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About this mod
Awesome Artifacts is a lightweight unique items overhaul for those who want artifacts to be unique and powerful without being unimmersive or overpowered.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
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Translations
- Spanish
- German
- Changelogs
This mod is the cheese for your Skyrim burger. It's the product of years of tinkering with Skyrim's lackluster unique items to do them justice. Yes, I'm saying it's another unique items overhaul. The mods I once found for the bland artifacts were poorly made or too boring or far too overpowered, so I took it into my own hands and learned my way to making this mod the best it can be. Awesome Artifacts aims to be lightweight and of high quality, to have effects that are unique and fun, to stay true to the original theme and be immersive, and finally, to keep things balanced enough to make things interesting. The only item that's truly overpowered is Ysmir, as you'd expect.
Requires the Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch (USKP/USLEEP). Includes fixes and tweaks from Weapons & Armor Fixes Remade (WAF).
Ysmir, Dragon of the North
- You can upgrade Konahrik to Ysmir at the Skyforge once you have ended the civil war and become the Thane of every hold and learned every Smithing perk.
- Requires all the original Dragon Priest masks and 50.000 gold to forge. Skyrim needs more gold sinks.
- Has all enchantments from said Dragon Priest masks.
- Has the hidden effect from Dragon Aspect that makes most shouts more powerful.
- Comes in both Cloth, Light, and Heavy versions, which you can switch between for a fee of 10.000 gold.
- Light version gets Matching Set bonus from all Elven and Nightingale armor, and Heavy from Daedric.
- It will use any new textures you install for Konahrik.
- Konahrik's effect now makes you explode, damaging enemies and healing allies, and leaving you with a flame cloak for 15 seconds. Its chance to activate at low health has been decreased so that it won't make you near-immortal, but its chance to summon a Dragon Priest has been increased. The explosion scales with Destruction skill.
- Includes fixes and tweaks from USKP, WAF and me to all Dragon Priest masks. Noticeably, they now benefit from perks related to their material, e.g. Elven Smithing for moonstone. If you have another mod for the masks, load it after this one.
Chillrend
- You can craft an unenchanted replica of Chillrend called Rimeglass Sword. It requires Glass Smithing, Arcane Blacksmith and Deep Freeze/Crystallize to forge.
- A Rimeglass Sword can be upgraded to a Honed Rimeglass Sword once you have 100 Smithing skill. The Honed version has the stats of max-rank Chillrend.
- Rimeglass Swords have been added to leveled loot lists. So they may rarely be found after level 30 anywhere enchanted Glass Swords can appear.
- Can also be crafted at the Atronach Forge. A recipe for it can be found as random loot among the original recipes.
- Frost enchantments placed on Rimeglass Swords are 10% stronger.
- Chillrend can be disenchanted to learn Frostfeed, and it now slows the target and damages Stamina as it should. Its chance to paralyze has been reduced from 26% to 10%. The enchantment glow is designed exclusively for Chillrend, but it looks good on most other weapons. With this, you can forge your own Chillrend (or two) and add another enchantment. I personally like adding a moderate Silent Moons enchant.
Miraak's Sword
- You can craft Miraak's Sword at the Skyforge when you have completed the Dragonborn questline. It is not unenchanted.
- Requires Arcane and Daedric Smithing to forge, and the sword now benefits from the Daedric Smithing perk when being improved.
- The crafting recipe scales with your level. The different ranks of the sword become available at these levels: 1 - 45 - 60 - 75
- You can upgrade it from a lower rank to the highest available. It takes less materials than creating a new.
- The sword has infinite charges because it's alive, and the tentacle attack animation has been removed since it's bugged and stops working every other minute.
- The new Mora's Gift enchantment Soul Traps the target for 3 seconds and absorbs 10/15/20/25 points of Health, Magicka, and Stamina, depending on item level.
60% is absorbed on impact, the remaining 40% are curved over 2 seconds. It can be disenchanted. When enchanting, you only have control over the Soul Trap's duration; the absorption is set to 10 points, but it amplifies itself and any additional enchantments it's paired with by 50% if you have completed the quest for Oghma Infinium.
Nightingale Armor, Weapons & Arrows
- You can craft unenchanted Nightingale Armor, Weapons and Arrows after Darkness Returns to Nirn. The elegant arrows and quiver are designed by FrankFamily.
- The armor requires Advanced Armors to craft, and the weapons and arrows require Ebony Smithing. They all require Arcane Blacksmith too.
- The 25 armor rating bonus from wearing the full set has been changed to 25% Health regeneration.
- Fixes and tweaks, which also affect the pieces you get through the questline.
Snow Elf Armor (Ancient Falmer Armor)
- Auriel bestows knowledge of Snow-Elven Smithing to the owner of his bow, including the lost art of making Powdered Mammoth Tusks, which are used to craft the armor.
- Snow Elf Crown is now Light Armor and has 13 armor. Wearing a full set of Snow Elf armor grants 25% Health regeneration.
- Snow-Elven Smithing has prerequisites: Elven, Arcane, and Advanced Smithing.
I recommend using a pristine retexture like Not So Ancient Falmer Armor HD.
Savior's Hide
- Armor increased to 36 (up from 26), putting it between Scaled and Glass armor.
- Benefits from Advanced Armors (Scaled) instead of Ebony Smithing bonuses.
- Gets Matching Set bonus from Hide and Fur in addition to Scaled.
- The 15% Magic Resistance has been changed to 25% Frost Resistance.
- Has 50% Poison Resistance.
- Added 30 Carry Weight.
- Added 20% Health and Stamina regeneration.
- Added 15 Unarmed Damage, making it the only chest armor with Unarmed Damage.
Skull of Corruption
- Does 20 points of damage to Health, Magicka, and Stamina. Increases by 5 points for every 5 dreams stored, up to a maximum of 50 points at 30 dreams.
