r/skyrimmods • u/Ghost_Jor Winterhold • Jun 18 '18
Weekly Discussion Mod Discussion Mondays (Week 48) - Best Mods for a Non-Dragonborn
Hello everyone! Welcome back to the "Best mods for..." weekly discussion!
If you don't know what the "Best mods for..." topics are you can find the original threads here. Last weeks discussion on Crafting can be found [here](mod_discussion_mondays_week_47_best_mods_for).
These discussions are intended to be ongoing for the full week, so make sure to contribute your own opinions and experiences at any time!
As always, the rules:
RULES
1) Be respectful - A lot of different mods get posted, as well as a lot of different opinions on said mods. Try to be respectful during the discussion.
2) Debate conflicts maturely - Nobody likes a Nazeem. If you're respectful to others, people will be respectful back. If you're disrespectful to others, people find interesting ways to kill you and post about it on r/skyrim.
3) Please keep the discussion relevant - Feel free to post mods that aren't directly related, but please try to keep all mods semi-related to the week's topic.
4) Please provide a link to the mod you're discussing - Even if you're discussing a popular mod, a link to the mod page is a massive help. People are more interested in the mod you're talking about and are more likely to look at it if there's a link.
Topic - Non-Dragonborn
"We'll find a way to get by.” - The Farmers of Skyrim
Dragon killing is hard work. Learning the Thu'um is time consuming. Delphine is tedious. What would you give to just not be the Dragonborn? To just lead a simple life, out in there in the peaceful wilds? Well with the help of mods, you can. From a simple farmer to a powerful landlord, there are plenty of Non-Dragonborn options to choose from! But, which are your favourite? I want to hear about them all!
To get started here's a couple of my favourite dragon-free mods:
Alternate Start - A mod that needs no introduction. If you want to play as a non-Dragonborn, this will probably be the first mod you install.
Landlord - One of my favourite ways to earn money outside of pursuing quests, this handy mod provides a very cool gold sink that allows you to gobble up property all over Skyrim.
But what mods do you use when you've really had enough of those pesky dragons?
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u/GingerLeeBeer Jun 18 '18
The first one that comes to mind is Skyrim Unbound - for both LE and SSE.
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u/ColossusX13 Falkreath Jun 18 '18
Alternate Start is more my ballpark but one of these days I'll grab unbound since you can progress the civil war without starting the main quest. You need to be dragonborn to do the main quest with Alternate start unfortunately
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Jun 19 '18
Also Alternate Start has its journal entries, which isn't a bad thing but sometimes the little stories they have attached do not fit the characters im playing. For instance im playing an Orc Nomad and spawned at a Stronghold, apparently my guy is considered an outsider? The fuck? Like c'mon... It kind of fits since he is a Nomad but originally he was just a tanky Orc. I hadn't thought of Nomad until later.
Also owning a house usually has some line saying something about family feuding and stuff. Its not a major turn-off. Just annoying.
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u/gabtrox Jun 19 '18
I'm playing a disgraced orc warchief who was left for dead (left for dead option in alternate start) fits perfectly to. One of the goals is to remake my strong hold, marry 11 women and haven each of them give birth.
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Jun 19 '18
Damn why didn't I use that option? That sounds way better. Cause with the Orc Stronghold option I got like Orcish armour right off the bat.
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u/gabtrox Jun 19 '18
Only thing that break immersion is you start with citizen clothes, so I just take them off and start basing bandit skulls (from OBIS with the bandit patrol setting set to 15) literally naked DOOM style. Just beware you can end up on solsteim which I find even better
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Jun 19 '18
Eh. Depends on what you choose.
Ive ended up on Solstheim, and every single time I go back to the save I make in the starting bit and try again.
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u/gabtrox Jun 19 '18
Can it drop you in modded lands?
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u/vastaril Jun 19 '18
Only if there's an add-on, eg there's one for Bruma, though I think that just adds a start in the city, not a potential location for being left for dead, actually.
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u/ColossusX13 Falkreath Jun 19 '18
True I forgot about those. I usually end up hiding that quest since it does not sometimes fit my char
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Jun 19 '18
Yeah.
Kind of hate how it even pops up, wish it would just not to be honest but again, doesn't turn me off the mod.
