Bethesda Game Studio’s iconic fantasy epic is a great game with a ton of content on its own, but with the hard work of a tirelessly hard-working modding community, Skyrim becomes something truly unique.
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Feb 04, 2019. Welcome to my list of essential Skyrim character creation mods! If you’re like me, you spend more time in the character creator than playing the actual game, so I hope you enjoy this list:D. Best Character Editing Mod (Sliders) Enhanced Character Edit – I cannot live without this mod! It lets you alter so many tiny details about your.
- And make sure that all the other mods get to overwrite Inhabitants of Skyrim, because that one covers everyone in Skyrim and it'll wipe out everything preceeding it. I don't think Inhabitants of Skyrim covers spawned NPCs, but I'm not 100% certain.
- Jun 12, 2014.
In this article, we’re going to run down some of the best, most interesting, and most essential mods that Skyrim has to offer.
How do I install Skyrim mods?
There a few ways to install and manage your mods for Skyrim, and how you do it depends on which version of Skyrim you have. The Special Edition includes tools for searching for, installing and managing mods all built into the game. You can access it all from the main menu and it allows you to find and install new mods and update old ones without closing the game.
We have also compiled some of the best Minecraft mods of 2019 right now. Check this
If you have the original version of Skyrim, then your best bet is using a third party mod manager such as Nexus Mod Manager. This software allows you to easily install and update mods and handily keep them all in one place. Of course, you could always install mods manually into the game’s directory, but third-party managers make it quicker and simpler.
26 Best Skyrim Mods You Need To Check Out
1. SkyUI
SkyUI is an excellent mod that overhauls the game’s original cumbersome inventory. It makes the UI much easier to navigate and is much more appropriate for the many, many, many items, weapons and random objects you’ll be picking up. It may also be a good introduction to the Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE), a tool that expands the capabilities of mods and allows you to make more dramatic changes to the game.
2. Static Mesh Improvement Mod
The Static Mesh Improvement Mod is a graphical mod that simply makes the game’s static 3D models look nicer. It’s no secret that Skyrim’s graphics haven’t exactly aged well in the 7 years since its original release and this is one of countless mods that attempt to alleviate that problem one bit at a time. An essential mod for anyone trying to make Skyrim look as not-bad as possible.
3. Total Character Makeover
Total Character Makeover is a mod that aims to make the character models of Skyrim look a bit more aesthetically-pleasing and less muddy and rough. The faces of Skyrim have always been a little on the ugly side, and this mod gives the NPCs and the player avatar some improved resolutions without ruining your frame rate. Featuring complete overhauls for texture sets for all races, improved teeth textures, eyebrow textures, beard textures, and even high resolution makeup, warpaint, dirt, freckles, and scars. This mod will improve detail on your characters while remaining consistent with vanilla looks.
4. Opening Scene Overhaul
The Opening Scene Overhaul mod restores some lines that were cut by Bethesda but can still be found in the game’s files. It adds additional carriage dialogue, and offers some deeper insight into the world you’re about to explore. It also gives you the option of escaping with Ulfric himself if you decide to side with the Stormcloaks. This is a great mod if you think that Skyrim’s opening sequences were a little underwhelming. This mod has new voice actors, more dialogue and different conversations with lasting impact on the game. A great mod for fresh immersive experience.
5. Open Cities
The Open Cities mod curbs the immersion-breaking loading screens that hit you whenever you enter a city, and aims to give the game a more Morrowind like feel. Stroll through cities on horseback and come and go as you please. This gives the world a much more open and natural experience, allowing new gameplay opportunities like riding a horse into the center of the new open cities! There are plenty of new battle and conversation interactions that can be had, and none of these will be interrupted with any pesky loading screens. A great mod to help make the world of Skyrim more seamless and connected.
6. Alternative Start
The Alternative Start mod offers a different start for new characters. It’s the ideal mod for players who have experienced the original Skyrim opening more than enough times for one lifetime. A fun and unique role-playing mod, this mod is a great way to mix things up a bit if you have to start again with Special Edition, or simply want to make a new character.
7. Diverse Dragons Collection
This very cool mod overhauls the dragons you’ll encounter in Skyrim. The original game featured a small variety of dragon designs and the fights quickly become repetitive and underwhelming. The Diverse Dragons Collection adds a staggering 28 new dragons, each boasting their own big dicks. It also features a variety of new dragon breaths and abilities to make the fights more interesting, as well as new ranks for the dragons intended to make the encounters scale with your level.
