My Skyrim Mods List

[Craka_J]

This list of Skyrim mods will make Skyrim more challenging, realistic, immersive, and make roleplaying more rewarding and enjoyable. Overall, I think it will improve your gameplay experience greatly! All of these mods are lore-friendly and do not require any DLCs.


This thread is not complete and I am still actively adding onto it. If you find any mods in this list that aren't compatible with each other, please notify me!

Important Mods

Important Mods: Required (4)

• *"SKSE 1.6.9" : SKSE is required for most major mods that change the interface, how A.I. works, and other game mechanics. You must install this first, before installing and trying out other mods.
• "SkyUI" : Improves the interface for trading, bartering, inventory, and stuff like that. SkyUI also adds a mod configuration interface for some mods, allowing you to quickly and easily manage the settings of some supported mods through this simple interface!
• "Unofficial Skyrim Patch" : Fixes hundreds of bugs in Skyrim, which Bethesda was too lazy to do themselves. A must have! (there are also unofficial patch mods for Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn DLCs; do not install an unofficial DLC patch for a DLC you don't have installed)
• "Skyrim Project Optimization" : Alters how the game renders many locations in the game in a way that does not affect visuals, but can vastly increase your PC's performance.

Visual Improvements

Texture Packs

Texture Packs: Weapons (2)

• "aMidianBorn Book of Silence" : Aims to retexture 'all' weapons and armors in the game. (You may want to install this pack first)
• "Weapon Retexture Project - WRP" : Replaces texture of some iron weapons and all steel weapons with high-res textures.

Texture Packs: Apparel (8)

• "Hvergelmirs Armor Retexture - HAR" : Replaces the texture of Fur, Iron, Banded Iron, and Steel armors with high-res textures.
• "aMidianBorn Leather Armor" : Replaces the textures for Leather Armors with a higher-res texture.
• "aMidianBorn Scaled Armor" : Replaces Scaled Armor textures with higher-res textures.
• "aMidianBorn Helm of Yngol" : Replaces the texture of the 'Helm of Yngol' with a 2048x2048 texture.
• "aMidianBorn Elven Armor" : Replaces all Elven Armor textures, including the Elven shield texture, with higher-res textures.
• "aMidianBorn Orcish Armor" : Replaces the textures for Orcish Armor set with higher-res textures.
• "Hvergelmirs Shield Retexture - HSR" : Replaces Iron, Iron Banded, Hide, Steel, and Hold shield textures with higher-res textures.
• "Improved NPC Clothing - High Res" : Replaces the textures for clothing items in the game with higher-res textures.

Texture Packs: Skin & Hair (3)

• "HQ Beards - vanilla texture replacers" : Replaces the textures for facial hair with higher-res textures.
• "JazzJR Skeleton retexture 1.0" : Replaces the texture of skeletons with a higher-res texture of your choice.
• "Frost Giants" : Adds blue/white Giants and Giant camps to tundra specific areas.

Texture Packs: World & Environments (5)

• "Skyrim HD - 2K Textures" : Replaces textures for nearly everything environment related, including building interiors and exteriors with higher-res textures.
• "Better Dynamic Snow" : Greatly improves snow textures.
• "Sexy Villages and Towns" : Replaces textures used in villages such as Riverwood with a cleaner high-res texture pack. (Do not install this if you prefer Skyrim HD - 2K Textures village textures)
• "WATER - Water And Terrain Enhancement Redux" : Improves water visuals and also adds improved wet rock
• "Warburgs 3D Paper World Map" : Makes the map overview look like an actual map.

Texture Packs: Particle Effects (4)

• "Crimson Tide - Blood" : Improves how blood works and looks in the game. (Makes it more gruesome, without going over the top)
• "Realistic Smoke and Embers" : Improves the look of decorative fire, bonfires, and smoke plume effects.
• "Burn Freeze Shock Effects" : Killing people with fire will char their body/corpse!
• "Footprints" : You and NPCs now leave behind footprints in snow.

3D Content

3D Content: Weapons (3)

• "JaySuS Swords" : Adds a bunch of daggers, swords, and axes with high quality textures.
• "Axestaff Weapon Pack" : Adds a variety of staves that look similar to an axe.
• "Greatsword sheaths and scabbards" : Adds scabbards/sheaths to some two-handed weapons.

