This mod hopes to scratch that itch for a slightly more tactical follower.
Thel-Ra is an enigmatic argonian sorcerer and explorer living in the Riften sewers. His travels in oblivion have made him
an extremely powerful individual, with knowledge of many arcane secrets. I designed this mod to fit into a more "modern" Skyrim.
At this point most people are playing the game with a variety of mods installed so I wanted to put something together that would work well alongside common mod choices, while staying relatively simple but interesting.
The mod adds an argonian follower named Thel-Ra, equipped with his own unique weapons, spells and abilities.
In combat his abilities are based around a versatile use of speed, range and crowd control. With most combat mods making battles in Skyrim more complex and/or increasing the number of enemies, I designed Thel-Ra's abilities around being more effective at dealing with groups of opponents, using a unique shout to break up groups or becoming a poisonous hazard when downed in combat. This way the player's awareness of his position makes a difference in combat, rather than just having a follower play the role of a decoy and damage sponge. He will use both healing and armour magic, and can (Optionally) summon a special dremora to assist him, but his actual health pool is quite low and he is vulnerable to fire so he will sometimes retreat to heal. This makes sure things are kept balanced and the player still has to keep on top of things.
He can also light up dark dungeons and caves, as graphical mods commonly make the world a lot darker. This can be pretty useful, and will often be another fun aspect to combat when he is the only source of light and you have to stay close to him. Like his summoning spell, this ability is
optional and can be disabled.
Thel-Ra can be a bit of a arrogant smartass because it always bothered me how subservient the vanilla (and even modded)
followers are. They mostly join you because they owe you something or because it's their job.
I wanted a follower who is as capable as the player and actually has their own reason to be there.
Thel-Ra can be found in a new location in the centre of Riften, after the player has acquired the necessary key, and will immediately offer to join the player, saying he is bored with the city. Though he will explain his real motivation later.
He will also express opinions on various matters throughout the game.
Thel-Ra also has some useful survival skills, he is slightly more powerful in the rain and will offer the player a couple of new recipes for cooking some exotic foods, which can provide some useful buffs for your adventures or help offset the effects of diseases or debuffs from survival mods.
You can also acquire the passive "shared knowledge" power, which will provide you with certain bonuses when Thel-Ra is with you.
The mod also discreetly adds a new location containing a small player home and a maze-like dungeon.
Exploring this dungeon will reveal Thel-Ra's origins and allow the player to acquire versions of his equipment for themselves.
The dungeon also contains some other unique weapons and equipment that I added as a progression from Thel-Ra's starting equipment, the weapons each play to a different one of his strengths, emphasizing different combat styles. Alternatively, the player can of course use them, along with a few other bits and bobs that I added so no character builds got left out.
Thel-Ra's lore is mostly implied through item descriptions (in the dark souls style of storytelling), I tried to keep things within the realm of possibility for the elder scrolls world.
There is no quest attached to finding out about Thel-Ra, it is left up to the player to find out if they wish.
Tips:
This mod is balanced for and works best at higher difficulties or with mods installed that make the game more challenging and/or
add more advanced combat.
There shouldn't really be any compatibility issues with anything except mods that drastically alter the centre of Riften.
Thel-Ra can be found in a new area accessed through the well in the centre of Riften, a specific key is required to enter.
This key is hidden somewhere in Riften, with a small clue to point you in the right direction.
For anyone who can't find the key or can't be bothered looking, it is located [code][spoiler][/code]behind the bar in the Bee and barb.[code][/spoiler][/code]
Some of the spells added by the mod are designed to be used by NPCs not the player, the player can still use them if they want, but they
are not as well balanced for player use. You can still have fun with them though, I've left it up to player preference.
Thel-Ra won't move his mouth when talking, this is actually intentional.
His skills are magic, one handed and light armour.
The dungeon is pretty high level.
To get to it, visit the earth stone in Solstheim, a book called the "Apocrypha resonance book" can be acquired from an enemy there.
Once you have this book, talk to Thel-Ra about it.
Make sure to grab all the jewellery off his desk, it is used to toggle his abilities without having to mess around in a menu.
For example, giving him a specific amulet will prevent him from summoning.
The mod is pretty light on scripts to keep things as glitch free as possible.
Random trivia fact, Thel-Ra is loosely based on the villains in stories I write.
His back-story and origins are pretty vague and the timeline of events isn't really clear.
Thel-Ra's dialogue might seem a bit wonky if you start a quest without him, go find him and then continue the quest. He could comment as
if he was there at the start.
My bad, but it shouldn't be much of a bother.
He's set as essential because you'll often be staying pretty close to him in combat.
You'll want subtitles on, Thel-Ra's voice is pretty gruff and at one point a character speaks in gibberish.