8. Achievements Mod Enabler
This mod is pretty straightforward. It allows you to earn achievements when using mods. It does this by patching Skyrim SE during its runtime. This will work on any version of Skyrim as it was designed to be version independent. You also do not have to worry if you already have modded before installing this, it also works on saves that have already been modded. Using mods doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re cheating, so why shouldn’t you be able to earn achievements whilst modding the game? Who plays Skyrim without mods, anyway?
9. Skyrim Flora Overhaul
Another nice graphical overhaul mod, the Skyrim Flora Overhaul mod replaces most of the game’s trees, grass and plants with original models, including 16 new trees and more than 180 new textures for ground cover and plants. This mod adds a lot more variety of flora, and they are all better looking and unique. It comes with a lot of support from the creator, with installation guides and lots of Frequently Asked Questions to help with any issues you may have. One more essential mod for players looking for the prettiest Skyrim possible.
10. Surreal Lighting
Surreal Lighting adds a bit of wonder to the landscapes of Skyrim, helping to make it feel more fantasy and less ordinary. Helps to make Skyrim more colourful and vibrant. This mod helps to alleviate the often depressing look of Skyrim, and makes it much more pleasant to play. There is also a handy video to show the detail of this mod and no per-requirements are necessary to download and install this mod.
11. Interesting NPCs
Interesting NPCs adds some variety to Skyrim’s oft-bland and lifeless NPCs, most of which, if they don’t have a quest for you, will just spout generic lines that you’ll hear repeated over and over again. This mod adds a whole host of new characters, all with their own back stories, unique lines, and (most importantly) new voice acting that is (mostly) high quality. In total the content added by this mod is quite plentiful, with over 250+ fully voiced NPCs, 25+ followers, 15+ marriage NPCs, and 50+ quests as well. This is a great mod to add a lot of new feel and life to the game of Skyrim through these characters and all these characters are well integrated into the game. Overall a great mod for increased immersion and content.
12. The Forgotten City
This mod resembles something more akin to a Bethesda DLC expansion. The Forgotten City is a murder mystery set in the titular Forgotten City. It offers around 8 hours of gameplay and some high-quality writing that won a national Writer’s Guild award. It’s a very unique mod that’s well worth checking out. Featuring a very interactive story line where the player can explore the forgotten city and work through many challenging decisions. It has different endings based on what you decide to do, original music and even custom dialogue by professional voice actors. A truly amazing work of art for all Skyrim players to enjoy.
13. Way of the Monk – Unarmed Overhaul
This Unarmed Overhaul mod does exactly that. It overhauls unarmed combat in an attempt to make it a viable play style. Featuring two new skill trees, Unarmed and Unarmoured, as well as a variety of related perks and equipment, it allows players to roll a Monk-like character and discover their inner zen. It also adds new enchantments, enemies and locations to the game. This mod has had a ton of work put into it (500+ hours) and completely adds a new way to play the game. A great mod with a ton of detail that is worth checking out!
14. Duel – Combat Realism
Duel is a mod that aims to fix the unrealistic combat system in Skyrim and completely change the way you play. It makes the player pay close attention to their stamina bar in order to survive, it ties in your weapons and armour to bring added realism, it changes how archery works, and more. If you’re looking for a dramatically different combat experience in Skyrim, Duel is your best bet.
15. Apocalypse – Magic of Skyrim
Apocalypse is a much-needed overhaul of the magic in Skyrim. Any fan of mages in RPGs is more than aware of how underwhelming magic is in Skyrim. This mod introduces 140 new spells that give you a large variety of new ways to tackle your enemies. These spells aren’t just the usual hold down spray of fire/cold/lightning until enemy dies and then rinse/repeat, this mod includes disables, summons, and a number of other cool surprises. Essential if you want to play a mage without getting bored.
16. Sneak Tools
Sneak Tools is a mod that aims to make the stealth more dynamic than simply staying in the shadows and getting bonus sneak attack damage. This mod allows you to slit throats, knock out enemies from behind, wear masks that hide your identity. Douse torches and lanterns to move through the shadows. Add an arsenal of trick arrows, including one that launches ropes that allows you to climb walls. Sneak Tools gives Skyrim a touch of Thief to make it’s stealth more interesting.
