Does anybody know of a tool that will let me copy a face from a mod, into another mod? The only pair of tools I'm aware of affect saved games, not mods. The copy/paste feature in CS doesn't work decently outside vanilla NPCs. I intend to use the base faces as templates to work a number of changes. In advance, thanks.

Still looking for this. No one has any ideas?

You should be able to copy/paste into the active esp from any you have loaded in the CS, not just from the base, in particular because you're creating a new NPC, not an override to the donor mod's NPC. You'll only be able to save into the "Active" one, so it's safe, and you're not creating any dependency on the other mod.

I frequently clone a character this way and then edit the copy.

Really? When I try to copy, then paste, I get a face that in no way resembles the original, even when the race is the same.

Spellhold Studios forums has an excellent guide for transferring faces using Wrye Bash. Check it out http://www.shsforums.net/index.php?showtopic=26340.