning, very small chance to instakill enemies (works against the player, too!), otherwise short stagger. On target. Toggle: Waterwalking Endurance: Fragile Attributes Str Int Wil Agi Spd End Luc Per Male 30   50   45   40   45   30   45   35   Female 35   50   45   35   40   35   45   35

5. Birthsigns

Atronach

Advantages: Absorption 50 Huge Magicka Bonus Disadvantages: Magicka does not regenerate Weakness to normal Weapons 20

Power: Damage Magicka 100, Drain Intelligence 100, Silence, 60 sec on touch Lesser Power: Absorb Magicka 25 for 6 sec on touch (costs 50 Magicka and Fatigue) Lesser Power: Sense Magicka Power: Restore Magicka 2, Paralyze, Fire Damage 2 for 25 sec on self

Apprentice

Advantages: Considerable Magicka Bonus Reflect 5 Absorb 5 Disadvantages: Weakness to Weapons 5 Weakness to Poison 50

Power: Random positive spell on self

Mage

Advantages: Medium Magicka Bonus Restore Magicka 2 Resist Magicka 20 Resist Paralyze 25 Disadvantages: Weakness to Weapons 10

Power: Frost Shield 10, Light 120, Restore Magicka 8, Resist Magicka 25

Ritual

Advantages: Extreme Magicka Bonus Disadvantages: Weakness to Frost 50 Weakness to Shock 50 Weakness to Fire 25 Weakness to Poison 75 Weakness to Magic 50

Power: Restore Health 100 on self, Turn Undead 100 for 60 sec / 25 feet on touch Lesser Power: Sense Evil

Lord:

Advantages: Small Restore Health Disadvantages: Weakness to Fire 75 Weakness to Poison 75

Power: Demoralyze 25 for 60 sec on touch Power: Frenzy 25 for 60 sec on touch Power: Rally 25 for 60 sec on touch Power: Calm 25 for 60 sec on touch Power: Greybeard's voice (throws enemies off their feet)

Lady:

Advantages: Resist normal Weapons 15 Fortify Endurance 5 Fortify Personality 10 Disadvantages: Weakness to Disease 25

Power: Command 25 for 120 sec on touch

Steed:

Advantages: Restore Fatigue 5 Resist normal Weapons 5 Fortify Speed 10 Disadvantages: Weakness to Frost 25

Power: Fortify Speed 150, Restore Fatigue 15, Drain all offensive skills 100 for 60 sec

Warrior:

Advantages: Resist Magic 25 Resist normal Weapons 5 Resist Poison 75 Resist Paralyze 25 Fortify Strength 10 Disadvantages: [none]

Power: Absorb offensive skills 25 for 300 sec on touch. Lesser Power: Soul Trap 120 sec / 5 feet on target Lesser Power: Draw Attention on self in combat

Thief:

Advantages: Fortify Agility 5 Fortify Luck 20 Disadvantages: [none]

Toggle: Feather 100 Toggle: Night Eye, Detect Life 75 for 150 sec Lesser Power: Sense Guards

Shadow:

Advantages: Small Magicka Bonus Resist Fire 75 Disadvantages: Weakness to Shock 25

Power: Invisibility 60 sec Lesser Power: Sense Detection Toggle: Chameleon 10

Serpent:

Advantages: Immunity to poison Small Magicka Bonus Restore Health 1 Restore Fatigue 1 Restore Magicka 1 Disadvantages: Weakness to normal Weapons 25 Weakness to Frost 150

Power: Absorb health 2 / 50 sec, absorb fatigue 3 / 100 sec, demoralyze 50 / 150 sec on touch, fire damage 1 over 25 sec on self. Toggle: Detect Life 75

Tower

Advantages: Small Magicka Bonus Reflect Damage 1 Reflect Spell 20 Disadvantages: Weakness to Disease 25

Lesser Power: Open hard lock on target, drain sneak 10, drain strength 10, fire damage 2, stunted magicka for 30 sec on self (costs 100 Magicka)

Lover

Advantages: Resist Disease Shield 5 Water Breathing Disadvantages: [none]

Power: Restore Attributes Power: Paralyze for 5 sec Power: Cure Disease, cure poison

6. Updating of an existing character:

As I've written above, just use the console command startquest bgbupdate

7. Tables

Table 1: Magicka bonus according to intelligence and level (halved when using halved Magicka module)

Level	Intelligence	Small	Medium	Considerable	Huge	Extreme
1	-	10	20	30	40	50
3	40	20	40	60	80	100
5	46	30	60	90	120	150
8	55	40	80	120	160	200
10	61	50	100	150	200	250
13	70	60	120	180	240	300
15	76	70	140	210	280	350
18	85	80	160	240	320	400
20	91	90	180	270	360	450
23	100	100	200	300	400	500
(min)	(min)	e.g. Argonian	e.g. Breton	e.g. High Elf	e.g. Atronach	e.g. Ritual