17. Falskaar
The Falskaar mod is one of the most impressive and comprehensive mods you’ll find for Skyrim. It’s essentially the size of an official expansion and introduces a new continent with an incredible 25 hours of new material. The creator of this mod took around 2000 hours to make it and now works at Bungie. The continent introduces a huge variety of new quests, wildlife, and a gorgeous landscape. Falskaar is an amazing achievement in modding and is a must-try for any Skyrim fan.
18. Skyrim Redone
Skyrim Redone is the mod of all mods for Skyrim. A true overhaul in the most literal sense, this monumental package of mods brings together a variety of different mods to give the game a massive makeover. It overhauls every aspect of the game, from perks and skills to the character stats and more, and even includes some more unique things like a grappling hook and disguises. It’s such a complex mod that it can be a bit of a pain to get working properly, but once you get it all up and running it’s the truly definitive modding experience for Skyrim.
19. Immersive Patrols
Immersive Patrols is a mod that creates a series of patrols for the factions of Skyrim: Stormcloak, Imperial, Thalmor, Dawnguard, Bandits, and so on. These routes will sometimes cross paths, leading to some violent clashes between the factions and offering more of the emergent chaos that we all love to watch.
20. The Gate of Solitude
A huge oblivion content mod that adds a whole new questline to Oblivion, playing off of the Oblivion gates from the main storyline. It recommends you be at least level 35, and the creator suggests playing on Master difficulty for the best experience. It’s a hard and challenging load of content that’s sure to be a fun and interesting experience for experienced Oblivion player who have tired out the rest of the game’s content and its expansions. Blocs 2 5 0 – visual web design tool template.
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21. Skyrim HD – 2k Textures
Skyrim HD is the most downloaded texture mod of all time for Skyrim. This is a comprehensive visual texture mod that replaces over 600 textures and maps across all of Skyrim. It covers landscapes, architecture, sky, water, clothes, clutter, dungeons and more (including some DLC). It is a mod that has been worked on for thousands of hours, and is constantly being updated with new things. It is truly a magnificent experience after downloading this mod and I highly recommend it to any Skyrim players interested in a brighter, more colorful world.
22. Fores New Idles in Skyrim – FNIS
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Fores New Idles in Skyrim is a mod that allows Skyrim to have custom animations added into the game. This includes different types of animation such as idles/poses, sequenced animations, furniture, paired animations, killmoves, creatures, and more. If you add the demonstration mod FNIS Spells, then you can basically use any animation file in the game. Dance animations are also included and that is one of my personal favorite features of this mod. This is a mod that has been updated into 2019 and has lots of support regarding bug fixes and installation help. A must add for improved Skyrim gameplay.
23. ApachiiSkyHair
ApachiiSkyHair is a great customization mod for Skyrim that allows you to have new and improved hairstyles for males and females of different races. This includes Humans, Elves, and Orcs. This mod allows you to change the hairstyle on your existing characters and even on NPCs if you want. With over 216 new hairstyles that have been converted from other games like the Sims, Oblivion and Witcher, it adds a great new personalization aspect to Skyrim that brightens up your whole experience!
24. Immersive Armors
Immersive Armors is a mod that aims to essentially overhaul the existing armor system in Skyrim. It does this by increasing the variety of armor, all while making sure the armor sets are still able to be fit into the lore, game balance and general feel of Skyrim that you would typically expect. This helps to provide new content while remaining immersive for the player since it is all seamlessly integrated. In total it adds 55 new sets of armor with many different variants, tons of helmet variety, 396 new shields, and other cosmetics such as eye patches and capes. Overall a great mod that is compatible with most other mods.
25. A Quality World Map and Solstheim Map – with Roads
Quality world map is a large one, with massive quality improvements to the world map, including the accurate hand-drawn roads. This mod gives you the option to filter your map, with only main roads or remain with all roads. This mod includes highly-detailed map textures, which has two different styles: Vivid and Classic. Vivid provides more detailed textures and stone and flat roads, while the Classic style includes similar detail but a more classic Skyrim feel to it. Quality world map mod also has paper maps included, with incredible detail. Overall a fantastic mod that overhauls the world map system and makes it much more detailed. Give it a try! Free xm radio apk hack.
Open ipa files. Well, if you have heard about Skyrim VR, you can learn how to use mods with Skyrim VR at uploadvr.
These are just some of the amazing mods available at your fingertips. Skyrim is the ultimate modding game. Its extreme flexibility and open-ended nature make it the perfect game to tweak and create new content for. Check out these best mods for Skyrim and see how it changes your Skyrim experience.
Let us know if you think we missed anything!
One of the things that definitely hasn’t aged quite well in Skyrim is the way characters look.
It sometimes feels like both men and women could look far more shallow than they do now, which would make the Skyrim experience much easier on the eyes.
In any case, a layer of realism seems to be missing. Which even shows in the presets that you see when you’re first creating your character.
There are countless mods that improve character appearance and make them look like real humans, which makes the game surprisingly better than it already is.
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I’ve refrained from adding mods that improve beauty in erotic-packed ways, but I have added one or two mods that do a great job in improving the bodies of characters in the game. Which is always great whether you’re looking for a handsome husband or a gorgeous wife.
20. CharGen Extension
Even though this mod has been already discontinued as it is included in a different package, the standalone version still deserves a place on this list because of how awesome it is (and how good of a tool it also is for modders).
This mod allows you to edit characters better than ever before whenever you visit the character creation menu (even if you trigger it via commands).
19. Superior Lore-Friendly Hair(HD Textures)
Let’s face it – hair in Skyrim just doesn’t look good.
There’s something really off about the way textures seem to work, as it would appear like hair is only one texture on its own and it doesn’t really feel like you could see each individual hair when walking around.
This mod was carefully crafted to make it so every single hairstyle in the game looks much better, which helps Skyrim feel more natural as well. Haircare is very important, after all.
18. Freckle Mania 2
I know – you didn’t know that you wanted freckles in Skyrim before you saw this mod.
Don’t worry, I didn’t know it either!
This mod showed me just how amazing freckles can look and how much natural redhead characters look with such a mod installed.
The mod adds freckles overlays to the characters in the game and it works well for characters that have freckles on their entire bodies.
Just like the CharGen Extension, however, it does require you to have the RaceMenu mod installed to make everything run smoothly.
17. Actually Attractive Elves
Elves are usually known as the most beautiful creatures in most fantasy worlds.
In fact it’s almost unfathomable to think that female elf could be ugly simply because legends say how most elven women are most beautiful creatures in the land.
Sadly this doesn’t seem to be the case in Skyrim.
Some Elves are just plain ugly and they don’t serve the purpose of their history quite well.
Thankfully this mod aims to correct that with an overhaul to the way all elves look.
You’ll notice how Elven women will become 10 times more attractive when creating a new character. This will give you enough defaults to create the female elf of your dreams.
16. KS Hairdos Renewal
Have you ever felt like the base Skyrim hairstyle are quite bland?
Me too, which is why I specifically looked for a mod that corrects this issue.
This mod adds over 600 new hairstyles for women and a little less than 100 hairstyles for men, making it one of the most complete packs of hairstyle that you’ll find on the Nexus.
Options are aplenty when creating a character after this mod is installed.
15. The Eyes of Beauty
Much like the issue with hairstyles, The Eyes of Beauty aims to correct the blandness which you can feel whenever you look any character into their eyes.
It really makes no sense that all eyes are so similar.
It feels like the entire world of Skyrim is lacking in variety. This mod adds many new colors and types of eye shapes to the game, which makes everything look as good as you can imagine(or even better!)
14. KJ Tattoos
Combining this mod with a better body mod would make Skyrim feel a hundred time more realistic.
Come to think of it, it really makes no sense that Nordic warriors only have a couple of types of face paint to choose from to create their traditional markings.
This mod allows your character to be fully tattooed thanks to the meshes that it adds and modifies in the game files.
13. Female Hairstyles with Physics
The days of watching your female character move around with what appears to be a plastic wig on her head are over.
This adds a ton of new hairstyles to the game. All of which are fully animated and move around as your character walks or runs.
It makes women look much better to the eye, and the game feels more natural as a consequence of it!
12. Seductive Lips HD
The maker of this mod has truly put a lot of effort into making the lips of women in Skyrim look like the actual lips of a woman.
As you might’ve noticed before, there really aren’t any significant differences between the lips of a woman and the lips of a man. Except perhaps a bit of shape.
This mod overhauls the way women’s lips look making the game much more akin to reality and helping you get even more immersed with female characters in Tamriel.
And trust me, some of them have some juicy lips.
11. Eyes of Aber
You know what? Not everything needs to be about realism with these beauty mods.
In fact, I’ve been very attached to realism so far and I’ve avoided some pretty exaggerated mods to keep things as natural as possible.
However it wouldn’t be fair to exclude the Eyes of Aber mod from this list.
The work that was put into making these eyes as beautiful as possible is tremendous, and you’re probably going to really enjoy something like this.
