Mod Loadout for Male Nord Bounty Hunter

Here's my raw mod loadout, as of the date of this post. I've only got 93 mods, including standard plugins and patches, so I'm still nowhere near the true modding elite, but I like what I've put together. There are only a few regrettable omissions, which I'll mention later in the post. Also, after the raw list, I break out some highlights and groupings that might be interesting.

GOALS: Beautify Skyrim and make it look and sound like a new game. Play a male Nord bounty hunter with a "Witcher" inspired look. Need lots of bandit leaders to go hunt down and kill and more radiant quests to make it worth killing them. Maybe do a little prize-fighting/gladiating on the side. A sub-goal is to play as a traditional adventuring foursome (tank, healer and two damage dealers), so the challenges need to be scaled up to match a party of four.

NON-GOALS: Immersion, ala Frostfall. I'm not interested in hardcore survivalism or RP. I just want to hack and slash for fun and profit.

NOTE: I follow a conservative mod management strategy. Once I start a playthrough, I don't add or update any mods and I don't change the load order, unless I find a blocking bug that requires a change. So far, so good.

Raw Loadout

---

Skyrim.esm
Update.esm
Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp
Dawnguard.esm
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp
HearthFires.esm
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp
Dragonborn.esm
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp
ApachiiHair.esm
ClimatesOfTamriel.esm
SkyMoMod.esm
Fantasy Soundtrack Project.esp
HighResTexturePack01.esp
HighResTexturePack02.esp
HighResTexturePack03.esp
Unofficial High Resolution Patch.esp
Better Dynamic Snow.esp
Rainbows.esp
better_torches_brighter_torchlight.esp
FantasySoundtrackProjectCombatMusic.esp
StaticMeshImprovementMod.esp
StaticMeshImprovementMod-DragonbornTernFix.esp
StaticMeshImprovementMod-FurnitureChestSnowFix.esp
Populated Forts Towers Places.esp
Populated Lands Roads Paths.esp
SDO Full-LOD - Giant Campfires.esp
SDO Full-LOD - The Morthal Swamp Light.esp
SDO Full-LOD - Whiterun Trundra Creeks.esp
SMDropLitTorch.esp
smeltdown_ingots_osr.esp
SkyUI.esp
Frostmourne 1.2.esp
Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp
Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
Immersive Weapons.esp
The Thegn.esp
The Stamford.esp
Insanity's Dragonbane.esp
Insanity's Red Eagle's Bane.esp
kimono's witcher silver swords.esp
Nicos Gift.esp
PIVariety.esp (aka Skyrim Peasant Fashion)
Talon of Akatosh.esp
TheViciousHeart.esp
TorchArrow-Dawnguard.esp
Inconsequential NPCs.esp
SleepingDangers-SandsofTime.esp
OBIS.esp
OBISDB.esp
quest_pitfighter.esp
quest_pitfighter_dlc01.esp
riverwoodhuntingcabin.esp
Thornrock.esp
w2salem.esp (aka Salem)
FireAndIceOverhaul.esp
Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp
SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp
SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators-Dragonborn.esp
Convenient Horses.esp
UnreadBooksGlow.esp
QUEST - Companions Radiant Quests Anytime.esp
Dawnguard Radiant Quest Adjustment.esp
Companions Radiant Quest Adjustment.esp
Helgen Reborn.esp
SoS - The Dungeons.esp
SoS - Civilization.esp
EnhancedLightsandFX.esp
ELFX - Exteriors.esp
ClimatesOfTamriel-Dungeons-Hazardous.esp
ClimatesOfTamriel-Interiors-Warm.esp
ClimatesOfTamriel-Nights-Level-6.esp
SoS - Civilization-PatchCoT.esp
UltimateCombat.esp
CombatDramaOverhaul.esp
DragonCombatOverhaulDragonborn.esp
The Dance of Death - Ultimate Edition.esp
CookingAlchemy.esp
AzarHairPonyTail 03 - Havok.esp
Beards.esp
HearthfireMoveKidsfix.esp
AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp
EMCompViljaSkyrim.esp
EMViljaInSolstheimAddOn.esp
CerwidenCompanion.esp
HothFollower.esp
HothFollower UFO Patch.esp
Automatic Variants.esp
SkyFalls + SkyMills.esp
chfshPlayerVoicesets.esp (aka Player Voicesets)
FSP - Dawnguard Edition.esp
ValsCraftingMeltdownSkyforgeHack.esp
AlternativeCraftingSystem.esp
MoreBrains.esp

