I only really USE wards for one thing: the magic class at the beginning of the college questline. Other than that, it's better to use the spell deflection perk in 'block' combined with Alteration magic resistance and resistance enchantments, though I sometimes pull out a ward just to showboat a little.

My main reason for needing this mod, given all of that, is that even though I've cheated by using console commands to boost my magicka (so I can actually use magic AT ALL really) I STILL can't keep a ward up long enough for Tolfdir to cast his god damn firebolt!

what gets me is when an enemy's ward is stronger then mine...like i guess my only real power was absorbing dragon souls lmao

The description alone is worth an upvote, it sums up the problem with the wards in vanilla really well.

Still, wards are more like fun than useful, preventing the magicka regen is still a huge drawback, and even the ward absorb perk doesn't help that.
A minor balance problem is that the greater ward now makes fights against dragons trivial - until ancient dragons appear, which instantly break the ward - but wards shouldn't block shouts at all imo, so that's another story

@winterwolf a perpetually held up Ward does something that does as much detriment to a Pure Caster and really, impossible to maintain for the full duration of the fight. The Ward prevents you from using any Shouts, Greater Powers and prevent Magicka Regen. A Pure Mage desperately needs Magicka Regen to continue fighting and would only throw up a Ward when facing down a serious onslaught of spells or when dealing with any sort of enemy that uses Shouts.

Hey Kdansky, I can't overstate how freaking useful this mod is — wards are already penalizing before they sap your magicka pool dry, so I find this all but a necessity. Any chance of you making a version that would work with Perkus Maximus though? It brings so much more life to playing Skyrim but dammit if playing a Mage hasn't become tedious again without access to Free Wards.

The problem with 0 magicka per second is that it stops magicka from regenerating at all while you use it... wish someone would make wards work like flesh spells.

So if you get to a certain level of restoration ward spells cost 0 magicka per second?

Love the idea, finally makes wards somewhat viable.

This makes wards a much better option!

A mod that needed to be done. Awesome!

idea for you.... wards that deflect spells back towards the target

I agree that the original cost of wards was too high. It was almost impossible to use it with a new character.
However I think your solution is a little extreme : contrary to a shield, wards will completly stop attaks and you can still use one hand to cast when it is active. A ward makes it almost impossible for an enemy magic user to cause damages, as mosty enemy casters don't use powerfull enough spells to break the ward. With the perk that allows you to absorb enemies'spell magic, your mod clearly becomes too powerfull. Plus, it isn't very strategic as you just keep the ward on during the whole fight with magic users.
I would greatly appreciate if you made a setting that allows people to choose how much the cost of this spell should be decreased.
I will still obviously rate you up as this is a very good idea and a well working mod.

Awesome idea. Liked. But wont be using. I like my magic to be along the lines of Trudi Cavanan's Black Magician trilogy. In that, Shielding (wards) cost a lot of magic to keep up. Just wish there was a ward that would A. Work as a shield in the sense that it was somewhat solid. And B. Could be used as an active effect (cast once, breaks when it takes enough damage) rather than having to hold it up with one hand. Great mod. Excuse the rant :)

makes sense. why use a shield that drains my magicka in 3 seconds when i can just dual cast the heck out of my foe. makes it more fun

Fully agree with the concept. There is already an opportunity cost associated with using a ward (the hand using it)...it doesn't need the additional cost of magicka. This doesn't make you overpowered because wards are defensive. All this mod does is increase the likelihood of you actually using a ward. Tired of stun locking a dragon priest or vampire over and over? Try using an offensive spell/sword in one hand and the ward in the other...adds a little strategy. Great job.

This is should be a very good mod that will make the using of ward usefull again :)

This dosen't make me too powerfull or unbalanced? :o

x2
Totally agree with your description of ward spells. Thanks
GREAT WORK!

Totally agree with your description of ward spells. Thanks

Dude, your mod is kick ass. That is all.

It'd be neat if wards reflected magic back at attackers or something.

I've had this mod for ages, but an amazing battle encouraged me to write this.

I encountered a master ice mage in a dungeon. As a Necromancer I have my bound sword out and a ward in my left hand. He started spraying his wall of ice, My greater ward blocking it off long enough for him to have to recharge for a few seconds, giving my ward time to recharge also. After about a minute of slow moving to get to him he was cornered, and I proceeded to stab him in the chest then decapitate him. None of this could be remotely possible with vanilla wards, I salute you for this f*cking amazing mod! I think I love you...

