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About this mod
Vanguard Path is an overhaul to Skyrim's rogue and thief related perk skills and mechanic.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
I have played through many fantastic perk overhaul in the past, SPERG, Ordinator, Adamant, Vokrii. All are great fun and inspiring. And recently I played more games like Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Enderal, etc., I started to have lots of thoughts and ideas about combat, progression and ability in action RPG games.
So this is my attempt to overhaul Skyrim into a more action-focus RPG.
Vanguard Path is the second installment of my overhaul project which mainly focus on rogue and thief gameplay aspect.
Design Goal
Fundamental Changes
Perks and Skills
Sneak
(15) Stealth: You are [20% of stamina]% harder to detect when sneaking.
(30) Silent Roll and Steps: Sprinting while sneaking executes a silent forward roll. Make 50% less noise while sneaking.
(50) Light Foot: You steps won't trigger pressure plates. Normal running and sprinting make 50% less noise.
(70) Quick Steps: You move 20% faster while sneaking. And you are 20% harder to detect by opponents in combat.
(100) Shadow Warrior: You can dissolve in shadow for 2 seconds when sneaking in combat, forcing opponents to search for a target. (20 seconds cooldown)
(30) Backstab: Sneak attacks deal [1% of stamina] times more damage.
(60) Assassination: Sneak attacks deal 20% more damage to targets with full health.
(90) Cloak and Dagger: Sneak attacks from invisibility deal 20% more damage.
Note:
Base sneak damages are changed.
Sneak archery now actually requires more investment in both Sneak and Marksmanship skill trees to become good.
"Backstab" enchantment from Dark Brotherhood gears are nerfed from 100% to 20% more sneak attack damage.
You can only achieve 50% less noise (both sneaking and normal running) from perks. You will now need to wear boots with muffle enchantment (also 50% less noise now), nor casting Muffle spell to achieve 100% noise reduction.
Overall smoother gameplay experience for assassin gameplay.
Marksmanship
(15/30) Overdraw: Ranged attacks deal 20/40% more damage.
(20) Quick Shot: Ranged attacks are 15% quicker and reload faster.
(40) Ranger: Able to move faster with a drawn range weapon.
(60) Marksman's Discipline: Recover twice as many arrows or bolts from dead bodies. Ranged attacks deal 0.2% more damage per point of stamina.
(30) Eagle Eye: Pressing Block while aiming will zoom in your view. Range attacks deal 20% more damage to targets that are not in combat.
(50) Long Shot: Range attacks deal 20% more damage to targets that are staying still.
(70) Steady Hand: Zooming in with a range weapon slows time by 50% when not in combat.
(90) Bullseye: Range attacks ignore 100% of targets' armor if they are not in combat.
(30/50/70) Bleeding Shot: {YOU CAN ONLY CHOOSE ONE PATH} Ranged attacks deal additional 3/5/7 bleed damage over 4 second, plus extra attack damage equal to 1/3/5% of stamina.
(50/70/90) Impaling Shot: Ranged attacks deal 15/30/45% more damage to bleeding targets.
(80) Rapid Shot: Ranged attacks are 50% quicker when staying still.
(100) Wounding Shot: Ranged attacks deal additional 3 bleed damage over 8 second, plus extra attack damage equal to 5% of stamina, when staying still and having more than 90% stamina.
(30/50/70) Critical Shot: {YOU CAN ONLY CHOOSE ONE PATH} Ranged attacks have a 30/50/70% chance to critical hit and deal 1% more critical damage per point of stamina.
(50/70/90) Focus Shot: Ranged attacks deal 50/100/150% more critical damage.
(80) Power Shot: Ranged attacks have 50% chance to stagger most targets and deal 50% more critical damage to targets that are staggered or below half health.
(100) Deadly Shot: Ranged attacks guarantee critical hit and deal additional 1% more critical damage per point of stamina when staying still and having more than 90% stamina.
Note:
Skill renamed from Archery to Marksmanship, because crossbow.
Perks are applied to bows and crossbows. But you can only choose one damage type as your designated path.
Your damage is largely scaled with your stamina. So you need to invest in stamina to hit harder, trading survivability of investing health.
Bleed damage does not apply to dwarven construct and ghosts, but apply to undead.
Enable combat archer or sniper fighting style.
Bleeding extra damage perks do not applied for sneak attack so they don't do unnaturally high damage.
Alchemy
(15) Alchemist: Potions and poisons you make are additionally 1% stronger per level of Alchemy.
(20) Green Thumb: Two ingredients are gathered from plants.
(40) Purity: All negative effects are removed from created potions, and all positive effects are removed from created poisons.
