Well, that's only MY list of mods you should have, take only what you wanna pick. Must-Have : SKSE(needed to run a lot of mods) SkyUI(saves you a lot of troubles from the weird vanilla UI) Unofficial Patches(almost essential, fixes almost all vanilla bugs) : Skyrim, Dawnguard, Heartfire, Dragonborn Enhanced blood textures(really cool, and....BLOOD!) Realistic ragdolls and force(good to prevent weird death, i even heard of a mod that removes the spinning dance) Dance of Death(more killmoves and a lot of config for kill moves) Civil war overhaul(if you think the civil war sucks, you'll love that) Requiem(really good immersive overhaul) Sands of time(a really good way to spice up with the randomness card!) Live another life alternate start(really cool way to start the game without having to go trough the whole intro) Helgen Reborn(Ever wanted to rebuild this town? ) Death alternative(gives more depths to the death instead of having to reload each time you die) Legacy of the DragonBorn(My beloved mod! Can't play without it, it will fill your completionist's instincts) A lot of other mods and supported by this mod and they're good aswell, so i do not show them here(because they're in the page). Elemental dragons(a fun way to add more diversity to dragon encounters, be carefull, they are not weaklings) AND A LOT OF OTHER WONDERFULL MODS I MAY HAVE FORGOT/JUST DON'T KNOW! All these are known to be fully compatible(i play actually with all these, and more). If you have any issues, feel free to ask/pm whatever you want. I wouldn´t personally recommend Requiem for a complete beginner, because it changes lots of things. I agree with the rest more or less. SKSE and SkyUI are a must to have, they are the first step to mod your game. Also if you´re to try Live another life and Helgen reborn, make sure you first install live another life, go to helgen and start the main quest and then install Helgen reborn I think it crashes the game otherwise. You mentioned water and textures, I´ll recommend all water mods that I ever used and a couple of graphics mods I personally use: Pure Waters Pure Waters - Waterfalls Realistic Water Two Amidianborn Book of Silence ELFX Enhanced lights and effects Skyrim HD