Looking for some decent or fun Skyrim mods (non CC)

Modded the Special Edition a few years back using Nexus Mod Manager on my potato pc and screwed with it around a little. Now I have a somewhat decent laptop and want to finally do a playthrough with some magic mods so playing a mage is actually fun and viable.

Mainly looking for magic mods, a cute companion and some better looking armors. But any great or what you consider to be an essential mod is welcome.

Schlongs of Skyrim

Legacy of the Dragonborn is pretty good, if massive. Voiced pretty well too.

Adds a museum you can store relics in and gives quests to find them. Also adds in several big quest mods as well.

Irony posted...

Schlongs of Skyrim

Those kind of mods are for when I grow tired of the game again =P

FunkyCat posted...

Legacy of the Dragonborn is pretty good, if massive. Voiced pretty well too.

Adds a museum you can store relics in and gives quests to find them. Also adds in several big quest mods as well.

This is something I'm checking out for sure

Took me exactly 1 try to break the intro =)
I spawn inside the driver of the cart and the cart remains stationary. Downloading a mod to skip the intro hoping that will fix it.

lol, I love it when the cart breaks but that's why I make a save at the first possible moment any time I have to do a new skyrim install so I can skip it when I make a new character

thronedfire2 posted...

lol, I love it when the cart breaks but that's why I make a save at the first possible moment any time I have to do a new skyrim install so I can skip it when I make a new character

Yeah, I def should have thought of that. Haven't modded in years and now I'm making mistakes left and right. Been at it for 3 hours now >_>

TheSavageDragon posted...

Took me exactly 1 try to break the intro =)
I spawn inside the driver of the cart and the cart remains stationary. Downloading a mod to skip the intro hoping that will fix it.

"Live Another Life" is the most popular alternate start and one everyone should (or another alt start) as helps with playing how you want. LAL has predefined starts, but I do recall one that lets you tweak your start as you want.

Funkydog posted...

"Live Another Life" is the most popular alternate start and one everyone should (or another alt start) as helps with playing how you want. LAL has predefined starts, but I do recall one that lets you tweak your start as you want.

Yeah, I've seen that linked in the comments of other alternate start mods as the best one, yet all links seem to be dead

EDIT: But I can find it just fine using Google. Hope that it helps because I apparently did have a vanilla save right after character creation, but everybody's just standing there doing a halfassed T pose
EDIT: And I forgot the unofficial SE patch like a jackass

Oh yeah, I recall the creator removed their mods from the Nexus or was planning to? So might want to make sure downloading the right one for you version of Skyrim, or see where they've uploaded it now for up to date versions.

Cute companions, eh? Something like this maybe?

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/17274/

I also consider Inigo something of an essential follower mod, he breathes so much life into your journey it's ridiculous. He even remembers specific quests while doing specific other quests, like if you do A Night to Remember before doing a specific Companions quest he'll teasingly remind you not to propose to a hagraven this time, it's really neat to see all the stuff he'll comment on. It also really helps that the creator of the mod has a really soothing voice, his voice acting makes the character feel really alive. And while not as good as Inigo, I'll also recommend Khajiit Will Follow if only for Ma'kara, her questline and characterization are surprisingly pretty good.

Aside from followers and such, many players consider the unofficial patch a must-have mod if only for all the bugs it fixes.

Gameplay-wise, I also highly recommend Imperious - Races of Skyrim. You'll have to start a new game to make it work properly though.

Funkydog posted...

Oh yeah, I recall the creator removed their mods from the Nexus or was planning to? So might want to make sure downloading the right one for you version of Skyrim, or see where they've uploaded it now for up to date versions.

Think I'm good. Vortex seems to notify you if you download the wrong version and then gets the correct one. Let's see if it fixes my problem

Oh yes, Inigo is a must. By far the best companion you can get.

TheSavageDragon posted...

Think I'm good. Vortex seems to notify you if you download the wrong version and then gets the correct one. Let's see if it fixes my problem

Oh god you're using vortex. When you eventually can't figure out why mods are breaking or why vortex keeps fucking up your load order get Mod Organizer 2

Axiom posted...

Oh god you're using vortex. When you eventually can't figure out why mods are breaking or why vortex keeps fucking up your load order get Mod Organizer 2

I've never had issues with Vortex, but I do plan to change the next time I reinstall after wanting to change mods around. Never had issues with it changing load order, and you can change it as you want/need and set whatever rules for plug in load order etc.

It's much better than what they had previously.

Immersive & Adult

I'm getting Inigo for sure once I figure out what keeps breaking the game. Live Another Life def works, but every character including mine is still T posing. Enemies just keep standing there while clearly in combat. I've got a few other companion mods and it's probably one of those or one of their prerequisite mods that's responsible

Axiom posted...

