There are plenty for Skyrim LE but since they are so easy to convert, most modders didn't bother with doing so. One of the other worthwhile combat animation mods that has been converted is Two Handed Katana Animations. Well, worthwhile if you use a two handed katana mod. The only non-modded katana in Skyrim are one handed. I am a beginner modder, and I am working on my first mod to be played on Ultimate Skyrim. One of my biggest problems when I play this game today, is that the combat animations becomes less and less believable as I know more about realistic combats should have been looking. You can found the animation file in path: X:The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Data meshes actors character animations xxx.hkx. Just remove it,now the character will return vanilla idle with original game set. Recommend Mod: 1.Pretty Female Idles 2.Pretty Sit Idles 3.Pretty Staff And Magic Cast Animations 4.Pretty Jump Animations 5.Pretty Motion. Schlongs Of Skyrim (plus a HDT SMP addon located here, install by extracting it over a unzipped SOS download and zip it back up and then install it) Schaken Mods Male Bodyslide CBBE SE CBBE SMP (My preferred body, I did have a hand in creating it) CBBE 3BBB Cosio Special Edition (hidden somewhere on the internet) BHUNP COSHD LE SMP full SOS. This mod is combat overhaul mod focusing on enhanced game enjoyment and ease of play.The goal is to bring Skyrim closer to a neat action game than to increase difficulty and reality.Enemies acts are various, dash attacks, continuous attacks, dodge, great spell, cooperating act, get angry, and more.
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Combat is arguably the most important aspect of the game. In order to overhaul how Skyrim plays, we are going to need some high quality combat, enemy & difficulty enhancement mods. Bookmark this guide or watch the video and subscribe to my Youtube channel if you want more updates quicker.
This is going to be a fairly long guide, and before we begin, first you need to know how to mod Skyrim and also install at least a couple of must-have mods.
Contents
How to Mod Skyrim LE & SE
If you don’t know how to mod Skyrim, check out my beginner’s guide to modding Skyrim SE (Special Edition). It opens in new tab so go ahead and click it.
It’s the same for LE (Legendary Edition). You just need to download appropriate mods between them.
Also go through my performance optimization guide, it’s super important if you want to keep your game running smoothly, especially when you have a lot of mods installed.
Essential Mods
When you’re done with all of that, other must-have mods are:
- SkyUI (much better UI obviously with many options, but also MCM menu capabilities for other mods to use or you won’t be able to configure them).
- Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch (tons of bug fixes, must have).
- SSE Engine Fixes (also tons of bug fixes, but with the engine of the game).
Those would be the minimal requirements before you start doing anything else when it comes to modding Skyrim. There are many other fixes & improvements mods but that’s out of the scope of this guide.
Wildcat – Combat of Skyrim
In my opinion, the single most important combat mod for Skyrim. Wildcat will overhaul enemy AI even if you disable all the options it comes with. Speaking of those other options, they are:
- Attacks of opportunity.
- Stamina costs.
- Injury & stagger system.
- Timed blocking.
- Lethality (speed of combat).
- Various other options & settings.
There’s also another optional plugin that will increase damage dealt and taken, and normally I wouldn’t use this, but since the 2nd mod on this list kind of slows down combat, this plugin will help restore combat speed to vanilla level (but with a lot more depth to it).
Wildcat is also very performance friendly.
Wildcat – Combat of Skyrim.
True Armor SE
True Armor is a beast. It completely overhauls how all armor in Skyrim functions. It provides a ton of MCM menu settings, but don’t be discouraged because the author has been kind enough to create a couple of different presets which you can simply import and the mod will do everything else without you having to configure it much.
There are other configuration options which are worth going through though. This mod is a bit more script heavy so if you notice (probably not) any performance issues, you might want to pass on it.
True Armor SE.
Mortal Enemies SE
Mortal Enemies is a bit smaller and more compact, but at its core it alters some combat speed values, removes aim-bot capabilities of NPCs, reduces their cone area of attack and basically makes combat a lot more realistic.
In vanilla Skyrim, NPCs will never miss and often hit you even if the animation clearly indicates they’ve missed you. This mod fixes that.
It’s 100% compatible with everything else on this list, you can load it last to make sure all of its changes are overwriting all other mods.