Table 2: Restore Health Requirements

Level	Endurance	Personality	Luck	Small	Strong
1	-	-	-	1	2
15	75	65	55	-	3
20	80	70	60	2	-
35	90	80	70	-	4
40	95	85	75	3	-
45	100	95	85	-	5
(min)	(min)	(min)	(min)	e.g. Lord	e.g. Orc

Table 3: The exact diminishfactor for retroactive Endurance

Endurance	Level	Strong	Good	Average	Weak	Fragile
100	16	20	30	40	50	60
97	15	19	28	37	46	56
94	14	17	26	34	43	51
91	13	16	23	31	39	47
88	12	14	21	28	35	42
85	11	13	19	25	31	38
82	10	11	17	22	28	33
79	9	10	14	19	24	29
76	8	8	12	16	20	24
73	7	7	10	13	16	20
70	6	5	8	10	13	15
68	5	4	6	8	10	12
66	4	3	5	6	8	9
64	3	2	3	4	5	6
62	2	1	2	2	3	3
-	-	0	0	0	0	0
(min)	(min)	*0.5	*0.75	(default)	/0.8	*1.5
		Nord Orc Argonian Seducer	Redguard Ohmes-r Xivilai	Aureal Hidden Elf Mazken Ohmes	Dunmer Khajiit Imperial	Altmer Breton Bosmer Sea Elf

Table 4: Skill distribution

Magic

Destruction Dunmer Altmer Altmer Mazken Ayleid Xivilai Maormer Alteration Breton Imperial Argonian Argonian Bosmer Nord Xivilai Ohmes Conjuration Breton Breton Orc Ayleid Ayleid Xivilai Xivilai Seducer Restoration Breton Breton Redguard Bosmer Aureal Ohmes-r Ohmes Ohmes Illusion Dunmer Dunmer Khajiit Argonian Ayleid Seducer Maormer Maormer Mysticism Dunmer Dunmer Altmer Khajiit Ayleid Ayleid Nord Maormer Alchemy Altmer Altmer Nord Mazken Khajiit Xivilai Ohmes

Fight

Blade Redguard Redguard Altmer Imperial Aureal Aureal Seducer Seducer Blunt Nord Nord Orc Argonian Mazken Mazken Xivilai Ohmes Heavy A. Nord Nord Imperial Breton Aureal Aureal Maormer Block Orc Orc Imperial Redguard Dunmer Ohmes-r Ohmes-r Athletics Redguard Redguard Argonian Orc Aureal Xivilai Ohmes-r Maormer Armorer Orc Orc Dunmer Altmer Aureal Ayleid Ohmes-r Hand to Hand Nord Khajiit Bosmer Argonian Orc Ohmes-r Ohmes-r

Thief

Sneak Khajiit Khajiit Argonian Breton Ayleid Mazken Maormer Maormer Security Argonian Argonian Bosmer Mazken Imperial Breton Maormer Marksman Bosmer Bosmer Nord Dunmer Aureal Ohmes-r Ohmes Ohmes Light A. Bosmer Bosmer Dunmer Redguard Mazken Mazken Seducer Seducer Acrobatics Khajiit Khajiit Orc Bosmer Altmer Redguard Ohmes Seducer Mercantile Imperial Imperial Khajiit Breton Aureal Xivilai Ohmes Seducer Speechcraft Imperial Imperial Altmer Redguard Ayleid Mazken Seducer Ohmes

Table 5: Starting Attributes

	Strength	Intelligence	Willpower	Agility	Speed	Endurance	Personality	Luck
	M/ F	M/ F	M/ F	M/ F	M/ F	M/ F	M/ F	M/ F
Altmer	30/ 25	50/ 50	50/ 50	25/ 30	35/ 40	35/ 35	45/ 40	50/ 50
Breton	30/ 25	45/ 45	55/ 55	30/ 25	35/ 40	35/ 35	40/ 45	50/ 50
Dunmer	35/ 40	35/ 35	40/ 35	40/ 35	40/ 45	45/ 40	35/ 40	50/ 50
Orc	50/ 45	30/ 30	35/ 30	30/ 35	35/ 40	55/ 55	35/ 35	50/ 50
Nord	55/ 55	30/ 25	30/ 30	35/ 30	30/ 35	50/ 50	40/ 45	50/ 50
Redguard	45/ 40	25/ 30	30/ 25	30/ 35	55/ 55	40/ 45	45/ 40	50/ 50
Bosmer	35 35	35/ 30	30/ 35	55/ 55	50/ 45	35/ 35	30/ 35	50/ 50
Argonian	40/ 35	35/ 40	35/ 40	40/ 35	35/ 30	50/ 50	35/ 40	50/ 50
Khajiit	35/ 30	40/ 40	35/ 40	45/ 40	40/ 45	35/ 40	40/ 35	50/ 50
Imperial	35/ 40	35/ 35	30/ 35	35/ 35	45/ 40	40/ 35	50/ 50	50/ 50
Ayleid	35/ 30	35/ 35	40/ 45	40/ 35	35/ 40	45/ 45	35/ 35	55/ 55
Aureal	35/ 45	40/ 30	40/ 30	30/ 40	40/ 45	40/ 45	45/ 35	50/ 50
Mazken	30/ 40	35/ 30	35/ 30	35/ 45	50/ 40	40/ 45	45/ 40	50/ 50
Ohmes-r	40/ 40	30/ 35	25/ 30	50/ 45	45/ 40	40/ 45	40/ 35	50/ 50
Ohmes	35 30	30 30	30 35	50 45	45 45	35 40	45 45	50 50
Seducer	40 40	35 30	30 35	35 30	35 40	50 45	45 45	50 50
Maormer	30 35	50 50	45 45	40 35	45 40	30 35	35 35	45 45
Xivilai	40/ 35	40/ 35	40/ 45	30/ 35	40/ 45	50/ 45	30/ 30	50/ 50