(60) Experimenter: Eating an ingredient reveals all it's effects.
(80) Herbalist: Twice as many potions and poisons are created.
(30) Physician: Potions you make that restore Health, Magicka or Stamina are 25% stronger.
(50) Benefactor: Beneficial potions you make are 25% stronger.
(70) Intensity: Potions last 100% longer.
(90) Emergency: Potions are 50% stronger when below half health.
(30) Concentrated Poison: Poisons applied to weapons last for 1 additional hit every 10 levels of Alchemy.
(50) Poisoner: Poisons you mix are 25% more effective.
(70) Weak Spot: Weapons and spells deal 20% more damage against poisoned targets.
(90) Overdose: Poisons are 20% stronger against poisoned targets.
(100) Corrupted Blade: Poisons are 50% stronger but weapon damage is reduced by 50%.
Note:
Less tedious to progress in alchemy.
Poisoned attack is now a proper damage skill to invest instead of a supportive skill.
Thievery
(15) Light Fingers: Pickpocketing is additionally 1% easier per level of Thievery. Item weight and value reduce pickpocketing odds.
(30) Cutpurse: Pickpocketing gold, keys, gems and jewelry is 50% easier.
(50) Night Thief: Pickpocketing is 25% easier if the target is not detecting you. Additionally 25% easier if the target is asleep.
(70) Misdirection: Can pickpocket equipped weapons, arrows and staves.
(100) Perfect Touch: Can pickpocket equipped items.
(40) Poisoned: Silently harm enemies by placing poisons in their pockets.
(60) Silent Touch: Poisons placed in targets' pockets are 50% stronger when target is not detecting you.
(80) Poisoned Touch: Poisons placed in pockets are 50% stronger on poisoned targets.
(30) Silent Hands: Lockpicking is 2% easier per level of Thievery when sneaking and out of combat.
(60) Keymaster: Able to duplicate a picked lock's key if it has one.
(90) Quick Hands: Able to pick locks without being noticed and reported as crime.
Note:
Skill renamed from Pickpocket to Thievery, because it now contains some perks for lockpicking too. This change is to reduce the vanilla problem that you invested too many perk points into supportive skills if you want to role play as a thief.
Pickpocketing cap raised to 100% instead of 90% in vanilla.
Wayfarer
(15) Looter: Lockpicking is 2% easier per level of Wayfarer.
(20) Locksmith: Pick starts close to the lock opening position.
(40) Golden Touch: Find more gold in chests.
(60) Treasure Hunter: Greater chance of finding special loots.
(80) Extra Pockets: Carrying capacity is increased by 200.
(100) Veteran Delver: Lockpicks never break.
(30) Lone Wolf: Take 20% less damage when you are traveling alone.
(50) Solo: Regenerate health, stamina and magicka 20% faster when you are traveling alone and out of combat.
(70) Maverick: Move 20% faster when you are traveling alone and out of combat.
(90) One Man Legion: Deal 20% more damage when you are traveling alone.
(30) Leader: Take 15% less damage when you are traveling with followers.
(50) Captain: Regenerate health, stamina and magicka 15% faster when you are traveling with followers and out of combat.
(70) Commander: Move 15% faster when you are traveling with followers and out of combat.
(90) Legion: Deal 15% more damage when you are traveling with followers.
Note:
Skill renamed from Lockpicking to Wayfayer, it is now a skill for dungeon delver, adventurer and traveler.
Speechcraft
(15) Haggling: Buying and selling prices are additionally 0.5% better per level of Speechcraft.
(30) Persuasion and Bribery: Persuasion attempts are more likely to succeed and can bribe guards to ignore crimes.
(30) Intimidation: Intimidation attempts are additionally 2% more likely to succeed per level of Speechcraft.
(30) Lucky Day: 50% chance to have 25% better prices.
(50) Fence and Investor: Can barter stolen goods with any merchant and invest 500 gold with shopkeepers to increase their available gold permanently.
(70) Merchant: Every merchant gains 1000 gold for bartering.
(100) Master Trader: Can trade any type of item to any kind of merchant.
Note:
Skill renamed from Speech to Speechcraft, for consistency reason.
Vanilla has way too many perks for a supportive skill.
Requirement
Iron Path - Warrior Gameplay and Perk Overhaul - Soft requirement, not technically required. Vanguard Path is designed and balanced around with Iron Path in mind.
Scrambled Bugs - fixed a lot of stuff.
Experience, Skyrim Skill Uncapper and Static Skill Leveling Rewritten - Optional but highly recommended. Since I didn't change Pickpocket and Lockpicking skill XP gain. Included a patch to reflect the new skill names.
