Search the Community

Alduin is supposed to be the World Eater, the harbinger of the end times. So it's no surprise that most of us have find his boss battles a little underwhelming. The grand showdown in the Nordic afterlife against the fallen firstborn of Akatosh just feels like another dragon fight at that point. And while the idea of fighting alongside the shades of past Nord heroes sounds neat on paper, in practice it just makes the fight way too easy. I've had this idea for improving the Sovngarde battle kicking around in my head for a while, inspired by the Miraak boss battle, and especially the fight with Grigori in the original Dragon's Dogma. I want to make the battle feel appropriately grand and epic. To make more complete use of the power we acquire as Dragonborn than just two Shouts, and have Alduin show us the power of his Voice in turn. I don't have any technical skill to speak of to make this possible, so I thought I'd toss it out here for anyone who would be interested. Stage 1 The battle begins as it does in vanilla Skyrim, using Clear Skies to clear away Alduin's soul mist till the PC and the Nord heroes can fight him head-on. But when his health reaches 50% or less he becomes temporarily invincible, uses Unrelenting Force to knock the party prone. He then flies up to Sovengarde's Word Wall and uses an altered form of the soul mist Shout. This time, the mist slowly drains the PC's health, stamina and magicka. In addition, Alduin will unleash the souls he has devoured in the form of leveled undead (draugr and corrupted shades). The PC will need to rely on the Nord heroes to fight through the undead and reach the three leveled Draugr Overlords Alduin has summoned to help strengthen the mist. Each warrior provides a passive buff or healing effect to counteract the mist when the PC stands close to them. Stage 2 Once the last overlord is defeated and the mist is dispelled a final time, Alduin will take to the sky and out of range of Dragonrend, using Storm Call and Dragon Storm Call to rain fireballs and lightning down on the PC. The heroes briefly confer with the Dragonborn. Felldir the Old suggests combining their shouts again and prompts the player that they'll need to use one of their own to slow him down somehow before casting a spell to reset your shout cooldown. They then combine Unrelenting Force to launch the PC high into the air like a giant's launch effect (minus the ragdoll spinning). As the player gets close to Alduin, you will hear the heroes calling for you to "Shout, Dragonborn!" The player would then choose from amongst the Shouts they know to close the distance with Alduin. Cyclone, Slow Time, and Whirlwind Sprint will bring the Dragonborn to him directly. Bend Will, Dragonrend, Drain Vitality, and Unrelenting Force will inflict a midair stagger effect on Alduin, allowing the PC to catch up to him. Players should be allowed to make wrong choices and fall to their death (respawning just before getting launched), or else allowed to use Become Ethereal to land safely and try again. Once on Alduin's back, the PC attacks him directly until his health reaches 25%. Once there, Alduin falls from the sky with the Dragonborn still holding on. Shouts that deal direct damage do x2 damage, while Dragonrend will cause him to fall immediately. The PC will fall off Alduin and take some fall damage, but never enough to die, and there will be time between the next stage to heal up. Stage 3 Alduin will crash-land back on the hill overlooking the Hall of Valor. He will commend the Dragonborn for their tenacity. Mockingly offers to meet the Dragonborn at their level before letting off a series of Shouts in quick succession. First erecting a wall of flame around the hill: NPCs cannot pass through it and the PC's health will rapidly drop if they try, ignoring Fire Resistance. Second, Alduin is restored to full health and takes on a humanoid form. Human-Alduin is the size of Tsun, wearing an (unremovable) set of black Dragonbone plate armor (helmeted modeled off his dragon head, of course) and wielding a black dragonbone greataxe. The armor is enchanted with high resistance to all elements as well as Drain Health and Drain Vitality. The weapons Dragonbane, Auri-El's Bow, Miraak's Sword, the Staff of Magnus and most other Aedric or Daedric artifacts partially ignore these resistances. Likewise, his axe is enchanted to deal Fire damage which ignores 50% of Fire Resistance, and power attacks will inflict a Marked for Death-like effect on the PC. Throughout the battle, Alduin can use all the same Shouts as Miraak, though replacing Bend Will and Cyclone with Marked for Death and Dragon Storm Call. He will also be immune to Slow Time at this point and will use the same Shout in retaliation . Dragonrend temporarily stuns him and cuts his defensive qualities in half, though he will always retaliate with either Unrelenting Force or a Whirlwind Sprint/Elemental Fury combo attack. At 50% health he will activate Dragon Aspect as a permanent buff. Stage 4 When Human-Alduin reaches 10% health he returns to his dragon form in a violent explosion. This final Alduin is twice the size of his normal form and has all of Human-Alduin's defenses and Shouts in addition to higher HP. Leveled draugr wights will also periodically emerge from the wall of fire to heal him. And when he takes to the air he will sometimes hurl pieces of statuary at the PC or drop out of the sky to crush you. When Alduin is finally defeated, the wall of flame is extinguished and any remaining draugr drop dead. The ending sequence continues as per vanilla except for one. All the draugr bodies and shade remains will transform into ghosts and then into the same solid forms as the rest of Sovngarde's residents, as all the souls devoured by Alduin are set free. And that's my mod pitch.