- Has a 10% chance to consume a stored dream and reduce the target's Magic Resistance by 25-50% for 5 seconds. This stacks with diminishing returns.
- Has an AoE and slows the target by 20-40% for 5 seconds when powered with dreams.
- Victims of your dream harvest can dream again after 36 hours, instead of 10 days.
- So many fixes, nothing has ever been this fixed.
The Rueful Axe
- Benefits from Daedric Smithing, and gets Daedric-tier bleeding damage from perks.
- Now swings 6% faster than other battleaxes, instead of 30% slower.
- Now staggers as much as other battleaxes.
- Damage increased from 22 to 24.
- Weight increased from 10 to 18.
- Ignores 25% of a target's armor.
- Has 10% critical strike chance.
- Counts as a silver weapon.
- Removed the stamina damage enchantment, so it can benefit from the Elemental Fury shout.
Keening
- Can now be improved at a grindstone. Counts as Dwarven.
- Damage increased from 8 to 10 (Ebony).
- Removed the cluttering "Mortal Wound" effect. Arniel notes that you're unharmed.
- The enchantment has 50% chance for each attribute to absorb 25 points of Health, Magicka, and/or Stamina. Keening resonates, empowering its wielder:
Increases Health, Magicka, and Stamina by 25 points. Increases Agility by 10%: You move and attack 10% faster, jump 10% higher*, and take 10% reduced stagger and falling damage. These effects come from TES3: Morrowind. Jump height requires SKSE.
Glass Bow of the Stag Prince
- Can level up 10 times (to 200 animal kills) instead of 4 times (to 80 kills).
- Gains 10 Health and Stamina per level (up to +100) and 2% Agility (up to +20%).
- Does 10 points of Nature Damage to Stamina and half of that to Health, increasing by 3 points every level (up to 40 points).
- Base speed slightly increased, same with Critical Strike chance and critical damage.
The hunt is on!
Diadem of theSavant Polymath
- Armor increased to 10, which is still very low.
- Benefits from Elven Smithing, Matching Set and Mage Armor.
- Makes life a little easier.
Vampire Royal Armor
- Armor increased from 30 to 34.
- Weight decreased from 9 to 7.
- Magicka regeneration decreased from 125% to 100%.
- Reduces the magicka cost of Conjuration and Illusion spells by 25%.
Mace of Molag Bal
- Benefits from the Daedric Smithing perk.
- Does 30 damage to Magicka and Stamina.
- Does 15 bleeding damage over 30 seconds.
- Has an 8% chance to make the target flee in horror for 30 seconds.
- The duration of its Soul Trap effect has been increased to 30 seconds.
Sheson's favorite beater for our firstborns. Molag Bal is just renting it.
Necromancer's Amulet
- Increases Magicka by 50 points.
- Conjuration spells cost 25% less to cast.
- Reanimation spells are 15% more powerful.
- Reanimated undead are more powerful: +5 Melee Damage, +10% Magic Resistance, +25 Armor.
- Increases effectiveness against undead by 10%: +10% physical damage, +10% spell magnitude, +10% spell duration.
- Reduces their effectiveness towards you by the same amount.
- Reduces Health and Stamina regeneration by 75%.
Volendrung
- Now benefits from the Daedric Smithing perk.
- Damage increased by 1, putting it between Ebony and Daedric Warhammers.
- Still swings faster than normal.
- Now has Critical Damage. (18)
- Absorbs 50 stamina, and has a 20% chance to stun targets on power attacks.
BIG. EVIL. HAMMER.
Ebony Mail
- Enemies in melee range take 8 points of Shadow Damage per second to Health and 2 points to Stamina.
- Reflects 10% of all melee damage back at the attacker.
- Absorbs 10% of the Magicka from incoming spells.
- Still muffles your movement while you're sneaking.
- The shadow cloak no longer turns targets completely black.
Ebony Blade
- Can now be improved at a grindstone. This change is not lore-friendly, but neither are the blade's effects to begin with. You can choose not to improve it.
- Now has the stats and mechanics of an artifact ebony greatsword, instead of a one-handed weapon.
- Gains 5 points of Health absorption every time it ranks up, for a maximum of 35 points (up from 30).
- Does 5 bleeding damage over 5 seconds, which increases every rank and ends up doing 15 damage over 5 seconds.
- Sneak attacks made with this weapon are silent and do 3 times normal damage instead of 2.
Dawnbreaker
- Now benefits from the Daedric Smithing perk.
- Does 15 Fire Damage with increased afterburn damage and 10 Sun Damage. Does an additional 10 Sun Damage to undead.
- Changed the Bane of the Undead explosion that it can trigger by killing undead. Originally, it made them burn for 4 seconds, and flee for 30 seconds. Now it makes them both burn and flee for 10 seconds, doing a total of 110 damage before modifiers, and targets that die while burning from the explosion have a chance to explode again.
- The explosion no longer knocks items around, and vampire players can become immune to it by obtaining 75% fire resistance.
Auriel's Bow
- Damage increased to 18 (up from 13).
- Critical Damage increased to 14 (up from 13).
- Has a 25% higher critical strike chance multiplier, so 20% critical strike chance becomes 25%. (125% of 20% = 25%)
- Fixed the enchantment. It now does 20 Sun Damage to anyone, and triple to undead.
- The afterburn has a 25% lower curve for more damage in the weak end of its duration.
- The bow draws its power directly from the sun, so it doesn't use charges during the day.
- Has a hidden 5% chance to call upon Celestial Fury when hitting a dragon. See Dragonbane.
- Still has the fastest speed in the game, but shoots as far as a Daedric Bow. The legend lives!
Auriel's Shield
- Changed to Light Armor, for lore consistency and to match the related Snow Elf Armor.
- Because of this, armor rating has been reduced to 30, making it 1 point stronger than a Dragonscale Shield.
