Build a Follower

Create-your-own companions for Skyrim SE/AE — stamp RaceMenu presets onto permanent template actors, manage them from an MCM, save/load with JContainers.

Standalone rework of Lazy Followers by LazyGirl (modification permission with credit — https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/43312). Does not require LazyFollowers.esp and ships no unedited Lazy Followers files.

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Requirements (hard)

Mod	Why
SKSE64 (matching your runtime)	Foundation
SkyUI	MCM
RaceMenu (AE)	CharGen preset APIs
JContainers SE	Save/load config + NPC JSON
PapyrusUtil SE/AE	File lists / existence checks

Recommended: powerofthree's Papyrus Extender (auto-scan playable races), Race Compatibility SKSE (custom races), Nether's Follower Framework (multi-follower management).

Do not install alongside LazyFollowers.esp or StampFollowers.esp — same role. Not save-compatible with either (new plugin + scripts); use a save that never had them, or clean-save first.

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Install (FOMOD)

Pick one template pool:

Option	Slots
Standard (default)	80 female + 80 male
Female Only	160 female
Male Only	160 male

Load order: after RaceMenu, JContainers, PapyrusUtil. New game or existing save is fine.

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How to use (best quality — no blue face)

1. Wear the follower's face on your character in RaceMenu (sliders, tattoos, skin tone).
2. Open MCM → Build a Follower → click Save my face for followers and type a name.
   • This calls RaceMenu SaveExternalCharacter and writes the jslot + head mesh + face tint to the folders NPCs actually use (Textures/CharGen/Exported + Meshes/CharGen/Exported).
   • RaceMenu's sculpt F5 export alone is not enough for NPC tint — that is the blue/purple head bug.
3. Pick a slot in the NPCs dropdown. Tip: put your crosshair on any NPC before opening the MCM — their race/voice get harvested and a free slot of the same sex is pre-selected.
4. Choose that Preset, matching Race, Voice, name it.
5. Click Apply settings, then Summon NPC.
6. Talk to them and recruit (vanilla "Follow me" / NFF).

Quick / tintless path: applying a plain RaceMenu preset without an exported face tint still works — face morphs stamp, but head/body keep the template skin tone (matched, no blue face). For exact skin/tattoos, use Save my face for followers.

Dark or grey face? Select the NPC → Fix dark/grey face. Rebuilds head 3D. A full Apply already does this automatically.

Gear: CopyKit. Stats/Spells/Combat pages tune the rest. Save finished NPCs on SaveLoad.

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Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Blue / purple head (missing tint texture)	Use Save my face for followers while wearing the face, then Apply that export. Plain Presets-tab saves often have no Textures/CharGen/Exported/<name>.dds — RaceMenu then pins a missing tint on every head regen.
Head OK but skin tone / neck doesn't match body	Same root cause: body gets preset skin overrides; head failed tint. Export via Save my face for followers, match Race, re-Apply.
Dark / grey face	Fix dark/grey face button, or re-Apply while summoned.
Reset/Dismiss stranded the player	Fixed in 2.4.0 — Reset only moves the NPC. Teleport to NPC is blocked while they are in the storage cell (use Summon instead).
Preset applied but NPC looks default	Wrong slot selected in the NPC dropdown.
CombatStyle row says "SkyTactics (see Debug)"	SkyTactics installed — BAF leaves styles alone.
HeadNif won't toggle	Needs a head from Save my face for followers (Meshes/CharGen/Exported). Legacy F5 files under SKSE/Plugins/CharGen are flagged in the hover text.
Neck seam / floating head	Race must match the preset. Prefer HeadNif off unless you exported a matching head.
No presets in list	Export .jslot to SKSE\Plugins\CharGen\Exported (or Presets); PapyrusUtil must work.
Custom race dialogue broken	Race Compatibility SKSE + race patch.
All slots full	Reset/Dismiss parks the NPC (not you). Save JSON first if you want them back.

Shouts stay disabled (vanilla engine save-corruption risk — same warning as the original mod).

