Warband
Your followers were never meant to just follow.
Every Skyrim player ends up with a follower who just stands there.
They block doorways, fall behind on the road, wear whatever they feel like, and when you want them to do something, you're digging through dialogue. Warband turns them into a real party. Recruit almost anyone, tell each one how to fight, what to wear and where to live, command them all from one wheel, and see the whole band on one screen.
It's three mods in one: a follower framework, a party manager and a guild starter. Want only the framework? One switch turns off the story and progression and opens all your places at once.
Why you'll want it
How it worksYour followers were never meant to just follow.
Every Skyrim player ends up with a follower who just stands there.
They block doorways, fall behind on the road, wear whatever they feel like, and when you want them to do something, you're digging through dialogue. Warband turns them into a real party. Recruit almost anyone, tell each one how to fight, what to wear and where to live, command them all from one wheel, and see the whole band on one screen.
It's three mods in one: a follower framework, a party manager and a guild starter. Want only the framework? One switch turns off the story and progression and opens all your places at once.
Why you'll want it
- A real party, not one or two tagalongs. Up to 10 followers, or up to 30 with Band size, plus up to 6 guests, and your custom followers keep their own dialogue and quests.
- Everyone has a role. 8 fighting types set how each one fights, and 8 posts give them real work: Healer, Quartermaster, Scout, Hunter and more. Skilled followers like Oskar and Cassia hold better versions of a post.
- One wheel, one screen. Give orders from one command wheel, and see every follower's skills, perks and gear on one party screen, with a HUD card for each while you play.
- They keep up. Followers who fall behind are brought back to you. When you ride, every member gets their own horse and rides along.
- They look after themselves. A set of outfits for field, town and camp that they change into by themselves, a home to live in, and they loot, sit and relax while you're busy.
- Make camp anywhere in open country. Campfire, bedrolls, tents and a field forge, with a shared stash and fast travel back to it.
- Build it into something. 10 band levels, ranks from Recruit to Legend, a treasury and wages, paid jobs, and a wolf, sabre cat, bear and troll to take along. All of it is optional.
- Easy on your game. One ESL plugin, no script timers running all game, and it's safe to add to a game you're already playing. 150+ settings in the MCM.
- Say "Join my warband." to someone who counts you as a friend, then pick a post for them, or "No post. Just fight beside me." Custom followers like Serana or Auri take the same line and ride along as guests.
- You get a lesser power, Warband Command, that opens the command wheel. Bind a key for it in the MCM if you prefer.
- Open the party screen from the wheel, a key, or the Tab menu, and manage any follower from there.
- A Guide opens by itself the first time, with a page and a sketch for each part of the mod. It stays on the party screen and in the MCM.
- Want only the follower framework? MCM > Skip story and progression turns off the opening quest, band levels, wages and upgrade costs, and opens all ten places at once.
See it in one minuteAsking Lydia to join, picking her post and how she fights, then her page on the party screen.
- Who can join: any adult who is your friend. They answer "What do you have in mind?" and you choose: a post, named by what it does, or "No post. Just fight beside me." Either way they join. "Never mind." leaves them out. Custom followers with their own system join as guests (see Custom followers below).
- How many: up to 10 followers of its own, on top of any other follower mod you run. Switch on Skip story and progression in the MCM and all 10 places are open at once. Without it you start with 5 and get one more at band levels 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 (the pace is an MCM option, and Most members at once sets a limit of your own). Band size in the MCM goes x1 to x3: x2 is 10 to 20 places, x3 is 15 to 30. Change it any time.
- When someone can't join, a message on screen says why: the band is full, they don't know you well enough, they follow you through another mod, or their duties keep them.
- Fighting type: Tank, Berserker, Ranger, Mage, Battlemage, Healer, Rogue or Summoner. It sets how they fight. They join with the one that fits their skills, marked "(recommended)", and you can change it at any time.
- Per follower: follow distance (close, normal, far), temperament (bold, steady, careful, peaceful), what they loot, wait here or follow, their things, their spells, and "Learn my spells" to teach them the spells in your hands.