Highlights

---

These "beautify Skyrim and its people" mods are game changers. The look and sound of Skyrim is completely different, like a whole new game, due to these key mods. I endorse all of them gladly.

Beautify Skyrim

Climates of Tamriel (with Hazardous lighting for dungeons)
(all the hires texture improvements)
Static Mesh Improvement
(all of the Skyrim Distance Overhaul Full-LOD improvements)
Enhanced Lights and FX
SkyFalls + SkyMills (amazing what a little animation can do to liven up an outdoor scene!)

Better Torches: better_torches_brighter_torchlight.esp (needed due to how realistically dark CoT and ELFX makes everything)

SM Drop Lit Torches (this is not a beautification mod, but this is very handy as a consequence of all of the lighting, or should I say darking, mods. It makes it hotkey easy to switch between a torch and weapon and drops the torch during combat to provide some light)

Beautify People

Apachii Hair
Azar Hair Pony Tail 03 - Havok
Beards
Skyrim Peasant Fashion

Immersive Armors (Hothtrooper44, etc.)

I include Immersive Armors because bandits looks totally bad-ass with all this variety. It makes some of them tougher, too.

Beautify Audio

Fantasy Soundtrack Project (best music overhaul ever)
Sounds of Skyrim (essential complement to Inconsequential NPCs -- a inn full of patrons needs to be noisy!)

Player Voicesets (I had a lot of fun setting this up -- the Dragonborn says the best/funniest quotes from all of the male characters in Skyrim and really adds some depth to hear the Dragonborn speak, particularly during combat)

Better Combat

Ultimate Combat
Combat Drama Overhaul
Dragon Combat Overhaul
The Dance of Death - Ultimate Edition

Improves both the way combat looks and feels and the difficulty of combat. Also see Regrettable Omissions below.

Immersion

Fire and Ice Overhaul (my one concession to immersion -- a fireball should set a pile of wood on fire, right?)

More Weapon and Armor Variety

Immersive Weapons

All of the unique weapon and armor mods listed in the raw loadout, like The Stamford (beautiful sword), torch arrows, and overhauls of existing weapons, like Insanity's Dragonbane.

More People, More Enemies, More Variety

Skyrim Monster Mod (freaky, non-immersive option)
Populated Forts Towers Places
Populated Lands Roads Paths

Inconsequential NPCs

SkyTEST Realistic Animals & Predators
Automatic Variants (gotta love those colorful mud crabs!)
Sands of Time (see below)
Organized Bandits in Skyrim (see below)

SoT and OBIS require their own blog posts to do them justice. While they definitely contribute to more people, more enemies and more variety, that's just scratching the surface. If you want a completely different and far more challenging experience with enemy encounters, you've got to use this pair of mods.

More Followers

Cerwiden (healer)
Hoth (fellow bounty hunter that also provides radiant quests!)

I also installed Vilja, but changed my mind and decided not to use her once I had Ceri. Also, see Regrettable Omissions below.

More Quests

Helgen Reborn (surprisingly good DLC-scale mod, huge dungeon in the middle of the quest line)
Salem
QUEST - more Companion radiant quests

Better Housing

Riverwood Hunting Cabin (good starter house, easy to unlock)
Thornrock (great no-frills house, but complete with all crafting stations, finding the key requires a bit of a hike, though)

Convenient Horses

Last but not least, Convenient Horses is in a class by itself and would also need a separate post to cover its many wonders. I switched from fast-travelling everywhere to riding everywhere! Just install it, trust me.