Table 6: Height, weight and ratio

Race	Old height	Old weight	Ratio		New height	New weight	Ratio
Altmer M	1.100	1.000	1.100		1.095	0.995	1.101
Altmer F	1.100	1.000	1.100		1.110	0.995	1.116
Breton M	1.000	1.000	1.000		0.980	0.950	1.032
Breton F	0.950	0.900	1.056		0.965	0.900	1.072
Dunmer M	1.000	0.950	1.053		1.025	0.935	1.096
Dunmer F	1.000	0.900	1.111		1.040	0.960	1.083
Orc M	1.060	1.100	0.964		1.060	1.275	0.831
Orc F	1.060	1.000	1.060		1.045	1.180	0.886
Nord M	1.060	1.100	0.964		1.075	1.200	0.896
Nord F	1.060	1.060	1.000		1.060	1.125	0.942
Redguard M	1.030	1.030	1.000		1.070	1.080	0.991
Redguard F	1.000	1.000	1.000		1.060	0.990	1.071
Bosmer M	0.900	0.950	0.947		0.900	0.925	0.973
Bosmer F	1.000	0.900	1.111		0.975	0.925	1.054
Argonian M	1.030	1.050	0.981		1.030	1.079	0.955
Argonian F	1.000	1.000	1.000		1.015	1.040	0.976
Khajiit M	1.000	1.000	1.000		1.035	1.050	0.986
Khajiit F	1.000	1.000	1.000		1.050	0.975	1.077
Imperial M	1.000	1.000	1.000		1.030	1.033	0.997
Imperial F	1.000	1.000	1.000		1.015	1.014	1,001
Hidden Elves M	1.050	0.950	1.105		0.980	0.895	1.095
Hidden Elves F	1.000	0.900	1.111		1.050	0.913	1.150
Xivilai M	1.225	1.500	0.817		1.180	1.450	0.814
Xivilai F	1.200	1.425	0.842		1.165	1.355	0.860
Ohmes-r M	0.900	0.950	0.947		0.945	0.925	1.022
Ohmes-r F	0.875	0.925	0.946		0.980	0.920	1.065
Aureal M	1.000	1.000	1.000		0.965	0.950	1.016
Aureal F	1.100	1.100	1.000		1.130	1.155	0.978
Mazken M	1.000	1.000	1.000		0.980	0.985	0.995
Mazken F	1.100	1.100	1.000		1.125	1.085	1.037
Ohmes M	-	-	-		0.945	0.925	1.022
Ohmes F	-	-	-		0.980	0.920	1.065
Seducer M	1.050	0.950	1.105		1.050	1.000	1.050
Seducer F	1.000	0.900	1.111		1.065	1.015	1.049
Sea Elves M	1.000	0.900	1.111		1.085	0.975	1.113
Sea Elves F	1.000	0.900	1.111		1.095	0.985	1.111

A small information: Height has a big gameplay impact, therefore there's a parity between races with taller men and races with taller women. As a rule of thumb human men are larger than human women, while elvish women are taller than elvish men. Ratio is height divided by weight. The lower the bulkier. That's only a visual thing with no gameplay impact.

Table 7: Console Commands

Command	Does what?
startquest bgbupdate	Updates an existing character (from Vanilla or previous versions)
startquest bgbuninstall	If you'd like to uninstall RBP and revert to Vanilla, that's the way to go.
startquest bgbhealthtoggle	Allows to toggle off (or on) retroactive endurance
startquest bgbpcb	Hidden feature: A low impact memory "cleaner". Every three minutes unused cells are purged, therefore freeing up memory. Only a small gimmick for those not using streamline, and those who don't use another pcb mod.
startquest bgbtheend	Hidden feature: Adds a lesser power which will crash the game when used (after a confirmation, of course). Why would you want a lesser power that will crash the game? Well, for some people Oblivion takes ten minutes or more to close, for whatever reason. This lesser power closes Oblivion in seconds. Don't forget to save before using it, however.
set bgEnduranceFactor to #.#	Allows to adjust how many health you gain through Endurance per level. Default is 1.0. E.g. if you set it to 0.5, you gain only half of your normal level. Do not set it below 0! 0 is gaining no health at levelup. Does only work if RBP's retroactive health is active.
startquest bgbattributetoggle	Allows to toggle on (or off) some bonuses for high attributes (e.g. Resist Paralyze for high Personality)