- They keep up: followers who fall far behind are brought back to you when you are not fighting and not on a horse. Mount up and each one gets a horse of their own (MCM option).
- They survive: followers can't die by default (they go down and get back up), and those below your level get extra health and skill points for each level they are behind, while they serve. Both are MCM options.
- No friendly fire (on by default): your weapons, arrows, Destruction spells and shouts do no damage to followers, and theirs do none to you or to each other.
- Hire for gold (on by default, 500 gold): someone who does not know you well enough to join can be hired instead.
- They relax while you are busy (on by default): stand still for a while or sit down and they wander, sit and lean nearby, then fall in again when you move on.
- Damage settings: Damage members deal and Damage members take, 25% to 200%, to make fights with a big band longer or shorter.
- Outfits: give a follower a set for the field, one for town and one for camp. They change by themselves.
- Homes: give a follower a home. Send them there to wait, and choose where they work by day and spend their evenings.
- The roster remembers up to 128 people who ever served. A former follower comes back without the friendship check and keeps their rank, kills and type.
- MCM options, all off by default: Recruit anyone drops the friendship check. Take over followers lets people who already follow you join (Warband dismisses them from the vanilla system or Nether's Follower Framework first). Force recruit in the command adds "Recruit who I look at" to the wheel.
- More options: show members on the map, waiting members stand still, the band sneaks when you sneak, and members learn the spell from a tome you hand them.
- Open the wheel with the Warband Command power or a key you bind in the MCM (no key is bound by default). Esc goes back one page.
- Orders: Follow, Hold here, Regroup, Attack target, Fall back, Stealth, Make camp.
- Band orders: scout report, band stance, the pack horse's saddlebags, the party screen, the band stash, everyone behind me, food stock.
- Your own horse: it moves and holds with the band. Under Band orders, Call horse brings it to you and Horse stays leaves it where it is.
- Homes: make this spot the band's home, everyone go home, wait at the camp, come back, wait here, check gear, loot now.
- Twelve orders can have their own key (Follow, Hold here, Regroup, Attack my target and more).
- In towns the party keeps weapons sheathed by default. It can also wait at the inn or follow as usual.
Party manager
- Party screen (needs Prisma UI): you, every follower and the dog in one list. The Stats tab shows skills, defense, damage and equipped gear, and the Perks tab shows perks and active effects, with buttons for where they are, how they fight, follow distance, looting, temperament, home, their things and spells, outfits, jobs and dismissal.
- Your own pictures: Change picture lets you pick a picture file on your PC (jpg, png and similar) as a follower's portrait.
- Party HUD (SKSE Menu Framework): a card for each follower with health, magicka and stamina, what they are doing, how far away they are, and icons when they are burning, poisoned and so on. The cards fold away when things are calm.
- Upgrades panel: every upgrade with what it gives, what it costs and what you are still short of, and a Build button.
- Guide: ten pages with sketches, on the party screen and in the MCM.
- Look at the ground and order "Make camp". The party checks the spot and the ground around it and pitches on the most even ground people can walk on.
- You get a campfire, a bedroll for everyone and the band's banner (MCM option). Upgrades add tents, a cook pot, and at the top a forge, grindstone and armor workbench.
- Walk up to the fire and use it: sit by the fire, sleep with the band, or break camp. There is a place to sit at the fire for you and every follower.
- Every camp has a chest. It opens the shared stash, so what you put in it stays with the party when the camp is packed up.
- Trees and plants around the fire are hidden while the camp stands and are back when you pack up (MCM option). Grass can't be removed by a mod, so there is an option to move the camp off grass.
- Sleep at the camp, or pack it up after it has stood for 6 hours, and the party is rested. Fur bedding gives a rest buff, tents a stronger one, and the cook pot adds a meal buff for health and stamina regeneration.
- A standing camp has its own map marker, Warband Camp, that you can fast travel to. Walk far away and the party packs up the camp you left behind, unless followers are waiting there.
