Every Bethesda mod is a plugin that modifies records in a shared database. When two plugins modify the same record, only the last one loaded wins — the other's changes are silently overwritten. This is the root of most modding instability: not bugs in individual mods, but unresolved conflicts between them.

Reading Conflicts in xEdit

Open your load order in xEdit and apply a conflict filter. Red rows are conflicts where data is being overwritten. Yellow means an override exists but carries forward the original values. Green means no conflict. The skill is reading which overrides are intentional and which are accidental — then building a patch that merges the intended changes from both plugins.