8. F.A.Q.

• Q: Are you really, really serious about your changes to Magicka?
  A: I've got a lot of question concerning the Magicka pool ("Are you serious!?"). Now of course I'm always pointing then to all optional files to make it like in Vanilla. Nevertheless today I'd like to say a few words about that. Warning - this will be a bit of boring math now!
  Magicka is a currency. You're buying spells with Magicka. Now when comparing Oblivion to Morrowind, you'll see that you get for the same amount of Magicka in Morrowind much stronger spells. So Morrowind Magicka has a higher value than Oblivion Magicka. What I'm doing is to change many aspects of Oblivion's Magicka currency - to put it bluntly, you can't easily compare them, because the currency has also another value.
  Let me give you an example. And let's use an armored Altmer with Mage birthsign for it. When everything is maxed out, his Magicka is 350 in Vanilla and 1000 in RBP. Now let's say he wants to cast spells doing 100 fire damage, and his destruction level is master.
  - Vanilla: One spell costs 87 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 4 of them.
  - RBP: One spell costs 217 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 4 of them.
  As you see from this example, because of many changes to how much Magicka is worth as a currency, it's not a single spell more possible. But wait, what if the Altmer goes unarmored?
  - Vanilla: One spell costs 82 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 4 of them.
  - RBP: One spell costs 163 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 6 of them.
  Now there's a reason to go unarmored . This time he's got 50% more Magicka - which is still much less than 200%.
  So why all these hassle when everything is only altered slightly, just with higher values? The thing is, it's not. While I did find magic due to Magicka pools in very high levels playable (like the examples given - as you see, the difference is not that high), I found magic due to Magicka pool in lower levels next to unplayable. Now let's take a look at the same Altmer, when all his stats are at 60 (which means a Magicka of 270 in Vanilla and 520 in RBP). This time he wants to deal only 35 points of fire damage. Armored, as ever:
  - Vanilla: One spell costs 77 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 3 of them.
  - RBP: One spell costs 99 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 5 of them.
  Now it looks a bit different, suddenly he has nearly 70% more Magicka. And now let's take a look at him when he's unarmored!
  - Vanilla: One spell costs 72 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 3 of them.
  - RBP: One spell costs 74 Magicka. He has enough Magicka to cast 7 of them.
  And now he finally has around 135% more Magicka. Now considering that at this skill levels for most enemies he usually needs five to ten spells, he atleast has enough for one of them. The rest? Well, there's regeneration. Which also plays a major role, but isn't the topic now . I think my changes are making magic depending characters playable in medium levels (where I think they're seriously lacking Magicka in Vanilla), while not overpowering them in higher levels - where they were playable imho.
  I just hope that helps to prevent some of the "are you serious!?" PMs. I am. There is a lot of math and playtesting behind these values. And there's more to them than just "when maxed out 1000 instead of 350 Magicka, that's br0xx3|\|!" .
  
  
• Q: Khajiit with hairs? You can't be serious!
  A: First of all, the NpcDiversities are optional. If you do not like them, do not use them. Simple, isn't it? Furthermore regarding the accusations when it comes to this choice I've only got three things to say. 1. In both Arena and Daggerfall Khajiit had hair. The same is true for lore sources like several books. 2. Likely only the "bandit and bald styles" are available in Morrowind / Oblivion due to resource reasons; Vanilla hairs don't fit and new ones would have needed to be created. If you see that only one eye color at all was created for them, this should tell you how eager Bethsoft was to create content for them. 3. Lore wise Khajiit aren't cats. Their closest relatives are the Bosmer. Should they be bald, too?
  In the end it comes down to personal taste and preference. These NpcDiversity are optional for a reason. Don't like my choice, don't use it, then. I will not inflate the already high numbers of files even more. RBP is confusing enough already ;).
  
  
• Q: Could you include a new optional file for...
  A: The answer is pretty much and often a simple "no, I won't". Example given take a look at the NpcDiversities: There are currently twelve of them. I spend more time updating them than modding them. All versions of RBP together there are more than a hundred .esp files, and I'm using eleven of them (probably a tenth of the mod).
  I do not get any help from those I making files for I'm not using myself. I do not get paid. Yet in February 2009 there was a thread on the Bethsoftforums in which a moderator explains that modders do not do anyone a favor by modding, do easily replaceable work and are just a bunch of egocentrical maniacs. Only very few, myself included, disagreed with her. Most agreed. Tell me, why should I spend countless days doing stuff I'm not going to use myself, if the community as a whole then proceeds and punch me in the face afterwards by supporting opinions like this?
  After this incident I'm only going to do stuff I'm using myself. Therefore if you give any idea or make a request unless I know I will use it myself, I'm not going to lift a finger. You've brought this onto yourself. If you see very destructive opinions like this attacking all modders actually doing anything run rampart, then disagree. Or suffer the consequences of the opinion you support.
  