A follower can hold a post. Each post is a job they do for the party:
- Warchief - sets the party's stance (aggressive, defensive, passive) and pulls badly hurt followers out of the fight until they recover
- Quartermaster - keeps the shared stash, the treasury and the ledger, pays weekly wages, tops up the Rangers' arrows and sells the camp upgrades
- Healer - heals the worst hurt in a fight, gets downed followers back up afterwards, cures diseases, and hands you a healing potion when you are low
- Provisioner - takes food off bodies after a fight and, while there is food in its pack or the stash, feeds everyone twice a day for a health and stamina buff
- Scout - reports what waits inside a dungeon when you enter, and warns of enemies waiting ahead outdoors
- Armorer (band level 2) - points out better gear in the stash and hands it out if you tell them to; sharpens and tempers what followers wear at a smithy or the band's camp, for 1 iron ingot a weapon and 1 leather a piece of armor
- Hunter - hunts once a day from 6 in the morning and brings meat for the band stash, sometimes hides too
- Beastmaster - looks after the band's animals; a second pet can travel with you, and every kill a pet makes counts double toward its bond
- Skilled posts - a skilled follower holds a better version of a post: Oskar is a Skilled Blacksmith in the Armorer's place, Cassia a Skilled Huntress in the Hunter's. If someone else holds that post, free it first
- Renown comes from the party's kills, rested camps and paid jobs. It raises the band from level 1 to 10. Higher levels open more places and upgrades.
- Ranks: followers rise from Recruit to Legend through kills and paid jobs. A higher rank earns a higher wage.
- Treasury: put gold in or take it out through the Quartermaster and read the ledger. Wages are paid from it every week, 15 to 150 gold a follower by rank (MCM option).
- Camp upgrades, from the Upgrades panel or the Quartermaster, for gold and materials: fur bedding (150 gold), tents for everyone (500, band level 3), a cook pot (300, level 4) and a field forge (1200, level 6). Gold comes from the treasury first, then from your purse.
- A pack horse from any stable master, 1000 gold, from band level 2. Add saddlebags and then bigger saddlebags from the Quartermaster (250 gold each, plus materials).
- Paid jobs: send a follower to clear a bandit camp, guard a caravan, hunt for the party or scout the hold. They are away for 6 to 24 game hours and bring back pay, renown and experience. A job can fail.
- Loot: after a fight a follower loots the bodies for the kinds of things you tick in the MCM, into the shared stash, or into your pack when there is no Quartermaster. In a town a follower can sell their haul.
- After 3 days without a camp the party asks to rest, and it grows weary if you keep going (MCM option). A night in an inn, a house or your own home clears Weary too, without the camp's buff; some side rooms don't count.
Band pets (optional)
- A wolf, a sabre cat, a bear and a troll can join the band, next to the dog. Band levels 3, 5, 7 and 9 bring word of each one. Free the wolf, the sabre cat and the bear from their cages; the troll comes on its own.
- One pet travels with you and the others wait at camp. Swap them on the party screen. With a Beastmaster in the band a second pet can travel.
- Each pet brings a bonus while it travels and grows a bond with every kill.
- MCM > Band settings > Pets: Pet rescues, Pet bonuses, Large pets wait outside towns.
- Warband comes with three followers of its own and a short quest to get them, The Band Forms: Gorbag, an Orc warrior, Sylas, a High Elf quartermaster, and Astra, a Nord healer, are locked in the cages of Helgen Keep. Helgen is marked on your map. Bring lockpicks.
- Free them and they join you. Each has their own armor and voiced lines, and they scale with your level. A dog is caged with Gorbag, and you get to name it.
- Don't want the three at all? MCM > Band settings > The three starters, off: nobody waits in the Helgen cages and nothing shows in your journal. Starters already in your band stay.
- Followers with their own system (Serana, Auri, Inigo, Lucien, Sofia and more) ride along as guests. Ask them "Join my warband." They keep their own dialogue and quests.
- Guests get a page on the party screen and a card on the HUD. Most take Hold here and Follow; a few take Attack target only. Up to 3 at once, 6 if you raise it in the MCM.
