A Dragonborn's Fate

Mods to Avoid

This list is far from comprehensive. There are still tons of mods not listed here that will break your game. This is why it is very important to have some modding knowledge before adding any mods.
Always view every plugin you install with SSEEdit to check for conflicts.

Bugfix & Optimization Mods

Grass FPS Booster

Includes subjective tweaks and does not improve performance at all. Grass performance is dependent on the grass mod used the the density setting. Generating grass cache can also result in less grass overall, improving performance.

eFPS

Adds way too many occlusion planes, which can cause performance issues due to the higher CPU load from occlusion checks. This higher load would be fine only if the amount of draws lowered was significant, which it is not in the vast majority of cases. The mod also needs extensive patching with location overhauls, which most of the time have proper occlusion built in.

Visual Mods

Oversized textures

Based on the object size and how the texture is wrapped around it, you should pick textures with a reasonable resolution and avoid the very big ones also based on your display resolution. Keep in mind that the textures will not be displayed with their full resolution at all times, in fact they will be scaled down because of mipmaps based on distance and other factors, as shown with these sliders. Just for reference, a maximum of 2K at 1080p is a pretty safe bet in terms of balance.

AI-upscaled texture packs

Mods upscaled with AI or other lazy techniques generally are not worth the higher VRAM usage.

ELFX and ELFX Shadows

Both are unsupported and far less patches are available for them compared to Lux, which is visually superior for those who want a complete lighting rework.

HDT-SMP

Completely replaced and superseded Faster HDT-SMP.

Miscellaneous

Sinitar's Modlists

If you have a few hours and want more information about Sinitar's lies, scamming and lack of modding knowledge, check out this twenty-eight page essay that goes into excruciating detail about it.

Achievements Mods Enabler

Achievements are already enabled by Engine Fixes.

Skyrim's Environmental Audio Enhancer

This plugin may negative affect the game's audio dynamic range and compatibility with other audio mods.
Skyrim does not support true 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. Proper multi-channel surround mixing is not present, which would require extensive changes to even make possible.
Any surround sound effect in Skyrim is simulated rather than genuine, and often just results in louder audio.
Skyrim, a game made in 2011, does not support advance audio formats like Dolby Atmos.

Binaural 3D Surround Sound for Headphones - HRTF

Will cause crashes.