Best way to have dynamic ItemStack tool/armor durability?

Players in my mod can level up and improve their ability to craft tools, armor, and weapons. Improving their ability increases the durability of the items, giving them a higher 'max damage'.

Right now, I'm doing this by creating classes that extend the vanilla ItemArmor, ItemSword, etc. classes and override getMaxDamage(ItemStack stack) with my own method.

	@Override
public int getMaxDamage(ItemStack stack)
{
	return SpecializationsMod.getMaxDamage(stack);
}

By doing this I can store the quality of an ItemStack in the NBT, and use it with the vanilla durability systems. However, this method is bad for compatibility with other mods, and it's tedious to replace every vanilla tool/armor/weapon in the game with my own.

What options are available to me that would be cleaner? Thanks.