- Taken for a guest by mistake? Press Not a guest on their page and they can join as a normal member.
- Hjertesten Hall - Extra Jobs and Features: no one serves two lords, so Hjertesten's staff, guests and visitors won't join you. Once Hjertesten Hall is yours, followers can live there.
- White Hearth - Extra Jobs and Features: White Hearth's staff and its own warriors won't join you. Once White Hearth is yours, followers can live there.
- Halls of Order - Knights of the Order: the knights, staff, residents and visitors of the Halls won't join you.
- It works both ways: those estates won't hire someone who rides with you ("... rides with your warband. Let them go first.").
- Your Estates: with those mods your party is listed as Warband Camp on the Your Estates screen, where you can send gold or a follower between the party and an estate. Open it with "The estates" on Warband's party screen, or with ESTATES in the Tab menu if you use Tween Menu Overhaul.
- None of these are needed. Warband notices them when they are installed.
- The wheel, the party screen and the order keys are not bound when you start. Use the Warband Command power, or bind them in the MCM.
- Most of Warband's lines are voiced for three voice types: the ones Gorbag, Sylas and Astra use. Anyone else, and the lines that quote prices, show as subtitles only (use Fuz Ro D'oh for those).
- The treasury, wages and opening the stash from anywhere need a Quartermaster. Party stance needs a Warchief.
- A camp upgrade you buy shows up the next time you make camp.
- A follower on a paid job is away until they return or you call them back.
- Jarls and stewards stay at their posts and won't join.
- Spouses and named followers can join if they are your friend and are not following you at that moment. If they are, dismiss them first or switch on Take over followers. While someone is with Warband, the vanilla "Follow me" line is hidden for them and comes back when they leave.
- Camps are for open country: not indoors, not in water, and not in towns unless you allow it in the MCM.
- A picture you set with Change picture is saved on your own PC (in MO2: the Overwrite folder).
- Tell me in the posts what breaks and I'll fix it.
- Prisma UI (strongly recommended): draws the party screen and Warband's own wheel. Without it Warband uses plain list menus and the UIExtensions wheel.
- SKSE Menu Framework (recommended): draws the party HUD cards. Without it you get simpler cards drawn with iWant Widgets if you have that, and no HUD if you have neither.
- Tween Menu Overhaul: adds WARBAND to the Tab menu, and ESTATES when one of my estate mods is installed.
- Skyrim Party Sheet: Gorbag, Sylas, Astra and the dog show in its follower HUD, with portraits for the three starters, and Warband's HUD cards are moved from its HUD settings.
- Nether's Follower Framework and vanilla followers: Warband only manages its own followers. Someone who follows you there refuses until you dismiss them, or switch on Take over followers.
- Followers with their own system (Serana, Auri, Remiel, Katana, Megara, Shale, Inigo, Lucien, Recorder, Hoth and others): ask them "Join my warband." and they ride along as guests on their own system. Xelzaz is never made a band member.
- Small Talk, Dynamic Follower Banter and other mods that only look at vanilla followers: MCM > Count as followers for other mods (off by default). With it on, band members count for those mods, and the game's own Follow, Wait, Trade and Part ways lines stay off them.
- Horde: they run side by side. A follower Horde manages stays with Horde; dismiss them there before asking them to join. Warband does a lot: if you just need a simple follower framework, I recommend ColdSun's Horde.
- marth Follower Overhaul, Fight With Me and other mods that set a follower's combat style: Warband steps aside while another mod holds a member's style.
- Campfire: pitch one of its tents and the party gathers at your camp.
- No town or dungeon is edited. The three starters are placed in Helgen Keep's own cages by script, and the plugin adds one map marker of its own (Warband Camp).
- For mod authors: put an NPC in the faction WB_NoRecruitFaction (Warband.esp, 0x814) and they will never join; they answer "My duties keep me where I am." The plugin also publishes the band's level, renown, size, and each follower's post, type and rank as globals and factions, and sends mod events when followers join, leave, fall or rank up and when a camp is made. Guests are in WB_GuestFaction, and Warband_GuestJoined / Warband_GuestLeft are sent when one joins or leaves. The script sources are in the download.
