SSE Making Follower Mod without BSAs

[Reefor]

Hi again,

For those that don't know, I'm still at Noob status but learning fast.

I made my first fully functional high poly head recently and then destroyed it when I tried to use CK to pack it up into BSAs.

Since then I've been looking at a lot of other NPC & Follower mods and noticed that most are not packed up into BSAs. I'd like to learn this method before attempting to pack them up into BSAs again. But I have a lot of questions about file structure & what's allowed & what isn't (skeletons, where to put the head files, etc...)

Is there a good tutorial that explains that stuff, or at least some of that stuff? I haven't been able to find any.

And if there's a modder group that wouldn't mind taking on a Noob with way too many questions, please let me know :)

Also, if I make a child NPC or Follower I'd like to put on the same protections that Bethesda used on their potato kids so it's not so easy to get around. If there are any tutorials on how to do that I'd also appreciate info on it.