The problem isn't so much that Skyrim doesn't have enough bears. Lord, no. In fact, sometimes it feels like the game is bears all the way down. No, the problem is that the game does have spiders. Big ones. In fact, one of the first encounters you'll have is a big ol' room full of spiders. They're all shambly and skittery, and they jump into your face with their big weird legs and eyes, and they're basically totally gross.
Now, this might not seem like a big deal to some, but to others, it truly is. We can joke about arachnophobia, but it's more than just a bad/good 90's movie—some people are truly, debilitatingly afraid of spiders.
I can only imagine how playing those sections would be for an arachnophobe—it'd possibly make the game unplayable! Fortunately, there is already a mod that replaces the spiders in the game.
Okay... so it replaces them with bears. Which is a little bit of a "Frying Pan to Fire" situation if you ask me, but at least fighting bears isn't as squirm-inducing as ramming your shield into slimy maw of a half-ton tarantula.
Of course, this mod might be a problem for anyone with Ursaphobia…
Skyrim: No Spiders Mod [Skyrim Nexus]
You can contact Kirk Hamilton, the author of this post, at kirk@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.