A mage build is one of the most fun and popular builds to play the game with. You can be one of those destruction magic types; freezing, burning and electrifying your opponents to death or a conjurer; summoning various creatures into your world to do your bidding.
However, after your (undoubtedly) many reruns of the game, the overall magic options in Skyrim can seem somewhat lackluster after a while. Don’t get me wrong, the spells and magic options in Skyrim are great but they can get pretty old.
This is where the wonderful world of modding comes in. Skyrim has an insane amount of magic mods that drastically change the entire way that all kinds of magic in the game works, from changing the visuals to even adding hundreds of new spells, you name it.
So, let us take a look at the best magic mods that you can get for Skyrim!
Now this is a mod that doesn’t seem all that useful, but is definitely one of those mods that you didn’t know you needed until you got it. Since a destruction mage is one of the most popular magic builds for the game, having this mod is a no-brainer.
What this mod essentially does is that it adds newly textured impact areas for the destruction spells. These look incredible and very realistic, and make the whole game way more immersive as this is exactly how you would think the fallout of your awesome power would look like.
What’s great about Deadly Spell Impacts:
Adds immersion to the game
Adds a great new aspect to relatively underused magic abilities
Gives more of a reason to use destruction magic
Everything included in the mod fits very well in the game
Conjuring is a ton of fun in Skyrim but it never felt like a very formidable offensive tool for dispatching enemies. Sure, you can summon Daedra, but at higher levels of the game, most things that you summon can be killed rather quickly, meaning you will often have to fall back on your weapon or destruction magic.
Well, with Calling of the Conjurer, you can change this. This mod adds 200+ new conjuration spells, which not only make the summons stronger, but also allows you to summon hundreds of new allies to fight with you, including city guards, any of the wildlife in the whole game and even an entire army of undead!
What’s great about Calling of the Conjurer:
Adds a ton of new and amazing conjuration spells
Makes conjuration and conjuration builds much more viable
Something fairly disappointing that came with the release of Skyrim was the realization that the spell crafting feature of Oblivion and Morrowind did not make a return. Though it was never a flawless system, it did however give the mage a good bit of freedom to play around.
The Spell Crafting for Skyrim mod allows the player to create their own spells in Skyrim. This includes over 40 new spell effects, with the type of spell, target selection, duration etc, all being up to the player to decide.
This is a mod that’s not exactly only for magic builds, but it is definitely one that can really help them out.
I honestly can’t remember ever having an actual use for the effects granted by standing stones in the vanilla Skyrim. So, I downloaded this mod and it brought an option for 2 effects per stone, which opens up a great deal of possibilities for builds, especially for mage builds as many stones give direct effects that can bolster your magic.
What’s great about Andromeda:
Makes standing stones worth seeking out and unlocking
Makes standing stones more powerful
Makes standing stones actually useful
Can greatly benefit mage builds as 2 stone abilities can be unlocked at once
Now trust me, this is a mod that you NEED. With this mod, you have a ton of new and visually stunning rune spells that completely shake up the way you play the game. Now, instead of the same old fire, frost and lightning runes, you have a great host of new options and new ways to destroy your enemies.
Strange Runes adds 55 new rune spells that are a great addition to the repertoire of any self-respecting mage. It’s also compatible with all the other mods in this list but best of all, it looks incredible.
What’s great about Strange Runes:
Looks absolutely stunning
Adds a ton of new and unique rune spells
You can center your mage build around one of these rune spells
The College of Winterhold was without a doubt one of my biggest disappointments in the whole game. On my first playthrough, since I went to the college fairly later in the game, I had spent 10s of hours hearing from every corner of Skyrim about the fabled college of legend and how every mage goes there, only to wander into a broken castle with less than a handful of students.
While it sort of makes sense within the lore of the game, it was still kind of a let down. So, the answer to this problem is Immersive College of Winterhold. This mod adds many more NPCs to the college, even adding regularly scheduled classes for those eager to learn about magic. I highly recommend this mod to anyone who felt the same way I did as it also added greatly to the immersion of the game!
What’s great about Immersive College of Winterhold:
Breathes new life into the college itself as well as the quests
Greatly improves immersion
Makes magic more of a challenge
Makes the college feel and function like an actual college
Where my psychopaths at? This is a really immersive mod that is quite similar to the deadly spell impacts mod in the sense that it really gives weight to your destruction spells.
With this mod, you can burn someone alive and visually it will show them burning until there is nothing but a skeleton left, just like real life. Same thing goes with the real life effects of freezing and electrocuting someone alive. It’s quite insane, but it looks amazing so what can you do?
What’s great about Frozen Electrocuted Combustion:
This is yet another mod that isn’t strictly for mage builds, but is definitely one that can benefit them greatly. It takes the older and relatively stale perks of the game and overhauls them completely in order for better roleplaying and gameplay purposes and can change the way your build works.
The main goal of this mod is fun as after downloading it, you can see for sure that no build is underpowered or boring anymore. It is also compatible with most mods on this list as well.