Oh god you're using vortex. When you eventually can't figure out why mods are breaking or why vortex keeps f***ing up your load order get Mod Organizer 2

Think I might be there already. I'm going to give it another go and then switching to your suggestion

Finally. It was XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended that was making everything T pose. I got it for a follower called Sephina The Huntress and then never actually installed the follower, so that can go in the trash.

Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim - This is a MUST, imo. It makes the Skill trees MUCH better

Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim - Adds a lot of lore friendly magic to the game

Alternate Start - Let's you pick a background for your character. You can be a member of a guild, a vampire, left for dead on the side of the street, ect.

A Quality World Map - Just makes the map much better

Oh yeah, if you install things like that, or anything that changes the skeletons of NPCs/Monsters, or adds animations, you will need to run FNIS or everything will Tpose.

Funkydog posted...

Oh yeah, if you install things like that, or anything that changes the skeletons of NPCs/Monsters, or adds animations, you will need to run FNIS or everything will Tpose.

Might need to grab the Script Extender as well

Bad_Mojo posted...

Might need to grab the Script Extender as well

That should be default along the Unofficial Patch, but yes :P

Bad_Mojo posted...

A Quality World Map - Just makes the map much better

Oh yeah, forgot about this. It's literally what the world map should've been in the first place, can never go back to vanilla map. It's just so nice to be able to see roads on the map, y'know?

Bad_Mojo posted...

Might need to grab the Script Extender as well

That's a given. First thing I installed.

Funkydog posted...

Oh yeah, if you install things like that, or anything that changes the skeletons of NPCs/Monsters, or adds animations, you will need to run FNIS or everything will Tpose.

But this I didn't know, going to try it out in a sec.
Bad_Mojo posted...

Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim - This is a MUST, imo. It makes the Skill trees MUCH better

Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim - Adds a lot of lore friendly magic to the game

A Quality World Map - Just makes the map much better

Awesome, this is what I was looking for in terms of making a mage playthrough fun

TheSavageDragon posted...

But this I didn't know, going to try it out in a sec.

That second is taking a lot longer as I need to create a new Steam library as mine was still the default and had to figure out how to do that first. Modding Ark Survival Evolved using the Steam Workshop wasn't nearly this much of a hassle.

How's it going, TC?

There's a mod somewhere on LL that dynamically changes the size of your tiddies depending on how much mana you have. Think it was called Mana Tanks.

I guess TC got consumed by Vortex and Skyrim modding, never to be released from it's cruel grasp.

I'm still here, guys. Keep the mods coming as I'll be modding my playthrough as I go along and reach new locations. If you want I'll use this topic as a playthrough topic and update with my progress.

Funkydog posted...

I guess TC got consumed by Vortex and Skyrim modding, never to be released from it's cruel grasp.

Nah, I was spending a few days at my mom's place helping her pack up for the move to her new house. That and I got Spider-Man Miles Morales as a gift so I've been playing that for a bit as well.

Xatrion posted...

There's a mod somewhere on LL that dynamically changes the size of your tiddies depending on how much mana you have. Think it was called Mana Tanks.

Saw MXR having a blast with that one years back. It's funny, but I think the novelty would wear off quickly.

Bad_Mojo posted...

How's it going, TC?

It's been a hell of a lot more fun than a vanilla playthrough. First order of business was checking out Mirai The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Needed to talk to the Greybeards before I could recruit her. I did her questline until she sent me to the College where I spent another hour trying to merge Obscure's and Immersive College with Ultimate College of Winterhold but kept getting conflicts in Vortex. So I decided to just use Obscure as it adds new rooms to the College. Currently working through the College questline for the Opulent Robes rewards I replaced the regular robes with.
Once I finish up Mirai and maybe marry her, I'm recruiting Inigo. Saw some of his quotes on the loading screens and that cat is hilarious.

Mirai has been great so far, if anything she's too useful. Had to turn of her dragon summon because I could barely level the different schools of magic. Ordinator along with Apocalypse has made the game fresh and exciting again. My fav spell so far has to be Drop Zone, jump from a tall ass mountain or building and just shoot a magic cushion right before you hit the ground.
Saw some mods in combination that basically transforms you into the Avatar, that's something for a future playthrough for sure along with Legacy Of The Dragonborn.

I wanted to look up what mod follower interact with Inigo and there are a surprising amount, apparently.

https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/m5yksk/a_chart_of_which_modded_followers_interact_with/

I've heard good things about Lucien, so he might be worth picking up if you're interested in more Inigo banter.

Dunno if it'll necessarily fit you your playstyle, but since you're focusing on magic then Path of the Druid might be fun to play around with for a little bit.

Gonna shill Khajiit Will Follow again, if only for Ma'kara. Almost as good of a character as Inigo imo.

And lastly for now, you gonna be a vampire or a werewolf this playthrough? Pretty sure both transformations have decent overhauls at this point.