  
• Q: A mod NPC is running around with Babe hairs. What the...?
  A: This happens if the NPC hasn't set any hair style and you're using Bash's Race Record feature. Background: NPCs revert, if no hair is set, to the first one in their race's list. Bash's Race Record reorders this list alphabetically, so Babe hairs are always on top. There is nothing I can do to fix this. You need to fix the faulty NPC instead. Or ask Wrye to change the hair ordering when using Race Records - he's likely to bite your finger off, though, because this bug is only caused by faulty NPCs.
  
  
• Q: Why can't I become a vampire?
  A: Daedra (all of them) can't become vampires, because they're daedra. Ohmes-raht can't become vampires, because this would cause googly eyes. If you want to change this, use set PCVampire to 0. All other races can become vampires.
  
  
• Q: I don't want to use Wrye Bash... [snip]
  A: The core component of RBP can be used without bash. In fact everything can be used without bash, but using stuff like the NpcDiversities will create a compatibility nightmare if you don't use bash. Bash is an essential tool. You will not be able to run more than a dozen mods without it and not run into severe incompatibilities. Don't shoot the messenger.
  
  
• Q: I want to use something from your mod in my plugin!
  A: You are free to use whatever you want of my work. Although I cannot speak or grant permissions for everything included that is not from me. Whenever you want to use anything like hair styles, eyes or new races, you'll have to ask their creators. Everything that is a new texture or mesh is not from me, so please don't ask me if you want to use it. I simply aren't the right person to grant or disallow permissions for that.
  Please keep in mind: If you're using anything, you have to support your mod including whatever you've taken from this project. I won't.
  
  
• Q: All eyes and hair styles are missing! How can I fix that?
  A: You have forgotten to install the installation files. Install them. And run. The trolls are coming!
  
  
• Q: I'd like to upload this mod to site XYZ!
  A: Please don't do so. I'm updating this project regurlary, and I can't keep track of every possible upload location. Especially when I didn't even upload it there. I'm still getting rants about bugs or broken things of the first two beta versions released for testing purposes shortly after Oblivion's release. I don't even know where people get them from.
  
  
• Q: Your OptionalNPCDiversity has overwritten the npc changes of OOO!
  A: Of course it has. As I written above, this has to be used with Wrye Bash. If you don't want to use Wrye Bash, then please do not use this module. Face Replacers (and giving new eyes and hair styles to NPCs already count as an Face Replacer) should only be used as part of Wrye Bash's Bashed patch, and should never be activated. Never. That is true for every Face Replacer out there: Use them only as part of the bashed patch, and do not activate them. There are no exceptions.
  
  
• Q: What about bugs? Any known?
  A: Even though I made the Xivilai much smaller, he is still so tall that some strange situations may occor(like Xivilai and Prior Maborel's horse stuck in the barn, because both don't fit through the door). Also as with vanilla hair styles long hair styles will clip while running. That I know of. Except for the skeletonbeast.nif for the Daedra Seducer. For some it creates some distortions on fallen enemies. Additionally using the flying animations will cause some CS error messages.
  
  
• Q: I'm not happy about some changes and want to make my own version!
  A: Please go ahead :)! Options to choose from are good, after all. Please bear the first and second question in mind.
  
  
• Q: After I installed your mod most NPCs are mute!
  A: Please install the correct language version. EV = English Version, DV = German Version, FV = French Version.
  
  
• Q: Are any other languages supported?
  A: To other languages you'll have to translate the mod yourself. Very easy with tes4edit.
  
  
• Q: Characters have too much Magicka now. You can't be serious!
  A: Optional files are there for a reason.
  
  
• Q: I don't like a specific general change! Restore them back to normal!
  A: Uhm, no? Every general change can be restored back to normal with the optional files. This project is supposed to be modular.
  
  
• Q: Why have you removed the masked hair styles?
  A: File size reasons (with conformulated versions the bsa was approx. 500 mb big). And because nearly no-one has ever used them. And because I got lots of complains about them, that they clutter up the hair selection. And because "hairmasks" disappear as soon as you put on a helmet or hood. There are better ways to implement masks than as hairs.
  
  
• Q: The Dark Elves are supposed to be warriors and mages, not pure mages. Change them!
  A: I like to adress that here, because it gets mentioned a lot. First of all from all three default "wizard races" the Dunmer bleed the most into the fighter's role - they have 25 points more in important warrior attributes at start, and have more suitable skill bonuses. Also I did not remove any warrior bonus from them, because they hadn't had any. They are not worse warriors than before. They're in the wizard categorie, because I think that's the most fitting for them - from a lore and a design variety perspective.
  
