Vee's Recommended Mods for Skyrim SE
This guide assumes you have some experience modding Skyrim before and/or you've acquired enough experience through following Syn's Guide (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LqpIw3zlOMfS7EDoicp8uM2MWxJNUwPV-3Q7T43h52I/edit) that you should know by now to READ THE DESCRIPTIONS and MAKE SURE YOU'RE DOWNLOADING THE MOD FOR THE RIGHT EDITION OF YOUR GAME (SSE or SSE Anniversary Edition (AE))
Most of these mods are a core part of my current load order in Skyrim SSE. The rest are here to present alternatives. You're welcome to install different mods, of course.
Face/Body Enhancements
- Race Menu (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/19080)
Enhanced character creator with multiple slides for traits such as eyeball depth, hair color, etcetera. Its sculpt feature is quite powerful, and you'll want to acquaint yourself with it, because brows/beards/hairstyles will still clip here and there. Pretty much mandatory if you don't want to make ugly characters. - Custom Races (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/57244)
Custom Races makes it so your PC's textures and meshes are unique, i.e. only affect you, not everyone else in the game. This is helpful whenever you want a super custom PC, but don't want every PC of your race to share your scars or tattoos because you baked them into the Nord textures. You HAVE to select a CustomSomething race in Race Menu for this to work Also pay attention to patches you might need if you install mods like Imperious. - UNPCX (https://www.patreon.com/posts/unpcx-65644254) OR CBBE (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/198)
- Tempered Skins (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/8505) OR Mature Skin (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/68075) OR Fair Skin (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/798)
- HIMBO Male body (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/46311) OR SAM (https://vectorplexus.sh1ny.net/files/file/10-sam-%E2%80%94-shape-atlas-for-men/)
- Vitruvia Textures (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/9112) OR Tempered Skins (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/7902)
- Trimmed Vitruvia (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/61261) (If you end up using Vitruvia and want less but some fur)
- Masculine and Feminine Argonian and Khajiit Textures (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/1630457?tab=user+files) + BeastHHBB (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/38480)
- Kala's Eyes Beast Race Edition (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42298)
- Beast Race Body Paints SE (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/20446)
Beast races will inherit the bodies you installed above. Pick the correct texture depending on your installed body mods. - Expressive Facegen Morphs SE (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/35785)
- Expressive Facial Animations Male Edition (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/19532)
- Mysti's Tinctures Immersive Hair Colors (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/66595)
- KS Hairdos SSE (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/6817)
- Eye Normal Map Fix SSE (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/5445)
- Eyes of Beauty & Eyes of Beauty Elf Edition (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/16185)
- Kala's Eyes (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42050)
- Brows (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1062)
- Brows for High Poly Head (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/38493)
- Beards (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1067)
- Beards for High Poly Head (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/46990)
- Pocky's 2K Human Makeup (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/105568)
- Vanilla Warpaint Absolution (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/94084)
- Frecklemania 2 [Oldrim install works just fine in SE] (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/86208)
- Northborn Scars (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/720) + Northborn Scars For High Poly Head (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/62799)
HIMBO has Schlongs of Skyrim (SOS) (https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/5355-schlongs-of-skyrim-se/) support. Yes, it's the dick mod. If you're on Anniversary Edition (AE), you HAVE to install this .dll (https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/20136-sos-ae/) for SOS to work. Or you can just install HIMBO with the NeverNude option.
Ill keep it real with you, SAM is kind of a pain to install. If you just want to play and go, I recommend HIMBO.
For bodies that support different types/presets, you'll need Bodyslide (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/201). This allows you to make your own custom body types, and outfits that will fit them (as long as Bodyslide presets for them exist/the modders provide you said presets). For CBBE, someone tipped me off to these more natural-looking presets (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/13896), but you'll need to generate the meshes yourself.
Texture only mods are more or less compatible between Skyrim LE (Oldrim) and Skyrim SE, AS LONG AS THEY'RE LOOSE FILES (i.e. nothing but .dds and what have you, or a .bsa full of said loose files). I combine Vitruvia's face textures with the normalmaps from this mod (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/81557), depending on whether I want my character to look younger/fresh-faced or more weathered/older. Some texture mods have a FOMOD, which brings up a menu that lets you choose which textures (diffuse, normalmap, specular) to what parts (face, body, hands, feet, etc) you want to install. For the ones that don't, you can either manually drag the textures you want into your currently active texture mod (for me, this would be Vitruvia's mod folder inside MO2) OR use MO2's Hide feature (https://files.catbox.moe/zjsotd.PNG) to simply hide the textures you don't want to use. Personally, I prefer MO2's Hide feature since it leaves textures intact (it simply appends .mohidden at the end of the file so it can't be read by the game), in case I ever want to revert to the original textures, which is a godsend whenever you're trying out different texture mods.