Recommendation
Weapon Armor Attribute Tweaks - Vanguard Path's damage scaling perks are balanced around this mod. (Especially the critical damage changes. ) However it is not necessarily required since the damage difference is not that big.
Action Based Projectiles - If you want to dodge those unfair projectiles, as well as trap bolts.
Recipe Auto-Learn - Excellent mod, should have been vanilla feature. And the reason I put the Experimenter perk that high is to make this mod worthwhile.
Paulicus Poison Block (PPB) Updated - Essential for combat IMO. I forward some changes in some alchemy effect. Load Vangaurd Path over PPB.
Sensible Auto Lockpicking - Great mod for immersion and convenience. Included a patch for conflict solving.
zxlice's ultimate potion animation, Smart Optimal Salves and Immersive Interactions - For potion and poison animations.
Vanargand Animations - For sneak related animations.
Crouch Sliding - For the unparalleled style points. Remember to Remove Ragdolling for Good.
Compatibility
Not compatible with other perk mods.
If you want to use Realistic AI Detection (RAID), let it load over Vanguard Path. Vanguard Path sneaking difficulty is around RAID's Lite level.
If you want to use Apothecary, let it load over Vanguard Path.
Next
Credits
SimonRim - I took a lot of reference, inspiration and learning from SimonRim. Their ideas and implementation is really good. Also i stole a lot of the perk names.
EnaiRim - I took a lot of reference, inspiration and learning from EnaiRim. Also i stole a lot of the perk names.
OlivierDoorenbos for Realistic AI Detection (RAID) - I took a lot of reference and learning from RAID. Btw RAID Weather is the best visual mod for non-ENB setup, strongly recommended. RIP Olivier, our legend.
Sneak Rebalanced - I took a lot of reference and learning from it.
Paulicus Poison Block (PPB) Updated - Forwarded a few records.
Skyrim Alchemy Fixed - For reference and inspiration.
Alchemy Potions and Food Adjustments - For reference and inspiration.
So this is my attempt to overhaul Skyrim into a more action-focus RPG.
Vanguard Path is the second installment of my overhaul project which mainly focus on rogue and thief gameplay aspect.
Design Goal
- Make Skyrim into a more action-focus RPG.
- Designed with action mods like MCO and dodge mod in mind.
- Enable different fighting style and playstyle.
Fundamental Changes
- Tweaked stealth related game setting. Light and sound are now much important factors.
- Sneak attack damage are overall rebalanced. Able to perform effective sneak attack from the get go but late game sneak attack power creep is reduced.
- No more Fortify Smithing and Fortify Enchanting alchemy effects to prevent power creep loop. Fixed some inconsistency in alchemy level lists.
- Some other alchemy effect are tweaked. Poisons are now damage over times.
- Lockpicking sweetspots are slightly harder.
- Sneak and bow related movement are much more fluid and balanced.
Perks and Skills
Sneak
(15) Stealth: You are [20% of stamina]% harder to detect when sneaking.
(30) Silent Roll and Steps: Sprinting while sneaking executes a silent forward roll. Make 50% less noise while sneaking.
(50) Light Foot: You steps won't trigger pressure plates. Normal running and sprinting make 50% less noise.
(70) Quick Steps: You move 20% faster while sneaking. And you are 20% harder to detect by opponents in combat.
(100) Shadow Warrior: You can dissolve in shadow for 2 seconds when sneaking in combat, forcing opponents to search for a target. (20 seconds cooldown)
(30) Backstab: Sneak attacks deal [1% of stamina] times more damage.
(60) Assassination: Sneak attacks deal 20% more damage to targets with full health.
(90) Cloak and Dagger: Sneak attacks from invisibility deal 20% more damage.
Note:
Base sneak damages are changed.
- Dagger: 3x -> 5x
- Sword: 3x -> 2.5x
- War Axe / Mace: 3x -> 2x
- Two-handed weapons: 2x -> 1.5x
- Bow / Crossbow: 2x -> 1.5x
- Unarmed: 2x -> 2.5x
Sneak archery now actually requires more investment in both Sneak and Marksmanship skill trees to become good.
"Backstab" enchantment from Dark Brotherhood gears are nerfed from 100% to 20% more sneak attack damage.
You can only achieve 50% less noise (both sneaking and normal running) from perks. You will now need to wear boots with muffle enchantment (also 50% less noise now), nor casting Muffle spell to achieve 100% noise reduction.
Overall smoother gameplay experience for assassin gameplay.
Marksmanship
(15/30) Overdraw: Ranged attacks deal 20/40% more damage.
(20) Quick Shot: Ranged attacks are 15% quicker and reload faster.