  
• Q: I don't like a specific change, and I would like to suggest...
  A: Please keep one thing in mind: This plugin is in development for much more than two years now. I'm always looking for ways to improve it - example given someone suggested to change lesser powers to toggleable abilities, so I included it. Also a couple of versions ago someone has pointed out that Bosmer were in all ways weaker to Bretons- and he was right, so I changed them.
  For arguing about the balance you have to keep all races and birthsigns in mind. Example given I have nerfed Bretons and the Atronach, because they were much too strong. Then I have elevated all other races and birthsigns to this base line of power. So a good argument would be "compared to this base line I think X is too strong or too weak, because it's advantages / disadvantages are *that's why* unbalancing..."
  Of course "that's why" should be arguments. And I'm going to listen to them. Otherwise I first have to look about what the rest does, and often this doesn't end well. Three examples: Giving the Bretons back their 50% Resist Magic would require to make all other races much more stronger than they are now, and I think that would be an overkill. Giving some birthsigns their disadvantages back would require to nerf the Atronach much more, and even some other birhtsigns which used to have no disadvantages. Now lowering the general power line could create problems with mods and Vanilla alike - because at some point most combinations would turn out inferior compared to the good or average combinations of Vanilla, therefore increasing the difficulty. That's not the intention of this mod. It's really difficult and requires much playtesting :(.
  
  
• Q: Why don't you just make an Elaborate Eyes compatible version?
  A: Use Wrye Bash's bashed patch.
  
  
• Q: What about Beautiful People?
  A: Please read installation guide and the compatibility part.
  
  
• Q: Make males stronger and females more charismatic! Your attribute distributions doesn't make sense!
  A: Alright, this will get ugly. Usually these ... err ... requests are fueled by real life examples, like sports and all that. So...
  1. Let's look at it from a game mechanic perspective: Excluding luck and personality there are four physical and two mental attributes. Usually I'm asked to raise male's physical and female's mental attributes. This would lead to a situation where e.g. a Nord woman would look extremely similar to a Breton man. Doesn't make sense. And would lead to some very bad gameplay.
  2. And it doesn't even stop there. If I summarize all requests, males should be superior in strength, intelligence, agility, willpower, endurance, and speed. Uhm, yay. Considering that luck should be identical, and personality is nearly useless, this isn't even possible to do.
  3. There are already very small differences. They are small by purpose. Example given averaged over all races (excluding Aureal and Mazken) males are two points stronger, while females have a two points higher willpower. These differences are small, because on the one hand there are races with opposed attribute distributions, others don't have differences, and lastly even those races with different stats only have a 5 points difference. It would be boring to have all races look similar, wouldn't it?
  4. Lastly the reasons given don't even make sense! We're talking about averages here, not sport results of highly trained specialized groups. While there might be differences, for average humans the between group differences are smaller than the in group differences (which is to say the average man is more similar to the average woman, than a random male to another random male).
  Or to summarize it: Won't happen. And often after getting such requests I feel dirty to have even any differences at all. Although I wonder if these requests are not only made for optimizing one's character?
  
  
• Q: What about including Custom Race XYZ?
  A: Alright, here's the more elaborate answer: There are four conditions necessary for a race to be included.
  
  1. I need the author's permission to include the race.
  2. The race must have sufficient body mod support.
  3. The race needs to have some connection to established lore.
  4. Something of the race must catch my interest, this usually means the race has to be in some way or another unique.
  Explanation: The first condition should be selfexplanatory. If the author says 'no', I can't include it. This would be a major break in modding etiquette. The second one, well, RBP does not intent to force users to use certain body mods. Imagine if you'd be using other body mods than supported, wouldn't be nice, would it? If there are races with insufficient body mod support, I'll need help by texture artists to create the missing ones. Although I'm not going to overstress this generosity by even thinking about including races not supporting the more complicated bodies.
  The third one, well, let's just say the Elder Scrolls lore is certainly one of the richest around, and there are certainly many races around not yet included in RBP. Although it has it's limit, and I'm trying to mod inside these limits. Stretch it, maybe, but not breaking it.
  The fourth one is probably the most important one. If a race doesn't catch my interest, I'm not going to ask for permission, check for body mod support, and all that. Call me shallow, but usually an unique appearance catches my interest. I do not see the need for fifteen different elven races, looking extremely similar to each other or already included races. They may be popular, yes, but I'm trying to prevent the number of custom races from exploding.
  
  
• Q: Where have the older versions gone? I don't want to use the current one!
  A: I fear they're still floating around somewhere out there. I do not support any version below 7 anymore, and I do not want to see them distributed. And I really never ever want to hear from them again.
  
  
• Q: Doesn't the diminishfactor discourage players to raise Endurance?
  A: I don't want to bore you with every possible math, so please believe me: A higher endurance will always grant a higher life total, because even under extreme circumstances (like jumping up two categories at once) the life gain will always be greater than the diminishfactor. The diminishfactor only simulates the effect of different starting endurances and the fact that you can't start with a maxed out endurance. Example given: A High Elf with maxed out Endurance at level 20 will have approximate 100 more life than the same High Elf with Endurance 60, and the difference will grow with every level - until the Endurance 60 guy catches up and begins raising his Endurance. That's the advantage of retroactive endurance ;-).
  