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Changelog

2.4.1 — critical crash fix

• Fixed a hard crash on Apply (skee64.dll → std::runtime_error: "LargestInt out of UInt range"). 2.4.0 copied a picked preset from CharGen/Presets into CharGen/Exported by round-tripping it through JContainers. JContainers stores integers as signed 32-bit, so RaceMenu's unsigned tintInfo colors (any with a high alpha byte) were rewritten negative — and RaceMenu's own JSON parser crashes reading a negative value as unsigned. The mod no longer rewrites .jslot files at all; it reads the preset in place, exactly like the original.
• If you used 2.4.0: delete any Data\SKSE\Plugins\CharGen\Exported\*.jslot files dated the day you ran 2.4.0 (they're corrupt copies — your originals are safe in CharGen\Presets\).
• Everything else from 2.4.0 is kept (all of it is crash-safe): the tint-aware apply, "Save my face for followers", dark-face rebuild, Reset/Teleport safety.

2.4.0

• Blue face / skin-tone mismatch fixed (root cause). RaceMenu LoadCharacterEx pins the head tint to Textures/CharGen/Exported/<name>.dds. Missing file → blue/purple head (or Face Discoloration Fix repaint that no longer matches body). Pipeline is now tint-aware; tintless presets apply morphs without skin override and clear the broken mapping.
• New: "Save my face for followers" — MCM export via CharGen.SaveExternalCharacter (verified in skee64.dll) so jslot + mesh + tint land where the NPC loader needs them.
• Reset/Dismiss never moves the player — only parks the NPC. Teleport to NPC blocked while parked in storage (the strand-in-temp-cell bug).
• Full Apply still does a 3D rebuild so dark/grey face stays fixed when tint is present.
• HEDR record count aligned to CK convention for ship-gate.

2.3.0

• Dark / grey face bug fixed properly. The apply pipeline now rebuilds the head 3D after stamping, so the face tint re-bakes against the applied preset. This is the same result the external "Face Discoloration Fix" gives, done in-mod. Root cause: a live CharGen apply leaves the head tint baked from the old face until the 3D is rebuilt.
• New MCM button: "Fix dark/grey face" — one click re-bakes a selected NPC's head, for followers made on an older version or restored from a save. Replaces needing an external dark-face spell.
• Gender-split FOMOD restored. Install-time choice of 80F+80M / 160 female-only / 160 male-only. Female-only and male-only pools have zero opposite-sex slots, so you can't land on a male template when you wanted a female one (and vice versa).
• Kept the 2.2.x neck-seam pipeline (body→head→skin reblend + weight refresh); the tint rebuild runs on top of it.
• All three ESPs re-verified: HEDR 1.71, formVersion 44 on every record, 160 formlist entries all pointing at placed references (no dead slots), 4-byte SEQ.

1.2 — Build a Follower

• Rebranded: plugin BuildAFollower.esp, scripts BAF_*, JSON under SKSE\Plugins\BuildAFollower\
• Fixed: slots 81–160 were dead — the NPC formlist pointed at base actor records instead of placed references, so only the first 80 slots ever worked
• Fixed: blue face / preset not applying when "Apply settings" was clicked before summoning — the apply is now deferred until the NPC's 3D is loaded and runs automatically on summon (with a popup telling you so)
• Fixed: malformed SEQ file — the MCM quest now reliably starts on new games
• Fixed: MCM main page could fail to draw when an NPC's combat style wasn't in the pool (negative array index)
• Fixed: combat-style row labels SkyTactics clearly; all 20 styles have role names (not Style #5)
• Fixed: HeadNif is a real clickable toggle when a matching .nif exists
• Fixed: a menu-open handler bug that made unrelated dropdowns show the combat-style list
• Fixed: combat-style names pad correctly when loading a config saved with a smaller pool
• FOMOD installer with three template pools: 80F+80M / 160F / 160M

1.1 — Stamp Followers

• Fixed wrong save-slot restoration, reload dismissals, cross-sex template fallback, voice-list mismatch, Presets folder path bug

1.0 — Stamp Followers

• Initial rework of Lazy Followers: 160 slots, 20 combat styles, HEDR 1.71/formver 44, holding-cell architecture kept

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Credits

• LazyGirl — Lazy Followers (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/43312): original design, template-pool approach, MCM feature set, save layout. Reworked and redistributed under the mod's open modification permission, with credit. Not for paid platforms.
• SkyUI team (MCM), Expired6978/RaceMenu contributors (CharGen), JContainers, PapyrusUtil, powerofthree — required/optional frameworks (install their mods; nothing of theirs is shipped here).