Vanilla magic was arguably not as disappointing as vanilla melee combat, but it left something to be desired. You point your hand, you hold a trigger, fire comes out. It works, but for a game that lets you be a freaking wizard in VR, it doesn’t quite deliver on the fantasy. Naturally, modders couldn’t leave it alone. Mad God’s Overhaul leans on a pile of mods to make spellcasting feel more like… well, magic.
Selecting spells
In vanilla, swapping what’s equipped means opening menus, which is a real momentum killer. Spell Wheel VR fixes that with a radial menu you can open with a button combo, letting you swap spells (and shouts, and items) on the fly. You can configure the wheel to show only favorites, only spells from certain schools, etc. It has a ton of options, and it’s for more than just spells. For the full tour, see the Spell Wheel VR page.
Casting
Several mods work together to make the actual casting feel better in VR.
Magic Improvements for Skyrim VR makes casting look better in several ways, including better dual-casting, improved aiming, and particle effects that scale according to your remaining magicka. Dual Casting Fix VR fixes a bug that made dual-casting behave like single-casting in VR.
Spell Auto-Aim VR gives your projectiles a little help finding their mark. It ships tuned to help just a little, and it’s configurable with an INI if you want more (or less) assistance.
SpellBender VR, one of Machina’s many mods in the list, lets you steer magical projectiles. It’s very cool, and it’s configurable with an INI. Check out the Nexus page for details.
Weapon infusions
Conduit - Short-term Weapon Infusions lets you temporarily infuse your weapon with the effect of a spell you have equipped in your other hand. It combines with existing enchantments, and it even works on bound weapons. Conducted effects work with Weapon Throw VR too! It’s very, very cool.
In with the new…
Mysticism - A Magic Overhaul rebalances Skyrim’s magic system and adds new spells across every school (while bringing back some fan-favorite Elder Scrolls spells of yore). Sorcerer does the same for staves and scrolls.
On top of that foundation sits a set of themed spell packs, gathered in the list’s Spell Extensions section. Most are built to stay balanced against vanilla spells.
- Astral Magic 2 draws on Aetherius to smite people with the power of the stars, and Lunaris does moon magic.
- Ride the lightning1 with Storm Calling Magic 2 and Arclight.
- Natura handles nature, Bloodmoon handles blood, and Desecration handles the necrotic stuff (including a chance to spawn a flaming necrotic familiar 🔥🤘🔥.
- Abyssal Tides Magic is your one-stop shop for “forbidden knowledge and dark powers.”
Wizarding Traversal Magic gives you magical transportation. Apparition teleports you to where you’re aiming, Apparition Travel is a toggle that lets you fast travel instantly in in-game time, and Mist Apparition turns you into an invulnerable mist to evade attacks2, with a bonus to speed and jump height. Note that these are powers, so they compete with shouts for your Voice slot. You can buy the tomes once you reach Alteration skill level 75.
New in 4.0 RC3, A Guiding Light replaces Clairvoyance with Guiding Wisp, which summons a wisp that leads you to your nearest quest objective. You’ll find the tome in Embershard Mine, or you can buy it from the Riverwood Trader.
Quality over quantity
Magic enemies
The spell packs aren’t just for you. A set of NPC Spell Variance patches hands the expanded spell pool to Skyrim’s own spellcasters, so the mages, necromancers, and vampires you run into draw from the same library you do.
Balance cuts the other way too. NPC Mage Balance FIX takes away the unfair advantages enemy mages enjoy in vanilla, where they get to play by friendlier rules than you do for magicka cost and regeneration.
Fair warning
Sights and sounds
Magic in MGO doesn’t just behave differently. It looks and sounds different too.
Vanilla’s hand effects are 2D sprites animating in a single flat plane, which is an adequate illusion on a monitor, but pretty obvious in VR. 3D Casting FX and 3D Casting Shock rebuild them as actual 3D effects.
Arctic - Frost Effects Redux brings new 3D meshes and new textures to frost spells, and a stack of VFX edits touch up lightning, healing, light, drain, and summoning portals. FleshFX spruces up armor spells (Oakflesh and friends), and Frozen Electrocuted Combustion means the things you kill with magic appear appropriately burned, frozen, or electrified.
Deadly Spell Impacts leaves scorch marks and craters where your spells land, and Spell Rune Retexture gives runes a glow-up (sorry).
Master Spells Runes adds a flourish to master-level spells, borrowing the rune artwork from Strange Runes.
V.A.E.R. - Visual Animated Enchants Reborn gives enchanted weapons animated shaders, with unique effects for unique weapons and artifacts. Its effects are dialed back by 60% compared to the original mod specifically to suit a first-person view. It also shows on NPC weapons, so you get a moment’s warning about what’s about to be swung at you. (Staves aren’t covered.) Enchantment Art Extender distributes new enchantment effects based on config files.
Airgetlam - Modern Magic Sounds Rework rebuilds Skyrim’s spell audio, and Airgetlam - Shouts SFX does the same for your Thu’um.
…Out with the old
Your spell list can get unwieldy pretty quickly. Forget Spell and Spell Organizer let you hide or remove spells you’ll never cast again (or for the first time) so they stop cluttering up your menu.
Optional magic mods
Two magic-related picks live in the OPTIONAL Mods → Combat & Magic folder (see Onboarding), disabled by default.
Strange Runes gives rune spells showier visuals. If you enable it and want a different look, Alternative Runes is a texture replacer for it (to be used alongside Strange Runes, not in place of it).