What it does

With only two exceptions, Bethesda's housecarls are boring. Most of them wear the same steel armor and have the exact same skill set. This mod gives each of the vanilla and Hearthfire housecarls a unique set of skills, perks and equipment.

Inspiration came from Aisaka's TM Housecarls, and I highly recommend you use her mod together with mine. However, TMH goes a little overboard with the perks and enchanted equipment, making your trusty companions much stronger than they should be. If you're supposed to be the hero of this story you don't want Lydia clearing out a bandit fort before you get your sword out, right? That's just not cool.

So I went over all the skills, perks, stats, equipment and various other settings to make sure each housecarl looks and fights in a somewhat unique way, without making Dovahkiin feel like (s)he's along for the ride.


Design goals

• Unique combat styles and other skills
• Most of them slightly more powerful than vanilla if properly equipped (max. +10%)
• Significantly less powerful if given equipment that doesn't match their specialization (max. -25%)
• Keep a few of them as capable allrounders
• Compatible with body and texture replacers (HF version) and follower overhauls
  

! Mods that edit anything other than body and texture for these followers  (e.g. Bijin Warmaidens) are not compatible.

I have done extensive play testing with all housecarls against a variety of opponents and feel the current version is fair and balanced.


Overview of styles & primary skills

Lydia & Gregor
Mostly standard sword 'n' board fighters/allrounders, with relevant perks added
- Heavy armor
- Block
- One-handed weapon (any)

Argis
Argis is slightly more tank-like compared to Lydia and Gregor, at the expense of Marksman and 2-handed skills. He's also a little taller now.
- Heavy armor
- Block
- One-handed weapon (any)

Jordis & Calder
2-handed warriors. Will deal higher damage if properly equipped, but still balanced.
- Heavy armor
- Two-handed weapon (any)

Iona
Thiefcatcher, or thief? It's probably best not to ask.
- Light armor
- One handed swords, daggers and axes, can dual-wield
- Bows
- Sneak
- Lockpicking

Rayya
A short, light footed Redguard rogue / berserker
- Light armor
- One handed weapons (any), can dual-wield
- Some sneak perks, but not as stealthy as Iona

Valdimar
Nightblade / sorcerer
- Light or no armor
- Destruction (frost)
- One-handed maces and axes

View readme for a more complete list of changes and bugfixes.


Installation

NOTE: Aisaka has removed TM Housecarls from the Nexus, so if you don't already have TMH, use the the Hearthfire-only version of this mod.

There are two main files, choose the one that matches your setup:

• Hearthfire plus TM Housecarls - TMH uses UNP bodies, but it's self-contained, no extra requirements
• Hearthfire only - If you like the vanilla looks, want to keep your game family friendly or use your own body/texture replacers
  

Install using your favourite mod manager or drop the .esp in your data folder. Make sure it loads after TMH, if you use that version.


Upgrading

Completely safe, just overwrite previous version.


Credits

Aisaka for TM Housecarls, which makes them look amazing, but not overly pretty
Everyone who's contributed to TES5Edit
The amazingly useful Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages
Bethesda for allowing us to mess with their games


Mods used in screenshots

aMidianBorn Book of Silence by CaBaL
No More Blocky Faces by Xenius
Natural Eyes by nevenbridge
Superior Lore-Friendly Hair by skyrimaguas
Beards by Hvergelmir
Brows by Hvergelmir
Frostfall by Chesko
DYNAVISION by Gopher and MyGoodEye
IMAGINATOR by MyGoodEye and Gopher