WHAT THIS MOD DOES

This mod simply adds a dialogue option to any children you have recruited as a follower, that allows you to tell them to either fight alongside you or run at the first sign of trouble. This allows you to recruit as many kids as you like using your favorite follower manager (see the guide below) and choose whether each one will run at the first sign of trouble or fight alongside you. You can even set each child to react differently!

How is this different from Make Any Child Your Follower?
MACYF does allow you to recruit a child as a follower and tell them to "be brave" so that they'll fight alongside you. Unfortunately, as it also tries to provide a follower framework that sits outside of the vanilla follower faction, it is limited to only being able to recruit a single child and set them to fight.

What I have sought to do with this mod is leave the recruitment to be done by your follower manager of choice (AFT, UFO, EFF, etc.) as they do it far better, and simply provide a method to manage the disposition of children followers in a way that can be applied to as many as you recruit!

The outcome is that you can recruit as many kids as you like, and have them all fight alongside you!

This mod has been cleaned with TES5Edit and contains two very minor scripts, neither of which run constantly. The source of both scripts have been included in the download for anyone that wants to check them, expand on, or learn from this mod.

REQUIREMENTS

The main file is a single .esp file with associated scripts and requires Skyrim.esm and Hearthfires.esm.

In order for child followers to be set for fighting, you must be using a child overhaul that removes the "Child" flag from kid NPCs. My favorite, and the one I would strongly recommend, is the Playable version of RS Children Overhaul. Only the Playable version makes the required changes, and is identical to the Non-Playable version - you don't have to play as a child!

If you want to recruit your own apprentice, scribe, page, or any other kind of child follower, you will need a follower manager. I'd strongly suggest Amazing Follower Tweaks, however any follower manager (UFO, EFF, etc.) that allows the recruitment of non-follower NPCs should work with a similar process (see the guide below on recruiting children).

HOW TO INSTALL

Nexus Mod Manager
1. Download the mod using the 'Download With Manager' link on the Files page.
2. Wait for NMM to start, download, and add "Children Fight Back".
3. Install the mod using the Activate button.
4. Make sure to sort your load order with LOOT.

Mod Organizer
1. Download "Children Fight Back.7z" from the 'Download Manually' link on the Files page.
2. Find the downloaded file and double-click to Install.
3. At the Install prompt, select 'Manual' and then right-click the second Data tab (with the capital D), then select the 'set data directory' option.
4. Activate the mod.
5. Make sure to sort your load order with LOOT.

Manual Install (Not recommended)
1. Download "Children Fight Back.7z" from the 'Download Manually' link on the Files page.
2. Extract "Children Fight Back.7z" into your Skyrim\Data folder and activate in the Skyrim Launcher under 'Data Files'.
3. Make sure to sort your load order with LOOT.

HOW TO GET CHILDREN TO FIGHT, AND RECRUITING MULTIPLE CHILD FOLLOWERS

IMPORTANT: Before starting, if the child is an adoptable one, adopt them as per vanilla and allow them to travel to your home, then visit your home and let the "Thank you for adopting me" scene play out. If you do not do this, they will continue to beg for money, or complain of being cold, and keep requesting you adopt them throughout your travels.

You can recruit non-adoptable kids with these methods too, but if you want to have more than two child followers from the pool of available adoptable kids I'd strongly suggest Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions, which will allow up to six children to be adopted. You'll soon have your own child army (You Monster)!

Most follower managers provide similar functionality, but your mileage may vary. AFT and the process below are the ones I use, and know work.

AFT/Amazing Follower Tweaks

• Use the "AFT Make Follower" power on the target child
• Talk to your new recruit and select either "Follow Me... [AFT]" or "Manage with AFT" from their dialogue options
• Talk to them again and select "If you get in a fight..."
• Select either "...fight back." to have them fight alongside you, or "...run away." to have them return to the vanilla fleeing behavior.
• Ensure the child's AFT combat style is set to "General" by choosing Tweak Options > Combat > General. If set to "None" they will still flee from combat.
• Give your new recruit a weapon, or they will continue to run when the fighting breaks out.
• Repeat for each new child you'd like to recruit!
  

EFF/Extensible Follower Framework
EFF doesn't natively contain a mechanism for recruiting non-follower NPCs, but does provide an Optional File on the download page for a "Mind
Control" ability.

• Once the Mind Control plugin is installed, you need to find the FormID of the Mind Control spell by typing:
  

.               help "Mind Control"

• This will return an entry beginning with "SPEL", followed by the spell's name, and then an 8-digit code alongside it. You will need to use this code in the command:
  

.               player.addspell (spell code)

• Use the newly added "Mind Control" spell on the target child
• Talk to your new recruit and select "Follow Me, I need your help..." from their dialogue options
  

Once recruited, the "If you get in a fight..." option from this mod should appear!

