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The 10 Best Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Mods

Published

9 months ago

July 19, 2023

The Best Elder Scrolls Oblivion Mods to Download

What are the best Elder Scrolls Oblivion mods?

When Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released, it was a game changer for RPGs, and it set the stage for its successor, Skyrim.

However, while it is now often overshadowed by Skyrim, in many ways, Oblivion stands out as a better game with more depth and RPG elements.

Fortunately, the modding community has yet to abandon this classic, so today, we’re looking at all of the best mods you need for your next Oblivion playthrough!

The 10 Best Elder Scrolls Oblivion Mods

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of mods for Oblivion, and finding the best ones was no easy task.

However, the mods we’ve chosen have been selected based on their ratings, their number of downloads, and how they impact the game.

So, if you’re ready to save Tamriel once more, here’s our list of the 10 best Elder Scrolls Oblivion mods:

10. Beautiful People

Kicking off our list is a much-needed mod by MidnightVoyager, and it completely transforms the faces of Oblivion.

Now, Oblivion was released in 2006, so we can’t fault it for its graphics, but seriously, everyone in this game looks like a sad potato made of melting wax.

This Oblivion mod combines several different beauty packs so that all of the characters in the game can now look a little less like sad Madame Tussaud sculptures.

All of the races get a facelift with Beautiful People, and even their eyes have been recolored to be more lore-friendly and interesting.

While this won’t make them as impressive as the characters from some of the best PS5-exclusive games, it is certainly a much-needed improvement!

Although we have another character overhaul on our list, we had to include this one as well because it really does a great job and is highly endorsed on Nexus!

You should definitely give Beautiful People a try if you’re tired of the often terrifying faces that walk the streets of Cyrodiil!

9. Unique Landscapes

TES IV: Oblivion became one of the best Xbox 360 games thanks to its RPG elements and impressive open world.

However, due to the technical limitations of the time, its landscapes aren’t as unique as they could be, especially when compared to its successor.

Fortunately, this compilation mod adds many features from different landscape mods to make the world of Cyrodiil much more interesting.

With this mod installed, different sections of Cyrodiil will actually feel distinct from one another, and they’ve all gotten upgrades.

We definitely think that this mod brings a lot more life to Oblivion, and it definitely gives the landscape a much-needed overhaul.

It certainly makes replaying the game a lot more fun, especially as we all wait patiently for The Elder Scrolls VI, which may or may not come out in our lifetimes.

8. Alternative Start

In basically every Elder Scrolls game starting back at Arena, players have kicked off the game by being imprisoned, the only outlier being Daggerfall.

At this point, it’s basically a staple of the series, and we would be highly surprised if TES VI did anything different.

However, if you’re getting tired of waking up in the same cell with the same Dunmer taunting you all the time, then you need Alternative Start!

With this Oblivion mod, you’ll start off in the cabin of a ship where you can create your character and customize them using “immigration forms.”

Along with the usual character customization options, this mod also allows you to pick your social status, financial situation, and port of entry.

So, if you want to start off as a wealthy noble, you can, or you can roleplay as a poor merchant coming to Cyrodiil looking for better opportunities.

We love that this mod allows you to really start off the game on your own terms and be whoever you want right from the get-go.

Plus, it really beats having to go through the same song and dance everything you want to replay the game!

7. Natural Environments

Some of the best Skyrim mods of all time revolve around improving the environment, and this one brings the same treatment to Oblivion.

This Oblivion mod not only enhances and improves the environments of the game but also adds seasonal weather, improved celestial effects, and over 40 new types of weather.

If that wasn’t already enough, the Natural Environments mod also fixes opaque water surfaces, underwater visibility, pixilated clouds, and random weather changes.

Oh, and numerous types of birds and insects have also been added for additional immersion and realism, though you can’t catch or interact with them.

Much of the vegetation around the map has also been overhauled to look fuller and more realistic without impacting your FPS.

Natural Environments really does a little bit of everything when it comes to the environment, and it certainly has quickly become one of our favorite mods!

6. Better Dungeons

Oblivion has some incredibly fun dungeons to explore, but after a while, they can start to blur together and become a bit repetitive.

Fortunately, modder Scot has created a mod to overhaul all of the caves in Oblivion, and we literally mean all of them!

With this mod, every cave will have different things about it that make it unique and worth exploring.

For example, some with external light will have plants to harvest, and others will have tight areas you’ll have to squeeze through to reach new areas.

Ropes have even been added to a few that you can climb to find well-hidden treasures that you couldn’t get to otherwise.

Moreover, there are even new unique puzzles that lead to unique treasures that are really worth going after.

One thing we really love is that all caves, except those with crevices to let in natural light, have been darkened considerably.

