Q: Why isn't X spell working right?
This mod should be at the bottom of your load order, followed by any patches that depend on it. This should be the first thing you try if you are having any issues at all.


Q: How can I turn off spell X?
If you ever have a spell sticking around longer than it should, cast Dispel Magic, Personal. That's one of the primary reasons I made the spell. There are limitations to the information available to a magic script, and there is a lot of program behavior that is not visible to modders. Therefore there will INEVITABLY be times when you might go somewhere and your Atronach stays behind.

Lesson: USE personal dispel magic. It's your friend.


Q: My magicka is down even though I don't have any spells invested. How can I fix it?
In the extreme case where you no longer have any active invested effects (e.g., you've used personal dispel magic already) and still have reduced magicka, you can use the console to fix the problem. The console command for this is "player.modav magicka X", where X is the amount of magicka you're being shorted. If you are unsure of what X should be, then go to a safe place, remove all equipment and other effects that modify your magicka total, and use "player.getavinfo magicka". The next-to-last line should show the value you're missing.

This situation most often occurs when fighting dragon priests or arch conjurers. The "steal summon" effect is the culprit. I find this an interesting quirk in the world, since it adds an element of danger to the summoning process. It also means that there's a reason to learn that effect. It also also means that in-world, you could imagine malevolent mages going around stealing summons from people in order to siphon their magicka. Pretty neat, I think.


Q: I uninstalled the mod. How do I get my magicka back?
The scripts that control the magicka investment and retrieval are BOTH part of the mod. If the mod is inactive, neither aspect will function. So just as casting a spell without the mod active will not invest magicka, dispelling a spell without the mod active will not return invested magicka to you.

Lesson: Before disabling the mod, dispel all invested spells currently active on your person. This can be done with Personal Dispel Magic, or with the console command player.dispelAllSpells.


Q: Does this have any effect on experience?
Not really. Mage armor spells will still give exp whenever you are hit. Summons will give exp-over-time for being in combat.


Q: Why are the thrall spells invested? Doesn't that make them worse.
They're invested because all buff spells are now invested. And no, they're not worse. In the vanilla game, the only benefit to using Atronach Thrall was its duration. That's lame. Instead, the Atronach Thrall spells all summon more powerful creatures.

Q: Why did you make Thralls no better than other summons?
Please, assume for the sake of conversation that I'm not an idiot. What would a non-idiot do with the thrall spells, now that their permanent nature is irrelevant? Yes, that's right: Thralls are now more powerful than other summons. Whoah! Laik ermagerd! *rolleyes*

Lesson: I'm not a blithering idiot.


Q: Is this compatible with {mod}?
If the other mod makes changes to the spells this one does, no. If it doesn't, yes. It really is that simple. I can't be arsed to check mods I don't use for a game I don't play anymore.

If the other mod makes a change to certain spells that you would prefer to have function as in this mod, you can probably make that work by putting this mod after the other in your load order. That's not a guarantee, just a property of how the game applies mods.