• Talk to them again and select "If you get in a fight..."
• Select either "...fight back." to have them fight alongside you, or "...run away." to have them return to the vanilla fleeing behavior.
• Give your new recruit a weapon, or they will continue to run when the fighting breaks out.
• Repeat for each new child you'd like to recruit!
  

UFO/Ultimate Follower Overhaul
UFO unfortunately doesn't contain a mechanism for recruiting non-follower NPCs, so as a replacement for this missing functionality, you'll need to apply some console commands to your chosen recruit before the "Follow Me, I need your help..." option will appear.

• While standing in front of your target child, open the console using the ` key (top-left of the keyboard, under Esc)
• With the console open, click on the child, and their RefID will appear in the top-middle of the window
• If you would prefer to adopt the child before making them a follower, type:
  

.               addfac xx004290 1 (where xx is the position of Hearthfires.esm in your load order)

• To make the child recruitable type:
  

.               addfac 5c84d 1
.               setrelationshiprank player 4

• To find the BaseID of your chosen recruit, type:
  

.               help (child's name) 0

• This will return an 8-digit code alongside the child's name, which you will need to use in the command:
  

.               player.setrelationshiprank (code from previous command) 4

• Talk to your new recruit and select "Follow Me, I need your help..." from their dialogue options.
  

Once recruited, the "If you get in a fight..." option from this mod should appear!

• Talk to them again and select "If you get in a fight..."
• Select either "...fight back." to have them fight alongside you, or "...run away." to have them return to the vanilla fleeing behavior.
• Give your new recruit a weapon, or they will continue to run when the fighting breaks out.
• Repeat for each new child you'd like to recruit!
  

RECOMMENDED MODS

Armor and Clothing for Kids, my other mod that allows all vanilla armor, jewellery and clothing to be worn by child followers, along with patches for much, much more armor and equipment from other Nexus mods!

Amazing Follower Tweaks, as it's the best follower manager I've used so far, and this mod has been extensively tested alongside it.

RS Children Overhaul is strongly recommend for use with this mod because it gives Skyrim's children a much more realistic look than the vanilla collection of potato heads (Bethesda, what were you thinking?).

MFVM - More Follower Voices Mod Plus Khajiit Marriage gives your children all of the missing Follower-related speech, which saves the dead audio when setting options with AFT - well worth having!

CHILD MOD COMPATIBILITY

This mod will be compatible with any child mods that use the vanilla FemaleChild and MaleChild voice types. Custom or unique child voices (including the vanilla Aventus Aretino) will not work with this mod, which shouldn't have any impact as the unique voices have no Follower or Incidental dialogue, and therefore make for *very* quiet companions.

The children added by the following mods have been tested and found compatible:
Inconsequential NPCs
Interesting NPCs
RS Children Overhaul (and playable children's race)
Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions

Should be compatible (as they use either FemaleChild or MaleChild voices) but untested at present:
Adoptable Argonian Hatchling - Chases-Starlight
My little hatchling Ram-Ku-Argonian boy
My little kitty Ma-Rakha-Khajiit boy
KhajiitChild Maisha
Urshug - Adoptable Orc Child
Killable Children
Xvision Children - Redone

Please provide feedback in the Posts section if you find these mods or any others compatible or incompatible!

REPORTING BUGS

I don't expect any incompatibilities with this mod, and have tested as much as I can to ensure there are no bugs, but if you do find anything that doesn't work, please post as much information as you can in the Posts section!

Please be prepared to upload a load order list of your mods somewhere and link to it in your post, as this is often the only way to pinpoint these types of conflicts.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

Except for bug fixes, (and depending on how interesting some user requests are) I'm considering this mod complete!

PERMISSIONS

There's no original content here (just an original idea, some investigation of the process, and an evening's Creation Kit work!), so no need to ask to use anything from this mod. Go right ahead and repackage/reuse it - just make sure you add some value to it (and a little credit for the inspiration would be appreciated)!

I plan on supporting this mod for some time to come, but if it ends up "abandoned" for whatever reason, and someone is enthusiastic enough, feel free to pick up where I left off!

CREDITS

Thanks to Praveen for Make any child your follower, the original inspiration for this mod. No content has been reproduced from MACYF, but the frustrations with its limitations are what lead me to code something that worked the way I wanted it to!

TOOLS USED

Bethesda's Skyrim Creation Kit v1.9.32.0
TESVEdit v3.0.32EXP