ScottC12

After your character buys the house, the title does not provide much besides a Houscarl and maybe a little less sass from the guards. You can leave the Housecarl at home, or they could meet an untimely end....that just leaves your character with the house and the dubiously useful title.

I'm not a modder, but I use a lot of follower mods, and I seem to recall that some of them were player's characters in their previous lives From what I have read and seen in some NPC creation tutorials here on the Nexus, the Creation Kit and possibly the Skyrim NPC Editor can be used to turn player characters into NPCs, including potential followers. Having a slicker way to do that would be great, though. Good luck in your quest!

Player characters can get training from the experts at the college in the different "schools" of magic to bump up your skill points (for a fee), but that is not as elaborate as what you mention.

Since I use the Vilja mod, Lydia (and some of the other major vanilla NPCs) has conversations with Vilja in her original voice, but says some things that I have not heard her say when she is not around Vilja. I assume the Vlja mod makes use of some preexisting dialoge that is hanging around in the vanilla game, but that the NPCs do not otherwise use -- what they have done is very clever and adds to immersion.

If someone does make an Elric overhaul to Skyrim or other Skyrim mods based on the Elric Saga, just an FYI that the Cerwiden -SMART Healer- AI Configurable Companion by Mujuro mod incorporates a bit of this, since she is Priestess of Donblas. I haven't gotten far enough in her quest to meet some of her "friends", but I seem to recall that Elric may be encountered as an NPC in this mod.

Or as folks used to get paid, a daily wage. The vanilla mercs in the game seem to want 500 Gold pieces up front, so that could be considered just a retainer fee. After that, all followers could get daily wages (what would be reasonable for risking life and linb, plus upkeep?). And if they don't get paid, maybe they walk?

Do you mean a general lock/unlock mod that is not part of a specific building mod? I am not a modder, but there is a console command: Enter console with "~", then left click on the door, then enter "lock" (I think you can also specify lock level). To unlock, do the same steps, just type the command as "unlock". Since there are console command for this, I assume the mods would just invoke the lock/unlock commands.

I am not a modder, but that sounds like a great idea. My character is fairly handy at the forge, but I think a lot of characters might not put too many points into their smithing skills, so why not hire one? And Enchanters for hire to add armor and weapon buffs would also be a good idea...

For the Paladin types, there is the Knights of the Nine mod with heavy plate armor (ported from Obilivion). If you get Steel Smithing perks you can improve it to be very decent armor, and it has magical buffs. My Spellsword character won't leave home without it, though he preferes the bow a bit over his longsword.

"What i would like is for the red of the armor to be a black version and for the chest piece and bracers to have a silver-ish plate kind of look to it." Have you seen the excellent Lustmord Vampire armor mod? The armor is mainly black with metallic trim, though it is a more "vampy" look than vanilla Royal Vampire Armor. It comes in male and female versions and fits a variety of body types.

I use the Bind and Gag Spell mod, which temporarily disables the target (bound and gagged). The spell is great for "good" type spellcasters, though it may be a bit overpowered. I have rarely seen anyone resist the spell. I have not tried to pickpocket anyone bound and gagged, but I suppose it could be tried. The mod file is currently set to hidden, though.

I agree that friendly fire is a problem. If you use UFO multi-follower framework mod, you get a dailogue option with your followers that lets them "forgive and forget" when your player causes them damage There are some other mods that try to deal with this issue with spells or spell-like abilities. I have even equipped followers with white cloaks (from the Cloaks of Skyrim mod), to help me see them from behind at night and in the dungeons, since they tend to charge the enemy as soon as they can (a vanilla AI problem) and get in my way. Another issue is that followers will happily set about killing each other due to friendly fire. UFO has a command “Stop Fighting” to help stop these situations, but it can be awkward if the bad guys are still standing. For goody-two-shoes characters, the possibility of friendly fire or unintended collateral damage may cause more realistic choices in battle, for example, flinging a fireball to stop the cabbage thief may not be the best idea in the middle of town, or in a pitched melee with your followers all around. So we may not want friendly fire eliminated all together – just tweaked to make it more realistic.

I have used a mod called RTS (Real Time Settlers) for Skyrim. It allows you to build up to several buildings and hire followers virtually anywhere in Skyrim, but flat ground is best (due to oddities with vanilla navmesh). In addition, the RTS Pillars of Creation mod provides a new flat worldspace that is easy to build on. I would use this mod with caution in an ongoing game, since I experienced save file bloat that eventually made my game unplayable over time, even after I uninstalled RTS. I am not blaming RTS specifically for the save file bloat, since I run over 100 mods in my game. It does appear to use a lot of scripts, and I noticed a marked increase in save file size after using RTS for a while and creating a few villages. It was pretty entertaining to build my own villages and hire townpeople, though the building controls were a bit clunky. Just use it with caution, preferably with a new character, or without many other mods, or with a character where you do not care if the game becomes unplayable after a while due to freezing up or CTDs. I was on an older version of RTS over a year ago, and it looks like a new version of the mod came out in March, so maybe it is more stable now?

I cannot find any mods that let you become Jarl of any hold of your choosing, so I'd vote for that. You could either dispose of the current Jarl, or conquer the hold capital. This may need to be carefully crafted because it could break Jarl-related quests, including the way vanilla housecarls work. This would also need to work with a multi-follower framework mod like UFO because you would be probably be replacing the Jarl's followers with your own. There is a savegame "Become the new jarl of whiterun", but I am looking for something more generic.

