Downloading Skyrim now. What mods do you guys recommend for it?
what kind of skyrim to do you want?
Unanswerable question, but just start with 'Files of the Month', so you get a feel of what's out there. Then check out each category you like. After that kiss your social life goodbye :P
Tip: use Mod Organiser instead of NMM. It's not as 'plug and play' as NMM, but is shows you exactly where there are conflicts, what files are overwritten. Plenty of tutorials on Youtube and it will keep you from pulling your hair out when using massive amounts of mods (yes the mod cap of 250 may seem enough at first, but that thought will vanish pretty quick)
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1334/
SKSE and SKYUI are an absolute must. After that you could look into SMIM, armor mods, convenient horses, ultimate follower overhaul, all of the unofficial patches, iHUD, AHZ more HUD, amidianborn book of silence (all that apply), beards by hvergelmir, face/body mods to taste (I'm somewhat conservative with this, but the vanilla face models are hideous), wearable lanterns, my home is your home, some night sky mods, whatever graphics mods your rig can handle, custom player homes, plus whatever else interests you.
+1 for providing a better answer :)
Looking at your system on your profile. I think you can go crazy with it. I recommend Sky UI. Removes that yucky console UI. Frostfall and Realistic needs and thirsts if you want a realistic and more hardcore experience. And then there are a lot of immersion mods but those vary by needs and play style. Of course there are unofficial bug fixes which is a must.
Here is what I use.
And here is how it looks. : http://imgur.com/a/gijk5 [Screen shot album]
Also, here is what Logan uses. He goes over essential mods and gameplay enhancement mods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yr4uRW0cwY
Your preference on ENB, which is the Icing of the cake in mods, may vary. I recommend you look at videos and screenshots, expirement and see which one you like best. If you don't know what ENB is, it's a mod that enhances lighting, shadows, color and glare to create better visuals. A must have in my honest opinion.
Now, odds are, you will encounter problems. I use a tool called BOSS to fix any problems I have with mods. It detects errors in the load order. And it will also detect incompatibility between mods and will suggest a patch if one exists. Very useful. Link: http://boss-developers.github.io/
And happy modding!
Is there such a mod that add a "safety mode" to the game where you are unable to attack friendly NPCs when enabled? If so I'd highly recommend it.
Get FrostFall.