Favorite Mods

Meh, depends on what you need. I like SSE just fine, and I do own Legendary Edition as well.

Going to do some separate posts for different mod types as I get around to them.

It's important to know that, with a few exceptions, most texture mods for Skyrim (aka Skyrim Legendary Edition, aka Oldrim) DO work in Skyrim Special Edition (SSE). If you're new to Skyrim with SSE, be sure to look through both Nexus pages to get the widest variety of mods. The primary texture mods that to NOT work correctly are for landscapes. Even then, they won't break your game, they will just be wrong and can result in "shiny" landscapes. (Remember the shiny hair in DAI if meshes are not on high/ultra? Similar appearance.)

Porting most mods from Oldrim to SSE is also relatively simple, which I can explain in another post if someone is interested. Texture mods don't need to be ported and can be used as-is.

Keep in mind that there is the ability to pick apart mods and use what you want from them. I do this quite a bit.

Be sure to check whether there are SSE or Oldrim versions of mods. For example, there are two versions of LeanWolf's Better-Shaped Weapons, but I have only listed the version I use.

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Weapons

Most of these are going to be retextures and replacements of default. I add very little to my Skyrim installation and try to be as lore-friendly as possible.

Book of Silence -- (BoS) Has retextures for many of the default weapons. The Unique Items pack also has unique weapons, and that user also has some individual weapons on their Nexus page that aren't in the main mod.

Dawnbreaker Redone 2 -- Unique quest weapon, silver and gold color options. I love this model!

Dragonbone Mastery - Weapons Retexture -- Nicer dragonbone weapons.

Dwemer bronze and steel - Dwarven weapons recolor -- I like these more than (the incomplete) BoS dwarven weapons. They add steel-colored metal blades to the dwarven metals. I also use the BoS scabbard with these, since it's really nice.

Ebony Weapons 2017 Retexture -- BoS does not do ebony weapons. There are very few ebony weapon replacements on the Nexus, and these are superb. These also go very nicely with the BoS ebony armor retextures.
Here is another one: Ebony Weapons Pack for Ebony Armor and Mail Mod. Pick whichever you like the best!

Elven Weapons for Silence -- BoS does not do elven weapons. These are a retexture of the elven weapons to match a recolor version of the elven armor from the Book of Silence armors. Like the dwemer above, it has a different metal color for the blade, which I quite like.

Imperial Sword 4K By Billyro -- A new version of the Imperial Sword.

Spellbreaker Oblivionized retexture in HD -- Wonderful retexture of the unique Spellbreaker shield.

Spellbreaker Remesh -- Changes the shape of the Spellbreaker shield to a more traditional shield shape.


LeanWolf's Better-Shaped Weapons SE -- This changes the shape of swords, greatswords, daggers, and arrow quivers to be thinner and just look overall nicer. Also adds scabbards for weapons that don't have them (optional).


Standalone Weapons

I just have two here, since, again, I add very little to Skyrim.

Skyforge Weapons SSE & Skyforge Shields SSE -- These make the Skyforge weapons have an unique model, and also gives these models to the members of the Companions that should have them. Also adds two kinds of shields, light and heavy. BoS has its own set of unique Skyforge weapons, but no shields.

@lukensen Well he certainly looks high poly. Nice amount of body hair, too.

Odd, though. Why does your pic looked squished?

Rofl I just had to post this. Anyone who dips into the Skyrim modding waters will come across the hundreds of sexy armors for female characters, but there are scant few for men. If you're playing Oldrim and want some for the guys, check out this author's mods.

A sample (this Daedric one has also been ported to SSE):


The default hide armor is as bare as I get for my guy, but it's nice to have these available. Skyrim is way too cold for that nonsense. When I venture into the snowy areas, I even switch to full fur armor!

Does anybody know some cool orc specific mods you would recommend? Haven't played Skyrim in about 5 years, but I'm feeling like picking it up again. Love me some cool-looking orcs.

A random list of (more) mods I like:

RS Children Overhaul - Gives each NPC child a unique look (since they're all clones in vanilla). I'd recommend using this with Prince and the Pauper that gives more varied outfits to children too.
Paarthurnax Bypass - A simpler alternative to The Paarthurnax Dilemma that uses in-game voiced dialogue.
Ghorzas Armor / Tru3Magics Ghorza Armor Retexture
Hired Thugs Fixed (or No Hired Thugs optional) - I downloaded this when a bunch of thugs started attacking my lowly level 3 character.  It's my least favorite random event

Also, I recently found this gem of a bug fix:
Prisoner cart fix - If you have a heavily modded game, you may have come across a bug that renders the vanilla beginning unplayable, with the prisoner cart tumbling/flying into the sky/etc. Immersive Armors (one of my favorite mods) can cause this, for example. It's a script-heavy event that can bug out, but this makes it playable again if you want to play the vanilla beginning and not through an Alternate Start

I made a mod for SSE to edit book titles so the game places them in alphabetical order.

There was already a similar mod for Oldrim that does things a bit differently from my own.

For those playing Oldrim, here is a male follower mod. This guy is custom voiced and also apparently includes a fair bit of romance content, including a quest.

The person named him Kaidan, but as far as I can see, it has nothing to do with the ME character.

Nexus link.

[edit] Now available for SSE as well!

If anyone here hasn't played Enderal and has a PC that can run Skyrim, you have to do it. It honestly might be my new favorite game ever and the ROMANCE.