Devious Bandit Overhaul

[BonitaMussolini]

15 hours ago, El_Duderino said:

Hi and thanks for the question and the heads-up.

 

The bandits becoming hostile when you "tab out" of dialogue is intented and will happen any time during the initial dialogue after entering their territory. When they ask you to give up your weapons, you must choose between giving up your weapons or fighting, which happens immediately when you refuse. You can keep your weapons under certain circumstances (spoiler alert!)

  Reveal hidden contents

• when you are a very skilled fighter
• when you are a resonably skilled fighter who is bound
• when you have become known as the Dragonborn

 

awesome thanks for the info! Didn't wanna end up losing my stalhrim bow of chaos when I get to it lol

[Onomatophobia]

How do the new bandits react to werewolf/vampire form? Are they still hostile to them?

[El_Duderino]

11 hours ago, Onomatophobia said:

How do the new bandits react to werewolf/vampire form? Are they still hostile to them?

Huh, that's a very good question. I've never played as werewolf or vampire in all those years and the thought never crossed my mind to check how the mod reacts.   

[El_Duderino]

Mod Update:

 

Version 0.3.2

 

Improvement: The Civil War forts originally occupied by bandits will no longer be processed by this mod once the Civil War has been started (that is, once the player has finished the recruitment quest for either side). This should persist throughout and after the Civil War.

 

Safe to upgrade mid-playthrough.

[Kingslayer101]

Does a Synthesis patch affect the keywords if Im using Skypatcher? Since records are affected by Synthesis.



filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=Synthesis - Character.esp:setAggression=aggressive Something like this?


So I've tried everything even added all these in the ini but I cant seem to get it to work when Im close to Fort Greymoor.

filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=unofficial skyrim special edition patch.esp:setAggression=aggressive
filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=Unofficial Skyrim Modders Patch.esp:setAggression=aggressive
filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=Rock Traps Trigger Fixes.esp:setAggression=aggressive
filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=Populated Skyrim Legendary.esp:setAggression=aggressive
filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=Bandit War.esp:setAggression=aggressive
filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=Bandit War - Simonrim.esp:setAggression=aggressive
filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=Infiltration - Quest Expansion.esp:setAggression=aggressive
filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=Infiltration QE - Bandit War Patch.esp:setAggression=aggressive
filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=Public Whore.esp:setAggression=aggressive
filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=DHLP_Redux.esp:setAggression=aggressive
filterByFactions=Skyrim.esm|0001BCC0:filterByModNames=Synthesis - Character.esp:setAggression=aggressive

Edited July 2 by Kingslayer101

[AphroditesEye]

Huh, cool idea for a mod. I've considered trying to make something like this for years, it makes a lot more sense in-universe. Nice work.

[El_Duderino]

On 7/2/2026 at 9:50 PM, Kingslayer101 said:

Does a Synthesis patch affect the keywords if Im using Skypatcher? Since records are affected by Synthesis.

I'm not sure at all how they both interact, however I suppose Skypatcher might overwrite stuff that Synthesis does. In other words: I don't know why the patch in your ini doesn't take effect. It could also be a faction thing: I'd recommend to load your entire load order in xEdit and see if anything has common factions set hostile to the bandits. In DBO, only guard and soldier factions are supposed to be hostile.

[squirreldaz]

Hey just courious about the possible conflicts with other defeat/bandit interaction mods like deviously helpless, SD+, captive player, acheron or naked defeat? can they brick the mods or there's some degree of compatibility? 

Mod looks real cool, always wanted some bandit interaction like mount and blade, and the devious spin is always a plus to me, thanks for the effort you're putting on it!

[Riasnatcher]

Is this safe to install mid-playthrough?

[El_Duderino]

14 hours ago, Riasnatcher said:

Is this safe to install mid-playthrough?

I'm not sure at all. I think that depends on your load order and how far into your game you are:

 

> This will conflict with (and override) global patcher mods including Bash, Synthesis, etc. that adjust parameters in bandit actor records. If you use any such mod, a new game is probably required so that you can include the bandit actor value changes in the patch.

