SME-FT- VS Synthesis

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-/

Here you can download it: https://github.com/Mutagen-Modding/Synthesis/releases Download 0.26. it has an exe. Not the prerelease 0.27

There are some options to make them Protected, like {{Protect your People - PyP - Better NPC Protection SE}}, so the only one who can kill them is you. Another option is using a Synthesis patcher, which goes through your load order and sets the Protected flag to named NPC's.

After all that, I load up my entire load order in xEdit to look for any conflicts, and manually patch where necessary. Some things are inevitably going to conflict and I adjust the load order depending on which mod I want to overwrite the other. Synthesis is another amazing tool that can patch your whole load order for a variety of different mods, I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already.

I highly recommend using mutagen/synthesis instead of xedit scripts. Mutagen uses C# and is generally intuitive.

As for music, I can honestly recommend merging all of the mods linked below using the "MusicType" patcher for Synthesis: Yggdrasil Music, Hun Lovaas, Chapter II, Musical Lore, Melodies of Civilization, Still, Around the Fire, Dawnguard Music Overhaul, The Northerner Diaries, The Elder Songs & Nyghtfall

From Synthesis Installation guide: https://github.com/Mutagen-Modding/Synthesis/wiki/Installation

Use Synthesis to create your AI Overhaul patch.