Top 35 Best Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Mods [2024]

Morrowind is the third installment in the now-legendary Elder Scrolls franchise. Although its original release was all the way back in 2002, there are still many reasons to go back to play this classic.

It is the first mainline game in 3D, Morrowind still has a certain style and charm to the way it looks, especially if you’re nostalgic for older games.

If the way the game looks or even its outdated core mechanics is swaying you, here’s a list of some of the best mods to try out to make your gaming experience pleasant and in-tune with the modern times.

Best Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Mods

35. One Month Respawn

One Month Respawn is a mod for Morrowind that changes the four-month respawn timer so that all things dependent on that respawn timer will respawn every month instead of every four months!

This can include but is not limited to, enemies, creatures, NPCs, and objects.

The benefits of this mod are obvious – it keeps the world feeling fresh and alive and prevents things from feeling too static.

It also makes it much easier to get involved in the world and the many plotlines that exist within it.

34. Smart Chasers

Why do hostiles in Elder Scrolls III give up on pursuing the player through any loading screen doors? Weird.

The Smart Chasers mod makes enemies actually follow you through doors instead of being stuck outside.

This can lead to some very intense and challenging battles, as you can no longer simply run away from your opponents. This can make the game more difficult, depending on your preferences.

As a bonus, this mod makes crime more difficult since you won’t be slipping away from the town guards and shopkeepers quite so easily.

33. Hla Odai

Hla Odai is a cozy new Hlaalu dock town that has sprung up at the mouth of the Odai River.

It’s a great place to stop and rest while on your travels, and there are a few quests to be found within the town itself.

Morrowind is an incredible place to explore and experience. With its fun, energetic atmosphere and a myriad of cool sights and sounds, it’s the perfect place for anyone who loves adventure and excitement.

One more fascinating location only makes the world even richer and more alive.

The mod adds a number of new NPCs to the game, as well as a few new items and buildings. It’s a great addition to the game and one of our favorite Morrowind mods.

32. Temple Shrines Glow

If you’re looking to add a touch of warmth and serenity to your Tribunal Temple shrines, then look no further.

These stunning landmarks capture the imagination and transport players to the magical world of Tamriel.

This mod adds a gentle ambient glow to the shrines, making them feel more inviting and special.

It’s the perfect way to soften the harsh environment in Morrowind.

So if you’re looking for a subdued atmospheric experience unlike anything else, make sure to check out one of the majestic temples of Morrowind today!

31. Sails and Sales

Sails and Sales adds a whole new layer of excitement to Morrowind.

Now you can take on the life of a ship captain, assemble your perfect crew of mercs and scallywags, and acquire cargo to transport and sell.

Sailing becomes a fun and adventurous way to earn some extra coins.

This mod really immerses you in the game, making you feel like you’re a part of the living world.

30. Secrets of the Crystal City

The Secrets of the Crystal City mod is practically a small expansion for Elder Scrolls III.

It introduces a new area called the “Crystal City” of Massama, which has been discovered by a group of escaped slaves.

Players can investigate the mystery of this city’s curse and the politics and violence between the factions of Massama who fight over the bounty of the mines.

The mod is very well-made and adds a lot of new content to Morrowind, making it a must-have in our books.

29. Daedric Shrine Overhaul

Daedric shrines should be as unique and impressive as the particular prince it’s built in honor of!

There are a lot of different Daedric princes in the world of Morrowind, each with their own unique personalities and quirks.

Daedric Shrine Overhaul aims to make each Daedric shrine in Morrowind unique and fitting for the respective prince.

The mod borrows assets from other popular mods OAAB, Tamriel Rebuilt, and The Doors of Oblivion, to create an immersive experience for the player.

Each shrine has been redesigned with a new look and feel associated with them.

Whether you’re a devout follower of Daedric Princes or just looking to get closer to the rich lore of Tamriel, Daedric Shrine Overhaul is a lore-lovers treat.

28. Better Heads

In terms of cosmetic mods, this is one that is specific and simple. The Better Heads mod focuses on the textures of characters’ faces.