- Made and played on Skyrim SE 1.5.97, in a Nolvus Awakening load order. Nolvus users: install it like any other mod. The SKSE plugins are built on CommonLibSSE-NG 3.7.0 by CharmedBaryon (MIT licence), with my own layer for game versions after 1.6.640. Nothing from the GPL versions of CommonLib is in either plugin; tell me how it runs on 1.6. The licence notices are in the download.
Install with your mod manager. ESL-flagged, so it doesn't use a load order slot. Start or continue a game. Warband Command is in your powers from the first load, and the Guide opens by itself once you have been out in the world for a little while. Then open the MCM and bind the keys you want.
Safe to install mid-game: load your save and Warband Command is in your powers.
Papyrus Extender 5.9 or newer: below that, a message on load warns that camp pieces can sit wrong on slopes. On game 1.6.640, use Extender 6.4.3.
Uninstalling
This is a scripted mod. Don't remove it mid-playthrough. If you must: MCM > Warband > Band settings > Prepare uninstall. It dismisses everyone, packs up the camp, and gives the stash and the treasury back to you. Then save, quit, disable Warband, load that save and save again.
NEW: SKYRIM KINGS
I'm building a new mod that turns Skyrim into a war and diplomacy game. Every Jarl and lord lives on one realm map, marrying, making allies and going to war, and every day in Skyrim is a day on the map. It's still an early alpha and not out yet, so here's a first look.Want to help test it? Join us on Discord
Also by meI'm building a new mod that turns Skyrim into a war and diplomacy game. Every Jarl and lord lives on one realm map, marrying, making allies and going to war, and every day in Skyrim is a day on the map. It's still an early alpha and not out yet, so here's a first look.Want to help test it? Join us on Discord
Hjertesten Hall - Extra Jobs and Features - 20+ jobs, a farm economy, a market and a warband for Thay's Hjertesten Hall.
Word Travels - Friends Talk About Your Deeds - friends hear about your deeds and come talk to you about them.
Hjertesten Hall - Stables - keep two horses in the hall's own stalls and send for a horse from any city.
White Hearth - Extra Jobs and Features - a household, a court and sieges for IdomeneusOfCrete's White Hearth.
Halls of Order - Knights of the Order - an army, a treasury and seven kinds of raids for Halls of Order.
Hjertesten Hall - Extra Buildings - a barracks, a Court Wizard's tower, an orphanage, a graveyard and four homes for Hjertesten Hall.
Estates of Skyrim
Octavia - a voiced shield-sister.
Oskar - a skilled blacksmith.
Cassia - a skilled huntress.
Mortum Castle
Falkreath Shop
If you like my mods, donate here.
Credits
- The SKSE Team for Skyrim Script Extender.
- meh321 for Address Library for SKSE Plugins.
- powerofthree for Papyrus Extender.
- Expired for UIExtensions.
- The SkyUI Team for SkyUI, and Parapets for MCM Helper.
- Nukem for Backported Extended ESL Support.
- StarkMP for Prisma UI, and Thiago for SKSE Menu Framework.
- JPSteel2 for Tween Menu Overhaul
- shadeMe for Fuz Ro D'oh.
- Netherworks for Nether's Follower Framework and Chesko for Campfire, which set the bar. Warband uses none of their files.
- The screenshots were taken in the Nolvus Awakening modlist. Other followers and HUD widgets in them are from other mods.
- CharmedBaryon for CommonLibSSE-NG (CharmedBaryon/CommonLibSSE-NG, MIT), built on the MIT work of Ryan McKenzie, and Gabi Melman for spdlog. The SKSE plugins are built on them.
- Built with houseCARL and DevBench.
This mod was built with the help of AI (scripts & records), and the banner art is AI-made. I play it in my own game and fix reports fast, so tell me in the posts if anything's off.