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From their appearances to their behaviors, Skyrim’s NPCs haven’t aged very well. Finding the best mods on Nexus that overhaul the NPCs can seem daunting to a beginner. Fortunately, when it comes to making a decision in this department, players can’t go wrong with this selection of mods.
Updated December 9, 2021 by Mark Hospodar: The Skyrim Anniversary Edition undoubtedly brought players back into the Elder Scrolls fold for one more playthrough. As such, it’s never been a better time to experiment with mods, assuming players haven’t already.
Specifically, Skyrim’s NPCs could use a lot of work. Adding more of them, while also ensuring they behave closer to actual people, are just some of the things the mods on this list seek to accomplish. Now even more mods have been included on this list for fans to sink their teeth into.
15 Better Vampire NPCs
It’s no secret that Skyrim is full of mortal danger. Vampires represent one such threat to the Dragonborn’s health. Traveling at night can be a perilous proposition, although experienced players probably won’t have too much trouble. Revamping Skyrim’s vampiric enemies through mods is highly recommended for fans looking for a challenge.
The Better Vampires NPCs mod overhauls the game’s bloodsuckers, making them a more serious threat as a result. Vampires now come in a more diverse variety of combat classes, assaulting the player with a wider array of armor and weaponry. As such, their behavior is unpredictable and harder to counter.
14 Immersive College NPCs
Why should vampires have all the fun? Players know full well that Skyrim appears quite sparse in areas that should otherwise be populous. One location where this is readily apparent is the College of Winterhold. Besides a small collection of students and professors, the College really doesn’t live up to its name.
Immersive College NPCs is a must-have mod for players who enjoy frequenting Skyrim’s magical university. The mod adds a smattering of new NPCs, including students, mages, guards, and even a groundskeeper. When looking to breathe new life into the College, give this mod a shot.
13 Protect Your People
For Skyrim players, it’s inevitable that at some point, a useful NPC is going to die. As stated previously, Skyrim doesn’t lack mortal danger. Whether it’s due to an inconvenient dragon attack or a vampire raid, it’s likely that some poor sap gets caught in the crossfire and doesn’t make it.
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It’s a fact of the game that can often be frustrating. However, with Protect Your People, fans can rest a little easier. This mod helps ensure that useful NPCs survive these random, deadly encounters. No more loading an old save just to bring someone back from the dead!
12 Citizens Of Tamriel
Although Skyrim is populated with plenty of NPCs, most of them aren’t particularly well-rounded. They give their quests, reward the player when the mission is complete……and that’s about it. Fortunately, there are mods available that make the people of Skyrim a bit more interesting.
Citizens of Tamriel adds a new cast of characters to the proceedings that helps the game feel a bit more immersive. The individuals introduced by this mod are richer in terms of character development than their vanilla counterparts. There are even opportunities for branching dialogue, which opens up new possibilities in subsequent playthroughs.
11 NPC Lookup
Fans undoubtedly do a lot of traveling in Skyrim. Most of the time, this traveling involves speaking to an NPC, performing a task of some sort, and returning to the quest-giver for a reward. It’s a satisfying formula, but one that eventually becomes tedious, especially by the hundredth playthrough.
A handy tool for players who don’t mind breaking the immersion is the NPC Lookup mod. The add-on incorporates an in-game menu where players can instantly teleport to the desired NPC. Specific characters can also be spawned at the Dragonborn’s location too. It’s a nifty time-saver for fans who want to cut out some of the fluff.
10 No NPC Greetings
For players who have already conquered Skyrim dozens of times already, hearing the same robotic greetings can be awfully tiresome. The last thing fans need to hear for the hundredth time is how their player character is “someone who can get things done.”
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One of the most useful mods in a player’s repertoire is certainly No NPC Greetings. The mod comes with two options. Players can either eliminate NPC greetings altogether or make them a bit less common by reducing the distance required for them to say something. It’s hard to ever play Skyrim again without this feature.
9 RS Children Overhaul
It’s clear that the children who inhabit Skyrim didn’t receive as much attention from the developers as the rest of the game’s NPCs. Aesthetically, the children are practically identical carbon copies of each other. It’s a small detail that can still break the immersion ever so slightly.
To fix that problem, fans should consider installing RS Children Overhaul. The mod overhauls the appearance of all the children in the game, giving them each their own unique look. It’s also compatible with a few other mods that enhance Skyrim’s kids, making it a great addition to any load order.
8 Organized Bandits In Skyrim
One of the most common enemy types in Skyrim is the bandits. In the vanilla game, they possess no discernible organization or uniqueness. One bandit is the same as the next. However, for those looking to spice up the game’s criminal scene, then Organized Bandits in Skyrim is highly recommended.
