Improved Bandits - A Complete Bandit Overhaul

What is the goal of this mod?

The goal of this mod is to make bandits and players play by the same rules while also increasing challenge by a reasonable amount. This is done by giving bandits appropriate perks and proper equipment. Why don't bandits and players play by the same rules in Vanilla Skyrim?

Let's take a look at the worst offender- the bandit marauder. Marauders have about 490 health and 250 stamina while being level 25. A player character would have to be level 65 to reach these kind of stats.

Now, of course there is reason for this. Most bandits in Skyrim only wear a couple pieces of fur armor and because of that have basically no armor

rating. Player characters, instead, receive most of their effective health from their armor rating. However, there are problems with that kind of balancing. For example, it is not immersive to see a scarcely clad bandit tank so many blows. This Overhaul fixes this by giving bandits appropriate gear, stats and perks.

How does this mod affect gameplay?

The attributes and perks of bandits have been completely rebalanced. The strength of bandits now increases more consistently across levels and low level bandits will now pose an adequate challenge. Higher level bandits will receive most of their effective health from their armor rating. This also means that maces and crossbows will be more useful because of their armor penetration. Their combat behavior has also been overhauled.

This mod is balanced for Adept Difficulty and at level one, even the weakest of bandits will be challenging when encountered in numbers greater than one. However, bandits will not become endgame enemies. I want bandits to be more believable and immersive and it simply does not make sense for bandits to have endgame level of difficulty.

What about their gear?

Bandit gear is completely overhauled. Bandits will generally wear armor in every slot and the quality of their gear will gradually increase depending on their level. This means higher level bandits will be visually distinctive from lower level ones.

That being said, this mod aims to be immersive. No bandit will ever possess truly high level equipment like ebony or glass. The best armor they can be seen wearing is steel plate and rarely orcish.

Compability

This mod is completely compatible with perk and combat overhauls. Truly incompatible should only be other bandit overhauls ( OBIS etc).

Mods that edit level lists should have no effect on bandits as they now use different ones. I have created a patch for Common Clothes and Armor/Brigandage which I recommend.

Immersive Armors is compatible but bandits won't wear the armors added by it.

Recommended Mod(s)

I highly recommend that you use a mod to render you immune to kill m