Regrettable Omissions

---

In hindsight, I wish I had installed one of the mods that makes NPCs essential or flee for their lives during dragon and vampire attacks. I spend a lot of time running around seeing which villager or inn keeper got him or herself killed and using the console to resurrect them. I mean, Adrian Avenicci got herself killed by a vampire on my first night in Whiterun, for Pete's sake!

I wish I had installed Inigo rather than Vilja as a follower option. Although Arissa looks interesting ...

You may be wondering why ASIS isn't in my loadout. I wish that it was and I even tried to add it, but I couldn't get it to work without crashing. I really liked the customized enemy AI and even with out-of-the-box AI, my playtests showed that a fort full of bandits (thanks to PFTP) was extremely difficult to take on alone, even as a Legendary spellsword. No matter what I tried, though, it just wouldn't play nice with the rest of my mods, so I had to cut it.

Introduction

I needed something to fill my free time while waiting for Watch_Dogs to be released. I started playing Thief 2014, but got so bored with the repetitive missions that I stopped at chapter 6. Boredom has been a big problem for me with games, lately. Gorgeous rendering and A-list voice acting can't making up for the complete lack of novelty and variety.

Lacking any better ideas, I watched a Let's Play video of Skyrim after it had been heavily modded with new survival and immersion mods that I had never heard of: Frostfall? Skyrim Redone? Realistic Needs and Diseases? While the particular LP I watched wasn't all that interesting to me--a whole hour of real time spent hunting for food and finding clean water to drink isn't my cup of tea--it did clue me into the new generation of mods available for Skyrim. Some of them looked really interesting.

But could I stand to go back to Skyrim? After my fourth playthrough I had seen everything, done everything, all DLCs, all quests, all silliness, like blasting baskets of apples with Fus Roh Dah off the pinnacle of the Throat of the World. Could there really be anything interesting left to do in the land of the Nords? Let's go through my Skyrim bucket list:

Play a female Altmer spellsword to save the world from Alduin's and Miraak's menace, win the civil war for the Empire, and retire to a hand-built house near Falkreath with two adopted kids and Aela as housekeeper, check!

Play a male Orsimer assassin Vampire Lord and lead the Brotherhood of Skyrim back to glory, while also obliterating the Dawnguard for good measure, check!

Play a female Breton thief and clean out the corruption in the Thieves Guild, regain Nocturnal's blessing, and explore every location in Skyrim, while winning the civil war for the Stormcloaks (go figure?), check!

Play a female Nord wandering blacksmith/miner, just to see if it is possible to earn 5,000 septims just by mining ore and crafting weapons and armor for sale, without completing a single quest, not even a radiant, check!

After completing all of the above, I figured there was nothing left for Skyrim to give, but all of the above was played on very vanilla Skryim. I think I had a total of five mods by the end, all of them beautification mods that made Skyrim and people look and sound prettier, nothing else. I didn't even have any of the Unofficial patches.

Could I mod Skyrim enough to achieve a bucket list goal I didn't think would be interesting enough to try on vanilla Skyrim? I know that using the word "interesting" is questionable, from someone who spent a whole playthrough just mining and crafting, but I was desperate for something challenging! Could I play a male Nord bounty hunter that loved nothing more than hacking and slaying every bandit he could get his hands on? Not a measily half dozen bandits, either, waves and waves of them. I wanted to be knee-deep in dead bandits!

The answer is: yes!

In fact, this uber mod of Skyrim has been so engaging that the release date for Watch_Dogs has come and gone and I haven't even tried it yet. Not until I finish Helgen Reborn, then Cerwiden's follower quest, then the Salem DLC-scale quest mod, etc., etc.

My next post will be the full load-out of mods I used for my fifth playthrough.