Tutorial:Race Specific Start Spells

Introduction

Awhile back, I was trying to make a new race that had it's own set of starting spells. After looking around a bit, I noticed there really wasn't one. So, after 3 hours of typing, this is the tutorial on creating player starting spells depending on what race the player is. It will add the spell if the script hasn't run yet, meaning that you don't have to start a new game.

How to do it

There are a few ways to do it, the simplest is in the race menu (select your race and drag the spell to "Specials"), but the following script allows an extra degree of control, such as items, special quests, and alternate starting places (using "MoveTo [XMarker/Item]"):

scn AAPlayerScript

short DoOnce

Begin GameMode

If DoOnce != 1
 If GetIsRace Argonian ;can put any race here (even custom races)
  addspell AACustomRaceSpell01 ;put the spell for this race here
 EndIf
EndIf

If DoOnce != 1
 If GetIsRace Imperial ;can put another race here
  addspell AACustomRaceSpell02 ;put the spell for this race here
 EndIf
EndIf
;Copy/ Paste this for every race with race-specific spells
End

Let's look at the "If" chain:

If DoOnce != 1
 If GetIsRace Argonian ;can put any race here (even custom races)
  addspell AACustomRaceSpell01 ;put the spell for this race here
 EndIf
EndIf

This whole part is basically saying: "If the script hasn't run yet and if the player is an Argonian then add AACustomRaceSpell01 to the player's spell list." You could change that to say "VampireRace" or you could make it Class/ Birthsign specific (of course that would be much easier simply putting that in in the Class/ Birthsign dialogue box).

To enforce the script, go into NPCs and find "Player". Click on the drop down box next to the word "Script". Select the script we just made (if you copy/pasted it, it will be AAPlayerScript). Hit "OK" and you're done.

Closing

I figured this method out on my own, so I don't know if this is how Bethesda did the spells for official races (such as the Imperial's "Voice of the Emperor" spell). This can be used for many things. Instead of using addspell, you could use additem and add some kind of special armor, weapon, or just make that race rich. You can, of course, add multiple spells and multiple items.