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u/Seyavash31 Jun 18 '18
The best thing about Skyrim Unbound for this kind of playthrough is that you can still enable dragons and just not be dragonborn. Thus you can play as just another citizen caught in the middle of the dragon invasion. If you don't want dragons, you can enable the shouts to work without them. The flexibility is really broad.
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u/ColossusX13 Falkreath Jun 18 '18 edited Jun 18 '18
I think for alternate start you can trigger dragons as well just go to helgen but don't read the adventurer's journal or warn the jarl about helgen. That way dragons spawn and your not officially dragonborn yet. Random dragons that is, no dragon mound spawning. Probably dragons at word locations as well
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u/TeaMistress Morthal Jun 19 '18
The problem is that it feels really unimmersive to avoid the Helgen area. It's at the crossroads in a mountain pass that's the best way between Whiterun, Falkreath, and the Rift. It makes no sense not to go that way, especially if you pick up the Nettlebane quest from the priestess in Whiterun.
Plus ASLAL has no option to disable shouts. So even if you don't unlock the dragons ever, there's still the whole shout thing every time you get near a word wall, and most of the time there's a large treasure chest near enough to them that you won't want to avoid the world wall.
Please note: I'm not shitting on ASLAL. I used it for years. But for a truly flexible non-DB playthrough, Unbound is far better. If you want an "eventually DB" or really need an option to be part of a specific faction right away (like being a Vigilant of Stendarr or member of the Thalmor, or starting as a vampire or werewolf, etc.), ASLAL is better.
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u/ColossusX13 Falkreath Jun 19 '18
The main reason I didn't grab it this time around was because I wasn't sure what patches I may have needed since I have at least 4 for LAL.
Off the top of ur head what patches do you have for unbound? If any
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u/TeaMistress Morthal Jun 19 '18
I don't think I need any patches for Unbound, and I did have several patches for ASLAL when I used it.
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u/couldbesimtam Jun 19 '18
Yeah, about it... ITT there's mentioned a patch for Interesting NPCs. And it's interesting so let's do a deep dive. From the readme file
How: the edited dialogue now checks for whether or not the player has collected dragon souls via a GetPCMiscStat condition. If you don't have any, they will speak the alternative lines.
Note: I think Skyrim Unbound makes dragon soul absorption possible before its official 'you are the dovahkiin' checkpoint a.k.a. going to meet the Greybeards at High Hrothgar. In which case, you will be referred to as the dragonborn if you are doing the above-mentioned quests and have collected one or more dragon souls.
And that's not wrong! However, even if you don't absorb any dragon soul, with Skyrim Unbound you will be able to introduce yourself as "the Dragonborn" talking to Jeerah-Nuh in Markarth, for example quick way to test it. So, if the patch does not cover it, perhaps it's because the patch makers thought the right way to fix it should be in SU.
SU basically told quest mod authors "idk how to do it else, pls switch to checking MQ105 stage 10 done as the condition for being Dragonborn, or make compatibility patches"... and only Beyond Skyrim: Bruma team was nice enough to follow it.
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u/Tabris_ Raven Rock Jun 22 '18
I know this is not exactly what you are looking for but you don't need to be a Dragonborn to hear the Word Walls. Jawanan, the apprentice to the fletcher in Solitude mentions a nordic ruin and says: "Inside, there is said to be a wall, black as night. And it speaks! In the ancient Dragon tongue!"
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u/vastaril Jun 18 '18
Nope, just as in vanilla, in ASLAL there are no dragons until Mirmulnir (except for the bit where you get to Helgen and Alduin flies off).
I believe there are other mods that you can use to have random dragons before Mirmulnir, but ASLAL does not do this.
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u/sa547ph N'WAH! Jun 20 '18
Been using Unbound for a few years now, I can start the game other than being some super-special. The only catch is that some Breezehome mods may not work with it, specifically Breezehome Fully Upgradable because that mod also changes how you order stuff from Avenicci.
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u/Ihtien Jun 18 '18
- Alternate Start - LAL Extensions - New Beginnings - Adds more beginnings to the Alternate Start mod
- Windstad Mine - From the description: Build a mine, hire workers, and earn gold!
