SME-FT- VS AI-Overhaul-Patcher

To answer your question, though, I would look at SMEFT.

smeft is a wabbajack mod list containing all the essentials for modding, but it should be unnecessary if you're using dragonborn's fate, sorry for confusing you by throwing so many words lol

Pro tip: even if you don't want to use Wabbajack for anything else, install SME(FT) as the base to build on top of. The name is short for Skyrim Modding Essentials (Fixes and Tools) and gives you exactly that; bugfixes, engine improvements, and all the tools you could ever need to build your own modlist from scratch. This will save you a lot of time and hassle when building your own list, as almost all prerequisites are already installed and critical improvements to the vanilla game won't be skipped due to lack of knowledge. You won't regret it, trust me.

SMEFT is a wabbajack mod list that has exactly what you're looking for. It contains all the essential utilites, plugins, and bug fixes.

Just want to point out anyone looking for a good starting point should check out SMEFT on wabbajack. This will save you the headache of getting all the essential mods/tools. It's a perfect base to start. https://eziothedeadpoet.github.io/SME-FT-/

better yet, use wabbajack to download a solid base for modding with all the bugfixes included: https://eziothedeadpoet.github.io/SME-FT-/

Here some learning resources and a list that might be for you to start with. - https://github.com/LivelyDismay/Learn-To-Mod/wiki - https://eziothedeadpoet.github.io/SME-FT-/

Take a look at the AI Overhaul patcher- it's pretty simple in scope and written well, so it's a good example of how to do some basic operations like getting a mod by filename, extracting various values, and adding them to a patch. In general, things in Synthesis have names which are similar to their names in XEdit, which makes finding most things simple enough.

Use AI Overhaul SSE instead and just run the Synthesis Patcher for it.

Would the Synthesis AI Overhaul patcher cover all of the possible conflicts when I make the switch? I have CBBE, HIMBO, total character makeover, humanoid vampires, and cosmetic vampire overhaul.

Hmm, you mean this patcher probably: https://github.com/Excinerus/AI-Overhaul-Patcher

The Synthesis patcher for AI Overhaul takes a lot of the pain out of forwarding all those AI package records: https://github.com/Excinerus/AI-Overhaul-Patcher

Even more-so since there is now a Synthesis patcher that automatically handles the needed record forwarding for AI Overhaul for you.

But if I was going to go the patching myself route - I assume something along the lines of using AI-Overhaul-Patcher w/ Synthesis and what I'm looking to patch?