- Weight has been reduced to 6.
- Added a hidden 10% block and 10% elemental resist enchant, because dragons.
- The shockwave does 3/7/15 damage, up from 2/5/10, and its speed has been fixed.
Haknir Death-Brand's Treasure
- Deathbrand Armor increases Stamina by 15 and reduces incoming stagger by 10% for each Deathbrand item you wear.
- The helmet allows you to breathe underwater and increases Frost Resistance by 10% for each Deathbrand item you wear.
- Boots increase carrying capacity by 10 and movement speed by 5% for each Deathbrand item you wear.
- Gauntlets increase one-handed damage by 10% and critical strike chance by 1% for each Deathbrand item you wear while dual-wielding. Increases critical damage by 2.
- Wearing the full set still grants +100 armor.
- Bloodscythe absorbs 5 points of Health on impact and 15 points over 1 second, and has a chance to reduce enemy armor by 50.
- Soulrender absorbs 5 points of Magicka on impact and 15 points over 1 second. The dispelling effect now does 20 damage instead of 1, and counts as Destruction.
- Both weapons have 4% increased attack speed and slightly higher critical damage.
Bloodskal Blade
- Counts as a silver weapon.
- Benefits from smithing bonuses.
- Normal attacks absorb 5+ points of Health.
- Power attacks release energy blasts that do 10+ damage on impact and absorb 5+ points of Health over 1 second.
- All effects become 3% stronger per point of Two-Handed skill, culminating in 40 + 20 points of damage and absorption at skill level 100.
- Energy blasts stagger the target on a cooldown.
- Increased blast speed and range, optimized hitbox.
Miraak (Mask)
- Can now be improved at a workbench. Benefits from Dragonscale and Dragonplate.
- All versions are now Light Armor with 25 armor, to match the rest of the set.
- Increases Magicka by 50, Magicka regeneration by 25%, and reduces spell costs and shout cooldown by 10%.
Miraak's Armor Set
- The robes have been changed to Light armor to match the rest of the set, and now have 31 armor.
- Added 50% Poison Resistance to the robes. The tentacle explosion now also damages Stamina.
- Added 20% Conjuration and Destruction spell cost reduction to the gloves.
- Added 20% Stamina regeneration to the boots, and the wearer moves silently and can walk on water.
- All armor has received fixes and can be improved with Dragonscale Smithing.
Miraak's Staff
- Counts as Conjuration.
- Now damages Stamina in addition to Health.
- Sprays writhing tentacles that do 30 points of poison damage per second. Direct hits now trigger the visual tentacle hit effect.
- Can be sprayed on the ground to create a field of tentacles that stagger and Soul Trap foes for 15 points of poison damage per second for 5 seconds.
- Becomes 50% more powerful to you if you have completed the quest for Oghma Infinium. The same goes for Mora's Agony as it uses the ground spell.
Ancient Shrouded Armor Set
- The armor increases Poison Resistance by 100% and the potency of harmful poisons by 25%.
- The cowl increases the damage of bows by 35% and grants +3% critical strike chance and +2 critical damage.
- Gloves are left untouched, so they grant double sneak attack damage with one-handed weapons.
- Boots now use the same muffle enchantment as Nightingale Boots, reducing noise from armor by 75% instead of 50%.
- The 25 armor rating bonus from wearing a full set of Dark Brotherhood armor has been changed to 25% Stamina regeneration.
Blade of Woe
- Benefits from the Daedric Smithing perk instead of Steel Smithing.
- Has all tweaks from WAF, so its Attack Speed has been increased by 30% to match other daggers.
- The new Kiss of Death enchantment absorbs 10 Health and makes the target bleed 30 points of Health, Magicka, and Stamina over 10 seconds.
- The bleeding effect stacks and reduces the target's Health regeneration by 100% for the duration.
Hail Sithis!
Staff of Magnus
- Absorbs 25 Magicka and 10 Health per second. If target is out of Magicka, absorbs 25 Health instead.
- The Magicka absorption originally did 100% extra absorption over 1 second; an uncurved afterburn. I made both Health and Magicka do 50% extra over 1 second instead.
- The effect has been fixed and costs less enchantment charge per second. I also gave it an AoE that's as wide as the beam, to make it easier to hit with.
- The staff wards its user with the Shield of Magnus, absorbing 20% of the Magicka from incoming spells and restoring 1 point of Health per second.
This effect comes from TES3: Morrowind.
Wuuthrad
- Can be improved and counts as Ebony, giving it bleeding damage from perks.
- Now has Critical Damage. (17)
- Can be enchanted.
- USKP: The 20% bonus damage affects all types of elves, including orcs and vampire elves.
Shield of Ysgramor
- Now benefits from Ebony Smithing.
- Armor increased from 30 to 35, which is 1 armor less than a Daedric Shield.
- Increases Magic Resistance and Frost Resistance by 20%. Fortifies blocking by 30%.
Shield of Solitude
- WAF: Counts as Light Armor and benefits from Advanced Armors. (Scaled)
- Is now unleveled: Weight reduced to 5, armor rating set to 26. It's 1 point weaker and lighter than a Glass Shield.
- Increases Magic Resistance and movement speed by 15%. Fortifies blocking by 20%.
Aegisbane
- Damage increased to 19.
- Swings slightly faster than normal.
- Does 20 points of frost damage to Health and Stamina.
- Hits that are blocked reduce the target's armor and Block skill by 40 points for 5 seconds. This effect stacks, but is affected by Frost Resistance and Magic Resistance because of the frost damage effect, and it cannot reduce the Block skill below 0.
The Pale Blade
- Is now unleveled.
- WAF: Damage increased to 12. Weight reduced to 13.
- Does 25 frost damage to Health and twice as much to Stamina.
- Creatures and people up to level 16 flee for 30 seconds.
