I'm presently using http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12933/?tab=2&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmodfiles%2F%3Fid%3D12933&pUp=1, which I very much enjoy and thoroughly endorse.

However, there is one thing about this mod that I dislike compared to my previous follower overhaul mod (Ultimate Follower Overhaul): it does not seem to be possible to set follower's "Importance" level to "Not Important At All," i.e., "Totally Unprotected," aka "You go to -1 health, you DEAD!" in other words, None of this, 'taking a knee' so the baddies automatically redirect their aggro away from you, then once combat is over you regen as if nothing happened . . ." nonsense. My followers should be no less "protected" from death than I am or at least that is the way I would prefer it to play.

It appears that EFF only allows two settings for follower "Importance:" 1. "Default" and 2. "Essential." The latter means of course, that the follower cannot die under any circumstances. It is my understanding based on UESP Wiki, that the "default" importance for all player follower's is automatically set to _at least_ "Protected" (if not Essential for certain quest-related followers).

Apparently "Protected" means they are "more-or-less" unable to die; when they get to zero health they do not die instead they "take a knee" and aggro is automatically redirected. As long as they do not take any additional damage after they have entered this "Bleedout" state, they will regenerate after combat is over.

I would prefer that they just plain die when they get to zero health and that they have no special protection status at all. I've posted on the Nexus page for the mod to let the mod author know of my interest in this, but thought it prudent to ask here, particularly since: maybe this is something that involves relatively simple changes like changing the values for one field in a single file or adding a single line to a file?

If anyone can direct me to the file / field / attribute and what I'd change it to, I would be very grateful.

Well, correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't it simply corrected by removing the Essential flag from the follower in Tes5Edit?

If not I'm very interested in how to do this as well.

Yes, I would think it is _something_ along those lines, and moreover, that it isn't much of an edit to make (given that the value of the variable or variables can be changed on the fly while in a dialog with a follower).

However, I'm not sure if it is the "Essential flag" per se, if it is that variable or attribute, then I'd guess that it must have at least three values: Essential, Protected, and "Not Protected." I would guess that it is easy to change though given you can seemingly change it in the middle of a playthrough for any follower when you are using a follower mod like UFO or EFF. Heck you can probably even change it in the console!?

ADDIT: Ah! Here we go, this console command might do the trick!

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Console

setessential <1/0>

However I am still baffled by this http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Protected_NPCs business. Based on the console command there are only two values of the variable in question: 0 (mortal) or 1 (essential) but this UESP page is making me think there are actually THREE values (Mortal, Essential, and Protected) and thus I wonder if the console command will actually change a "Protected" NPC to "Mortal" or if it will not actually do that, because a "Protected" NPC is NOT actually "Essential" and the "Protected" flag is actually controlled by a different variable/attribute/field in the code??