 

> I don't know how the actor changes play with NPCs that have already spawned into the game world. I don't know which of their settings get baked into the savegame and which get reloaded from the .esp at game start.

 

20 hours ago, squirreldaz said:

Hey just courious about the possible conflicts with other defeat/bandit interaction mods like deviously helpless, SD+, captive player, acheron or naked defeat?

Thanks for the kind words. I can only vouch for Acheron (+Practical Defeat), with which it plays together nicely in my game. In theory, I'd say that most player defeat mods should work, unless they also make changes directly to the bandit actor records or faction relationships. YMMV.

 

SD+ should work, too, though I haven't used that mod in a while. Not sure what happens when a bandit enslavement in SD+ ends and wants to turn the bandits hostile. If my mod interferes, just hit one of them and they'll aggro immediately.

 

Helpless might work, though there could be issues with both mods' approach scenes interfering with each other.

[sheep0102]

That`s amazing. So, would we add a choice to get back weapons taken by bandits, such as use some money? Maybe it`s hard to have more than 50 levels, I think it will be better to have a new way to keep weapons if i don`t want to be the dragonborn.

[NotAWeaboo]

This sounds super interesting, is it LE compatible? 

[El_Duderino]

5 hours ago, NotAWeaboo said:

This sounds super interesting, is it LE compatible? 

It most likely won't work in LE I'm afraid. It requires Scrab's Papyrus Extender which I think relies on SE SKSE: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/115164?tab=description

 

On 7/13/2026 at 10:52 AM, sheep0102 said:

So, would we add a choice to get back weapons taken by bandits, such as use some money?

I thought about that, but decided against it. As the bandits say, "can't take the risk". Though I'm currently thinking that the check by player level is probably not ideal. Even at a single-digit level, a player can have amazing combat skills, so I may need to refine that if possible.

[NotAWeaboo]

6 hours ago, El_Duderino said:

It most likely won't work in LE I'm afraid. It requires Scrab's Papyrus Extender which I think relies on SE SKSE: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/115164?tab=description

 

Dang it! I guess this will have to wait until/if I upgrade to SE, then. Good luck with the development, it's a super cool idea and I really like what you've done so far!!

[mrdoodle]

On 2/17/2026 at 2:02 PM, Fraying9981 said:

FYI I found these two mods I'm keen to test:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/147809

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/86549

The first one is my mod. Did they work together?

[El_Duderino]

4 hours ago, mrdoodle said:

The first one is my mod. Did they work together?

Hi, I think it ought to work together with my mod. This part might cause minor conflicts: "It also sets the bandits aggression level and confidence to a random number, so that they feel more like individuals."

 

However, I don't mean "conflicts" in the technical term, but rather unpredictable outcomes in-game (which could actually be cool). For example, in one of my pacified bandit forts, your mod might increase one or two bandits' aggression to the level where they attack the player on sight. This in turn would then cause the otherwise passive rest of the crew to come to their support and also attack. That could create some interesting random outcomes when you visit a bandit camp.

[Fraying9981]

5 hours ago, mrdoodle said:

The first one is my mod. Did they work together?

 

peaceful living heavily edits all bandit records and other humanoid factions. wouldn't recommend it together with DBO

[mrdoodle]

16 hours ago, El_Duderino said:

Hi, I think it ought to work together with my mod. This part might cause minor conflicts: "It also sets the bandits aggression level and confidence to a random number, so that they feel more like individuals."

 

However, I don't mean "conflicts" in the technical term, but rather unpredictable outcomes in-game (which could actually be cool). For example, in one of my pacified bandit forts, your mod might increase one or two bandits' aggression to the level where they attack the player on sight. This in turn would then cause the otherwise passive rest of the crew to come to their support and also attack. That could create some interesting random outcomes when you visit a bandit camp.

I'm gonna try it out. Sounds like a recipe of perfect unpredictability.