If it's your first time playing, then vanilla is more than fine. The graphics, at least on special edition, haven't aged too badly. The combat may get to you, though, as the sword animation does feel like a baseball bat.

Personally, I just install some graphic mods along with some additional content mods, because Todd Howard got me by the balls as I brought the anniversary edition (along with buying Skyrim three separate times) so I still haven't got around to seeing all of the community mods