(40) Ranger: Able to move faster with a drawn range weapon.
(60) Marksman's Discipline: Recover twice as many arrows or bolts from dead bodies. Ranged attacks deal 0.2% more damage per point of stamina.
(30) Eagle Eye: Pressing Block while aiming will zoom in your view. Range attacks deal 20% more damage to targets that are not in combat.
(50) Long Shot: Range attacks deal 20% more damage to targets that are staying still.
(70) Steady Hand: Zooming in with a range weapon slows time by 50% when not in combat.
(90) Bullseye: Range attacks ignore 100% of targets' armor if they are not in combat.
(30/50/70) Bleeding Shot: {YOU CAN ONLY CHOOSE ONE PATH} Ranged attacks deal additional 3/5/7 bleed damage over 4 second, plus extra attack damage equal to 1/3/5% of stamina.
(50/70/90) Impaling Shot: Ranged attacks deal 15/30/45% more damage to bleeding targets.
(80) Rapid Shot: Ranged attacks are 50% quicker when staying still.
(100) Wounding Shot: Ranged attacks deal additional 3 bleed damage over 8 second, plus extra attack damage equal to 5% of stamina, when staying still and having more than 90% stamina.
(30/50/70) Critical Shot: {YOU CAN ONLY CHOOSE ONE PATH} Ranged attacks have a 30/50/70% chance to critical hit and deal 1% more critical damage per point of stamina.
(50/70/90) Focus Shot: Ranged attacks deal 50/100/150% more critical damage.
(80) Power Shot: Ranged attacks have 50% chance to stagger most targets and deal 50% more critical damage to targets that are staggered or below half health.
(100) Deadly Shot: Ranged attacks guarantee critical hit and deal additional 1% more critical damage per point of stamina when staying still and having more than 90% stamina.
Note:
Skill renamed from Archery to Marksmanship, because crossbow.
Perks are applied to bows and crossbows. But you can only choose one damage type as your designated path.
Your damage is largely scaled with your stamina. So you need to invest in stamina to hit harder, trading survivability of investing health.
Bleed damage does not apply to dwarven construct and ghosts, but apply to undead.
Enable combat archer or sniper fighting style.
Bleeding extra damage perks do not applied for sneak attack so they don't do unnaturally high damage.
Alchemy
(15) Alchemist: Potions and poisons you make are additionally 1% stronger per level of Alchemy.
(20) Green Thumb: Two ingredients are gathered from plants.
(40) Purity: All negative effects are removed from created potions, and all positive effects are removed from created poisons.
(60) Experimenter: Eating an ingredient reveals all it's effects.
(80) Herbalist: Twice as many potions and poisons are created.
(30) Physician: Potions you make that restore Health, Magicka or Stamina are 25% stronger.
(50) Benefactor: Beneficial potions you make are 25% stronger.
(70) Intensity: Potions last 100% longer.
(90) Emergency: Potions are 50% stronger when below half health.
(30) Concentrated Poison: Poisons applied to weapons last for 1 additional hit every 10 levels of Alchemy.
(50) Poisoner: Poisons you mix are 25% more effective.
(70) Weak Spot: Weapons and spells deal 20% more damage against poisoned targets.
(90) Overdose: Poisons are 20% stronger against poisoned targets.
(100) Corrupted Blade: Poisons are 50% stronger but weapon damage is reduced by 50%.
Note:
Less tedious to progress in alchemy.
Poisoned attack is now a proper damage skill to invest instead of a supportive skill.
Thievery
(15) Light Fingers: Pickpocketing is additionally 1% easier per level of Thievery. Item weight and value reduce pickpocketing odds.
(30) Cutpurse: Pickpocketing gold, keys, gems and jewelry is 50% easier.
(50) Night Thief: Pickpocketing is 25% easier if the target is not detecting you. Additionally 25% easier if the target is asleep.
(70) Misdirection: Can pickpocket equipped weapons, arrows and staves.
(100) Perfect Touch: Can pickpocket equipped items.
(40) Poisoned: Silently harm enemies by placing poisons in their pockets.
(60) Silent Touch: Poisons placed in targets' pockets are 50% stronger when target is not detecting you.
(80) Poisoned Touch: Poisons placed in pockets are 50% stronger on poisoned targets.
(30) Silent Hands: Lockpicking is 2% easier per level of Thievery when sneaking and out of combat.
(60) Keymaster: Able to duplicate a picked lock's key if it has one.
(90) Quick Hands: Able to pick locks without being noticed and reported as crime.
Note:
Skill renamed from Pickpocket to Thievery, because it now contains some perks for lockpicking too. This change is to reduce the vanilla problem that you invested too many perk points into supportive skills if you want to role play as a thief.
