12 Best Custom Perk Mods For Skyrim

Skyrim’s levels system is easier to understand than those of games like Fallout 4 or Oblivion.

In Skyrim, you don’t give points to stats like Strength or Speed. Instead, you get “perk points” that you can use to improve your skills.

It’s a fun way to keep track of how characters change. Instead of meaningless numbers, you get things like a 20% increase in weapon damage or better prices at shops.

Still, this affects the ways in which you can grow as a person.

And now we’ll talk about some mods that will speed up your character’s development and help you make the vampire-hunting, spear-wielding Argonian maid you’ve always wanted.

12. VR Perk Extender

The “Expanded Perk Tree Limits” mod addresses a limitation in the Vanilla VR version of Skyrim.

It allows players to have more than 18 perks in a single skill tree without experiencing a crash-to-desktop (CTD) issue.

By extending the number of available perks to 72, this mod enables players to utilize various perk overhauls available on the Nexus, which often introduce additional perks and enhance gameplay mechanics.

With this mod, players can fully explore and invest in a wider range of perks within each skill tree, expanding their character’s abilities and customization options in Skyrim VR.

11. Ish’s Souls to Perks

The “Dragon Soul Perk Points” mod introduces a mechanic that allows players to purchase perk points using dragon souls.

In the game, dragon souls are typically used to unlock shouts and enhance the player’s abilities.

However, this mod adds the option to spend dragon souls to acquire perk points instead.

Perk points are valuable resources that enable players to unlock and upgrade various skills within the game’s skill trees, providing advantages and customization options

10. Max Skills & All Perks

First, let me show you how to get the most from the vanilla perks.

Max Skills & All Perks by ClearanceClarence does what the title says: it lights up the night sky by completing every constellation and granting you all 251 perks.

This used to be impossible without mods because the level cap was only 81, and you got one perk point per level for a total of 80.

Since patch 1.9, it’s possible to level past that by resetting skill trees – but it’d still take ages to unlock all perks.

This mod will take care of it in just a few clicks.

9. Custom Skills – Hand to Hand

Skyrim is a lot like the real world regarding hand-to-hand combat.

You might train until your fists are stronger than a steel dagger, but someone with a sword that gives them twice your range will cut your arms off before you can land your first hit.

Vicn’s custom hand-to-hand skills give you a fighting chance by helping you develop as a Pugilist with shiny new fist-based perks.

To become a medieval boxer, you’ll have to make your way to the Shrine of the Pugilist – a new location north of Whiterun.

8. Path of Sorcery – Magick Perk Overhaul

Unlike hand-to-hand combat, magic users have a ton of perks to choose from in different schools.

But you can be sure that once you’ve become the Archmage at Winterhold and mastered all magicks in Skyrim, you’ll want more.

SteelFeathers’ Path of Sorcery offers an immersive and exciting way to develop as a mage by changing most perks from “do X% more damage with Y” to something more interesting.

You can become a Blood Mage, commune with Eldritch Energies, and specialize in a specific Destruction element.

It’s fantastic for roleplaying and makes magic a lot less formulaic.

7. Custom Skills – Vigilant of Stendarr

During my last Skyrim playthrough, my character ended up in Morthal trying to free the town of vampires way before my power level was enough to kill Movarth, the local master vampire.

Innocently, I decided to head to the Hall of the Vigilant for help, only to find it burned down and every one of Stendarr’s warriors dead.

So much for that plan… or not?

Turns out I had gone to the wrong place.

With the Vigilant of Stendarr custom perk tree by Vicn, you need only visit the Shrine of Stendarr halfway between Whiterun and Rorikstead to become a defender of the light.

The mod provides many exciting perks that’ll empower a pious paladin to push back against the dark forces that corrupt men and mer across Tamriel.

6. Spears Skill and Perks Tree

Skyrim’s combat system is far from sophisticated.

One place where that’s obvious is the different melee weapon classes – sword, mace, and ax – which work exactly the same, barring some perks.

A great way to expand Skyrim’s combat variety is by adding new weapons like spears and halberds.

But that’s not enough!

You also need specialized perks to swing that long stick skillfully and to devastating effect – and the Spearman skill tree by Bouboule is the best in the market.

5. Special Perks from Questing

Considering the prodigious amount of dark forces and mysterious spirits the Dragonborn interacts with throughout their long adventure, it’s only fair some of these would bestow upon them a blessing.

Special Perks from Questing makes this a reality by granting you some unique abilities that your character would have picked up in their adventures.

Stuff like stronger shouts after defeating Alduin, a special spell for becoming Archmage, or a blessing from Kynareth for healing the Gildergreen are only some of the boons you can get from questing.

It makes for a very immersive game where most questlines contribute directly to your build, making them much more important for progression.

4. Vokrii – Minimalistic Perks of Skyrim

I know some of you are tired of progressing through the same perk trees repeatedly.

If you’re looking for an overhaul that’ll spruce things up and make leveling feel new without messing with Skyrim’s intended progression, consider these minimalist perks by Enai Siaion.

This perk overhaul expands build variety without wrecking the parameters set by Bethesda.

It still feels like vanilla Skyrim, just slightly more sophisticated when it comes to leveling.

Moreover, Vokrii is highly stable. So it won’t make your game crash with some absurd badly-coded ability, or bloat your save file beyond what your system can handle.

3. Skills of the Wild

I’ve been playing Skyrim again after the release of the Anniversary Edition. And my favorite addition from the Creation Club has to be the survival and camping system.

There’s nothing quite as immersive as genuinely having to worry about food, protection from the elements, and camping supplies before setting out on an adventure.

A great way to make it even better is through Jayserpa’s Skills of the Wild, which adds all-new campfire and survival skills to help you become medieval Bear Grylls.

This mod adds four new trees:

• Art of the Hunt
• Knower of the Land
• Beast Handler
• Culinary Arts

Each covers a vital aspect of survival that’ll help you conquer the great outdoors.

2. Sacrosanct – Vampires of Skyrim

In Skyrim, vampirism is a disease – a condition that slowly pushes you farther away from your humanity, awakening a thirst for blood.

It’s not immersive to think you’d naturally become a powerful vampire with superpowers.

If that was the case, everyone would be a vampire.

Sacrosanct makes the struggle toward vampire supremacy much more realistic. It adds strict blood-consuming needs and several new weaknesses, along with new development paths for vamps.

The mod also adds a unique vampiric ability to each race. For example, the Altmer get more Magicka from feeding, and the Nords can raise the dead to fight for them briefly.

1. Ordinator – Perks of Skyrim

The most well-regarded perk overhaul among modding enthusiasts is Enai Siaion’s Ordinator, meant to create a more profound and rewarding character-building experience.

The mod adds a whopping 469 new perks, completely transforming every school of magic, melee combat style, and non-combat skill tree.

In addition, all vanilla NPCs are affected by the change, getting Ordinator perks rather than the inferior vanilla ones.

Becoming proficient in your preferred playstyle is a much slower and more nuanced process. You’ll get 50% more perk points (one extra every two levels), but you still need to stay focused to reach the highest levels of any one skill.

Now this is what I call a roleplaying game.