This mod helps to improve their appearance, which helps when every time you engage in dialogue, you get a close-up of the NPCs face.

The Better Heads is a great mod to have with other bod and character modifications.

27. Landscape Retexture

Due to the age of Morrowind, the textures definitely don’t match those of today’s games, including the textures of the landscape.

The Landscape Retexturemod improves and retextures every region throughout the game, focusing mostly on the ground.

You can choose between 2K and 1K versions and witness the difference in every grass plain, bush, dirt road, and street with improved textures.

Combined with character mods, Morrowind will feel almost completely remastered.

26. Morrowind Graphics Extender

One of the most well-known graphics-related mods when it comes to Morrowind is the Morrowind Graphics Extender mod.

This mod entirely changes the way the game looks, including changing the water effects and including a distant land feature. The number of alterations and changes made with this mod are quite extensive.

Changes include altering the interface, menus, and rendering. This mod also extensively changes the code scripts within Morrowind to make additional setting changes.

25. Run Faster – Faster Running Speed

Run faster is a mod that does exactly what it says, it increases player movement. To anyone that has played vanilla Morrowind, you’ll know that if you don’t build into speed at all, then the early game is slow, literally.

Now, this can be remedied in-game through gameplay by finding gear that enhances speed, such as the boots of blinding speed.

But assuming you don’t want to go treasure hunting or having to build speed all the time, this mod will alleviate this issue.

24. Accurate Attack

Now depending on who you are as a player, this mod being on our list might seem like heresy.

But for more casual players that aren’t so concerned with all of the stats and making optimal builds and just want to experience the older Elder Scrolls titles, this might help.

Accurate Attack makes it so that all attacks hit as long as they collide with the model.

This makes it much more like Oblivion and Skyrim. Because of the systems in place for Morrowind, it does break the game a little. But if the complete Morrowind experience doesn’t concern you, then this is a great addition.

23. Morrowind Enhanced Textures

Morrowind Enhanced Textures is for anyone who wants better textures without actually changing them. This is achieved using super-enhanced resolution generated networks or ESRGANs for short.

Because of ESRGANs, you can have a less blurry-looking Morrowind on a modern system with it still looking the same. These textures get all the way up to 4k if you really need them to.

22. Andromeda’s Fast Travel

If you’ve played pretty much any open-world RPG of the past decade, then fast traveling might seem like a no-brainer.

However, during the distant times of 2002, this was not a common system as such things would be reserved for spells, like the scroll of divine intervention.

Having fast travel be a mechanic that is tied to the magic system and teleportation is very immersive. But with your choices being imperial temples or mage’s guild halls, it can be limiting.

If, however, you are willing to sacrifice some immersion, then Andromeda’s Fast Travel mod is for you.

This keeps some immersion while allowing you to fast travel to more locations more easily. Just in case you want more options and a bit more convenience, get this mod!

21. Real Signpost

To go along with Andromeda’s Fast Travel, you can get Real Signpost.

Another self-explanatory mod that makes it so that signs actually say what they say. And even without the fast travel, it just adds to the world with the signs being more real.

20. Graphic Herbalism

For any alchemy-focused characters, something like Graphic Herbalism may suit you.

Rather than opening a container to get the plant, you directly harvest it, more like the way it is in Oblivion and Skyrim.

This, plus the plant’s parts actually being removed, really add to the experience, especially if your build revolves around this.

There is also an extra version that does this but with mining making it so that you would need a pick to harvest any of the ores.

And other kinds of “organic containers” may need you to use a sharp weapon, like an ax, sword, or spear, making the world a bit more immersive.

19. UI Expansion

With modern games having easy-to-use filters and search bars for inventories, using Morrowind’s may take some getting used to.

Using UI Expansion, however, can alleviate that. Adding a search bar, item filters, and more feedback makes the UI more pleasant to use overall.

A great addition to improving your gaming experience.

