Low to no aggression bandits and follower

[synphul]

Hello all, first time posting (be gentle please). I recently had various glitches in the game and trial and error with enb's that resulted in low frames so I uninstalled them and basically restarted the game. In the process I deleted all the old save games. Reinstalled and updated various mods to new versions. Swapped hdt physics used prior for easy hawt hdt/smp, dropped Aft for iAft.

I'm currently level 6 I believe, just completed the golden claw quest (brought back to Lucan) and currently tasked with meeting with the Greybeards. The first issue I noticed is my follower Frida (standalone mod) doesn't seem to attack. I've played with her successfully in the past where she acts normal (prior to restarting the game on cleared saves). Reinstalled her mod. Noticed this in the hunt for the golden claw against draugr's where she seemed to stay back. She'll draw her weapon when I do, sheath it when I do. But otherwise she just stands in attack pose and never engages. The same happened during an encounter with a troll and I purposely moved back behind her. The troll attacked her and she just stood there taking it moving in frozen fixed pose. The troll's attacks collided and shoved her about, no response though. No response other than a verbal when I attack her either.

Something else odd happened and the reason I'm lumping them together I'm not sure if they're related. Went to Valtheim Towers where there are bandits. I know it can vary, sometimes the bandits are more aggressive and other times you have to move nearer before the red dot appears on the compass. I walked right up to a female bandit standing outside and she didn't react at all. Drew my weapon (Frida drew hers) and no reaction. I was able to talk to the bandit and she said something about not wanting trouble, a possible shakedown for a toll to pass and one of my options was to intimidate. Which I was able to do (at such a low level with hardly any skills leveled up). So I attacked and she just stood there and moved away from me. It wasn't until I entered the towers that the other bandits appeared as enemy dots on the compass. Again the follower didn't fight at all just held back at the bottom of the stairs.

Compared to previous playing of the game this seems way off. Like the aggression levels are severely hampered (playing on adept 1:1 level). I used the in game menu for iAft to chat about the follower's levels of aggression and confidence, no matter how high I set both no change. Made sure her attack was set to 'general'. Tried removing all other weapons from her inventory leaving her with her default sword. Tried dismissing her, leaving the area, saving, restarting, having her join me as a follower once more, no change. What's odd is I have another follower Ella (standalone) also managed by iAft, same settings and she's fierce. Runs ahead and wipes out just about everyone even with mid range aggression/confidence. So it doesn't appear to be a fault with iAft. Maybe a difference because Frida is using a sword (melee) and Ella is default armed dual wielding fireball staves (ranged)? I'm not as concerned with the follower, it's a bummer but if she's glitchy I can use other followers. If it's tied to the same glitchy behavior of the bandits though my real concern is that enemy engagement will be bugged throughout the game.

Other things I've done already:

Cleaned dirty edits from the main dlc's one at a time compared to the original game. Sorted with Loot which came back with 2 warnings both for dd Realistic Ragdolls and Force (one 'realistic' the other 'reduced') but both are currently disabled. A mention of already being included in xpmse. I have limited knowledge of tes5edit but went through and checked factions/bandits from the original game esm for any issues. One reported though it was from either the official update or usleep regarding making the faction of bandits 'friendly' to CaravanALeader which I believe is a Khajiit caravan leader (so bandits won't attack him?). Also checked my followers, aggression and other things in tes5edit were the same for both Ella (working follower) and Frida (bugged follower that won't attack). No other conflicts other than hair color through various mods which shouldn't affect their ai mechanics and combat.

In trying to keep with the suggestion for post info, running win7 with an i5-4690k (4.6ghz), radeon hd7850 1gb, 16gb system ram, 250gb 860evo with 73.5gb free. Game is located in C:\program files(x86)\steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim. Game version 1.9.32.0 with the official update, dlc's dawngaurd, hearthfires and dragonborn (assume this makes it legendary though purchased/installed individually). Other utility versions follow:

Using Vortex v1.4.16.
SKSE (latest version, set to autoupdate in steam)
Loot v 0.16.1.0
Wrye Bash v309.1.0.0.0
Tes5edit v 3.1.1.0
FNIS v 7.6
FISS v 1.21
Usleep v 3.0.15
XPMSE v 4.80

Loot Order

0 0 Skyrim.esm

1 1 Update.esm

2 2 Dawnguard.esm

3 3 HearthFires.esm

4 4 Dragonborn.esm

5 5 Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch.esp

6 6 AP Skyrim.esm

7 7 Inn Girls Resources.esm

8 8 RaceCompatibility.esm

9 9 hdtHighHeel.esm

BodyTypes.esm

ClimatesOfTamriel.esm

10 a SGHairPackBase.esm

11 b Havok Breast Physic.esm

12 c ASX_Spells.esp

13 d SFMFollower.esp

14 e AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp

15 f EnhancedLightsandFX.esp

Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Interiors.esp

16 10 ELFX - Exteriors.esp

17 11 RealisticWaterTwo.esp

Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Exteriors.esp

18 12 KS Hairdo's.esp

19 13 SGHairPackAIO.esp

20 14 Immersive Wenches.esp

21 15 ELFX - NoPlayerHomes.esp

22 16 EMCompViljaSkyrim.esp

23 17 PCEA - 0 - DG and DB DLC - All Races.esp

24 18 EllaFollower.esp

25 19 RealisticWaterTwo - Legendary.esp

SMIM-Merged-NoDragonborn.esp

26 1a buildablehouse.esp

27 1b Immersive Horses.esp

28 1c Immersive_Horses_AFT_Patch.esp

29 1d DSerHorsesRevamped.esp

30 1e KSWigsHDT.esp

31 1f KS Hairdos - HDT.esp

32 20 XPMSE.esp

33 21 RaceMenuMorphsCBBE.esp

34 22 FreckleMania.esp

35 23 ksnpcoverhaul.esp

36 24 Immersive Horses - Hearthfire Patch.esp

37 25 CZHCAD.esp

38 26 Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul Lite.esp

39 27 DanarielStormbow.esp

40 28 RaceCompatibilityUSKPOverride.esp

41 29 Strap.esp

42 2a DreamBurrowPatchWorkMaiden.esp

43 2b WildHuntress.esp

44 2c BlackRose.esp

45 2d Frida.esp

46 2e FNISSexyMove.esp

BT_WomenAgePatch.esp

BT_TestingNPCs.esp

47 2f Havok Breast Physic.esp

BT_NPCnudityAddon.esp

dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Reduced.esp

48 30 FISS.esp

SkySight-Simply-Bigger-Trees-Slower-Branches.esp

49 31 SRG Enhanced Trees Activator.esp

50 32 Cathedral Weathers.esp

51 33 CathedralWeatherMCM.esp

52 34 CathedralWeathersSeasons.esp

53 35 SkyUI.esp

54 36 FNIS.esp

Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Brighter Dungeons.esp

Sexy Armor Replacer Patch.esp

55 37 VOBS.esp

Purewaters.esp

56 38 RaceMenu.esp

dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp

57 39 RaceMenuPlugin.esp

58 3a Havok Breast Physic Dawnguard.esp

59 3b Havok Breast Physic Dragonborn.esp

60 3c ELFXEnhancer.esp

Bashed Patch, 0.esp

Not sure if I should mention having SMIM v 2.08 installed. I noticed a plugin for merged w/o dragonborn but it's not currently activated and maybe the mod doesn't need plugins otherwise? If it's just improved textures. The mod is active just no .esp file. Thanks for any suggestions or ideas anyone may have.