For those requesting an overhaul of dragon combat, have you seen the Dragon Combat Overhaul mod?

I am not a modder, but I am using several of the more LOTR-looking elf follower mods available here on Nexus. When I check their stats, I notice that many of them are 50% frost resistant, which shows that they were probably created using the Nord race as a base, rather than true Bosmer or Dunmer. If you do not mind missing the special elven abilities, it looks like it is common to base Skyrim elf mods on the human races -- maybe to avoid the vanilla "Roswell alien" look.

I am not a modder, but I suppose someone could switch the Diabella priestess robes with Princess Leia’s slave bikini. The Hanali Lunari Follower mod comes with a temple in Riverwood where all the followers of Hanali wear Princess Leia slave outfits. My player character has found the Temple of Diabella to be a stuffy and business-like place, so I’d recommend downloading one of the Slave Leia cloting/armor mods, and if you have mod like UFO that allows multiple followers, just gather your own priestesses and dress them to suit ;-)

I'm not sure how to single out that chainmail armor from the Witcher 2 models, but the NorseViking Armor II mod can give you similar chainmail armor, and a few more. For the helmet shown in the pic, you may also need the Witcher 2 Helmet Pack mod. The Immersive Armor mod also has some chainmail hauberks and byrnies, but includes a wide veriety of other lore-friendly-ish armors.

This is probably way more elaborate than what you are asking for, but you may want to check out the excellent Helgen Reborn mod by Mike Hancho - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/35841 The player character can help a group of warriors rebuild Helgen to it's former glory. It included new NPCs, new dungeons, and side-quests. As a great perk, you get one of the rebuilt keeps in town as a nice player home after the town is rebuilt. It provides hours of game play, and you can choose which side in the Civil War controls the town: Imperials, Stormcloaks, or independent (independents get their own unique flag and armor). Apart from all the fun, the town bandits will never respawn....

All the mods I list below appear to work with both vanilla and UNP body types, and I am not sure about CBEE. These should help your player character or followers look more like Joan of Arc and less like a Frank Frazetta pin-up: First off and most general, the Less Sexual Female Armor mod replaces several vanilla “chesty” female armor types with their male variants (to be worn by females). This armor also works on vanilla and UNP skeleton types. For a great historical Dark Ages (but not lore-unfriendly) chainmail look, NorseViking Armor II mod does differentiate between male and female armors, but the results are more realistic than comical. In addition to Grace Darkling’s Ranger light armor previously mentioned, there is the similar but more colorful retexturing in EcthelionOtW ‘s Noldorian Ranger Armour mod. The Witcher 2 Dawnguard and Standard Heavy Plate mod used to have an older optional file that just had the male variants of some excellent Dawnguard and Medieval style plate armors which can be worn by females. I can’t seem to locate that old file version now, so the new version might have chesty female armors. The Knights of the Nine mod has non-revealing heavy plate armor, but the female version is chesty. When the gals are taking a break from adventuring, they might appreciate Elven Dresses by Naihaan.

I am no modder, but my mid-level Spellsword, wearing Knights of the Nine Armor (heavy armor from a mod) once died in the pincers of a mudcrab while swirling down the White River, so I agree! Players and NPCs are completely defenseless unless they get out of the water. I can see that maybe swinging a longsword and maybe casting a fireball would not be of much use, but how about a dagger? Lightning bolts, on the other hand, could have unintended underwater side-effects....

It looks like it would be hard to move in that armor, but have you seen the Hedge Knight Armor mod? I think there may be some other (more lore-friendly) bulky armor sets in the Immersive Armor mod, as well, though not as bulky as in your pics.

Run for Your Lives mod makes non-guard NPCs run indoors during dragon attacks, and there is another similar mod that makes non-guard NPCs run indoors during vampire attacks (which increase with the Dawnguard DLC). I am no modder, but what you are asking for seems to be a variation on existing mods, with the difference being the player character is the attacker. I also marvel at the programmed insanity, ignorance, or sheer cohones of lone (or small groups of) thieves, bandits, assassins, Thalmor, and other idiots that dare to threaten the Dragonborn and his friends when they should be running, hiding, or executing a fighting withdrawal. At least the bears have an excuse - they don’t know any better….

I have seen a few requests for this dress, as well as her traveling armor. Someone has created meshes for both outfits, but from what I can gather, these are not fleshed out as complete mods yet: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1034100-confessor-dress/ I hope that someone can pick this project up and complete it.

For a gritty and lived-in Medieval armor, try the Witcher 2 Style Dawnguard and Standard Heavy Plate mod by Baraban. Ported from an Oblivion mod into Skyrim, see the Knights of the Nine mod by Maty743, as well as Matys Medieval Knights. Similar to the above, check out Hedge Knight Armor by hothtrooper44 (who also does a slew of other armors of all types in his Immersive Armors mod. There is also a Witcher 2 Helmet pack and a Witcher 2 Shield pack, with more Medievally goodness. For Medieval swords, I’d recommend Elvarheim’s The Azincourt mod. The Lost LongSwords mod by MrBrownstone looks interesting, and has some stock Medieval looking long swords bundled along with the “lore-friendly” fantasy variants. I have also seen historical Medieval weaponry in other weapons pack mods.