Requiem overhauls Skyrim, transforming it into a more challenging and immersive experience. However, it can be a bit of a compatibility nightmare when it come to mods that add new NPCs or creatures. This is because, unlike in vanilla Skyrim, Requiem NPCs have specific perks, hand-designed health offsets, and static levels. Lacking these adjustments, mod-added NPCs tend to be noticeably weaker compared to Requiem's, necessitating custom patches for any quest, follower, or creature mod; a very labor-intensive process.

Enter Requiem - Auto NPC Patcher, a Synthesis patcher and SPID configuration designed to automate balancing new NPCs for Requiem.


How It Works: 

For each NPC in a selected mod, Requiem - Auto NPC Patcher will determine its race and class and adjust its stats, perks, and levels appropriately to be in line with those from the same race and class in Requiem. Furthermore, if a NPC is from a custom race, Auto NPC Patcher detects this and determines what vanilla race the custom race is derived from, then balances it accordingly.



The process by which Requiem - Auto NPC Patcher manages various races involves categorizing them into three distinct groups. This classification is based on the variation in level, attributes, and perks among members of the same race as defined in Requiem.

• There are Static Races which have little no variation in level and attributes between individuals of the same race. These include non-humanoid creatures like bears, dwarven automatons, Daedra, etc...
• Or there are high-variation Scaling Races, i.e. NPCs from playable races which have a wide range of levels, stats, and perks.
• And, then there are the in-betweens, Hybrid Races: Enemies like Draugr, Falmer, and Vampires that exhibit some level variation but possess a high baseline level that eventually caps off.
  

For each of the these groups, the patching methodology differs as follows:

For static NPCs, the patcher identifies the NPC's race and matches them with the closest vanilla equivalent based on behavior data. It then ensures these NPCs have, at a minimum, equivalent stats, perks, and levels to their Requiem counterparts. For example, a mod-introduced frostbite spider with base game stats would be adjusted to Requiem's standards, making it identical to those found in requiem.

If a mod adds NPCs of a new race, the patcher examines this new race's data to find the nearest vanilla analog, then adjusts both the NPC and Race record to Requiem's standards. It also takes into account how strong the NPC was relative to its Vanilla counterpart. So, say a mod adds a new race which is based on the Dwarven Centurion race originally, If an NPC from that race is stronger than vanilla Centurions, then the patcher retains this difference. It will, first, bring the stats of the new Race and NPC up to what is typical in Requiem, then will add on whatever offset differentiated it from the vanilla counterpart. Furthermore, if in Requiem that NPC has special spell or perk, like the "Natural Armor" spells or Armor Penetration perks, the patched NPC will receive them as well.

For more information on how custom races are handled, check out the article "NPC Class and Race Keywords and SPID Distribution".

NPCs from Static races are deleveled and made identical or stronger to NPCs found in Requiem.



Patching NPCs from Scaling races is a little more complicated. Scaling NPCs present a unique challenge in balancing as they cannot simply be calibrated to a static set of levels or stats. Automating a process to delevel scaling NPCs would be impractical, given the subjective nature of what level a certain NPC should be. Therefore, my approach with the Requiem - Auto NPC Patcher does not aim to delevel these NPCs but instead ensure that, at any given level from which they are encountered at (and further if they have he "PC Level Mult" tag), their attributes and perks match Requiem NPC equivalents.

To achieve this, I analyzed the trends of Requiem's NPCs and how their stats and perks are distributed. I started by categorizing Requiem NPCs based on their combat roles: Warriors (who favor melee combat), Pure Mages (who exclusively use magic), and Battlemages (who employ a mix of both). Utilizing linear regression I found that while Warriors and Battlemages share similar health progression, gaining an average of 5.5 health points per level, Pure Mages significantly differ, with a lower average increase of approximately 3 health points per level. The accompanying plot illustrates these scaling patterns.

Furthermore, Warriors and Battlemages typically receive about 8.5 stamina points per level, and similarly, Mages and Battlemages gain 8.5 magicka points per level.

With these insights, the Requiem - Auto NPC Patcher determines the class of each NPC introduced by mods and assigns them to one of these three categories. It then uses a hidden spell, distributed via SPID, to adjust their health, stamina, and magicka gain per level so that they match Requiem's trend. (These values can be adjusted in the patcher itself but are set to default levels I observed in the data). Again similar to the handling of static NPCs, if an NPC's pre-patched offset already exceeds the trend exhibited above for their class, the difference will be preserved. This process ensures that new NPCs’ attributes, at minimum, match Requiem NPCs’ attributes of equivalent levels and, in the case of boss NPCs, can be even higher.

