True Races of Nirn – Design Notes

There are already a lot of race overhauls out there. I decided to make my own because none of the ones I’ve checked out have struck the balance that I prefer. Skyrim’s philosophy for the races is a good one in my opinion, however the execution is poor. In a nutshell, I think that all races should have abilities and powers that are about as strong as those of the High Elf. That is the design goal of my mod, and in this article I will explain the reasoning behind the changes I’ve made to achieve that.

Design PhilosophyI have personally always considered the High Elf racial bonuses to be the golden standard. High Elves get a unique stat boost (+50 Magicka) that gives them an advantage when it comes to their intended play-style (mage). However this bonus is not so overwhelming that other races can’t measure up. After all, 50 Magicka can be gotten from a single enchanted item, and Magica is generally the easiest attribute to augment. High Elves’ greater power reinforces the play-style as well, by providing a powerful combat boost that focuses on magic.

My goal when designing True Races of Nirn was to for every race’s racial bonuses to have a level of usefulness which matches that of the High Elf’s. Vanilla racial abilities are notoriously unbalanced, with arguably less than half of the available races having meaningful bonuses. Breton, Nord and Dunmer are standouts for their always useful resistances. Wood Elf, Redguard, Orc and Imperial don’t really have anything of value. The others have some situationally useful tools, but ultimately these fall short of creating truly defined niches.

Vanilla Skyrim very much wants any playstyle to be viable with any race. While there is merit in straying away from this for pure roleplaying, I’ve decided not to do this. That being said, certain playstyles now definitely take less effort to pull off on certain races. I feel this strikes a nice balance between character build freedom and pure roleplay.

I also opted to add experience gain boosts for major and minor racial skills. This makes the race you pick a bit more impactful in terms of which skills you can improve more easily, as I felt that the vanilla starting levels don’t make much of a difference. This way, the advantage lasts for longer than the first couple of hours of gameplay.

PowersRacial powers are in an okay place in vanilla. The only power I opted to replace completely is the Nords’ “Battle Cry”. To me this felt like an inferior version of the Imperials’ “Voice of the Emperor”, which itself is already a niche power. My version provides a quick heal (and stamina) to the player and allies, which is always useful, and particularly for warriors.

I decided to buff Dark Elves’ “Ancestor’s Wrath” to fit in better with their new passive, which focuses on fire spells. It now grants 50% stronger fire spells for the duration. This has the additional benefit of making it more distinct from the regular “Fire Cloak” spell.

The Wood Elves’ “Command Animal” also receives a significant change, letting you turn a single animal into a follower for 2 minutes. This makes it less situational, allowing the animal to potentially accompany you for multiple battles.

Balance ConsiderationsResistance boosting racial passives are very strong in vanilla; Especially Dark Elves and Nords, with their +50% resistance boosts to a single element. Combining these with any piece of gear that boosts the same resistance by another 50% (or more), grantscomplete immunity. This is too easy to achieve in my opinion. To avoid this, I reduced these boosts to +25%. The highest bonus available from lootable enchantments is 70%, meaning you can at most get up to 95% resistance with a single item.

Bretons’ 25% magic resistance is generally considered to be the strongest racial passive in vanilla. To balance this, I nerfed it to 15%. However Dragonskin has been buffed with an additional 25% magic resistance, letting you take less damage from magic that does not get absorbed.

To compensate for nerfed resistances, the above three races also get additional bonuses. To emphasize their respective primary magic schools, Dark Elves get reduced spell cost for fire spells and Bretons get reduced cost for conjuration. Nords get extra stamina, implicitly making them a bit more resistant to frost magic and making them better warriors.

I aimed to give every race some passive boosts that help in combat. Imperials stand out as the only race that does not have a defined combat niche. To reinforce their role as the all-rounder race, I decided to simply give them a boost to all attributes. This prevents Imperials from feeling strictly inferior to other races, despite their lack of a specialty.