That's about it, have fun.
Thel-Ra is an enigmatic argonian sorcerer and explorer living in the Riften sewers. His travels in oblivion have made him
an extremely powerful individual, with knowledge of many arcane secrets. I designed this mod to fit into a more "modern" Skyrim.
At this point most people are playing the game with a variety of mods installed so I wanted to put something together that would work well alongside common mod choices, while staying relatively simple but interesting.
The mod adds an argonian follower named Thel-Ra, equipped with his own unique weapons, spells and abilities.
In combat his abilities are based around a versatile use of speed, range and crowd control. With most combat mods making battles in Skyrim more complex and/or increasing the number of enemies, I designed Thel-Ra's abilities around being more effective at dealing with groups of opponents, using a unique shout to break up groups or becoming a poisonous hazard when downed in combat. This way the player's awareness of his position makes a difference in combat, rather than just having a follower play the role of a decoy and damage sponge. He will use both healing and armour magic, and can (Optionally) summon a special dremora to assist him, but his actual health pool is quite low and he is vulnerable to fire so he will sometimes retreat to heal. This makes sure things are kept balanced and the player still has to keep on top of things.
He can also light up dark dungeons and caves, as graphical mods commonly make the world a lot darker. This can be pretty useful, and will often be another fun aspect to combat when he is the only source of light and you have to stay close to him. Like his summoning spell, this ability is
optional and can be disabled.
Thel-Ra can be a bit of a arrogant smartass because it always bothered me how subservient the vanilla (and even modded)
followers are. They mostly join you because they owe you something or because it's their job.
I wanted a follower who is as capable as the player and actually has their own reason to be there.
Thel-Ra can be found in a new location in the centre of Riften, after the player has acquired the necessary key, and will immediately offer to join the player, saying he is bored with the city. Though he will explain his real motivation later.
He will also express opinions on various matters throughout the game.
Thel-Ra also has some useful survival skills, he is slightly more powerful in the rain and will offer the player a couple of new recipes for cooking some exotic foods, which can provide some useful buffs for your adventures or help offset the effects of diseases or debuffs from survival mods.
You can also acquire the passive "shared knowledge" power, which will provide you with certain bonuses when Thel-Ra is with you.
The mod also discreetly adds a new location containing a small player home and a maze-like dungeon.
Exploring this dungeon will reveal Thel-Ra's origins and allow the player to acquire versions of his equipment for themselves.
The dungeon also contains some other unique weapons and equipment that I added as a progression from Thel-Ra's starting equipment, the weapons each play to a different one of his strengths, emphasizing different combat styles. Alternatively, the player can of course use them, along with a few other bits and bobs that I added so no character builds got left out.
Thel-Ra's lore is mostly implied through item descriptions (in the dark souls style of storytelling), I tried to keep things within the realm of possibility for the elder scrolls world.
There is no quest attached to finding out about Thel-Ra, it is left up to the player to find out if they wish.
Tips:
This mod is balanced for and works best at higher difficulties or with mods installed that make the game more challenging and/or
add more advanced combat.
There shouldn't really be any compatibility issues with anything except mods that drastically alter the centre of Riften.
Thel-Ra can be found in a new area accessed through the well in the centre of Riften, a specific key is required to enter.
This key is hidden somewhere in Riften, with a small clue to point you in the right direction.
For anyone who can't find the key or can't be bothered looking, it is located [code][spoiler][/code]behind the bar in the Bee and barb.[code][/spoiler][/code]
Some of the spells added by the mod are designed to be used by NPCs not the player, the player can still use them if they want, but they
are not as well balanced for player use. You can still have fun with them though, I've left it up to player preference.
Thel-Ra won't move his mouth when talking, this is actually intentional.
His skills are magic, one handed and light armour.
The dungeon is pretty high level.
To get to it, visit the earth stone in Solstheim, a book called the "Apocrypha resonance book" can be acquired from an enemy there.
Once you have this book, talk to Thel-Ra about it.
Make sure to grab all the jewellery off his desk, it is used to toggle his abilities without having to mess around in a menu.
For example, giving him a specific amulet will prevent him from summoning.
The mod is pretty light on scripts to keep things as glitch free as possible.
Random trivia fact, Thel-Ra is loosely based on the villains in stories I write.
His back-story and origins are pretty vague and the timeline of events isn't really clear.
Thel-Ra's dialogue might seem a bit wonky if you start a quest without him, go find him and then continue the quest. He could comment as
if he was there at the start.
My bad, but it shouldn't be much of a bother.
He's set as essential because you'll often be staying pretty close to him in combat.
You'll want subtitles on, Thel-Ra's voice is pretty gruff and at one point a character speaks in gibberish.
That's about it, have fun.