Hi, Mark! I used to mod, so I tried to anticipate the questions I would have if I were evaluating an app. Glad to see it worked.
Dragon Shit™, soul gems: No prob.
Lockpicks: They're entirely mundane and a sufficiently good normal lock could defeat her, never mind a magical one. Lockpicking's an optional mechanic in Skyrim, so there aren't many magical enhancements for it to begin with, and Aila hasn't got even those.
Conjuration: These all sound a-okay to me, and the music mechanic is fine. And yes, Banish/Command is only for summoned creatures. Since the Oblivion metaphysics don't map to Tolkien, the closest thing in AM is spirits and the like. Command is a high enough level effect (the tier just below maxing the skill) that I figured it might have a chance of working where a weaker one would fail.
Buuuut both those effects are above her ability to cast, anyway. Aila's a lousy conjurer. However, she could theoretically learn, and the entire school is oogy in a Tolkien cosmology, so I figured I should at least cover the possibilities. And hey, maybe someone will bring in an Elder Scrolls conjurer one day, and we'll already have solved it!
On a character note, Aila's clever, but not someone who sits down and thinks things over without being prompted, so the idea that a lot of Conjuration is shady hasn't worked its way into her thick Nord skull yet. If anything, I plan to use the whole issue for character development rather than simply improving her ability to kill things (which doesn't need a lot of help I mean really.)
This also reminded me of something that hadn't occurred to me until just now. Disregarding the enchantments, I specified her weapons as Daedric, which should almost certainly count as corrupted for Tolkien purposes--they're imbued with the essence of a slain demon. It wasn't intentional on my part; they're just the best non-DLC weapons in the game and Elder Scrolls morality is, uh, flexible. I'm willing to roll with her carrying evil weapons around and dealing with the side-eye (I mean look at that thing) or I could drop her down to the next lower, non-demonic tier, or kick her up to the DLC-only Dragonbone tier. Whichever seems best to you is fine with me.
Likewise, given the enchantment mechanics, would her enchanted non-Daedric gear read as corrupted, too? Would that be affected by whether the soul used was from an animal/magical creature or an actual human? Am I overthinking this?
no subject
Dragon Shit™, soul gems: No prob.
Lockpicks: They're entirely mundane and a sufficiently good normal lock could defeat her, never mind a magical one. Lockpicking's an optional mechanic in Skyrim, so there aren't many magical enhancements for it to begin with, and Aila hasn't got even those.
Conjuration: These all sound a-okay to me, and the music mechanic is fine. And yes, Banish/Command is only for summoned creatures. Since the Oblivion metaphysics don't map to Tolkien, the closest thing in AM is spirits and the like. Command is a high enough level effect (the tier just below maxing the skill) that I figured it might have a chance of working where a weaker one would fail.
Buuuut both those effects are above her ability to cast, anyway. Aila's a lousy conjurer. However, she could theoretically learn, and the entire school is oogy in a Tolkien cosmology, so I figured I should at least cover the possibilities. And hey, maybe someone will bring in an Elder Scrolls conjurer one day, and we'll already have solved it!
On a character note, Aila's clever, but not someone who sits down and thinks things over without being prompted, so the idea that a lot of Conjuration is shady hasn't worked its way into her thick Nord skull yet. If anything, I plan to use the whole issue for character development rather than simply improving her ability to kill things (which doesn't need a lot of help I mean really.)
This also reminded me of something that hadn't occurred to me until just now. Disregarding the enchantments, I specified her weapons as Daedric, which should almost certainly count as corrupted for Tolkien purposes--they're imbued with the essence of a slain demon. It wasn't intentional on my part; they're just the best non-DLC weapons in the game and Elder Scrolls morality is, uh, flexible. I'm willing to roll with her carrying evil weapons around and dealing with the side-eye (I mean look at that thing) or I could drop her down to the next lower, non-demonic tier, or kick her up to the DLC-only Dragonbone tier. Whichever seems best to you is fine with me.
Likewise, given the enchantment mechanics, would her enchanted non-Daedric gear read as corrupted, too? Would that be affected by whether the soul used was from an animal/magical creature or an actual human? Am I overthinking this?