I had a pretty decent idea for a mod the other day and I wrote down some things I thought would be pretty cool. I want to make a mod with unique torches that give off different types of light and have special effects on bashing. Also I wanted to implement an ability to use custom breath attacks while you're blocking with your torch. The only problem is... I can't make models worth dog [censored] (excuse my language, good sirs and/or madams) and my textures are god awful on anything that I do. I can probably do everything but that, but that's probably the most important thing anyway so I figured I'd just throw the ideas out here to see what people think and if anyone wants to make this themselves or something.

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Some Possible Abilities:

Torch Breathing: Press the shout button while blocking to breathe a breath unique
to each torch.

Torch Throw: Throw your torch for an attack that is much stronger than a regular bash attack.

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Possible Torches:

Lightning Rod - Soft blue glow with a low radius, has shock particles and
deals shock damage (health and magicka) when bashing.

Cone of Cold - Hardly any light emitted, very soft white glow, deals frost
damage (health and stamina) and slows.

Torch of Blazing - Like a regular torch, but stronger and applies a fire DoT.

Oil Soaked Torch - Low damage fire DoT, high light emittance, low duration, explodes
when thrown.

Torch of the Damned - Purple flames, purple light, soul traps on bashing.

Ethereal Light - Very dim, ghostly looking torch. Never burns out and deals frost
damage in health only and equal to that of a regular torch.

Torch of Shadow - No light emittance, actually darkens. Deals high poison damage
on bashing and increases your sneak capabilities.

Paladin's Sconce - Very bright torch, but low radius. Turns and burns the undead
on bashing.

Unstable Magical Focus - Bright blue torch, emits a magical explosion around you
every 5 seconds and absorbs magicka on bashing.

Torch of Warding - Low light, high radius. Slightly Increases armor and spell absorption and
provides a ward while blocking. If you torch breathe the ward is instant and stronger
but requires magicka to hold.

I think a good place to start would be to reimplement a torch as a weapon. The tricky part is getting said weapon to project light correctly (I don't have any tips on that. Perhaps the people who made "http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=8479" have some clues).

From there you can use http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9247 to block and bash with said torch, and you could enchant the torch to deal fire damage, soul trap, etc.

If you want to get clever you could make a perk that causes the player to deal fire damage when they hit an opponent with a torch (so that even unenchanted torches burn). I'm not certain the best way to do that but I'm fairly certain it could be done.

This might just be me, but I prefer the regular torch mechanics to the idea of swinging the torch like a melee weapon. Either way seems do-able to me, but if I were to make this mod I'd make it with the vanilla torch style. Thanks for the input though.

I like the idea, it sounds a bit like "staffs cast on strike" but with torches. You might not have to make it a weapon, mind. The Targe of the Blooded has a cast on strike enchantment (bleeding damage is a spell effect) and presumably the torch's natural bash effect is spell based, so you should be able to implement them as a torch.
For thrown stuff, check out the various throwing mods, maybe ask the creators.
Breath attacks... perhaps script a (few) lesser power that are given to the player whenever the torch is equipped?

Overall, this doesn't sound too tricky. Textures would be the main problem, but you could just use a normal mesh and just colour the flame effect. Give it a go.
Throwing and breath will be harder, but introduce them after the torches are made, and you can get help too.

The regular torch bash works by a perk and spell combo and I assume it can done in the same way as that. I also have ideas for the breathing and throwing aspects. The only real problem I can imagine is models and textures. I'm like a blind man with a broken arm trying to stay in the lines of a children's coloring book when it comes to textures, and don't get me started on models...

I might as well just try and make everything with the vanilla torch model and see how it goes... thanks.

Yeah, that's a good idea. Someone will help with textures, I'm sure a decent looking shader can be done quickly. Who knows, I might even start learning next week.

Fair enough. It would make dealing with enchantments way easier and more flexible though.

Otherwise, yeah, you'd have to go through the torch bash perk.

Special breath attacks could possibly be implemented through Script Dragon (I could, at the moment, script it so that trying to shout while blocking with a torch uses fire breath) but there are limitations. Script Dragon can't reference custom IDs, for example.

I've never used Script Dragon, but my idea for the torch breathing was just to somehow auto-equip the player with a spell when they block and they can press the shout button to do the attack, or if that doesn't work maybe have a spell that makes the player play a blocking animation and then have an auto casted custom spell be cast. I wouldn't want to use any vanilla shout attacks, though... that would probably be too overpowered.