These mods will make your next archer playthrough feel brand new.

Archery in Skyrim tends to be a favorite playstyle among players. Once you start killing enemies with an arrow to the skull before they’ve even seen you coming, it’s hard to go back! However, archery in the vanilla game can be pretty frustrating. Some of the more well-known mods (like Archery Gameplay Overhaul) change many things about how bows work. These mods will make things a little less annoying, and add all kinds of cool features. 

10. Role-Playing Perks - Archery

Overhaul your perk tree to add different styles to archery.

This is a mod that changes up the Archery perk tree in ways that allow you to form a more distinct playstyle for your character. This can be great from a roleplaying perspective if you want each character you play to truly feel unique from the others. Even if you’re not big on creating a story for your characters, this mod has unique gameplay changes.

Features:

• Choose between two distinct playstyles: the Ranger and the Sniper
• Ranger focuses on increasing the speed of your shots, and your shots become more powerful over time
• Sniper focuses on much more powerful shots, with speed being sacrificed for quicker kills

Get the mod here for SE. 

 9. Critical Hits Make Sense - More Damage and Scaling

Land devastating critical shots on your enemies. 

Have you ever landed a critical hit on an enemy and wondered why it was so underwhelming? This mod will definitely fix that! It also helps your critical damage scale better with perks and skills. 

Features:

• Critical hits will now deal about 2x as much damage as a standard attack would and scale with enchantments and potions
• Critical attacks will scale with Armsman, Barbarian, and Overdraw perks as well as One-Handed, Two-Handed & Archery levels
• Alternative versions: Even More Damage and Scaling and Scaling-Only available on the downloads page

Get the mod here for SE. 

8. Shoot Straight

Switch up the aiming system to mix up your gameplay. 

Some players enjoy mastering the learning curve that comes with Skyrim’s strange archery system, but for others, it turns them away from bows. This mod makes your arrows go right where you’d expect them to- and much faster than before!

Features:

• Modified arrows with no gravity so they shoot perfectly straight to your target
• Speed of arrows improved from vanilla 3600 to 9000
• Speed of bolts improved from vanilla 5400 to 10800

Get the mod here for SE. 

7. Real Bows

A close-up look at one of many redesigned bows in this mod.

Real Bows would be a great mod for someone who prefers their bows to be practical and realistic, as opposed to fancy and over-the-top. This mod is purely cosmetic, so it doesn’t change any aspect of how the bows function in-game.

Features:

• Brand new realistic models for many of the bows in Skyrim
• The bows were designed a real-life craftsman, so they are made to reflect fully-functional weapons
• More natural textures with neutral colors, perfect for a character who lives off of the land

Get the mod here./se version.

6. Archery Quick Shot Perk Bug Fix

Improve your archery skill further by eliminating this pesky bug.

There is a pretty frustrating bug in Skyrim that exists within the Archery skill tree. It has to do with the Quick Shot perk and having your arrows not shot at their full power when the bow is drawn back fully. This mod is a quick and easy fix for the issue. 

Features:

• The effect of this mod applies as soon as you get the perk, or if you already have it on an existing save 
• This mod does require SKSE to work
• This mod is compatible with plenty of mods that make changes to the skill tree, including Ordinator 

Get the mod here for SE. 

5. Casual Bow Animation

Give your character a more relaxed look (shown here on a female Dragonborn).

Some of the animations in Skyrim just seem to be overly-dramatic. The animation for characters that have their bow drawn (while not attacking) can be very awkward looking. This mod simply replaces it with a more casual stance.

Features:

• New animations for standing, running and walking with a bow
• Different versions of the animations for male and female characters
• Your character will go into attack-stance once you draw your arrows

Get the mod here for SE. 

4. LAA - Lightweight Augmented Archery SSE

A look at the changes this mod brings to your archery perk tree.

This is a very helpful mod that reworks the Archery perk tree to bypass some of the less useful abilities. For a small mod, this has a ton of detail and thought put into the new arrangement of the perk tree. 

Features:

• Re-arranges the archery perks in a way that is much more comprehensive 
• Power Shot isn’t as early or as overpowered, but other abilities are available earlier and have more tiers to improve
• New additions to the higher levels of some perks, giving you even more increases to your stats later in the game

Get the mod here./se version. 

3. Scoped Bows

A look at the incredibly detailed scope on one of many bows.

Scoped Bows is a pretty well-known favorite, but because it can add such a unique feel to a new archer playthrough, I had to include it! It may not sound like it, but it is completely lore-friendly. Scoped Bows can really change up the feel of bow combat if you’re growing tired of it.

Features:

• Scoped bows pertaining to your level will appear throughout the world on NPCs and vendors, and they can be crafted with the corresponding smithing perks
• Unique bows will be scoped whenever you acquire them
• Lots of tweaks available upon installation and this mod is intended to be played with the standard crosshair disabled

Get the mod here./se version.  

2. Bow Bash

The new perk added with this mod as shown on the block skill tree. 

Bow Bash is a small mod that offers so much functionality it had to be on this list! It adds a Block level 20 perk that makes your bow an effective weapon to bash your enemies with. 

Features:

• Play an archer without having to constantly switch to melee weapons for close combat, as you can bash them with your bow instead
• The more powerful your bow is, the more damage it will do when bashing
• This mod requires you to put some points into stamina, as you’ll need it for your close-up attacks

Get the mod here./se version.

1. Combo-Archery

Use the extremely unique combat in this mod to be the most powerful archer you can be. 

When I was searching for mods for this list, Combo-Archery sounded so unique that I knew it had to be included. It replaces the “Bullseye’ perk, adding many new effects that you can use combos to achieve. If you’ve played a lot of archers and you’re looking for something new, this mod is it!

Features: 

• New effects for the Bullseye perk, including stun and disarm, frost and fire explosions, poison, and drain (Magicka or stamina)
• Each effect is achieved with a unique but simple movement combo, such as shooting+moving to the right, or shooting while not moving at all
• Compatible with any mod that doesn’t remove the Bullseye perk (this includes Ordinator)

Get the mod here./se version.

You may also be interested in:

• [Top 10] Skyrim Combat Mods We Love!
• [Top 10] Skyrim Mods That Add More Enemies
• [Top 10] Skyrim Best Vampire Mods We Love!
• [Top 10] Skyrim Best Swords and How to Get Them
• [Top 15] Skyrim Best Builds of All Time
• [Top 10] Best Skyrim Horror Mods For a Brand New Experience
• [Top 10] Skyrim Best Mods for Mages