What are your must have mods?

[Jaxtor]

Main question is in the title. The reason I'm asking is I'd like to play skyrim but I'm looking for a different play experience than base skyrim and I'd like to hear what mods the community seems to love.

[smr1957]

LOL, Jaxtor - that's like asking people what their favorite food is!

You are going to get a TON of responses - all different. But that is half the fun - looking through all the different mods there are to choose from! Just take your time, and enjoy the experience! Also, you might find it helpful to read this - it has links to everything you need to get a modded game up and running:

Advice to New Players Regarding Modding the Game
https://steamcommunity.com/app/489830/discussions/0/3780246026239478835/

Link is in the For Those New to Modding the Game section of the following
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2882241414
from the PINNED TOPIC Helpful Links and References

And, if you have any questions, just ask - this is a great forum and there are a lot of people ready and willing to help!

Good luck!

[exiledangel420]

I'm always a big fan of new land and quest mods. Of the ones I've played my favorite is beyond skyrim burma. There's over 100,000 mods on nexus https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition there categorized if you navigate through the mod menu to the categories.

[ShelLuser]

I like lasagna ;)

Anyway, I obviously have a favorite set of mods but I've always been very keen on merely enhancing on the vanilla experience and not changing Skyrim into something its not. Then again... some mods...

Anywhoo... generally speaking I'd say a good way to enhance your experience is a follower expansion. "NFF" is an amazing mod which allows you to have more than one follower. And as for those followers... vanilla followers are nice, modded are often better. Some of my favorites are: Sofia, M'rissi (and her tails of troubles), Lucien, Onean the little healer, Mirai; the girl with the dragon heart and Myra the taffy dragon.

Playing with mods is fun, but having the same start of Skyrim all the time gets old really quick. As such: Alternate Start is an amazing mod whcih allows you to start playing in another way. You're not crossing the border, naaah, it's something else. How about already being a member of a guild such as the thieves guild or the brotherhood of darkness? Or maybe you're a barhelp on Solsteim. A warlocks thrall? Or just easily camping in the woods. When the game starts you could check out Helgen, but... you can also start by doing some other things first ;)

Getting tired of having to make your favorite character(s) all the time? Maybe you should get the racemenu mod. Not only does it allow you to customize your character in almost every detail: you can also save it as a character preset. So if you start yet another game you can easily retrieve your favorite character "just like that".

Finally.. I really enjoy SPERG as well. It replaces the vanilla Skyrim perktree and makes it a lot more fun to progress. You no longer have to craft 1000 iron knives in order to hopefully progress your smithing skills a bit.

Of course there's tons more, but these are some generic QOL mods which can be quite a good start.

[exiledangel420]

the dragonborn gallery legacy of dragonborn sse is really good mod it add a guild, a museum, some special perks for the museum and guild. and adds a lot new unique item and adds some quests its my first time playing with the mod. makes looting way more fun. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/11802

[Skumboni]

The mod I am looking for keeps the trolls off the Steam forums. No luck finding it yet.

[DragonMaster]

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/11802

[Shadow Wizard Fluffy Gang]

Better Message Box Controls
Better Dialogue Controls

[wicked lester]

Companion Mods: Inigo, Lucien, Serana Dialogue
Perks - Ordinator
Magic - Apocalypse, Odin
Graphics - well, a lot, but I wouldn't play without Noble Skyrim, smim,
Bug fixes - sse bug fixes, ussep
UI - Skyui
and, of course, skse

[Doggy Friend]

I will never play this game without Alternate Start (Live Another Life) mod. Depending on your play style it can make first few dozens of hours an entirely different experience in terms of quests and areas.

[UsernameTaken666]

All of the mods that I’ve curated for my own use :)

[DreamNyx]

There's so many, here's one of each for weather, music, home and culture:

True Storms Special Edition - Thunder Rain and Weather Redone
Nyghtfall - Dark Fantasy Music
Heljarchen Pool And Hot Bath EX for SSE
Divine Punishment For Mention of Arrows in the Knee

[Ffabbia]

I like to begin the game with absolutely nothing, total blank slate, no combat abilities, no spells, no stats no gear. I'm just a random nobody who's only combat move is a weak punch.

Toward that end I mix Alternate Stard: Live Another Life with All Skills Start at Zero which removes all pre-learned skills, spells and abilities from a new character leaving them with nothing.

I like to begin the game with something like the 'Beaten and left for dead' alternate start that starts me with nothing but some dirty rags and take it from there.

Other than that I have an absolute tonne of graphical mods, ENB series, Flora Overhaul, Enhanced Lights and FX, Grass on Steroids and a whole lot more, too many to list. I also use Hunterborn for cool additional skinning and crafting from animal parts options.

SKYUI is obviously a must-have

I don't use anything that changes vanilla combat or abilities, no cheat or 'God' mods etc. But the one mod I simply couldn't live without is called Blacksmith's Storage Chests, which gives you a purchasable chest in major holds and Breezehome that lets me store all components such as ore, ingots, parts etc in a single handy location that can be sorted and filtered, and shared between locations. It was never ported from Oldrim, and no version exists for the SE or Legendary edition. I had to beg a friend on the Nexus to port it over for me.

The mod I miss the most is Convenient Horses. Again no version of it was ever ported over to the SE edition. Another modder did make a version with the same title and broadly similar functionality, but it doesn't have even a tenth of the original's features.

[Illtempered]

Enhanced Camera and now that I've used it, Skyrim Souls

[Liquid Inc]

I considered this to be SkyClimb, until it didn't work on 1170...

I don't know if it was ever updated, but it did make a BIG difference to a thief playstyle.

[SDFMacross001]

As nobody else has the balls to say it. I will. SexLab / Flower Girls!