I want to replace the imperial guards "Imperial Swords" with one from a mod I have as the one's in
this particular mod look better than the default guards sword, I'd also like to replace the armor with another
armor mod.
Is there any way to do this and how hard would it be. I don't plan on making a mod from it (I'm still new to
CK modding) but I would like to replace the swords/armor for personal use, as I wouldn't have permission
from the creators of the Armor/Sword mods.

Any help on this matter would be great.

Edit the appropriate guard leveled list. To find out which one, open a few of the Imperial Guards' Actor Values in the CK.

I'll walk you through one and do it right now. Just give me a bit to write a guide

Okay so I'm going to open a guard's Actor Value...I'm randomly picking in this case: CWSoldierImperialNotGuard, I"m guessing he's an Imperial Soldier who isn't a formal Guard.

I'm not 100% sure if he's what you're looking for but this will be good for a general example .

So I open him up and click "Full" at which I see a big... "M" sign. This M I believe means that the character has no "identity", in particular this character has no identitiy because of something in the corner of his actor window.

You should see "Template Data" with a few things checked:

Use Traits, Use Stats, Use Scripts, Use AI Data, Use Inventory...etc. Almost everything is checked here. What this means is that this particular record "CWSoldierImperialNotGuard" uses all of the checked traits of the "ActorBase" value shown, instead of having its own stuff. In this case the ActorBase this record uses is "LCharSoldierImperial".

You want to change the guard's inventory though...so we have to find an editable inventory record, and if possible, the base record (the one that everyone is referring to).

So this particular record isn't much use to us. Let's click Edit to see where "LCharSoldierImperial" takes us.

When you press Edit it will bring up a "LeveledCharacter" list. This is a new feature in the CK (I believe at least). Basically some records point to a list of customized characters from a list. This way they can have templates of characters stacked up without having to hand place everything. The same goes for the Template section I explained above.

But anyway lets pick anyone from the list...lets say "EncSoldierImperialBretonM01MaleSoldier"

After opening "EncSoldierImperialBretonM01MaleSoldier " Click Full to look at the Soldier. You'll see a nice mustached Breton Imperial Character. Cool stuff! Definitely a bit closer to editing a record with the proper inventory.
But if you notice in the bottom left his "TemplateData" has "Use Inventory" referring to the inventory of another record...dammit! Gotta dig deeper.

Click edit to open this record: "EncSoldierImperialTemplate".

Now that you're in "EncSoldierImperialTemplate" you'll notice that this particular record doesn't use any template data. This means that this is the base record. Awesome! You can click "Full" to see what it looks like. It's basically a plain Imperial NPC.

But we don't care about his looks for this one, you want to Edit his Inventory! So click the Inventory tab for the NPC.

You'll notice he uses a specific Inventory item called "CWSoldierImperialGear". It's icon is a green question mark...which means its a Leveled List, or basically a list of items that will be called upon at random when its used.

You'll also notice that he has some "Outfit Objects". Outfit is basically the particular clothes/armor that the NPC is FORCED to wear. There are two of them: Default Outfits and Sleep Outfits. You can edit these later on if you desire, but we'll focus on editing his weapons for now.

So double click "CWSoldierImperialGear" to open up the Leveled List for it.

You'll notice that he uses some weapons in particular:

ImperialBow, ImperialSword, SteelDagger

Along with some other items at random:

LitemTorch50, BaseArrowSteel75, LootDrinkList25, etc etc.

You can open up those leveled lists to see what they contain too. But the main thing to pay attention to is the weapons he's equipping.

If you want to add your weapon to all the guards you'll have to edit this Leveled List. You can choose to remove "imperial sword" and drag and drop your weapon into this list (after you make it as a new weapon record of course!), press ok and then your weapon will move out to all NPCs who use this template.

That's pretty much the extent of it!

Oh I noticed you wanted to edit the armor too. Well you just need to add your items to the CK, then open up the "Outfit" record on the side, make a new record and drag your armor into that new record. Then edit the ""EncSoldierImperialTemplate" 's outfit and then all the guards using his template will get your new armors .

Good luck!

Wow thx for that reply, I will go try it in a few min's once Steam has opened up. I will post back if i have any trouble with it.
I may send you a PM if I run into any further trouble.

Wow thx for that reply, I will go try it in a few min's once Steam has opened up. I will post back if i have any trouble with it.
I may send you a PM if I run into any further trouble.

OK all's good so far.

You mentioned "new weapon record of course!" I take it this is basically me duplicating the sword I want them to carry and not
just me dragging the sword i want into the leveled list and clicking the Ok button.

also you never mention if i had to save it or is that done automatically with Ck will changing this sword create a new .esp
file or is it just replacing the imperial sword with the one of my choice and that's it.

Dam doubled posted LOL