  
• Q: Your new skill distribution has eliminated all differences between figher, mage and stealth races!
  A: I couldn't erase something which wasn't there. Also please ask yourself: Do a race become a fighter race with having skill bonuses in all three melee weapon skills, and looking exactly like the two other fighter races? Please think about that. You can't create differences in skills between races by giving them all the same skills. I have redistributed the skill bonuses to sharpen the profile of each race, not to create a clear cut definition between the three archetypes.
  
  
• Q: Why don't the Aureal and Mazken have the voices of the Shivering Isles Golden Saints and Dark Seducers?
  A: Do you remember my remark regarding how strange the new races are integrated into Shivering Isles? That's another symptome of that. What you hear in the Shivering Isles is not race dependent, but faction dependent. That's why summoned Golden Saints and Dark Seducers are mute, unlike for example summoned Dremora. Not much that I can do about that. Therefore I have given the two races another voices.
  Trust me, I have searched months for another solution, but didn't find any.
  
  
  

9. Including custom races

To make that clear: Custom races do work with RBP. It's just that they won't benefit from some bonuses and features. How to give them these features? Simple: Use Wrye Bash's "esmify self" function on both RBPCore.esp and your other race's.esp. Now open the cs, select both as files to load (they will appear on top and can't be selected as active file). Now give your race an appropiate endurance ability and Magicka ability. Maybe you need to remove existing Magicka bonuses, and adjust resistances (like no race should have resist magic 50 in RBP). Save. Now search your file in Wrye Bash and hit "espify masters" on it. That's all.

10. Acknowledges / Thank you / Credits

I don't really know where to start - the work of many people is used in this plugin, and without them, many things would not have been possible.

• Quarn / Quazzi: His quest award leveller triggered an enlightenment in me. It was his idea and structure which made the intelligence dependent Magicka bonuses possible. I have searched over a year for this, and the answer was right before me, the whole time. His plugin is a fantastic idea, which allows more possibilities than the first look makes you believe. Example given perks for certain attribute ranges could also be done with it. The possibilities are endless. And it was my start into the wonderful world of scripting and mysterious errors.
• AlienSlof et al for the playable Xivilai
  • Complete credits from AlienSlof: Without these people, this mod wouldn't have been anything like as good, and for that they have my undying gratitude and appreciation. It has become much more than the sum of its parts.
    throttlekitty: has had almost more enthusiasm for this project than me, making me several new hairs, a new head, proper Xivilai horn meshes as well as making the kilt thing wearable. He also supplied some voices and made the wearable mad wild hair that can picked up from dead Xivilai.
    Kikaimegami: has helped me with the weapon scripting, making this work without needing a race fix and getting his clothing to work from the start. She has also made and rigged his collar and all the horns/piercings. Also playtested him as I've made changes. Kafei: I made good use of her fabulous ear meshes with the earrings to give the Xivilai a certain amount of style. I'm a big fan of her work and just had to use them.
    Xmarksthespot: always ready to help me out, he redid the mapping on the horn meshes which has allowed me to make the textures asymmetrical.
    Scanti: without his wonderful little Conformulator utility, a lot of this stuff could not have been done and this race wouldn't have been as good. This race also uses the merged fangs he made at my request, and a merged mouth/tongue which freed up a head slot to use for the horns. He also recorded some of the voice files for the taunts.
    Eldroth: he has a wonderful growly voice! He made the voice files so that the Xivilai can sound like a proper one when he's hit. He's also given me so much encouragement as well as beta testing all manner of stuff for me.
    Kirel: got the custom voices up and running, including altering them slightly for the females. Again, this has made this mod so much more! It feels so much more complete with proper voices. Also figured out that changing the anims will make the 2-handers work in one hand for the player only.
    SickleYield: very kindly made the kilt mesh fit on the new Fantasy Figures body without clipping. Kudos for always being so helpful and generous.
    Ren: her odd-eye meshes have allowed me to make odd-coloured eyes to add more variety to this race - plus I'm rather a fan of mismatched eyes!
    ShadowJ and Madcat221: for their help in getting the attributes and skills well balanced and logical. I'm dreadful with numbers and their help was much appreciated.
    Orc: helped me create the levelled lists for drops off dead Xivilai creatures, then helped me test them and squash any bugs.
    Kivan: of Unofficial Patch fame, has thoroughly tested this and made sure any bugs are found, squashed and suggested fixes. Who better than the no. 1 bug-finder to test?! :
• Luchaire et al for the Tabaxi race (base of the Ohmes-rath)
  • Complete Credits fom Luchaire: Nequam for the amazing Ainmhe eye textures and the voice set. The BAB team for all their great work and for the female Khajiit texture shamelessly modified here. Robert for the male body replacer and inherent khajiit body texture. jw0ollard for the 1024x1024 Khajiit face retexture which was the base for this one. Kynetarse for the night eye toggle script. Ren for the new hair styles.
• Ren et al for the Mystic Elves (base of the Hidden Elves) and her beautiful new hair styles
  • Complete Credits from Ren: Thanks to Bethesda Softworks. Thanks to Capucine for the help about making colourable hair. Thanks to Daeger and Ranma-chan for fixing texture pathes of meshes.
• Capucine for her beautiful new eyes and hair styles, and her Aquamer race
  • Complete Credits from Capucine: Big huge thank yous go to: Kikaimegami for letting me use much from the Playable Dremora mod in this, xdarkstarx for the encouragement, ideas and help. AlienSlof because I, quite franky, worship her. So much talent. When I grow up, I want to be just like AlienSlof. And thank you for helping me test it, Slof :) Ren, her Morrowind mods got me into modding in the first place. Amazing hair. Thanks Ren!
  • Aquamer: Base for head and body textures: Robert
    Head mesh: Ren
    Male normal map musculature: Breeze582000
    Merged teeth and mouth meshes: scanti
    Original tail by Spike4072
    Fin and jewelry added to tail by AlienSlof
    Blue Crest hair: Blackwood/Marsh-Brother
    