Pickpocketing cap raised to 100% instead of 90% in vanilla.
Wayfarer
(15) Looter: Lockpicking is 2% easier per level of Wayfarer.
(20) Locksmith: Pick starts close to the lock opening position.
(40) Golden Touch: Find more gold in chests.
(60) Treasure Hunter: Greater chance of finding special loots.
(80) Extra Pockets: Carrying capacity is increased by 200.
(100) Veteran Delver: Lockpicks never break.
(30) Lone Wolf: Take 20% less damage when you are traveling alone.
(50) Solo: Regenerate health, stamina and magicka 20% faster when you are traveling alone and out of combat.
(70) Maverick: Move 20% faster when you are traveling alone and out of combat.
(90) One Man Legion: Deal 20% more damage when you are traveling alone.
(30) Leader: Take 15% less damage when you are traveling with followers.
(50) Captain: Regenerate health, stamina and magicka 15% faster when you are traveling with followers and out of combat.
(70) Commander: Move 15% faster when you are traveling with followers and out of combat.
(90) Legion: Deal 15% more damage when you are traveling with followers.
Note:
Skill renamed from Lockpicking to Wayfayer, it is now a skill for dungeon delver, adventurer and traveler.
Speechcraft
(15) Haggling: Buying and selling prices are additionally 0.5% better per level of Speechcraft.
(30) Persuasion and Bribery: Persuasion attempts are more likely to succeed and can bribe guards to ignore crimes.
(30) Intimidation: Intimidation attempts are additionally 2% more likely to succeed per level of Speechcraft.
(30) Lucky Day: 50% chance to have 25% better prices.
(50) Fence and Investor: Can barter stolen goods with any merchant and invest 500 gold with shopkeepers to increase their available gold permanently.
(70) Merchant: Every merchant gains 1000 gold for bartering.
(100) Master Trader: Can trade any type of item to any kind of merchant.
Note:
Skill renamed from Speech to Speechcraft, for consistency reason.
Vanilla has way too many perks for a supportive skill.
Requirement
Iron Path - Warrior Gameplay and Perk Overhaul - Soft requirement, not technically required. Vanguard Path is designed and balanced around with Iron Path in mind.
Scrambled Bugs - fixed a lot of stuff.
Experience, Skyrim Skill Uncapper and Static Skill Leveling Rewritten - Optional but highly recommended. Since I didn't change Pickpocket and Lockpicking skill XP gain. Included a patch to reflect the new skill names.
Recommendation
Weapon Armor Attribute Tweaks - Vanguard Path's damage scaling perks are balanced around this mod. (Especially the critical damage changes. ) However it is not necessarily required since the damage difference is not that big.
Action Based Projectiles - If you want to dodge those unfair projectiles, as well as trap bolts.
Recipe Auto-Learn - Excellent mod, should have been vanilla feature. And the reason I put the Experimenter perk that high is to make this mod worthwhile.
Paulicus Poison Block (PPB) Updated - Essential for combat IMO. I forward some changes in some alchemy effect. Load Vangaurd Path over PPB.
Sensible Auto Lockpicking - Great mod for immersion and convenience. Included a patch for conflict solving.
zxlice's ultimate potion animation, Smart Optimal Salves and Immersive Interactions - For potion and poison animations.
Vanargand Animations - For sneak related animations.
Crouch Sliding - For the unparalleled style points. Remember to Remove Ragdolling for Good.
Compatibility
Not compatible with other perk mods.
If you want to use Realistic AI Detection (RAID), let it load over Vanguard Path. Vanguard Path sneaking difficulty is around RAID's Lite level.
If you want to use Apothecary, let it load over Vanguard Path.
Next
- Arcane Path - Mage Gameplay and Perk Overhaul
- Ancient Path - Standing Stone and Power Overhaul
- Dragon Path - Shout Overhaul
Credits
SimonRim - I took a lot of reference, inspiration and learning from SimonRim. Their ideas and implementation is really good. Also i stole a lot of the perk names.
EnaiRim - I took a lot of reference, inspiration and learning from EnaiRim. Also i stole a lot of the perk names.
OlivierDoorenbos for Realistic AI Detection (RAID) - I took a lot of reference and learning from RAID. Btw RAID Weather is the best visual mod for non-ENB setup, strongly recommended. RIP Olivier, our legend.
Sneak Rebalanced - I took a lot of reference and learning from it.
Paulicus Poison Block (PPB) Updated - Forwarded a few records.
Skyrim Alchemy Fixed - For reference and inspiration.
Alchemy Potions and Food Adjustments - For reference and inspiration.