Mortal Enemies SE.
TK Dodge SE
This mod will enable you to dodgeroll attacks and basically avoid hits by utilizing your stamina for something other than sprinting. It can be very useful if you’re playing a squishy mage build for example.
It comes with an MCM menu where you can tweak all the settings as well as hotkeys and how to activate the roll.
TK Dodge SE.
SkyTEST – Realistic Animals and Predators SE
SkyTEST also functions as an AI enhancer for all animals in Skyrim, but it also tweaks their stats and makes them more deadly. At its core, it changes their behavior and makes them a lot more realistic. But it does a lot more than that!
SkyTEST – Realistic Animals and Predators SE.
Ordinator – Perks of Skyrim
Ordinator is the best perk overhaul mod in my opinion, so it’s not necessarily a combat only related mod, but since it changes how the game plays, it inevitably affects combat as well.
It brings you new perks, tons of new possible builds to play, new powers & spells etc. It’s definitely a must have mod.
Here’s my dedicated guide for Ordinator SE.
Ordinator – Perks of Skyrim.
Skyrim Better Combat Animations Combat
Wards Functionalities Extended
This mod will overhaul how the wards of Skyrim function. It has an MCM menu where you can tweak many settings, such as ward cost reduction, how they interact with melee or ranged weapons etc. It’s really useful for all mages, but not only mages, even semi-mage builds like for example a Spellsword.
In addition to that it also makes shouts pass through wards, and it incorporates two new ward spells into the game, one expert and one master level ward.
Wards Functionalities Extended.
High Level Enemies
This is one of my favorite mods, it’s not big and it affects the game significantly. This is also not necessarily a combat only related mod, but since it affects the difficulty of the game, it definitely helps to make things deadlier.
There are two options for high level enemies. The first one will add over 800 new enemies to the world of Skyrim and they will start appearing once you reach level 10.
There’s also an optional plugin for the Dawnguard area.
The second option does everything that the first one does, but it also upscales all those enemies to your level (dynamically) so they will keep leveling up with you. This affects both new enemies, as well as vanilla enemies.
This doesn’t mean that (for example) a level 50 enemy you encounter will be down-leveled, they will still outlevel you if you find them in the world, but once you pass their threshold, they will be upscaled as well. And this is a nice way to enhance the difficulty of the game.
Load this mod last to make sure that it affects as many other mods as possible.
High Level Enemies.
Smaller Combat Fixes & Improvements Mods
And finally, don’t forget to check out these smaller fixes & improvements mods that will further improve how your game plays:
- Realistic Ragdolls & Force.
- Realistic AI Detection SE.
- Realistic Melee Range.
- Fixed Body Collision.
- No Spinning Death Animation.
- D13 Faster Get up Stand up Animation.
- No BS AI Projectile Dodge.
- Disable Cinematic Kills.
- Proper Aiming.
- Shout Cooldowns That Make Sense.
- Encounter Zones Unlocked SE.
- No Cell Respawn.
All mods that I’ve mentioned in this guide are for Skyrim SE (Special Edition) but most of them should be available for Skyrim LE (Legendary Edition) as well.
If something is not, and you really want it, you can always buy Skyrim SE (STEAM key) on a huge discount.
Where to Find More Skyrim Mods & Content
You can browse Skyrim SE Mods @ Nexus (pro tip: sort by popularity to avoid a lot of new junk).
If you’re playing Skyrim LE, use this link instead. Certain mods (and especially textures) will work between the editions.
What’s Next?
Want to know more about Skyrim SE (Special Edition) & Mods? Check out my other Skyrim SE Guides & Skyrim SE Playlist on Youtube.
Don’t forget to subscribe and turn on the bell icon for more.
Animation mods are extremely popular in Skyrim. Not only because people use them to create better cinematics, but also because many casual players like to improve the animations of the game to make it feel smoother.
There’s a surprisingly large number of mods that aim to do similar things, though.
And I don’t want you to go around like a headless chicken installing random mods hoping for the best. That should be my job!
So I’ve compiled a list of the absolute best animation mods to really improve Skyrim.
Bear in mind that most of these mods should work perfectly fine with Skyrim SE, though some are not tested to work with the traditional version of the game. Back up your files before installing.
11. Fores New Idles
Fores New Idles is basically the mod of all mods, as it enables many of the animation mods on Skyrim to work as intended.
As a mod itself, this one is very difficult to install and you really have to know what you’re doing.
Thankfully the guy who created it has included a tutorial video in the description. Actually, just check the mod page because there’s about 5+ video tutorials and they’re all really helpful.
See this one as a tool, though. Not as much of a mod, but a tool for modding.
FNI is what will let you install other idles animations in Skyrim so this is a must-have, but also not exactly the best animation mod you can find. But definitely start here!
10. FNIS Sexy Move
So this mod is the solution to that problem every Skyrim player has: all women seem to walk the same.
Why does your wife walk like your warrior friends, man? It makes no sense.
This mod, which has a bit of a cringey name, does improve the way all females move in Skyrim. And makes it so you can actually see the difference between the walk styles of women and men in the game.
No longer will you have to see women walk in the most uninspired way possible. Now every woman in the game will have a much realistic walk style to give far more immersive values into the gameplay.
9. Immersive Animation
If you want to have your game filled with new animations and reinvigorate the way Skyrim looks without altering the “vanilla essence”, this is the mod for you.
The main purpose of Immersive Animations is to make character movement feel much more realistic than it does in the base game.
However, it also aims to keep things faithful to how Bethesda intended TES to look.
You can consider IA to be an overhaul of the game’s base animations, without feeling out of touch with the game itself.
Some mods change the essence of Skyrim. This one reinforces it.
8. The Dance of Death
Oh my effin’ God, yes!
This is by far the most hyped I’ve ever been for an animation mod in my life.
I mean, just check out the video the guy linked in his upload.
The kill moves that this mod adds to the game are absolutely insane. If you have a warrior and you want to see some epic kills, get this mod installed ASAP.
7. Female Facial Animation
All human-looking female characters will get better face animations with this add-on.
The eyes and lips will move in a much more realistic manner, as will all types of brows and the cheeks.
It’s a massive improvement that is sure to make your game even better than vanilla Skyrim.
I recommend installing this mod if you have custom female characters in your game, or if you use a lot of beauty mods. It seems to be tailor-made to work perfectly with custom females.
6. Skyrim Hair Physics Project
This might not have much of a difference overall, but if you’re truly looking to see those beautiful hairs waving as you move… well you might want to give this one a go.
This mod simply enables hair movements by allowing custom physics into the animations.
It does look quite cool, I have to admit!
Skyrim Weapon Idle Animations
And funny enough, this also works with hair mods for Skyrim too!
5. Feminine Running Animation
Gone are the days of your characters moving around looking like a plank – especially if you’re playing as a woman.
This mod adds a custom animation that replaces the traditional Skyrim running movement with a much more girly animation.
Quite adequate for most of you who play females – and it does wonders for immersion.
4. 360 Walk and Run Plus
Yes, this mod adds a feature that virtually every single Skyrim player has always wanted to see: moving your character towards the edges of the screen without losing sight of what you’re looking at.
This move tweaks the way movement works and allows you to have a better perspective of your character when playing in third person.
It may not seem like much at first.
But once you get used to this being installed you’ll never turn back.
3. YY Anim Replacer
This is a very specific mod, as the creator states that it better suits battle mages or people who use a weapon in one hand and magic in the other.
But it’s still definitely worth a try if you’re up for it!
It does improve animations drastically, as the traditional Skyrim animations for hand + magic combos are a bit weak.
They often feel separated when they shouldn’t. This mod fixes the issue vanilla has, along with improving very minor but noticeable differences.
2. Animated Dragon Wings
ADW adds a set of beautiful dragon wings to your character.
The wings react to most animations in the game and respond to them accordingly in the most natural way possible. Neat!
Feel like a sexy dragon traversing through the skies with the Flying Mod, also available for free.
They combine quite well.
1. New Animation for Magic Casting
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a battle mage, a wizard, a necromancer, or merely someone that casts spells very sporadically.
This mod is a must-have.
It changes the way animations look when you cast a spell, making them much more natural and smoother than they are in the base game.
It’s such a huge difference that I really do believe it deserves this spot on my list. Just try it out and you’ll see what I mean.
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