The focus on these scaly behemoths brought the game closer to the broader Western fantasy narrative, evoking the terror of LOTR’s Smaug and the dragon from the English heroic poem Beowulf.
That said, the vanilla dragons are not perfect.
They’re epic and fearsome for sure. But some of us would like a little more variety, a little more ferociousness, and all sorts of traits that describe our ideal dragon.
And modding is here to help.
I’ve put together this collection of the most amazing dragon-centered mods available for The Elder Scrolls V.
Before you learn Dragonrend, you’ll only kill a dragon in Skyrim if it lets you kill it.
They can always take flight, and you’ll be lucky if you manage to get an arrow in while they’re circling the skies.
Still, every once in a while, you’ll manage to land a final hit as the dragon flies overhead. A spell or an arrow finally finds its target, lowers its health to zero, and the beast… keeps on flying until it finds a place to land.
Not very immersive.
Dragon Falls Down fixes the issue by making the scaly beasts fall unceremoniously from the air the moment they’re struck down.
Another great way to promote your immersion is enhancing the sounds that dragons make.
We just want them more detailed and threatening, right?
Immersive Dragon Sounds does that and more.
The flapping of dragon wings sounds calamitous, their breath apocalyptic, and every one of their attacks has also been made more fearsome.
But that’s just scratching the surface.
The mod also adds countless new sounds for dragons in the sky, on the ground, in the distance, or close by. It’s a lot, so try it out for yourself and see what you think!
If you want the full dragon-man experience, you’ll also need to get the wings.
Animated Wings Ultimate is a massive mod featuring a staggering 83 fully functional wing models, including fairy wings, feathered wings, and – of course – dragon wings.
Not only are they fully animated and beautifully detailed, but they’re functional too.
You can glide over gaps in the terrain, for example, and they’re fully compatible with flying mods as well.
You can also choose to give other characters wings; maybe make an entire town into a dragonspawn village. The sky is the limit.
These relatively small wings are perfect for lifting a human off the ground – but dragons?
They need a lot more surface area to soar the skies.
If you’ve ever taken a class on aerodynamics or watched a video on YouTube on how animals fly, you might have noticed vanilla dragon’s wings are tiny for such massive creatures.
Once you’ve seen it, it can’t be unseen – and your immersion will never be the same.
The solution is the Immersive Dragon Wings mod, which scales them up considerably.
This keeps the game as realistic as a fantasy RPG can be while making dragons even more ominous than before.
Dragons that fall down and realistic wing sizes are great.
But I know most of you just want more dragon diversity.
By Akatosh, you will have them.
The Diverse Dragon Collection mod introduces 28 unique dragon foes with distinct models, textures, and abilities that’ll overhaul your dragon hunting experience.
There are purple dragons, spiky dragons, decaying dragons – and my favorite, the feathered Zephyr dragon. That’s a divine beast if I’ve ever seen one!
On top of the 28 unique dragons featured in the Diverse Dragon Collection, here are another 13 all-new species to hunt down.
Something I found interesting about this mod is the inclusion of weaker dragon species that hunt in packs.
It boosts the diversity of encounters, and your pals at Jorrvaskr won’t believe it when you tell them you felled not one but two dragons at the same time.
Most of this mod’s dragons are initially grounded, meaning you’ll happen upon them on the ground rather than having to look at the sky like you’re trying to spot a UAV in Call of Duty.
Dragons are chaos incarnate – physical manifestations of powers beyond human comprehension.
So it would make sense that they’d rule over different elements.
And here’s a Skyrim mod to help us with that.
Elemental Dragons replaces the vanilla dragons for 45 scaly beasts endowed with the powers of Fire, Frost, Poison, Lightning, Water, Wind, Blood, Sun, and Acid.
I don’t know about you, but an Acid Dragon sounds hardcore to me.
Defeat them, and you may get the privilege of summoning them to fight for you in the future.
They’ll also drop all kinds of new items like unique scales and dragon blood potions.
Deadly Dragons is one of the coolest & most famous dragon-enhancing mods available for Skyrim.
As the name suggests, it makes dragons into much more powerful and memorable creatures – much like their lore would have you believe.
I’ve seen giants and bandits holding their own against dragons in vanilla Skyrim – not anymore.
My favorite feature of Deadly Dragons is the Assault Events, where dragons spawn and charge you in unusual places like dungeons, villages, and just areas that never had them before.
If Daenerys Targaryen can ride dragons, why wouldn’t Skyrim’s #1 hero?
Taming and riding dragons is undoubtedly a feature in vanilla Skyrim, but I’ve always felt constrained by the dragons available for taming. As the Dragonborn, killer of Alduin, I’d expect most dragons to show respect.
This mod lets the player summon one of 62 dragon mounts, including every single one in the vanilla game, the DLC, and many interesting fan-made additions.
Whether you wish to ride on Paarthurnax, a crystal dragon, or something ridiculous like a flying chaurus, this mod has you covered.
As a dragon aficionado, my favorite shout is Dragon Aspect. This lets your dragon’s soul manifest physically around you like an aura, granting you some draconic abilities.
Given its power and how taxing it is to the caster, this shout can only be used once a day in vanilla Skyrim.
That’s all fine and dandy when it comes to balance.
But some things are so cool that we’re willing to break the game to have them.
That’s why I find the Dragon Aspect Toggle a fundamental mod for dragon lovers. It removes the shout’s 24h cooldown and makes its effects permanent until the shout is used again to deactivate it.
Now that you’re able to fight dragons on equal terms, battling the ancient tyrants might feel a bit underwhelming – and I’ve got just the mod to fix it.
Ultimate Dragons is a unique combat overhaul that adds 20+ fully animated new moves that profoundly alter how dragon fights play out.
Dragons will now drop meteors on you, shoot tracking icicles, turn around to bite you, and much more.
They’ll even use familiar shouts like Fus Ro Dah and Marked for Death against you, giving you a taste of your own medicine.
I love subtle mods that introduce changes you might have expected in the base game – the kind that blend into the game so smoothly, you’ll forget about them completely.
Zim’s Dragon Improvements provides minor boosts to dragon variety and combat so that every encounter feels meaningful and unique.
Every dragon gets its own name rather than “Young Dragon” or “Frost Dragon” and stuff like that.
You’ll also get a special tooth trophy from every felled beast to commemorate the battle.
Their dragon breath is also much more deadly – which is actually more in line with the game’s lore.
If you’re not as interested in keeping things lore-friendly and would rather give your dragons an extreme makeover, Regal Dragons is the mod for you.
Many people find the regular vanilla dragons to be lacking variety and fantastical elements.
It’s a game where dragons soar the sky – so do they all have to look like oversized alligators?
With Regal Dragons, every beast – base game and DLC alike – has a distinctive coat with unique patterns that set them apart from their brethren and gives them a more fearsome look.
With it, every dragon encounter will be 100% more memorable.
Dragon War is meant to switch the power dynamic of dragon encounters back to how it was when you first escaped Helgen – that is, the player holding on to dear life while the dragon hunts them down.
Now you’ll have to take cover and strike when the time is right rather than charging into battle, trusting your heavy armor will keep you safe.
You’ll get boiled inside it if you’re not careful, so you better keep an eye on your enemy’s weaknesses and resistances, and use them to level the playing field.
Something this mod does beautifully is give the Dragonrend shout the importance it seemed to have in the game’s story.
With it, dragon fights become much more manageable – which makes getting Dragonrend a priority.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