18. Better Morrowind Armor

Upping the armor resolution without changing them is what Better Morrowind Armor does. It removes the texture stretching on certain parts like on gloves or gauntlets, where it’s common.

Being able to close up on your character or anybody else’s without noticing any blemishes is great and aesthetically pleasing, to say the least.

Especially if you’re using other texture enhancement mods, Better Morrowind Armor takes the visuals one step further.

17. Better_clothes Official Version

The last and latest update of this mod which fixes the meshes and improves the textures of all the base game clothing is a great addition to your gaming experience.

Better Clothes goes beyond improving appearances and fixing some of the seams as it also frees up some of the clothing slots. This allows for more customizability within your character’s style.

16. Better Bodies

Another mod that does exactly what it says, Better Bodies. Though most of your playthrough will not be including looking at an unarmored or unclothed body, however, if you choose to do so, then it might as well look good.

The mod replaces the bodies of all male and female playable characters in the game, making it look more in tune with modern times.

This mod is also used alongside a number of armor mods and clothing mods, so you might as well pick it up too.

15. Better Dialogue Font

Another simple mod that increases the text resolution, Better Dialogue Font, is a pretty good mod to get as modern monitors.

The original text resolution may be way too small to read.

Though this mod doesn’t change much, small tweaks like this always help the moment-to-moment gameplay helping enhance the overall experience.

14. Morrowind Comes Alive

Morrowind Comes Alive adds 1200 new NPCs to the game. All of them have new and different schedules to make the world come to life.

This adds to the settlements to make them more lively and to the world, adding more adventurers and other roaming activities, helping the game just take that one step closer to feeling real.

All the NPCs have different heads, bodies, hair, and other features, making them stand unique from each other. You won’t get bored with this mod.

13. Welcome to the Arena

If you’ve played Oblivion and loved one of the main attractions in the Imperial city, the Arena, then you’ll feel right at home with this mod. Welcome to the Arena.

Not only does it let you participate in arena battles in Vivec just like you did in the Imperial City, but more.

Much like in Oblivion, you will be fighting for the title of Grand Champion, and many of the fights will have unique mechanics to keep them interesting.

There is, of course, still the betting side of it if you’d rather stay away from the bloodshed. And finally, you can take followers in with you, and they will increase in level every time, only to a maximum of 4 times, though.

12. Magic Diversity

If you have already done a mage playthrough, you might have noticed something about the magic. With only a handful of animations for all the spells, you’d think that there would be more variations.

Magic Diversity rectifies this by adding new HD textures for both castings and hit effects of spells, and new animations for different schools and types of magic.

These two features combined not only make using magic more visually interesting but also helps with the gameplay allowing you to prepare yourself if you see a certain type of spell being cast.

Now you can tell when they cast a spell to damage your weapon or set you ablaze. Being able to differentiate these spells can change how you choose to fight. We recommend getting this mod to really get into the vibe of the game.

11. Animation Compilation

This mod compiles a number of different animation mods, making it a one-of-a-kind download.

Animation Compilation has animation fixes and changes for everything. Improving the running, swimming, attacking, and spell animations makes it so that you can see this all in first person.

10. Morrowind Rebirth

This is one of those mods that you get after experiencing the base game first, but if you haven’t, it’s okay.

For those who have done a playthrough, this might be the mod for you. Morrowind Rebirth aims to provide older players a fresh Morrowind experience. To do this, Morrowind Rebirth is a complete overhaul mod.

That means changes to the map, the layout of the cities and NPCs, more NPCs, overhauls to the enchantment, alchemy, and armor systems, new hostile NPCs, and much more.

This is perfect for those who want something different but enjoy the Elder Scrolls setting and still want to be in it. This mod also works for OpenMW if you are using it.

9. Morrowind Enhanced Overhaul

Morrowind Enhanced Overhaul is a more invasive mod than Morrowind Enhanced Textures by doing most of the same things plus adding some extras like upscaled textures, new weather effects, an enhanced UI, and some gameplay tweaks. Although the mod does quite a few things for you, you might not like some of the changes.