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Also known as OBIS, this mod is impressive in its scope. It organizes Skyrim’s bandits into their exclusive gangs. Each clan even has a hierarchy composed of wannabes, foot soldiers, to the gang leader himself. The gangs also come with their strengths and weaknesses, as well as lore. Definitely give this stellar mod a try when reinstalling Skyrim.
7 Immersive Patrols
The land of the Nords, despite being a tough place to live, is still quite populous. However, the vanilla game tends to feel downright barren in certain places. For a region that’s currently experiencing a civil war, a dragon invasion, and a vampire menace, everything feels unusually deserted in spots.
The Immersive Patrols mod goes a long way towards making the environment feel more “lived in.” Stormcloak and Imperial soldiers will now patrol the major highways and sometimes even fight each other. Members of the Dawnguard and Thalmor are more of a presence as well. All of it makes the environment feel more populous and interesting.
6 Interesting NPCs
By now, it’s no stretch to imagine that many veteran Skyrim players have met every NPC in the game at least once. For those fans, there probably aren’t too many surprises left for them to experience. The solution? Add a whole host of brand new NPCs to the game.
Interesting NPCs is one of the most popular Skyrim mods on Nexus, with over 1.4 million total downloads and counting. The mod itself is massive, adding over 250+ NPCs to the game, along with 25+ new followers, 15+ marriable NPCs, and 50+ quests. The mod strives to make each of these NPCs unique, which is very much appreciated.
5 Diversity – A Character Overhaul
It’s one thing to add more NPCs or make them behave differently. But when looking to enhance these non-playable characters, it’s best not to forget about their visual presentation. NPCs in Skyrim look downright ugly by today’s standards. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of mods that aim to rectify that issue.
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A great mod players may want to consider is Diversity - A Character Overhaul. This mod, unlike many of its kind on Nexus, doesn’t drastically alter the appearances of the NPCs in a way that breaks the lore. Instead, NPCs still look like their vanilla counterparts but are given a fresher, cleaner coat of paint. Each character feels a bit more unique as a result.
4 Populated Cities, Towns & Villages
It’s common for NPCs, especially those in older titles, to behave like robots. They don’t always feel like living, breathing characters who go about their day like average folk. This is a glaring problem with Skyrim’s NPCs, who are comically stiff and predictable in their routines.
One mod that fans simply must try is Populated Cities, Towns & Villages. The aim of it is to breathe new life into the daily actions of the NPCs. Characters will now take strolls through town, browse the wares of different shops, pray at temples, go to lunch at the local tavern, and much more. Don’t leave home without this mod!
3 Populated Lands, Roads & Paths
This mod performs a similar function to the previous entry. In fact, they’re both from the same mod author, tonycubed2. Whereas the last mod enlivened Skyrim’s urban centers, Populated Lands, Roads & Paths does the same for the game’s wilderness.
Traveling Skyrim by foot now won’t seem nearly as boring. The mod populates the game’s thoroughfares with new NPCs in the form of traveling merchants, bodyguards, refugees, pilgrims, and even assassins. Once again, this mod definitely makes the game feel more “lived in” compared to the vanilla version.
2 Travellers Of Skyrim
Even for a game that’s ten years old, Skyrim’s exterior is extensive. Populating that expanse of territory with new NPCs certainly improves the overall immersion of the game. Fans looking to add more variety to the wilderness can’t go wrong with Travellers of Skyrim.
This mod adds 50 NPCs to the game. Between them, they travel to over 30 different locations across the map. The NPCs themselves include alchemists, apothecaries, mercenaries, mages, and merchants. These characters, of course, are fully interactable. Finding new people to talk to during one’s travels is always a plus.
1 Diverse Skyrim
Adding some much-needed variety to the game world is what a lot of Skyrim mods are all about. It can get a little tiresome having to look at the same collection of characters over and over again for hours on end. Diverse Skyrim spices up the NPCs encountered in the game while also remaining entirely lore-friendly.
According to the mod authors, Diverse Skyrim adds new NPCs to the game, incorporating “unique appearances to the vanilla leveled lists for added variety and racial diversity.” For example, the lore establishes that the Legion is composed of a racially diverse collection of soldiers. With this mod enabled, instead of seeing just Nords and Imperials, fans will witness more Orcs, Wood Elves, and Dark Elves as Legionaries. That’s just one example of what this mod provides, but it should give players a better idea of what they can expect from it.
Skyrim: Anniversary Edition was released on November 11, 2021 and is currently available on PC, Playstation 5, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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