It’s a mod that will truly give a unique look to any character to which you want to apply these to.
10. Northborn Scars
How awesome would it be for some characters to have giant scars running across their bodies?
It seems like something Bethesda shouldn’t have overlooked when they first created Skyrim, as it would make sense for people in a land where everything attacks you to be as scared as they get.
Thankfully modders haven’t overlooked this and the Northborn Scars mod is the best out of all mods that add scars to the game.
This will replace all of the scars that come with the vanilla game and add a bunch more detailed ones that look miles better than the originals. The danger is real folks.
9. Better Vampire Fangs & Eyes
There’s nothing scarier than a vampire. Well, at least, that’s what some people think.
However this is far from what Skyrim often reflects.
Vampires in the game just don’t look realistic enough, and the main culprit of it has to be their fangs.
They just look so underwhelming in the game that it makes it almost impossible to get immersed in the fun.
With this mod you’ll be able to speak to vampires and instantly feel fear strike deep inside you.
With this mod you’ll be able to speak to vampires and instantly feel fear strike deep inside you.
Their fangs will be way more noticeable and vampires will look better as a consequence of it.
8. WICO – Windsong Immersive Character Overhaul
Things are getting serious now and you’ll notice how the quality of mods from now on seems to skyrocket.
The Windsong Immersive Character Overhaul is literally an overhaul to most characters in the game, which includes those that come with the DLCs.
This makes everything look far better than it does in the base game.
It truly does justice to the reputation of Skyrim and makes things more realistic than you’ve ever seen them.
This is one of the most complete retextures that I’ve ever come across.
This is one of the most complete retextures that I’ve ever come across.
If you like things that look vanilla while also completing what’s missing then this mod is exactly what you need.
7. Brows
HD facial hair makes things look far more realistic than they would with regular facial hair, and eyebrows aren’t an exception to this.
In fact, you could keep the vanilla body textures and simply add this amazing Brows mod and people would instantly look far better than they do in the base game.
This one and the Beards mod are must-haves if you want to immerse yourself and have the most realistic of characters possible.
6. Beards
This adds a majestic variety of detailed beards into the game and, as said in the last mod, it’s a must-have.
Especially if you want proper male characters wandering around.
This Beards mod is made by the same person that made the Brows mod, which doesn’t only make them compatible on paper but they also look very similar in the game.
This just adds a new level of beauty and immersion to your characters. And those who feel the need to have the most realistic males out there definitely need to give both of these a try.
5. Total Character Makeover
Okay, okay. This one isn’t really one mod.
However I feel like it’s important to include it as it compiles the best mods ever created for Skyrim in terms of character looks.
The Total Character Makeover is a mod compilation which helps you install some of the best mods ever created in one simple pack.
Most mods that are included here have already been reviewed on this list, and they all work incredibly well together as proven by TCM.
4. Enhanced Character Edit
This mod serves as a way to help you edit characters in a much more natural and realistic manner than what the base game allows.
This adds a ton of new different sliders, modifying different parts of bodies and making characters look even better if you put in a bit of effort to create them.
Pretty cool!
3. Skyrim Glowing Eyes
This is definitely a fan favorite when it comes to eye mods in Skyrim.
Even though the mod isn’t being updated anymore, it’s one of the finest eye mods in the Nexus community and one of the most downloaded beauty mods of Skyrim that you can find online.
Skyrim Glowing Eyes adds a selection of eyes that glow in the dark, which adds some more depth to the game and makes characters either frightening or gorgeous at night.
2. ApachiiSkyHair
This is another great mod for those who feel like the base game is lacking hairstyles.
It doesn’t only add cool new hairstyles for humans, it also makes Orcs and Elves able to select new types of hairs when creating a character of those races.
You might notice how some of these styles look familiar if you’ve played The Sims, The Witcher or even Oblivion.
Most of the hairstyles added with this mod are conversions from styles that were present in other games! Go figure.
1. Caliente’s Beautiful Bodies Edition
Okay, this is the one NSFW mod that I had to include here.
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Honestly it would not make sense to let this one slip given how detailed it is.
It adds naked textures to both males and females in the game. It also makes both types of bodies fully customizable by adding new sliders which you can easily tweak as you please.
This mod basically allows you to create realistic, custom bodies going as far as your heart desires.
It puts the game on a whole other level and if you don’t mind a bit of NSFW stuff mixed in here then it would be a no-brainer to try this out.