Ever since the Creation Kit came out, I've been combing through mods and trying to add only mods that have been fairly well balanced. However, lately, I've been wondering if I should manually balance some of the more interesting mods I've found instead of passing by them completely.

Does the community find this to be an acceptable practice? And, if so, is it ok to release an .esp with the balance changes to someone else if they express interest? Are weapon/armor stat changes, crafting requirements, and/or leveled list alterations ok?

Example: Jaysus Swords and Immersive Armors feel off compared to vanilla weapons and armor (to me). Before tweeking either crafting requirements, weapon/armor stats for balance, or inclusion in leveled lists; should I contact the respective authors? And if I did make alterations before contacting said authors, should I contact them before distributing the changes to friends? or the public? and should such changes be in an overwrite or separate .esp?

In my experience modders are pretty cool with that as long as you credit them and link to the original work. Still, it's polite to ask them for permission as some people may have issues with that.

If you plan to release your changes to the public: ALWAYS ASK! Never release anything without hearing from the original author that it's OK if you're going to include any of their work.

If it's just for personal use, mess with them all you want, you don't need permission.