The Goal

My goal in creating this mod was to remove the minimum level requirements from all of the Witcher Gear in the game, so that Geralt can immediately use any Witcher Gear that he finds and crafts.  The reason why is simple:

• Geralt must travel far and wide in order to collect all of the crafting diagrams needed to create a fully upgraded set of Witcher Gear.  This can take many hours of gameplay.
• The gear diagrams themselves must often be won from a powerful monster guarding them.  This prevents Geralt from collecting the diagrams at a very low level.
• The best gear diagrams cannot be crafted until two high-level quests are completed to unlock the master smiths.  This takes a significant amount of extra time, and further prevents a very low level character from accessing the best equipment.
• Crafting a complete set of Witcher Gear requires a number of rare/expensive crafting items, as well as a decent amount of cash.  Which, again, makes it very difficult to acquire the gear at low levels.
• Despite all of the above (and because of how the game manages XP), the game sets minimum level requirements on all of the gear that make it all but impossible to actually use the best equipment until literally the final battle. 
  

Frankly I think #5 is absurd.  CDPR got a lot of things right, but the level restrictions on the Witcher Gear isn't one of them.  It needs to go.  The first 4 points are entirely sufficient for keeping the best items from falling into the hands of a low-level character. 

This mod removes the level requirements for the Wolf School Gear, which is part of an optional DLC.  A separate mod can be used to remove the level restrictions from the other, non-DLC Witcher Gear in the game.


The Problem

Although most equipment characteristics are easily moddable in TW3, minimum level is not.  In fact, it's computed programmatically based upon an item's base statistics.  That makes changing it problematic.

It's as if CDPR is saying "you can change whatever you want about our game, except DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT EQUIPPING THAT MASTERCRAFTED WOLF SWORD UNTIL YOU'RE LEVEL 34, YOU EVIL, EVIL MODDER".  But I digress.


The Solution 

Understanding how the programmatic minimum level computation works is the key.  Specifically, it only takes into account a item's 'base' statistic level (the relevant statistics being 'SilverDamage' for silver swords, 'SlashingDamage' for steel swords, and 'armor' for all armor items).  

However, the XML syntax allows for an item's 'base' statistics to be amended both by adding scalar values or applying multipliers.  This, it turns out, is the answer.  To remove the minimum level requirements from any item, all you have to do is reduce its relevant 'base' statistic to 1, and then use an 'add' directive to raise the value back to its original setting.  

This removes the minimum level requirement, while keeping the equipment statistics that will apply in-game exactly the same as they originally were.


Prerequisites

You must install the 'Scavenger Hunt: Wolf School Gear' DLC before you can install this mod.


Installation

Follow the instructions in the included 'readme.txt' file to install/uninstall this mod.


Other Things

I have a similar mod here:

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/264

I'll be updating that mod with a new version that will take advantage of the same approach I was able to use when creating this mod.  When the new version is released, I strongly recommend installing both of them together to properly unlock all of the Witcher Gear in the game.


Issues/Side Effects

None.  In fact, this mod will work with all game versions including 1.11, and will even work with existing save games!