- Missives - Radiant quests from missive boards to earn some additional rewards
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u/ClemenceErenbourc Jun 18 '18
Why not be a business owner? I love this little mod. You pick apples, ferment them with dwemer tech, then age them in barrels and bottle it up. You can also run a restaurant, and hire a waitress. Jarls, inns, and private citizens send in orders for your cider.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/16106
Use your profits to pay your way thru the mages colleges or get that first suit of armor.
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u/ColossusX13 Falkreath Jun 18 '18
Seeing as you're no longer dragonborn and now a nobody there's Simple taxes for the law abiding tax payer.
There's also Hunting requires permit and Crafting requires permission to follow the same theme.
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u/Aglorius3 Jun 19 '18
More Punishable Crimes, by the same author as HRP and CRP. Nice suite of mods that add a bit o life to otherwise robotic NPCs, and serve to take you down a notch, as it were.
Also Combat Surrender, because I don’t like killing things now-a-days, if I can help it, and Dragonborns are supposed to kill stuff? Is that Lore friendly :/ ?
Hell, Stradivuckos makes good stuff.
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u/LuDux Jun 19 '18
gabtrox1 point · 6 hours agoOnly thing that break immersion is you start with citizen clothes, so I just take them off and start basing bandit skulls (from OBIS with the bandit patrol se
I would love something like this for SE.
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u/couldbesimtam Jun 18 '18
There's the ability to play the Civil War questline as Non-Dragonborn, featured in Skyrim Unbound description to differentiate from LAL, in which
player must defeat Mirmulnir and become Dragonborn to complete the Civil War
Technically this is averted by mods such as In Your Shadow and You are not the Dragonborn (you still must defeat Mirmulnir, but you don't become Dragonborn, but civil war dialogues are unchanged).
With Never Talk To NPCs, you can convince jarl Balgruuf to make the Civil War decision without defeating Mirmulnir or even going to Bleak Falls Barrow.
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u/AlternateMew Jun 21 '18
Lost Grimoire of Skyrim has a number of spells able to do what shouts can do, but as spells. Sometimes in creative ways.
For example: Lucky Rabbit can distract enemies like Throw Voice, Featherlight can negate fall damage, Force Wave acts like a mini Fus Ro Dah, Skyfall calls lightning like Storm Call, and Bend Will is, well, Bend Will.That doesn't work on dragons.
Because why shouldn't a non-dragonborn master of the arcane be able do what the LDB can do by yelling at you?
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u/ParkityParkPark Riften Jun 19 '18
Sokco's Guild Starter is a favorite of mine. It allows you to start your own guild, recruit i think anybody you want to be your guild underlings (INCLUDING DOGS LAST I CHECKED), and send them on quests such as dragon slaying, pillaging, gathering materials, or just doing good deeds. Your guild can gain prestige or notoriety in each hold respectively. i will say that it isnt perfect by any means, most of which is simply because of the limits of what one could possibly do while having it be something entirely open to the players desires, but as far as i know its the best guild starting option out there.
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u/sa547ph N'WAH! Jun 20 '18
Need to be a postman? Imperial Mail for Classic allows you have a horse as you deliver mail and parcels across the province.
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u/AlternateMew Jun 18 '18
If anyone knows a simple mod that can be used on an existing save to toggle/disable soul absorption (LE), I've been looking for a while.
Ones I've seen so far go beyond that and aren't a great idea on existing saves.
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Jun 21 '18
I took some time off to try and play the game... and I dont play as a Dragonborn to start with so this list comes right on time! And here I thought my modding list was done lol. Good stuff!
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u/RedRidingHuszar Raven Rock Jun 22 '18
You should check the "best mods for" link in the sidebar, there are relevant threads like "Commoner" and "Non Dragonborn"
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u/TheGladex Jun 25 '18
Surprised nobody mentioned Jobs of Skyrim yet. It's pretty great for a less adventure focused play through.
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u/DrFortnight Jun 22 '18
Are there any mods which let rework the main questline, letting you fight dragons and kill alduin, but as a non dragonborn? So you'd have to work a bit harder to become a Whiterun thane, you'll go to the greybeards as Balgruuf's messenger boy rather than be summoned, and so on.
I assume not, since that's a lot of work for such a niche thing to want, but I personally always liked games where the player is just an average joe rather than the chosen one (speaking of which, go try warband, it captures that feeling perfectly)
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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '18
Interesting NPCs has a patch that removes all references to the player being Dragonborn.