Full Documentation on how health is calculated is available under the Articles tab. NPCs are only made stronger via this patcher. None are made weaker.

For perk distribution, I established a baseline by identifying the minimum levels at which each perk is typically granted to NPCs in Requiem. I then created custom perks that activate at these predetermined levels and distributed them based on the NPC's class. The perks that get added are depicted in the table below.
These custom perks are designed to activate once the minimum level is met and to deactivate automatically if a NPC already has one of the perks. In addition, all magic-using NPCs receive armor spell-casting perks as a failsafe to ensure they can cast spells if spawned in wearing armor.  

So while NPCs from playable races will not be deleveled, my patcher's comprehensive approach to distributing and scaling attributes and perks ensure that, when encountered (as well as while they level if they have the "PC Level Mult" Tag), mod-added NPCs will match the stats and perks of Requiem NPCs.

Now, when patched, a level 20 NPC from a mod will have the same health and damage output as a level 20 NPC found in Requiem.
Full documentation of perks is available in the Articles tab.

Balancing Hybrid NPCs

For hybrid NPCs like Draugr, Falmer, and Vampires — creatures that have set minimum and maximum levels— my patcher adopts mix of the two approaches discussed previously. First NPCs of these specific races (or custom races derived from vanilla races) are set to the minimum level dictated by Requiem's standards if they are lower than it and will inherit all the stats and perks corresponding to this baseline accordingly. Then, if they have the "PC Level Mult" tag, these NPCs are allowed to scale up to the maximum level cap assigned by Requiem for their respective races. This method guarantees that Draugr, Falmer, and Vampires — whether they are vanilla or mod-added variants — maintain a level and stat curve consistent with Requiem.

SPID

Much of the balancing and perk distribution discussed above above is done via SPID. For more information, check out the article "NPC Class and Race Keywords and SPID Distribution".

In conclusion, while a handmade patch will always be best for a mod that add new NPCs, with Requiem - Auto NPC Patcher, that is no longer necessary for the mod to be playable. This should allow Requiem users to install mods that they couldn't use before without a custom patch such as Follower, Quest, and New Land mods without worry.

Installation and Use

Requirements

• Requiem
• Fozar’s Dragonborn Patch (A soft but recommended requirement if you want Dragonborn races to be scaled properly.)
• Synthesis
• SPID
  

Installation Steps:

1. Use your preferred mod manager to download and install the main file.
2. Enable RequiemPatcherKeyword.esp. Position in load order is irrelevant.
3. Install Synthesis if you do not already have it. Here is a guide to do so.
4. You can install the Patcher component of Requiem - Auto NPC Patcher either directly through Synthesis or by using the .synth file available in the Files tab.

For installation via Synthesis follow these photos:



You should then find "RequiemAutoNPCPatcher" under whatever group you assigned it to in the left hand panel.
Click on the panel titled "RequiemAutoNPCPatcher" specifically:


5. To run the patcher, first ensure that your configuration looks as follows:

6. Then, in settings tab, select the mods you want patched or adjust attribute gain values for scaling NPCs.

CORRECT SECTION TO SELECT MODS ↓

7. Run the Patcher.

8. Enable the ESP created by the Patcher. Optionally, you can 'eslify' the .esp if desired. 
Additionally ,the patcher should have create a SPID ini file,"0RequiemAutoPatcher_DISTR.ini". If it exists, you are good to go!

FAQ

Q: Should I run the Reqtificator before or after running Requiem - Auto NPC Patcher?
A: It shouldn't matter if you run it before or after the Reqtificator. That being said, to avoid contributing more masters to RFTI (since it has 255 master limit), I always run the Reqtificator first then, with Requiem for The Indifferent.esp enabled, run my patcher and load the patcher plugin after Requiem for The Indifferent.esp. If you install a new mod with new NPCs, make sure to run both patchers.

Q: Does this Require a New Game?
A: No.

Q: In xedit, for some NPCs, it looks like their original health offset was reduced. Did your patcher maker them weaker?
A: No. For NPCs from playable races and Draugr, Falmer, and Vampires, (as well as new races that are copies of these races), their health balancing happens in-game via a spell that adjusts health. Out-of-game their health offset is reduced to account for this.  In-game, they will always have equal to or greater than their original health before patching. Requiem - Auto NPC Patcher does not make any NPC weaker than what they were before patching.