3D Content: Apparel (10)

• "Immersive Armors" : Adds a pack of great looking armor sets to the game usable by the player and NPCs.
• "Winter Is Coming - Cloaks" : Adds a bunch of fur cloaks and hoods which are compatible with the Frostfall mod.
• "Cloaks of Skyrim" : Adds many cloaks/capes to the game that both the player and NPCs can use. This mod is compatible with the Frostfall mod.
• "Bandolier - Bags and Pouches" : Adds a bunch of craftable bags and pouches that can be worn on your character to increase carrying capacity.
• "Skyforge Shields" : Adds a bunch of HD Windrun-exclusive shields forged in the great Skyforge!
• "Nordic Spellweaver Armor" : Adds a cool set of mage armor.
• "Lore Friendly Armor Pack" : Adds a few new armor sets fitting for a bandit or Nord warrior.
• "Nordic Ranger Outfit" : Adds a set of armor fitting for a hunter type character. Also includes a backpack.
• "Nordic Hunter light armor" : Similar to the Nordic Ranger Outfit, but less geared for tundra exploration.
• "Scout Armor" : Adds a light leather armor set, fitting for an archer or even rogue-like character.

3D Content: Anatomy (5)

• "XCE - Xenius Character Enhancement" : Improves the quality of skin, hair, warpaint, scars, and more! A must have.
• "No More Blocky Faces" : Removes a lot of the annoying blockiness in faces.
• "Consistent Older People" : Elderly people will now have more wrinkled skin on their body, rather than just their face.
• "Height Adjusted Races with True Giants" : Makes each race their lore-friendly height and makes giants look like actual GIANTS!
• "Giant Dragons" : Makes dragons much larger.

3D Content: Meshes (1)

• *"Static Mesh Improvement Mod - SMIM" : Greatly improves many objects in the game to look less blocky and fixes some texture problems.

3D Content: Particle Effects (2)

• "Get Snowy" : Characters' bodies and clothing will get snowy when out in a snow storm.
• "Wet & Cold" : Adds particle effects for cold breath, water dripping off of wet characters, and A.I. will react realistically to rain and the cold. This mod is compatible with the Frostfall mod.

Graphical Enhancers

Graphical Enhancers (5)

• "Unreal Cinema - ENB" : This is by far the best ENB configuration I've found, at least for my taste. It gives the game a more grungy realistic look, with a cinematic touch that makes so many things look simply amazing. Looks the best at night, in my opinion. I use this with realistic 'darker nights' mods. This may make the game too dark for you if you use such mods, but I like it regardless because it makes torches more important. Even without darker nights mods, it still makes the game look a lot better.
• "DYNAVISION - Dynamic Depth of Field" : I haven't used this yet but it basically allows you to easily configure your in-game depth of field settings while in-game. I'm not sure if this works with ENB, but I think it does.

Gameplay Changes

NPCs and A.I.

Gameplay Changes: NPCs and A.I. (9)

• "SKREEE - Less Frequent Dragons" : Dragons spawn less frequently.
• "Guard Dialogue Overhaul" : Guards say more stuff. Check the link for more info.
• "LIAT - Lively Inns And Taverns" : Inns and taverns are busier, noisier, and there's drunkards! (can be laggy sometimes)
• "Run For Your Lives 1.2" : Citizens will flee to their homes when a dragon is spotted nearby.
• "Guards guard the player from thugs" : Guards will try to dispatch hostiles, instead of ignoring them.
• "Immersive Patrols" : Soldiers, travellers, merchants, and bandits have schedules to patrol lore-friendly routes.
• ""Birds and Flocks" : Adds flocks of birds around docks.
• "skyBirds" : Adds many live interactive birds that fly around and land on objects, as well as have their own A.I.

Gameplay Changes: Followers (8)

• *"UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul" : Adds a lot more functionality to followers/companions.
• "Interesting NPCs" : Adds a TON of voiced and non-voiced NPCs to the game, some of which can be used as followers.
• "Odvar the Afflicted" : Adds a custom voiced quest-aware companion.
• "Vilja in Skyrim" : Adds a custom voiced quest-aware follower/companion.
• "Atvir Dres - The Last Prince of Tear" : Adds a custom voiced follower/companion.
• "Companion Valfar" : Adds a custom voiced follower/companion.
• "Herman the Mad" : Adds a custom voiced follower/companion.
• "Hoth" : Adds a custom voiced follower/companion.

