r/wabbajack

I played skyrim back in the olden days, but i was just a wee lad and used cheats to rush through the main story without ever experiencing the a lot of the other/side/optional/good content game had to offer.

I just bought skyrim special edition on sale and want to do a proper playthrough, but i want to improve the experience through MODS, and there are just so many mods and modlists idk what to pick, so i'm seeking your suggestions, i have a few criterias/nice to haves:

• Doesn't turn the game into minecraft / gta / call of duty etc
• Improves combat without turning it into dark souls / devil may cry
• Improves all areas of the existing game like enemy variety, gear variety, npc behavior etc. I know a lot of big mods add new areas and all, which is fine, but if i had to pick i would improve the main game experience first.
• Doesn't delevel the whole world, i wanna feel getting powerful not struggle to fight crabs late game.
• Graphic/texture improvements without turning it into real life 2, i have a mere 3070 :(
• Ideally under 100gb? I won't be getting nexusmods subscription as i don't like the idea of spending more on a sub than i did on the game itself.. I don't mind spending 1-2 days downloading mods on the side while i'm doing something else

Played Skyrim several times since the beginning and some mods too but I want to try a modlist because I upgraded my pc.
What fits the best for added qol. Very nice visuals and upgraded game systems. Maybe vampire and werewolf overhaul and passive changes.

Thanks

Tuxborn might be one of the best modlists out there, filled to the brim with content and it's incredibly stable.

It's got me wondering why there aren't more modlists aimed at medium/lower end PCs and laptops.

I understand that updating graphics is necessary for a game this old, but it gets to a point. Do I really need Skyrim of all things to melt my hardware?

It seems every other modlist is designed with the principle of pushing the visuals forward, which isn't a bad thing, I'm just a broke ass.

The list seemingly just doesn't work? Its missing a ton of downloads when i tried just now and looks outdated. Is there another preferably updated list of essential mods?

Basic comparison that I've made. I wished this existed last week so I made it myself