- The tooltip now shows the correct enchantment values.
- Minor increases to attack speed and critical damage.
Red Eagle's Bane
- Has the same stats as The Pale Blade.
- Does 8 fire damage on impact and sets the target on fire for roughly 22 damage over 5 seconds.
- Undead up to level 30 flee for the duration of the burn.
- Silky smooth damage curve.
Stormfang
- Upgraded to Skyforge Steel quality.
- Does 10 points of piercing frost damage to Health and Stamina.
- Hits have three 10% chances to inflict 20/30/40 shock damage.
- Each shock damage proc has its own set of thunder sounds.
- Benefits from Augmented Frost and Shock.
Ghostblade
- Counts as Honed Draugr material. (Dwarven Smithing)
- Now has a hidden effect against ghosts.
- Damage increased to 10.
- Critical Damage doubled to 10.
- Does 10 points of spectral damage to Health, Magicka, and Stamina.
Dragonbane
- Is now unleveled: 14 Damage, 13 Weight.
- Does 30 non-resist damage to Health and a third of that to Magicka against dragons. Does 10 shock damage to Health and Magicka against others.
- Has a 5% chance to call upon Celestial Fury when hitting a dragon, doing 100 non-resist damage on impact with another 300 damage over 3 seconds.
10% of this damage is also dealt to Magicka.
- All effects benefit from Augmented Shock.
Harkon's Sword
- WAF: Damage increased to 12. Weight reduced to 9.
- Katana: Range increased by 5% from the default sword value, and attack speed by 3%.
- Does 20 deathfrost damage (poison + frost), which slows the target and does 25% extra damage over 5 seconds.
- Vampires absorb 5 points of Health, Magicka, and Stamina per second for 5 seconds. Does not stack.
- Deathfrost damage benefits from Augmented Frost.
Tenchi (Akaviri Sword)
- Now uses this beautiful model by cnyylzy123456789.
- Silversteel: Counts as a silver weapon and benefits from Steel Smithing.
- Damage increased to 12. Weight reduced to 9.
- Has increased Critical Strike chance and damage.
- Range and attack speed increased by 5%.
- Ignores 25% of a target's armor.
- Can be enchanted.
Horksbane
- Can be enchanted.
- Value increased to 666.
- Imbued with burning hatred towards horkers.
- Guards may sense the foul evil in this weapon if GDO is installed.
Additional Changes
- Firiniel's End does 50% increased sneak attack damage.
- Dwarven Black Bow of Fate absorption increased to 50 points.
- Masque of Clavicus Vile has 25% regeneration to all attributes.
- Ring of Namira reflects 15% of all melee damage back at the attacker.
- Nettlebane has a hidden effect against spriggans. Works with any mod.
- Bloodthorn absorbs 10 points of Health on impact and 10 points over 2 seconds.
- Mehrunes' Razor ignores 25% of armor, has 12 base damage, and benefits from Daedric Smithing.
- Armor of the Old Gods grants 25% Health regeneration when the full set is worn. Works with any mod.
- Bolar's Oathblade halves your chance to be critically hit, and reduces damage taken from dragons and animals by 10%.
- Spellbreaker wards for 70 points per second, has 20% Magic Resistance, 33 armor, and benefits from Dwarven Smithing.
- Targe of the Blooded's bash does 5 damage on impact and 15 bleeding damage over 5 seconds which reduces Health regeneration by 100%.
- Guild Master's and Blackguard's armor sets also have Linwe's combat enchantments. Guild Master's is better for thieving and Blackguard's is better for combat.
- Nightweaver's Band fortifies sneaking by 20%, reduces the cost of Destruction spells by 15%, and grants +3% critical strike chance and +2 critical damage.
- The Gauldur Amulet and its fragments have 20% regeneration to their respective attributes.
- Kyne's Token reduces damage taken from animals by 15% and increases the damage of bows by 30%.
- Savos Aren's Amulet increases your Magicka by 50 points and makes you stagger 25% less from incoming attacks.
- Locket of Saint Jiub increases your Stamina and carrying capacity by 50 points, and your movement speed by 20%.
- Fixed Amulet of Articulation, and you always get the best version of it. It can be improved, but doesn't benefit from any Smithing perk.
- Grimsever is now a Glass Greatsword to match Mjoll's preference for two-handed weapons, and also does 15 bleeding damage over 30 seconds.
- The Staff of Jyrik Gauldurson now correctly does twice its damage to Magicka, counts as Destruction, and provides its intended boost to Magicka affinity.
- Eduj and Okin reduce your shout cooldown by 15% and increase your Frost Resistance by 30% when wielded together.
- Notched Pickaxe can be disenchanted to learn the Storm Notch enchant, which has a weak afterburn.
- Poacher's Axe does 8 extra damage to animals. It can be disenchanted and has no charge cost. Good for followers.
- Briarheart Geis does 15 extra damage to Nords, and is held by a forsworn at Lost Valley Redoubt just like in CRF. It can be disenchanted and has no charge cost.
- Silent Moons Enchant does 25% of its damage to Magicka, and its afterburn is synchronized with its improved visual effect which creates twice as many particles.
- Bleeding Damage spells from perks have been balanced to a point where they actually matter. Orcish axes cause the longest lasting bleeds, and Daedric the strongest.
- Improved random enchanted weapon material lists. Instead of finding tons of enchanted Iron Weapons, you'll find more Steel Weapons, and a little more of other types.
Install using a mod manager. There's no actual need but you'll certainly regret it one day if you're not using one. The mod can be installed in the middle of a playthrough without issues, but you should unequip any enchanted items that this mod changes before installing or uninstalling!