Game Mechanics

Gameplay Changes: Game Mechanics (12)

• "No Starting Spells 2.0" : This mod removes the healing and fire spell from your character when you create a new character.
• "Reflection 1.1" : When your experience bar is completely filled and is ready to level you up, you will be required to rest to be awarded your perk point(s) and skill point(s), instead of being awarded them immediately. (this is how it works in Morrowind)
• "Lore-Friendly Starting Stats and Encumbrance" : Different races have unique statistical differences, making them weaker and stronger in certain areas, based on lore. This also effects encumbrance, AKA carry weight, for each race.
• "Persieds Inns and Taverns - Realistic Room Rental Enhanced" : Inns and taverns now have unique prices for room rental services, along with a couple other small changes.
• "Economics of Skyrim 1.4.1" : Merchants and other trader NPCs each have their own dynamic economy. They make can make profits, sell items that make sense to be sold by that merchant, and more. It basically makes merchants sell/trade lore-friendly items and they don't all start with the same amount of cash.
• "" :
• "Owned" : Items owned by an NPC will no longer be considered their belongings after they die, and therefore will not be considered stealing.
• "T3nd0s Skyrim Redone" : Completely overhauls all perk trees in the game to be more interesting and useful. It also balances certain things like Sneaking as well, I believe.
• "Scenic Carriages 1.2b" : Allows you to actually ride in a carriage to your selected destination, instead of teleporting there. This can be disabled, re-enabled, and adjusted in-game via the Travel Guide given to you by the carriage driver.
• "Project Reality - Climates of Tamriel - Weather - Lighting" : Adds a huge variety of weather, lighting, and other weather related content. In total, there is over 2000 varieties that can occur in this mod. This mod is compatible with the Frostfall mod.
• "Frostfall - Hypothermia Camping Survival" : Adds onto the survival factor in Skyrim by adding body temperature which can be effected by warm or freezing conditions. For example, swimming in freezing waters or exploring the tundra will require warmer clothing to be equipped to survive the intense conditions.
• "Realistic Needs and Diseases" : Adds onto the survival and realism factor in Skyrim by revamping how diseases work and also allows your character to get hungry or thirsty. This mod is supported by Frostfall and Perseids Inns & Taverns mods.
• "Camping Kit of the Northern Ranger" : You can now setup a camp anywhere you want in Skyrim!

Interface

Gameplay Changes: Interface & Immersion (10)

• "Immersion HUD - iHUD" : Allows you to configure your HUD to fade out when specific HUD elements aren't in use, and fade back in when they are in use or if you're at low health. It basically makes the HUD occupy less space when you don't really need to see it, allowing you to immerse yourself into the game better.
• "First-Person Messages" : Skyrim messages will now be in a first-person perspective.
• "Better Dialogue Controls" : Improves the dialogue selection in Skyrim.
• "Better Sorting" : Classifies items in your inventory better, making your items appear more organized.
• "KenMOD - Time on loading screen" : Displays the in-game time during loading screens.
• "immersiveUI_LockpickPlus" : A fantastic immersive mod that removes text when you look at objects or items that can be interacted with. This is also useful for people who want to create videos or machinimas.
• "Unique Region Names" : When exiting or entering a zone, the name shown of that zone will be more specific, instead of something general like "Skyrim". This also titles your save files to more specific location names as well.
• "Khajiit Speak - Complete Dialogue Overhaul" : If you play a Khajiit character, your dialogue choices will now be in the Khajiit way of speaking. Very nice mod.
• "Remove repeating sOverEncumbrance message" : Removes the repeating "You are carrying too much to be able to run" message when you are over-encumbered.
• "Changed syntaxes" : Rewords some UI interactions such as "Talk" to "Speak with".

Audio

Audio - Sound Effects & Atmosphere (11)

• "Clanking Armor" : Characters, including the player, whom are wearing heavy armor will now have a better armor clanking sound when moving around. It's a really subtle change, but it's an excellent mod.
• "Hidden Blade Sound FX" : A slight subtle change with the ranged critical attack sound and changes the sound to the Assassin's Creed hidden blade kill sound. A neat change and I like using it as a ranger.
• "Better Animal Footsteps" : Overhauls the footstep sounds for many animals and some creatures in Skyrim.
• "Ambient Seagulls" : Adds ambient seagull noises near shorelines.
• "Roosters At Dawn" : Adds a little more life to the village, farm, and city life of Skyrim by having some of the roosters crow at dawn when in appropriate areas.
• "Lynges Real Arrows Mod" : Removes the air trail behind arrows flying through the air and removes an unrealistic arrow hit sound when you hit targets with an arrow.
• "Real Arrow SFX" : Replaces arrow shoot, arrow in mid air, and many arrow impact sounds with newer sounds.
• "Ultra Realistic Bow Shoot Sound" : High quality sound that replaces the vanilla sound of a bow shooting. This sound is completely authentic and realistic.
• "Icebreakers Improved Reverb" : Improves the sound reverb in caves and dungeons.
• "IHSS - Improved Horse Step Sounds" : Adds a unique variety of horse footstep sounds on different surfaces such as grass, stone, and snow.
• "Underwater Swimming SFX" : Fixes/removes the weird splashing sound when swimming underwater.

