well, if somebody could merge deadly reflexes WITH a realistic health system:
fights would get bloodiers, messier, and brutally short.
when a barbarian swings his warhammer at you, you shouldn't block, you should dodge away, cuz it's going to break all the bones in your arms.
yes, that too!
somebody quick, write down my ideas!
realistic combat mod:
low static health for determinate types.
a big badass orc can probably stand two scrawny daggers once, but a children or an npc merchant women should get oneshotted, back or front.
(maybe have them do some yield animation thing, with a pool of blood forming at their feets when they die from "murder")
high damage things, different armour provides different protection depending on how it's made:
the hide/fur armour with the belly revealed is clearly not armour effective, but it might help in SWIMMING!
on the other hand a tough banded armour might help in making blades and pointy things not kill you, as per arrows, unless to the head, that's one shot.
maces and warhammers gets more vamped, since they work on internal damage, making armour kind of ineffective, but not completely.
insert a broken limb system like in fallout 3, you break a leg? you slowly walk, you break a hand? you don't use it.
and you don't heal it with magic potion, but with the "regeneration potion" (which is made rarer)
or by spending the nights with "casts" or "sticks to keep fracture still" and the process goes in a MONTH term. you want it hard and realistic!? don't expect a wound to be cleaned in a night if it's a bone breaker.
it would make the need for shelter not bad, and to stash onto things like bandages, sticks, and having a horse ready too, since you must be able to reach your house to rest.
and so on.
mmm.
what else? oh yes, magic!
since health is low, magic should be effective, brutal but really really high mana consuming. mages are frail guys who need wards and such to protect themselves, but if taken by surprise they easily die. they are humans after all.
alone they can't do much, especially if they are targetted first.
and yeah, somebody to add in more magicks.
then i'd go also for a mounted combat of sorts.
who wants mounted combat?!
you got a horse, time to use it!
then enchanting, smithing, alchemy:
to balance them just make ingredients sparser and with a bigger time of respawn.
and a limit on smithing and enchanting per day.
like a drain on fatigue for smithing and a drain on magicka for enchanting.
the drain is removed only after 8 hours of sleep.
anything else? obviously there is still a need for a bad ass modder.