Awesome Artifacts is simple, clean, and made with compatibility in mind, but certain mods will benefit from a Bashed Patch for full compatibility and integration. It should be loaded after any item changes or fixes like WAF, CCF or CRF. It is compatible with everything which doesn't edit the exact same things as this mod. Most compatibility issues can be resolved by using the right load order. Want to use another mod that changes the same leveled lists? Or perhaps there's a Wuuthrad mod which you're particularly fond of? Just load them after this mod.
This mod is no longer receiving updates for Legendary Edition. Awesome Artifacts is available for Skyrim Special Edition here.
Requires the Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch (USKP/USLEEP). Includes fixes and tweaks from Weapons & Armor Fixes Remade (WAF).
---Craftables---
Ysmir, Dragon of the North
- You can upgrade Konahrik to Ysmir at the Skyforge once you have ended the civil war and become the Thane of every hold and learned every Smithing perk.
- Requires all the original Dragon Priest masks and 50.000 gold to forge. Skyrim needs more gold sinks.
- Has all enchantments from said Dragon Priest masks.
- Has the hidden effect from Dragon Aspect that makes most shouts more powerful.
- Comes in both Cloth, Light, and Heavy versions, which you can switch between for a fee of 10.000 gold.
- Light version gets Matching Set bonus from all Elven and Nightingale armor, and Heavy from Daedric.
- It will use any new textures you install for Konahrik.
- Konahrik's effect now makes you explode, damaging enemies and healing allies, and leaving you with a flame cloak for 15 seconds. Its chance to activate at low health has been decreased so that it won't make you near-immortal, but its chance to summon a Dragon Priest has been increased. The explosion scales with Destruction skill.
- Includes fixes and tweaks from USKP, WAF and me to all Dragon Priest masks. Noticeably, they now benefit from perks related to their material, e.g. Elven Smithing for moonstone. If you have another mod for the masks, load it after this one.
Chillrend
- You can craft an unenchanted replica of Chillrend called Rimeglass Sword. It requires Glass Smithing, Arcane Blacksmith and Deep Freeze/Crystallize to forge.
- A Rimeglass Sword can be upgraded to a Honed Rimeglass Sword once you have 100 Smithing skill. The Honed version has the stats of max-rank Chillrend.
- Rimeglass Swords have been added to leveled loot lists. So they may rarely be found after level 30 anywhere enchanted Glass Swords can appear.
- Can also be crafted at the Atronach Forge. A recipe for it can be found as random loot among the original recipes.
- Frost enchantments placed on Rimeglass Swords are 10% stronger.
- Chillrend can be disenchanted to learn Frostfeed, and it now slows the target and damages Stamina as it should. Its chance to paralyze has been reduced from 26% to 10%. The enchantment glow is designed exclusively for Chillrend, but it looks good on most other weapons. With this, you can forge your own Chillrend (or two) and add another enchantment. I personally like adding a moderate Silent Moons enchant.
Miraak's Sword
- You can craft Miraak's Sword at the Skyforge when you have completed the Dragonborn questline. It is not unenchanted.
- Requires Arcane and Daedric Smithing to forge, and the sword now benefits from the Daedric Smithing perk when being improved.
- The crafting recipe scales with your level. The different ranks of the sword become available at these levels: 1 - 45 - 60 - 75
- You can upgrade it from a lower rank to the highest available. It takes less materials than creating a new.
- The sword has infinite charges because it's alive, and the tentacle attack animation has been removed since it's bugged and stops working every other minute.
- The new Mora's Gift enchantment Soul Traps the target for 3 seconds and absorbs 10/15/20/25 points of Health, Magicka, and Stamina, depending on item level.
60% is absorbed on impact, the remaining 40% are curved over 2 seconds. It can be disenchanted. When enchanting, you only have control over the Soul Trap's duration; the absorption is set to 10 points, but it amplifies itself and any additional enchantments it's paired with by 50% if you have completed the quest for Oghma Infinium.
Nightingale Armor, Weapons & Arrows
- You can craft unenchanted Nightingale Armor, Weapons and Arrows after Darkness Returns to Nirn. The elegant arrows and quiver are designed by FrankFamily.
- The armor requires Advanced Armors to craft, and the weapons and arrows require Ebony Smithing. They all require Arcane Blacksmith too.
- The 25 armor rating bonus from wearing the full set has been changed to 25% Health regeneration.
- Fixes and tweaks, which also affect the pieces you get through the questline.
Snow Elf Armor (Ancient Falmer Armor)
- Auriel bestows knowledge of Snow-Elven Smithing to the owner of his bow, including the lost art of making Powdered Mammoth Tusks, which are used to craft the armor.
- Snow Elf Crown is now Light Armor and has 13 armor. Wearing a full set of Snow Elf armor grants 25% Health regeneration.
- Snow-Elven Smithing has prerequisites: Elven, Arcane, and Advanced Smithing.
I recommend using a pristine retexture like Not So Ancient Falmer Armor HD.
---Uniques---
Savior's Hide
- Armor increased to 36 (up from 26), putting it between Scaled and Glass armor.
- Benefits from Advanced Armors (Scaled) instead of Ebony Smithing bonuses.
- Gets Matching Set bonus from Hide and Fur in addition to Scaled.
- The 15% Magic Resistance has been changed to 25% Frost Resistance.
- Has 50% Poison Resistance.
- Added 30 Carry Weight.
- Added 20% Health and Stamina regeneration.
- Added 15 Unarmed Damage, making it the only chest armor with Unarmed Damage.
Skull of Corruption
- Does 20 points of damage to Health, Magicka, and Stamina. Increases by 5 points for every 5 dreams stored, up to a maximum of 50 points at 30 dreams.
- Has a 10% chance to consume a stored dream and reduce the target's Magic Resistance by 25-50% for 5 seconds. This stacks with diminishing returns.
- Has an AoE and slows the target by 20-40% for 5 seconds when powered with dreams.
- Victims of your dream harvest can dream again after 36 hours, instead of 10 days.
- So many fixes, nothing has ever been this fixed.
