Blueprint works in editor but not compiled .exe

We have a game built on the mmostarter kit. this a been a wonderful jumpstart and things have gone very well already in just a few months of build.
However one strange thing we cannot solve is this. We created a blueprint that allows us to drop magic stat items. we have a group of stat names and a range of possible values. this all works amazing inside the editor. spot on as expected.
the problem is when we cook the game and publish it. no stats on drops. the items we created are all correct just no stats are generated.
does anyone have any insight to either differences between the editor and a cooked version. or something we are possible overlooking that needs to happen for the build to cook correct?
i can provide much more detail but wanted to put this out and see if anyone has any quick thoughts.
thanks in advance.