• Chingari and Ismelda for their Demon race:
  • Thanks to Alexander Wolf for the wings mesh and textures.
    Thanks to Revenant who created the great skin and eye textures.If it wasn't for him this mod would not be here.
    Thanks to SickleYield who created the skin for UFF body with the same tattoo created by Revenant.
    Thanks to Ginnyfizz, Gothicdoll, Green_Day584, deathangel801,ChaironDeCeleste, and Zhu for beta testing. You guys are great.:)
    Thanks to Spike4072 for his demon tail resource.
    Thanks to Breeze582000 whom I borrowed the fangs and wing animations from.
    Thanks to Ilaria - aka Phaedra for the great horns resource.
    Thanks to Ravege for the Slit Eyes resources.
    Thanks to ThrottleKitty, Ren, BlueMax & Babe for the hairs resources.
    Thanks to Idkrrr for the Corean Hair Pack, the Corean mod Tester 'chris(sscss2)' & The Elder Scrolls Naver Cafe
    Thanks to Saltare & qwertymaster for the flying script.
    Thanks to AlienSlof for the Claws Meshes and Textures
    Thanks to Divine Avenger for Azazel as Inspiration source.
    Thanks to JDayT for the Satyr race and the meshes and textures we used for the Hooves.
    Thanks to BigRoofus for the testing and help in the development of the Battle Form.
    Thanks to Throttlekitty & Jclyde6108, Scanti, Revenant, Kalikut, Jennifer, Luchaire, Nanook & Robert for the Eye Lashes resources.
    Special thanks to the EyeCandy forum community for being a great source of support.
    Thanks to Bethesda for creating Oblivion.
    Thanks to TESNexus.com for the a one-stop-shop resource for authors and players.
    Thanks to LHammonds for the Readme Generator this file was based on.
• Corean, suhlwa and saram hairs - made by idkrrr for his "Corean", Suhlwa and his "saram" mods.
  • Complete credits from idkrr: Thanks to Bethesda Softworks.
    Thanks to My hero 'Ren'
    (This mod started from Mystic Elf, Many files of this mod is based on Mystic Elf.
    I learned many knowledge from her Blog. and If there were no Mystic Elf, Also there were no Corean)
    Thanks to Corean mod Tester 'chris(sscss2)'
    Thanks to My Family(Elder scrolls naver Cafe: http://cafe.naver.com/elderscrolls7.cafe)
• 2ch Hair set: Pr-ttyCure
  
• HISSA for HS-Hairs
  
• Babe for the beautiful new hair styles.
• Soya for the beautiful new hair styles.
• Kaelis Ebonrai for his Aureal and Mazken Exnem textures
• Exnem for his Mystic Elf exnem textures
• Princess_stomper for her "better saint and seducer" project - I tried to match two faces of that with the default faces of the Aureal and Mazken.
• throttlekitty for throttlekitty's hair pack
• ntobmodfan for his more beautiful NPCs mod
• kafeidotour for the "short hair style"
• Elveon for his photorealistic eyes
• Miss_onatopp for "Eyes for Elves"
• Very many and special thanks to daemondarque for her textures and mesh fixing (she made the Vanilla textures for Ohmes, Daedra Seducer, Sea Elves, additionally Robert's versions of most of them). And for testing. Without her RBP 10 wouldn't exist.
• Sen-Chan, daemondarque and GlasMond for the new Daedra Seducer wing & tail meshes.
• alexscorpion for his various tattoed textures (used for Ohmes race)
• Kivan for the Unofficial Oblivion Patch
• scanti for his tool "Conformulator", which makes the new hair styles even better. Also for his vampire teeth resource (fang module)
• Wrye for "Wrye Bash". Without it I would have had many problems, especially with some of the optional files.
• Veritas_Secreto for TNR
• Also I like to thank everyone who played previous versions and gave feedback. And of course those that have translated this mod into German.

A really big thank to all of you! Without you this plugin wouldn't be possible in it's today form. Thank you very much! You are all great!


Contact: Either write me a private message at the official Elder Scrolls forums (my account), in the TheElderScrolls.info forums (my account), or write an E-Mail to bg2408(at)web.de

geschrieben von bg2408