The Rueful Axe
- Benefits from Daedric Smithing, and gets Daedric-tier bleeding damage from perks.
- Now swings 6% faster than other battleaxes, instead of 30% slower.
- Now staggers as much as other battleaxes.
- Damage increased from 22 to 24.
- Weight increased from 10 to 18.
- Ignores 25% of a target's armor.
- Has 10% critical strike chance.
- Counts as a silver weapon.
- Removed the stamina damage enchantment, so it can benefit from the Elemental Fury shout.
Keening
- Can now be improved at a grindstone. Counts as Dwarven.
- Damage increased from 8 to 10 (Ebony).
- Removed the cluttering "Mortal Wound" effect. Arniel notes that you're unharmed.
- The enchantment has 50% chance for each attribute to absorb 25 points of Health, Magicka, and/or Stamina. Keening resonates, empowering its wielder:
Increases Health, Magicka, and Stamina by 25 points. Increases Agility by 10%: You move and attack 10% faster, jump 10% higher*, and take 10% reduced stagger and falling damage. These effects come from TES3: Morrowind. Jump height requires SKSE.
Glass Bow of the Stag Prince
- Can level up 10 times (to 200 animal kills) instead of 4 times (to 80 kills).
- Gains 10 Health and Stamina per level (up to +100) and 2% Agility (up to +20%).
- Does 10 points of Nature Damage to Stamina and half of that to Health, increasing by 3 points every level (up to 40 points).
- Base speed slightly increased, same with Critical Strike chance and critical damage.
The hunt is on!
Diadem of the
- Armor increased to 10, which is still very low.
- Benefits from Elven Smithing, Matching Set and Mage Armor.
- Makes life a little easier.
Vampire Royal Armor
- Armor increased from 30 to 34.
- Weight decreased from 9 to 7.
- Magicka regeneration decreased from 125% to 100%.
- Reduces the magicka cost of Conjuration and Illusion spells by 25%.
Mace of Molag Bal
- Benefits from the Daedric Smithing perk.
- Does 30 damage to Magicka and Stamina.
- Does 15 bleeding damage over 30 seconds.
- Has an 8% chance to make the target flee in horror for 30 seconds.
- The duration of its Soul Trap effect has been increased to 30 seconds.
Sheson's favorite beater for our firstborns. Molag Bal is just renting it.
Necromancer's Amulet
- Increases Magicka by 50 points.
- Conjuration spells cost 25% less to cast.
- Reanimation spells are 15% more powerful.
- Reanimated undead are more powerful: +5 Melee Damage, +10% Magic Resistance, +25 Armor.
- Increases effectiveness against undead by 10%: +10% physical damage, +10% spell magnitude, +10% spell duration.
- Reduces their effectiveness towards you by the same amount.
- Reduces Health and Stamina regeneration by 75%.
Volendrung
- Now benefits from the Daedric Smithing perk.
- Damage increased by 1, putting it between Ebony and Daedric Warhammers.
- Still swings faster than normal.
- Now has Critical Damage. (18)
- Absorbs 50 stamina, and has a 20% chance to stun targets on power attacks.
BIG. EVIL. HAMMER.
Ebony Mail
- Enemies in melee range take 8 points of Shadow Damage per second to Health and 2 points to Stamina.
- Reflects 10% of all melee damage back at the attacker.
- Absorbs 10% of the Magicka from incoming spells.
- Still muffles your movement while you're sneaking.
- The shadow cloak no longer turns targets completely black.
Ebony Blade
- Can now be improved at a grindstone. This change is not lore-friendly, but neither are the blade's effects to begin with. You can choose not to improve it.
- Now has the stats and mechanics of an artifact ebony greatsword, instead of a one-handed weapon.
- Gains 5 points of Health absorption every time it ranks up, for a maximum of 35 points (up from 30).
- Does 5 bleeding damage over 5 seconds, which increases every rank and ends up doing 15 damage over 5 seconds.
- Sneak attacks made with this weapon are silent and do 3 times normal damage instead of 2.
Dawnbreaker
- Now benefits from the Daedric Smithing perk.
- Does 15 Fire Damage with increased afterburn damage and 10 Sun Damage. Does an additional 10 Sun Damage to undead.
- Changed the Bane of the Undead explosion that it can trigger by killing undead. Originally, it made them burn for 4 seconds, and flee for 30 seconds. Now it makes them both burn and flee for 10 seconds, doing a total of 110 damage before modifiers, and targets that die while burning from the explosion have a chance to explode again.
- The explosion no longer knocks items around, and vampire players can become immune to it by obtaining 75% fire resistance.
Auriel's Bow
- Damage increased to 18 (up from 13).
- Critical Damage increased to 14 (up from 13).
- Has a 25% higher critical strike chance multiplier, so 20% critical strike chance becomes 25%. (125% of 20% = 25%)
- Fixed the enchantment. It now does 20 Sun Damage to anyone, and triple to undead.
- The afterburn has a 25% lower curve for more damage in the weak end of its duration.
- The bow draws its power directly from the sun, so it doesn't use charges during the day.
- Has a hidden 5% chance to call upon Celestial Fury when hitting a dragon. See Dragonbane.
- Still has the fastest speed in the game, but shoots as far as a Daedric Bow. The legend lives!
Auriel's Shield
- Changed to Light Armor, for lore consistency and to match the related Snow Elf Armor.
- Because of this, armor rating has been reduced to 30, making it 1 point stronger than a Dragonscale Shield.
- Weight has been reduced to 6.
- Added a hidden 10% block and 10% elemental resist enchant, because dragons.
- The shockwave does 3/7/15 damage, up from 2/5/10, and its speed has been fixed.
Haknir Death-Brand's Treasure
- Deathbrand Armor increases Stamina by 15 and reduces incoming stagger by 10% for each Deathbrand item you wear.