This makes using torches a must, which is really immersive, and it totally gives these caves and ruins a very foreboding atmosphere.

When you have Better Dungeons installed, even if you know this game like the back of your hand, you’ll want to re-explore every new cave you come across!

5. Oblivion Character Overhaul

Okay, so this is our second character overhaul mod, and we’ve ranked it higher than Beautiful People because it’s absolutely stunning.

While Beautiful People has more of an anime flair to it, Oblivion Character Overhaul is much more realistic, in our opinion.

This Oblivion mod touches on everything and completely overhauls face shapes, skin and eye textures, hairstyles, and races.

It was created based on both Skyrim and ESO, so it’s closer to the modern Bethesda style of character design.

Every race looks incredibly distinctive, and beast races especially have gotten a huge glow-up that makes them far less awkward.

Speaking of different races, each one now has a unique head mesh so that it’s easier to tell them apart, plus lore-friendly eyes that match their modern depictions.

On Nexus, this mod has been downloaded over 2 million times, making it easily the best character overhaul of the game.

Like the best Skyrim character mods, this overhaul is a must-have for anyone replaying Oblivion, and we really can’t recommend it more highly!

4. Midas Magic Spells of Aurum

Oblivion did a lot of things extremely well that Skyrim dropped the ball on. One of which is the magic skill system.

In Oblivion, players skilled in magic can learn over 200 spells and craft their own unique spells once they get into the Arcane University!

Skyrim, on the other hand, only features 96 spells altogether, a far cry from the huge number available in its predecessor.

However, Midas Magic Spells take the magic system in Oblivion even further by adding another 290 unique spells!

These include things like beam, projectile, and spray destruction spells and summoning spells that allow you to conjure everything from a flying carpet to a Dwemer transformer!

If this huge amount of new spells isn’t enough to interest you, there are new ways to obtain them that include quests and visiting other worlds.

There is so much that this mod offers, and it’s insane! Did we mention you can summon an atronach made out of watermelons? Because you totally can!

Modder ChtonicCelestial also made a version of Midas Magic for Skyrim, so if you get hooked, you can use many of the same spells there!

3. Better Cities

The cities in Oblivion don’t get enough credit, even if they have fallen a bit behind by modern gaming standards.

Well, with this mod, they can get the love they deserve and the update they need to be just as enthralling now as they were in 2006.

Better Cities, as the name suggests, makes the major cities of Cyrodiil a whole lot better by adding new buildings, more NPCs, and new quests.

This is a compilation of a series of Better Cities mods, and they all come together to make Oblivion really feel alive.

It even has integration for several other mods, including ImpeREAL Castles by SilentResident, Anvil Bay Expansion by Jif2n, and Bank of Cyrodiil by Zarkis.

Best of all, this mod is modular, so you can choose what to add and what to leave out for a ton of customization.

However, we absolutely love all of the changes this mod makes, so we’d definitely recommend trying out all of the options for yourself!

It may not make the game as expansive as some of the best PS5 open world games, but it certainly makes Cyrodiil feel like a thriving country.

2. Qarl’s Texture Pack II

We certainly can’t have a list of the best mods in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion without mentioning textures.

In 2006, the textures in Oblivion were par for the course, but today, well, they are certainly showing their age!

Thankfully, modder Bangboomstik has created a comprehensive texture pack that makes everything in Oblivion look cleaner and much sharper.

Most textures are now roughly 4x the size of the originals, meaning they have much more detail in-game.

Many meshes have also been altered to take advantage of the game’s parallax shader, which has also been tweaked to fix problems with artifacting.

The only things not altered by this mod are clothing, creatures, NPCs, foliage, the sky, the Oblivion realm, the Arena, and Kvatch.

This means that all of the architecture, dungeons, landscapes, rocks, furniture, and clutter get overhauled with this mod, along with blood and even falling snowflakes.

With this mod, Oblivion looks a bit more like one of the best Xbox One games, which is a significant boost!

Once you see the before and after effects in your own game, you will never want to go back to the vanilla textures ever again!

1. Unofficial Oblivion Patch

Taking our number one spot is the Unofficial Oblivion Patch, an absolute must-have even if you don’t plan on using any other mods.

This patch fixes so much in the game, and when you play with it for a while, you start to take it for granted.

Simply put, this mod fixes over 2,500 bugs and over 70,000 item placement errors that were never officially fixed by Bethesda.

The change log for this mod is enormous, and it covers everything from quest and dialogue fixes to text and subtitle errors and texture glitches.

A lot of its fixes are essential for preventing game-breaking glitches that can really ruin your playthrough, plus a lot of other mods require this patch.

Overall, the Unofficial Oblivion Patch is basically essential for anyone playing the game today, and it will unquestionably make any playthrough a lot smoother!