Doesn't cause the problem for me, I literally just ran into them on the road and they didn't attack me.

Try loading this mod last and see if it still happens.

That's weird. I did load this mod last, and it only happens when I have activated the perk (with player.addperk 22001004).

EDIT: Just tried it again. When standing right next to these NPCs, typing said line to add the perk triggers them aggressive. Damn it. I don't know what's wrong there. It doesn't make any sense either, since even if they were somehow affected by fear/calm, they wouldn't attack.

Mod conflict?

I had Three wandering Stormcloak Guards go hostile and attack me.
I'm using War in Skyrim 2 and Unleveled SKyrim, so maybe those are conflicting somehow?

It could be that the spell effect, even though it's non-hostile, is still enough to trigger "almost hostile" NPCs to become hostile.

What I mean by this is that NPCs that are wary of you in the first place, like Imperial guards with prisoners, who will draw their blades and warn you off if you draw close (but don't always attack) might aggro if hit with ANY spell effect controlled by the player, even a healing spell or other non-agressive spell.

No way of being sure of this, this is just me speculating, but it seems reasonable.

You're pretty much spot-on with your guess. The issue is that some NPCs will trigger hostility against you if you touch them with anything. You could use Healing Hands and they'd still want to kill you.

I've tried to mitigate this in version 0.91 by lowering the range and making the auras now only active during combat when the player is not essential. The essential check is done because you are always essential during brawls, so this no longer conflicts with brawling (I tested brawls from Fight! Fight! and the one during The Forsworn Conspiracy). You will still trigger hostilities from some random encounters if you are in combat nearby them, but I don't know of any way to fix that, and it's rare for them to spawn near enemies anyway. It's freaking annoying that some things will turn hostile even if you use non-hostile effects on them.

Would it be possible to use "IsHostileToActor" to make it so that the spell only affects characters who are already hostile to the player?

I do use that, but that isn't the problem. If the magic effect even makes checks at all on things, it's kind of half-way sort of doing stuff, and that triggers some AI to go hostile. During brawls, for example, using anything whatsoever on the target triggers hostilities. Some random encounters do this too. The check for hostilities wouldn't matter anyway during a brawl because the opponent is hostile to you at that time. Even on these random encounters though, doing anything to them makes them angry. You can apply a completely blank effect to them, and they will still go hostile.

Ahh, dang, I see now. That's really lame... your fix sounds pretty reasonable at least.

When the CK comes out you might be able to place a dummy activator or invisible creature near the player with a script, and apply the spell effect to that. If it's an activator, they shouldn't go aggressive. Not sure if you can apply spell effects to activators or not, but I think you should be able to based on things I've seen in-game.

I've been waiting for this since day 1, thank you!

However I do wonder if it's possible to not have this apply to every hostile NPC, like still have some do the tricky *yield then attack again* thing? Like, I think it would make sense for some people to trick you while most would probably sincerely yield...

Similarly, is, say, an Orc Chieftain likely to yield at all?

I'm interested in trying this mod out, but I have one question: Will this break anything if uninstalled and how does one uninstall it?

great stuff, installed

Finally got to install this, works like a charm. Well done!

This is mod great, it deserves a bump.