Question about level scaling.

[Ghoulz]

From what I heard, it's a bad idea to alter the leveling rate and use a saved game because of unbalanced perks or something. Would it really cause issues if the character is still level 1? Some suggest you just alter level scaling yourself rather than use some mod and I just wanted to be sure.

[KingsGambit]

I'm not quite sure what you wish to alter. Is it the speed at which your character levels up various skills in the game, or the scaling of enemies/NPCs/rewards? I'm guessing it's the rate at which you level, in which case, there's no reason not to use a mod, or do it yourself, whichever you prefer.

 

In the case of altering the rate at which the character gains levels in various skills, it's achieved by tweaking given values higher or lower to increase or decrease the amount of time/usage required to increment the skill. All skills take longer to level the higher your level in it. If for example it takes 1000 experience to get from Speech lvl 41 to Speech lvl 42, modifying the 1000 value (or the total XP required from 1-100) will make it level faster or slower in practice. It's probably also possible to tweak the formula that calculates how much XP to give, rather than the amount required.

 

The only downside to using a mod is that someone else is presenting you with their idea of how level progression should be, rather than your own. It shouldn't clash with other mods, except for ones that do that same thing, and if you make a proper hard save prior to using it you can always uninstall and revert back with no consequences.