Audio - Dialogue (1)

• "FSS - Better Bards" : Bards no longer pause after singing each line of a song.

Timescale Adjustment: To set the day & night cycle to be much slower, you can type in the console (press the "~" key) "set timescale to 6" without the quotation marks. This will make it so that it will take 4 real life hours for a single day to pass by in-game, instead of 20 minutes. Do NOT set the timescale to 5 or lower; it will break quests and make NPCs buggy.

Will add a lot more later.

Skyrim Modding Communities:
1. Skyrim Nexus Mods - Most popular and active modding community for the Elder Scrolls series, Fallout 3, Oblivion, and other games.
2. Skyrim GEMS - Individually selected mods are chosen and linked through this site. Most of these mods will appeal to roleplayers or hardcore players.
3. Steam Workshop - If you can't find a Skyrim mod on Skyrim Nexus, chances are it might be on Steam Workshop. It's one of my last resort sites to check for mods.
4. Planet Elder Scrolls [Skyrim] - A popular modding community site for the Elder Scrolls series, including Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind. I personally like this site more for Morrowind mods. (since I also play Morrowind)

 

[Aeroblyctos]

Hey this sounds useful. I was thinking to play the game again but I really don't have motivation to search for all the mods.

Is it possible that you create a zip of all your recommended mods and then upload the zip to somewhere where we could easily download it? Also a little introduce how to install these mods would be kind.

I played the game without any mods when the game was released.

 

[marko9]

I would recommend some mods:

- SkyUI
- Frostfall
- Realistic need's and diseases

 

[Craka_J]

I also use those mods.

I'd compress them all into one big zip file, but I'd have to ask each and every mod author for permission to do that, and plus it'd be a few gigs in total (the texture packs and sound mods are huge).

 

[Aeroblyctos]

I'm sure those people have said yes to many who said they're gonna do a big mod pack.

And I don't care about the size.

 

[Craka_J]

I am not authorized to pack and upload all these mods as one. Some of these mods are exclusive to Steam Workshop or Skyrim Nexus Mods, and some of these mod authors have left the modding community, so getting approval from each and every mod author is very unlikely.

I might ask them all for permission anyway, just so I can say I tried. So in the meantime, you'll just have to manually download and install each mod yourself. Just be sure to carefully read how to install each mod, because some of them can be tricky and have optional files that may interfere with the main files.

 

[Aeroblyctos]

Why is this so bureaucrat?

 

[Craka_J]

It's against Skyrim mod site rules. If I uploaded them all without permission from all authors, I'd get banned and the file would be taken down by the administrators anyway. So I kind of have to follow the rules.

 

[Aeroblyctos]

Don't upload it to Skyrim website.

And use different name!

 

[Edhel-dur]

Skyrim Project Optimization - always useful, improves performance of the game.

Run For You Lives (Dragon Attacks) - villagers will now run for cover when dragons attack.

When Vampires Attack - villagers will now run for cover when vampires attack.

 

[Craka_J]

"When Vampires Attack" requires the Dawnguard DLC and I haven't purchased any of the Skyrim DLCs because I think that once Bethesda is done making DLCs for Skyrim, they'll sell pack them into a DLC collection for a discounted price. So for now, my mods list will contain mods that do not require any Skyrim DLCs.

I've listed the Run For Your Lives mod already, but I haven't tried the Skyrim Project Optimization mod, but it looks great and I'll add it to the list.

 

[Edhel-dur]

I have installed Lanterns of Skyrim MCM.

My only problem is that everytime it checks, it displays text in the lop-left corner. How do I hide that?

 

[The_wand_mirror]

I also have a list of these but it's an excel document because there are so many of them. Without gameplay mods i got to 15gb. Anyone intrested, I don't really play it anymore lately kind of waiting for someone to overhaul combat.

 

[Edhel-dur]

I'm keeping my eye on Duel - Combat Realism.

 

[The_wand_mirror]

Well i would only want to play it again if it had a combat system similar to chivalry or something along that line.