REMEMBER! YOU NEED TEXTURES TO BE COMPATIBLE WITH THE BODY MOD YOU'RE USING. UNLESS SPECIFIED, UNP TEXTURES WILL NOT WORK FOR CBBE BODIES, AND CBBE TEXTURES WILL NOT WORK FOR UNP BODIES. SAME LOGIC APPLIES TO MALE BODIES, SAM IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH VITRUVIA^ OR TEMPERED SKIN, THEY ARE MADE FOR BETTER BODIES (DEPRECATED) AND HIMBO.
(^ I heard someone did make a Vitruvia texture compatible with SAM, but it's super furry (i.e. super dark chest and body hair). You're on your own if you want it.)
- XPMSSE (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1988)
- Faster HDT-SMP (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/57339).
These are necessary if you want clothes/hair/armor with movement (i.e. sway with the wind, react to hits, etcetera), dual wielding weapons like swords and sword + shield (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/50049) and/or those fancy animation mods you're on your own installing because there are so many, and taste is so subjective regarding how you want your character to swing their sword.
Skills Overhaul/Roleplay
- Ordinator (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1137)
- Imperious (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1315) and Imperious Patch (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/23873)
- Apocalypse (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1090)
- Odin (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/46000)
- The Choice Is Yours (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3850)
- Timing Is Everything (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/25464)
- Wintersun (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/22506) & Wintersun - Tribunal Integration [AE] (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/63012)
- Moonlight Tales (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2803) + Moonlight Tales MCM (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/17363)
- Alternate Start - Live Another Life (https://bethesda.net/en/mods/skyrim/mod-detail/2918710)
Unfortunately the most recent version is at Bethesda's website, so I recommend installing it before you disable the Creation Club menu entry with ReCleaned Menu. If you already did that, disable ReCleaned Menu in MO2, launch Skyrim, go to the Creation Club menu and install this mod, then re-enable ReCleaned Menu through MO2. MO2 should pick up Alternate Start like any other mod, but if it doesn't, refresh MO2 (F5), and it should show up. You don't have to install this mod, but do you want to go through the Helgen cart every time you make a new character? Yeah, didn't think so.
NPC Overhauls
- RS Children (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2650)
- Tragedian's Fabulous Followers SSE [Uses Tempered Skin instead of Vitruvia, but Vitruvia looks fine too] (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/57284)
NPC overhauls are somewhat of a pain, as you cannot install multiple without getting the dreaded black face bug, as two mods editing the same NPC conflict and will mess with the NPC's FaceGen data. Face Discoloration AE (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42441) is NOT a fix for fucked up FaceGen data, it's merely a stop gap so said NPCs won't be walking around with a black face, out of sight, out of mind sort of situation. Useful for screenshots, though.
- High Poly Expressive NPCs (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/41107)
Now the NPCs untouched by whatever NPC overhaul you're using can benefit from the fancy High Poly Head + expressions above. If you're getting the dreaded black face bug, or you notice beards/brows/hair clip through whenever they speak, check your load order. You need High Poly Head to be above everything, basically: https://files.catbox.moe/app6xq.PNG
Not Necessary But Nice
- Open World Loot (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/49681)
Let's face it, Skyrim's loot progression table sucks. Read the whole mod, because depending on what you choose to install either now or in the future, you might need patches. - Chesko's Lore-Based Loading Screens (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1185) & Immersive Load Screen Message (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/67293)
Learn some more Tamrielic lore while waiting for your game to load. Or, you know, look at something else besides the vanilla loading screens from way back in 2011. - Skyrim SE Skill Interface Re-Texture (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1523)
Since you're going to be looking at the skills menu a lot, why not make it look better/to your taste? Also adds Secunda (the second of Nirn's moons) to the werewolf skill constellation, which isn't present in vanilla, and always bothered me. - Oblivion Camera SE (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/39412)
"You ... I've seen you... Let me see your face... You are the one from my dreams... Then the stars were right, and this is the day. Gods give me strength." Ahem Gives you the Oblivion zoom-in camera whenever talking to NPCs. - QUI (ALPHA) (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/65343)
Press F11, and you'll be able to browse the contents of any mod (.esm or .esp file) and add its items to your inventory. Super handy once you install 50+ weapons, clothes/armor and item mods, and can't remember what something's called, can't be fucked to look it up, and can't find it in the console because you don't know what it's called in the first place.