- The helmet allows you to breathe underwater and increases Frost Resistance by 10% for each Deathbrand item you wear.
- Boots increase carrying capacity by 10 and movement speed by 5% for each Deathbrand item you wear.
- Gauntlets increase one-handed damage by 10% and critical strike chance by 1% for each Deathbrand item you wear while dual-wielding. Increases critical damage by 2.
- Wearing the full set still grants +100 armor.
- Bloodscythe absorbs 5 points of Health on impact and 15 points over 1 second, and has a chance to reduce enemy armor by 50.
- Soulrender absorbs 5 points of Magicka on impact and 15 points over 1 second. The dispelling effect now does 20 damage instead of 1, and counts as Destruction.
- Both weapons have 4% increased attack speed and slightly higher critical damage.
Bloodskal Blade
- Counts as a silver weapon.
- Benefits from smithing bonuses.
- Normal attacks absorb 5+ points of Health.
- Power attacks release energy blasts that do 10+ damage on impact and absorb 5+ points of Health over 1 second.
- All effects become 3% stronger per point of Two-Handed skill, culminating in 40 + 20 points of damage and absorption at skill level 100.
- Energy blasts stagger the target on a cooldown.
- Increased blast speed and range, optimized hitbox.
Miraak (Mask)
- Can now be improved at a workbench. Benefits from Dragonscale and Dragonplate.
- All versions are now Light Armor with 25 armor, to match the rest of the set.
- Increases Magicka by 50, Magicka regeneration by 25%, and reduces spell costs and shout cooldown by 10%.
Miraak's Armor Set
- The robes have been changed to Light armor to match the rest of the set, and now have 31 armor.
- Added 50% Poison Resistance to the robes. The tentacle explosion now also damages Stamina.
- Added 20% Conjuration and Destruction spell cost reduction to the gloves.
- Added 20% Stamina regeneration to the boots, and the wearer moves silently and can walk on water.
- All armor has received fixes and can be improved with Dragonscale Smithing.
Miraak's Staff
- Counts as Conjuration.
- Now damages Stamina in addition to Health.
- Sprays writhing tentacles that do 30 points of poison damage per second. Direct hits now trigger the visual tentacle hit effect.
- Can be sprayed on the ground to create a field of tentacles that stagger and Soul Trap foes for 15 points of poison damage per second for 5 seconds.
- Becomes 50% more powerful to you if you have completed the quest for Oghma Infinium. The same goes for Mora's Agony as it uses the ground spell.
Ancient Shrouded Armor Set
- The armor increases Poison Resistance by 100% and the potency of harmful poisons by 25%.
- The cowl increases the damage of bows by 35% and grants +3% critical strike chance and +2 critical damage.
- Gloves are left untouched, so they grant double sneak attack damage with one-handed weapons.
- Boots now use the same muffle enchantment as Nightingale Boots, reducing noise from armor by 75% instead of 50%.
- The 25 armor rating bonus from wearing a full set of Dark Brotherhood armor has been changed to 25% Stamina regeneration.
Blade of Woe
- Benefits from the Daedric Smithing perk instead of Steel Smithing.
- Has all tweaks from WAF, so its Attack Speed has been increased by 30% to match other daggers.
- The new Kiss of Death enchantment absorbs 10 Health and makes the target bleed 30 points of Health, Magicka, and Stamina over 10 seconds.
- The bleeding effect stacks and reduces the target's Health regeneration by 100% for the duration.
Hail Sithis!
Staff of Magnus
- Absorbs 25 Magicka and 10 Health per second. If target is out of Magicka, absorbs 25 Health instead.
- The Magicka absorption originally did 100% extra absorption over 1 second; an uncurved afterburn. I made both Health and Magicka do 50% extra over 1 second instead.
- The effect has been fixed and costs less enchantment charge per second. I also gave it an AoE that's as wide as the beam, to make it easier to hit with.
- The staff wards its user with the Shield of Magnus, absorbing 20% of the Magicka from incoming spells and restoring 1 point of Health per second.
This effect comes from TES3: Morrowind.
Wuuthrad
- Can be improved and counts as Ebony, giving it bleeding damage from perks.
- Now has Critical Damage. (17)
- Can be enchanted.
- USKP: The 20% bonus damage affects all types of elves, including orcs and vampire elves.
Shield of Ysgramor
- Now benefits from Ebony Smithing.
- Armor increased from 30 to 35, which is 1 armor less than a Daedric Shield.
- Increases Magic Resistance and Frost Resistance by 20%. Fortifies blocking by 30%.
Shield of Solitude
- WAF: Counts as Light Armor and benefits from Advanced Armors. (Scaled)
- Is now unleveled: Weight reduced to 5, armor rating set to 26. It's 1 point weaker and lighter than a Glass Shield.
- Increases Magic Resistance and movement speed by 15%. Fortifies blocking by 20%.
Aegisbane
- Damage increased to 19.
- Swings slightly faster than normal.
- Does 20 points of frost damage to Health and Stamina.
- Hits that are blocked reduce the target's armor and Block skill by 40 points for 5 seconds. This effect stacks, but is affected by Frost Resistance and Magic Resistance because of the frost damage effect, and it cannot reduce the Block skill below 0.
The Pale Blade
- Is now unleveled.
- WAF: Damage increased to 12. Weight reduced to 13.
- Does 25 frost damage to Health and twice as much to Stamina.
- Creatures and people up to level 16 flee for 30 seconds.
- The tooltip now shows the correct enchantment values.
- Minor increases to attack speed and critical damage.
Red Eagle's Bane
- Has the same stats as The Pale Blade.
- Does 8 fire damage on impact and sets the target on fire for roughly 22 damage over 5 seconds.
- Undead up to level 30 flee for the duration of the burn.
- Silky smooth damage curve.
Stormfang
- Upgraded to Skyforge Steel quality.