Firstly, thanks for this mod and the more expensive variant, too.
I wanted to comment on this considering your dismissive opinion on the other one.
As a newbie caster, I found my ward extremely useful against the first dragon you have to kill. I had some issues with its fire breath, and healing through it didn't quite do the trick. The ward however managed to completely negate the dragon's attack and with the reduced cost I could actually keep it up enough to survive. And with the slightly higher cost, I feel that my Novice Restoration perk was actually useful as I only actually have to invest two mana per second.

Do wards work against dragon's breath attacks?

Excellent mod. Been looking for something like this for a looong time.

I like this mod(I will be using the cheaper version) but have two ideas:
1) Would it be possible to make it so wards protected all directions like a sphere of protection rather than just offering forward protection?
2) Another idea is (for your cheaper version or another one) increase how much magica a ward absorbs when it is struck by a spell so it gives a new aspect that no only does it block the spell but you have a net gain of magica?

If NPCs can keep there shields up for over 1 minute an regenerate faster than the dovakiin um..... yeah this i consider balanced!

@matt.macdonald: Your "difference" is one in description only. In the end, you end up paying for the damage with magicka instead of health.

@MrJohnnyDestiny: No. Anyone who owns the game can download it from here without a fuss. The Nexus gives pirates a chance to use the mod too, and I don't see the merit of that.

would you be so kind and put this on nexus.. please respond as most modders just ignore the request :(

I actually use wards now! :D This is a very well balanced mod and makes for a more varied gameplay. Thanks for making it available.

@Kdansky "Make magicka deplete when the ward gets hit!" - Yeah, that's already in the game, and it's called "Healing"

You havent really thought that out Kdansky - they are similar but healing is reactive, but making wards cost more mana as they receive more damage is proactive (damage mitigation). The difference being that healing uses magicka to fill your healthbar after its been damaged, and if you took peoples suggestions, wards would use magicka to stop your healthbar depleting in the first place. Proactive and reactive, two different methods so its not the same as healing - and both would have legitimate uses.

Wonderful mod, but I do have to say the magicka depleting ward idea might be pointless when compared to healing, but if would be the most realistic way to do it.

Good idea, well done.

I liked your mod so much that I added it as a favourite and I also added it to my Steam collection to help spread the word of your work: “Agriphal’s Collection #3: Improvements”
http://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=17251

youre a d-word in the nicest way possible. thanks for a great mo. the only time ive used a ward is when toldfir asked me to!

I love you :3

Sorry to also bring this up.Wards are suppose to be shields.So you know.They are suppose to be the same as shields providing armor.But they don't due to a bug or missing program.

Favorite Mod! Seriously The amount lost in power was terrible till now.

Love it.

This is the only way to make wards actually something someone would use. The NPC's already have free wards, so why shouldn't we?

Awesome idea! Can't wait to try it ingame :D

That would just take out any strategy in using them, and reduce them to "convert magicka into health" spells.

I agree that wards are way way too expensive, but a suggestion on another way to balance this is increase mana usage depending on how much damage is absorbed.

I think it's a great mod. 1/2/3 is pretty balanced even for a higher level character considering that using any non-dual casted ward is useless, and in many situations holding the ward up for a longer period is actually unavoidable. The first time i can see this as overpowering is when you can buy the the perk that converts incoming damage into magicka when using a ward.

Whats this? Wards being useful (other than on Spellbreaker)? This mod is going to be apart of my top 10 necessary mods for Skyrim (I play the mage type.. almost all the time, or some variation of it). When I first saw Wards in Skyrim at winterhold, I was all like 'HOLY CRAP! AWESOME!', then saw how my magicka 'pleted out in about 3 to 5 seconds. So they were worthless to me and I started just using shields. Now though, I can play as a truly 100% mage! Can't thank ya enough dude! Thumbs up!

@kelmenwong: It works for non-Draughr. Those have their own spells, and I didn't touch them. But other NPC mages *should* also be affected.

does this work for npc/enemy?

Good job, but I just use the Spellbreaker shield you get as a reward for Peryite's quest. It creates a ward-like effect while blocking that protects against spells for up to 50 points and doesn't cost any magicka.

I wish you would make a version of this mod were you cast a ward spell and you spend 30 - 90 mana on the spell and the ward covers your entire body and just stays there. it could take damage equal to the amount of mana the spell cost. Maybe even you could stack multiple wards?

There you go: http://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=14226