What’s great about Ordinator:
Makes roleplaying in the game much deeper and nuanced
Now, with all these mods around that make the player almost a bit too powerful, it makes Skyrim almost too much of a cakewalk if just a lightning bolt can kill almost any enemy that you come across. This complete enemy overhaul mod seeks to level the playing field.
This mod makes the game keep a regular level of challenge throughout the whole journey, throwing enemies at you that have the same level of perks and even spells. This means that if you add a mod that includes new spells, many higher level enemies will have access to the same spells from that mod, so watch out!
What’s great about Skyrim Revamped:
Keeps the game exciting as enemies are no longer super easy
Enemies make use of new spells that are added with any mod
Enemies also can use perks to strengthen certain aspects of their combat
It should be noted that while spells and abilities are a great way to enhance magical abilities in the game, it is not the only way to do so. Since the world of Skyrim is very diverse, it has a ton of races that populate it and each come with their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. While this looks great on paper, it unfortunately doesn’t have much bearing on the gameplay.
Imperious - Races of Skyrim seeks to change this by overhauling the entire race system of the game by making the changes and the affinities of each race mean much more. Because of this, you have more of an incentive to choose a more magically inclined race if you want to do a mage playthrough.
What’s great about Imperious Races of Skyrim:
Greatly adds to the immersion
Gives more of an incentive to actually choose some races over others
Makes the strengths and weaknesses of every race more significant
This mod is one that I love to pair up with the immersive college mod, as this one not only also adds new features, quests and functions to the college as well, but it also adds 2 entirely new towers, increasing the overall size of the college to being the thing that is way more fitting of the legend of the place.
This also puts learning at the forefront of the college’s goals, adding new classes and NPC’s to improve the overall life of the college.
What’s great about Obscure College of Winterhold:
Improves the college
Adds more classes and NPCs
Adds new areas, making it feel like an an actual college
This is a great magic mod. This is one of those mods that really alleviates boredom from subsequent mage build playthroughs as most players probably know all the vanilla game spells by heart, seeing as how few of them there truly are.
Arcanum is a wonderful mod that adds over 200 new spells across all the different schools and sub-schools of magic. Whether you’re an offensive or defensive kind of mage, you will definitely benefit from having this mod in your load order.
What’s great about Arcanum:
Makes magic really exciting
Adds an insane amount of fantastic spells
All kinds of mage builds can benefit from this mod
Behold, the most popular magic mod for Skyrim. One can never have too many spells to use at their disposal, plus it really gives a mage the ability to choose and really layers the playthrough. If Arcanum isn’t doing it for you, take a look at this one.
This mod adds 155 new spells which are all visually unique, not insanely overpowered and lore-friendly, meaning that you will never feel out of place when using the spells that are included in this mod. Not only that, it also includes brand new staves and scrolls to further increase the potency of your magic!
What’s great about Apocalypse:
Adds a monumental 155 new spells to the vanilla game
All the new spells are visually and functionally unique
All the new mods offered by the modare lore friendly
Brand new scrolls and staves are also added into the game with unique effects
Take the last 2 mods and put them on steroids. This great mod also adds new spells to the game, but unlike the previous 2, this mod adds a monumental 350 brand new mods in the game for you to unlock and use. Sure, they may not all be balanced or even lore friendly, but they’re extremely cool and worth checking out.
This is also coupled with the fact that this mod also adds brand new and colorful enemies to the game that all do various different kinds or attacks, which really is a great way to liven things up, especially exploring the world after already spending hundreds of hours in it.
What’s great about Colorful Magic:
Adds a mind numbing 350 new mods in the game
Some are very weird and overpowered and outlandish, adding a new fun way to experience the game
New enemies are also added with this
Each new kind of enemy also adds different elemental attacks that they can do
Love Star Wars? No? Well too bad, because this mod is absolutely amazing. This wonderful mod adds a series of quests to the game centered around you finding and unlocking many new and powerful abilities befitting a true Jedi or Sith Lord.
You will also be able to choose whether you want to go down the path of the light side of the force or that of the dark side, and more unique abilities will be given to you depending on which path you choose, as well as the lightsaber of your preferred side. Even if you don’t like Star Wars, give this one a go.
Mysticism is a great mod that works to better implement the magic system that already exists within the game. Although it adds over 200 new spells across all 5 magic schools, it really shines with the improvements it makes to the systems of magic.
It essentially just tweaks the existing magic in the game in order to make it more practical in a combat setting, or just add more variety and replayability to the overall game magic mechanics.
What’s great about Mysticism:
Adds a crazy 200 new mods to the game
These new mods are stretched across all 5 schools of magic
Tweaks existing magic in the game as well
Adds more replayability and variety to the overall magic gameplay
Being naturally attuned to magic and bearing the strength of a thousand men, it's safe to say I'm used to adding a creative flair to my stories, always striving to tell engaging tales.
Gamer Since:
2005
Favorite Genre:
RPG
Currently Playing:
Whatever I can get my hands on
Top 3 Favorite Games:
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dragonborn, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Dark Souls 3