- Does 10 points of piercing frost damage to Health and Stamina.
- Hits have three 10% chances to inflict 20/30/40 shock damage.
- Each shock damage proc has its own set of thunder sounds.
- Benefits from Augmented Frost and Shock.
Ghostblade
- Counts as Honed Draugr material. (Dwarven Smithing)
- Now has a hidden effect against ghosts.
- Damage increased to 10.
- Critical Damage doubled to 10.
- Does 10 points of spectral damage to Health, Magicka, and Stamina.
Dragonbane
- Is now unleveled: 14 Damage, 13 Weight.
- Does 30 non-resist damage to Health and a third of that to Magicka against dragons. Does 10 shock damage to Health and Magicka against others.
- Has a 5% chance to call upon Celestial Fury when hitting a dragon, doing 100 non-resist damage on impact with another 300 damage over 3 seconds.
10% of this damage is also dealt to Magicka.
- All effects benefit from Augmented Shock.
Harkon's Sword
- WAF: Damage increased to 12. Weight reduced to 9.
- Katana: Range increased by 5% from the default sword value, and attack speed by 3%.
- Does 20 deathfrost damage (poison + frost), which slows the target and does 25% extra damage over 5 seconds.
- Vampires absorb 5 points of Health, Magicka, and Stamina per second for 5 seconds. Does not stack.
- Deathfrost damage benefits from Augmented Frost.
Tenchi (Akaviri Sword)
- Now uses this beautiful model by cnyylzy123456789.
- Silversteel: Counts as a silver weapon and benefits from Steel Smithing.
- Damage increased to 12. Weight reduced to 9.
- Has increased Critical Strike chance and damage.
- Range and attack speed increased by 5%.
- Ignores 25% of a target's armor.
- Can be enchanted.
Horksbane
- Can be enchanted.
- Value increased to 666.
- Imbued with burning hatred towards horkers.
- Guards may sense the foul evil in this weapon if GDO is installed.
Additional Changes
- Firiniel's End does 50% increased sneak attack damage.
- Dwarven Black Bow of Fate absorption increased to 50 points.
- Masque of Clavicus Vile has 25% regeneration to all attributes.
- Ring of Namira reflects 15% of all melee damage back at the attacker.
- Nettlebane has a hidden effect against spriggans. Works with any mod.
- Bloodthorn absorbs 10 points of Health on impact and 10 points over 2 seconds.
- Mehrunes' Razor ignores 25% of armor, has 12 base damage, and benefits from Daedric Smithing.
- Armor of the Old Gods grants 25% Health regeneration when the full set is worn. Works with any mod.
- Bolar's Oathblade halves your chance to be critically hit, and reduces damage taken from dragons and animals by 10%.
- Spellbreaker wards for 70 points per second, has 20% Magic Resistance, 33 armor, and benefits from Dwarven Smithing.
- Targe of the Blooded's bash does 5 damage on impact and 15 bleeding damage over 5 seconds which reduces Health regeneration by 100%.
- Guild Master's and Blackguard's armor sets also have Linwe's combat enchantments. Guild Master's is better for thieving and Blackguard's is better for combat.
- Nightweaver's Band fortifies sneaking by 20%, reduces the cost of Destruction spells by 15%, and grants +3% critical strike chance and +2 critical damage.
- The Gauldur Amulet and its fragments have 20% regeneration to their respective attributes.
- Kyne's Token reduces damage taken from animals by 15% and increases the damage of bows by 30%.
- Savos Aren's Amulet increases your Magicka by 50 points and makes you stagger 25% less from incoming attacks.
- Locket of Saint Jiub increases your Stamina and carrying capacity by 50 points, and your movement speed by 20%.
- Fixed Amulet of Articulation, and you always get the best version of it. It can be improved, but doesn't benefit from any Smithing perk.
- Grimsever is now a Glass Greatsword to match Mjoll's preference for two-handed weapons, and also does 15 bleeding damage over 30 seconds.
- The Staff of Jyrik Gauldurson now correctly does twice its damage to Magicka, counts as Destruction, and provides its intended boost to Magicka affinity.
- Eduj and Okin reduce your shout cooldown by 15% and increase your Frost Resistance by 30% when wielded together.
- Notched Pickaxe can be disenchanted to learn the Storm Notch enchant, which has a weak afterburn.
- Poacher's Axe does 8 extra damage to animals. It can be disenchanted and has no charge cost. Good for followers.
- Briarheart Geis does 15 extra damage to Nords, and is held by a forsworn at Lost Valley Redoubt just like in CRF. It can be disenchanted and has no charge cost.
- Silent Moons Enchant does 25% of its damage to Magicka, and its afterburn is synchronized with its improved visual effect which creates twice as many particles.
- Bleeding Damage spells from perks have been balanced to a point where they actually matter. Orcish axes cause the longest lasting bleeds, and Daedric the strongest.
- Improved random enchanted weapon material lists. Instead of finding tons of enchanted Iron Weapons, you'll find more Steel Weapons, and a little more of other types.
---Installation---
Install using a mod manager. There's no actual need but you'll certainly regret it one day if you're not using one. The mod can be installed in the middle of a playthrough without issues, but you should unequip any enchanted items that this mod changes before installing or uninstalling!
Awesome Artifacts is simple, clean, and made with compatibility in mind, but certain mods will benefit from a Bashed Patch for full compatibility and integration. It should be loaded after any item changes or fixes like WAF, CCF or CRF. It is compatible with everything which doesn't edit the exact same things as this mod. Most compatibility issues can be resolved by using the right load order. Want to use another mod that changes the same leveled lists? Or perhaps there's a Wuuthrad mod which you're particularly fond of? Just load them after this mod.
This mod is no longer receiving updates for Legendary Edition. Awesome Artifacts is available for Skyrim Special Edition here.