Armor different for different characters?

[hypnolem]

For example, I kill an enemy NPC and then I equip their armor but it looks different from what they were wearing.

 

I am using BodySlide, is this a normal thing to happen? Are armor sets unique for each character?

[ppp]

How different? Was the NPC male? Males and females have a somewhat different mesh, and where you set your character's weight will change the appearance somewhat too, especially with BodySlide depending on how you have the low and high weights set. Most vanilla armors are pretty similar, but a few aren't one model of fur armor is bare chested for males and gains a breast band for females, for example.

 

It's possible to give armor a different appearance based on race, but the only types of armor that takes advantage of that in the base game are helmets and hoods. There are mods that give different races different bodies, but you'd have to install them yourself.

 

Also, was the armor from a mod? Sometimes a mod author only creates a male or female mesh, and uses a vanilla mesh for the opposite sex.

 

So, yes it's normal for your looted armor to not look exactly the same as it was when an NPC was wearing it. Sex, weight and sometimes race factor in.