Another month, another round of rather excellent mods that distort, invert and expand our experience of one of the most beloved, most malleable games in existence. It seems that the modding community's focus this month in Skyrimland has been combat, and making it feel a bit crunchier, though we've also seen the expansion of one of the most well-trodden questlines in the game.

College of Winterhold - Quest Expansion

So let's start with College of Winterhold - Quest Expansion, a mod which gives the mage questline more of a 'Hogwarts' kind of feel. It introduces a bunch of new starter quests and lessons for the questline to create the feeling that you're studying at a school of magic, rather than being thrown straight into missions to kill people. Great for those seeking a bit more immersion up at Winterhold.

Dynamic Wait

https://imgur.com/qtrdahp

Modder RedxYeti has released the Dynamic Wait mod, which lets you hold a key to watch time pass at super speed. It's a bit like watching a time-lapse video, and is infinitely more immersive than watching the numbers tick down on the default 'Wait' screen.

Elden Rim Moveset Collection

With all respect to Skyrim's 12-year-old combat system, it can feel a little floaty these days, and modders have for years been trying to give it a bit more oomph. Exm842's Elden Rim Moveset Collection does that by bringing over 130 weapon animations over from Elden Ring which add a dash of slightly Saiyan style to Skyrim's combat (as you can imagine, it's a mod that's best enjoyed in third-person mode so you can appreciate all the animations). 

Precision - Accurate Melee Collisions

A perfect accompaniment to the aforesaid move set is Precision - Accurate Melee Collisions, which adds Havok-style physics to make everything react more realistically to being hit - no more non-reactions to getting hammered in the head or over-reliance on that 'stumbling' animation so beloved by all Skyrim NPCs. Hit an enemy in the leg, and their leg will buckle, weapons bounce off walls and shields, and weapon trails will help you anticipate enemy attacks better.

All Dragons All Ohio

We've seen Skyrim dragons take some pretty wild forms over the years with the likes of Macho Man Randy Savage and Thomas the Tank Engine, so perhaps it's a sign of the creative pool running dry that there's now a mod that changes all dragons in the game into a flat disc shaped like the state of Ohio. Have to say though, I do love the Q&A in the description, where the answer to the questions 'Why?' is simply 'Huh?' 

Riften 3D Docks

I have to say that the ability of the Skyrim community to obsessively mod and re-mod granular details like the dock walkways and wooden posts of Riften never ceases to amaze me, even if flicking through the six or seven different retextures of the Riften docks is the point at which I realise that I probably spend too much time modding things in Skyrim that I'm probably never going to stop to actually appreciate.