I made my first ever mod for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, prompted by my first playthrough in about ten years. You can check it out here:
On files.pineapplemachine.com: https://files.pineapplemachine.com/public/tes4/skillpoints/
On the Oblivion Nexus: https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/51159
There’s one thing about the Elder Scrolls series that I’ve never been especially fond of, and that’s how character progression has long been tied to performing grindy and repetitive actions to advance skill levels. Since when is grinding fun, especially in a single player game that can’t even bring a social aspect to those repetitive actions?
I realized, wouldn’t it be nice if the things I really enjoyed about Oblivion like quests and exploration could more directly contribute to my character’s skill progression? Then I could progress my character just by doing the things I enjoy, and I could stop thinking about grinding at all.
Well, that’s what this mod does. A range of different game achievements such as quest completion, new location discovery, and delving into dungeons can all reward the player with Skill Points, which can be spent to increase the player’s choice of skill levels. No grinding required, and which actions give Skill Point rewards in what amounts can be easily customized if you’re not fully happy with the default balancing decisions.
This Skill Points mod doesn’t replace or overhaul the game’s vanilla skill progression system, like the conceptually similar mods already out there always do. It’s just a small addition which gives players a new and potentially more engaging way to advance their skills, in addition to the ways that were available before.