It does help in a few more areas, like changing indoor lighting to match better or adding more rocks, grass, and other wildlife to make Morrowind feel more alive. It also adds all of the lighting and shader effects you might want.

This is more for you if you want an all-in-one package rather than customizing every detail.

8. Sothasil Expanded

If you’ve played the Tribunal expansion, you know how grand and amazing the clockwork city is made out to be. If you found yourself disappointed by how it was, though, then this mod author sympathizes with you.

The goal of SothaSil Expanded is to make the clockwork city fit the lore description provided in-game and other sources.

Adding 300 new buildings full of fabricant people and Watchmen, guarded by the automated defense systems, makes things a lot interesting.

More side quests and armors, as well as new unique artifacts straight out of the lore, will have you ecstatic. And even after all that, SothaSil Expanded adds puzzles to spice up the gameplay and make it so that combat isn’t the only engaging gameplay.

7. Project Atlas

The way Morrowind handles a number of its models and textures is inefficient. Project Atlas aims to improve this so that more performance-heavy areas run better.

Because of the nature of this mod changing a number of textures and objects to improve performance, some retextures may conflict with it. To remedy this, though, there is a guide on the page about how to fix it.

6. Tamriel Rebuilt

Easily one of the largest overhaul mods for Morrowind, Tamriel Rebuilt adds everything you’d want to the game.

This, of course, means that the Morrowind will actually be Morrowind. As the base game only has the outer reaches of Morrowind, Tamriel Rebuilt adds the entire mainland.

This mod builds Morrowind the way it was envisioned; this means though that it will not line up with the modern lore.

This is because of Bethesda having a soft reboot and change of writers as of Oblivion’s time. So if you missed old writings of the time of Daggerfall and Morrowind, then this is probably the closest you’ll get to be a new game set in that.

Adding more faction locations, plus new questlines and hundreds of new NPCs and buildings, of course, the mod still isn’t complete with the authors’ estimated the completion year of 2030.

5. The Facepack Compilation

The faces in Morrowind do look quite dated, although they don’t look bad themselves, especially when compared to Oblivion. But you may want to change that.

Well, The Facepack Compilation mod is the all-in-one package to enhance the base game character’s faces.

Increasing the number and quality of the faces and hairs available in the game will make the outdated graphics more palatable.

4. Morrowind Optimization Patch

Morrowind Optimization Patch does exactly what it says. Improving the vanilla meshes to perform better, this mod, however, helps with running Morrowind so much that it is near essential for modern systems.

And if you’re using OpenMW, this actually does more for you than vanilla Morrowind, so overall, this mod is perfect for anyone who is having performance issues with the game.

3. Mge Xe

MGE XE is a graphical mod that aims to add more modern effects to the game. This includes a further rendering distance, shaders like SSAO, sunshafts, and HDR, water effects, and more.

So if you’re the kind of person who likes it when a shadow is where it should be based on the time of day, then you’ll want this.

Even if you don’t care much about these kinds of things, it can still help a fewer graphics-focused person as it allows for proper resolution scaling and proper adjustment of FOV. If, however, you are using OpenMW, these features come with it.

2. Morrowind Code Patch

Morrowind Code Patch is pretty much essential for either modded or a vanilla experience.

Since there is an optional version that tweaks some things and adds some quality of life features, it is recommended that for the full vanilla experience, you get the basic version.

The reason you’d still get this through playing vanilla is that it fixes a number of crashes, save file corruptions and systems working incorrectly.

This makes it an easy pick for anybody, vanilla playthrough or not.

1. Mwse

If you’ve played and modded any other Bethesda RPG, you’ll probably be familiar with MWSE.

As with many of their other games, this is a script extender that allows for many other mods to even work at all. Because of this, MWSE is the closest to an essential mod you can get.

Though it doesn’t add anything directly for the player to notice, it is what many other mods are built on. So if you yourself want to do any heavily modified playthrough, you must get MWSE.

You might also be interested in the following: