[Sombre]

I would normally suggest using the Conceptual Balance Mod as soon as you feel comfortable, because it does a huge amount to rebalance dom3 and make various strategies which aren't optimal in basegame far less punishing on the player using them. It reduces the cost of many lower level summons for example, which are otherwise something of a waste of gems.

But if you don't want to go changing too much at once, I think it's probably not the right mod for you. It isn't a Total Conversion or anything, but CBM does make a LOT of minor/major tweaks and changes and that has historically caused some confusion amongst players used to basegame.

I won't suggest my own mods because I'm obviously biased there. These are mods which I feel will give a good impression to someone new to modding though: (Edited because I forgot a couple)

Alugra by Burnsaber
Tomb Kings by llamabeast
Teutanion, Sylvania, Sanguinia, Kharam Dzu by Zepath
Haida Gwaii by Foodstamp
Gaea by Foodstamp
Urdheim by Saulot

Amos' mod nations are generally interesting and different, but not balanced to be played with basegame nations. They're worth a look though for sure.

You can find links to download all of them in the modlist. There are other good mods, such as Hesalt, but they need more work before competing with the above.

We don't have a rating system or a list of the 'must have' mods for a few reasons. Firstly we don't have enough people playing the mods and being vocal about them for a rating system by vote to actually work afaik. It also seems some modders/members don't want a rating system because they don't think it's fair/valid to rate one person's work against anothers. I don't fall into this camp, but plenty of people do. It's also very hard to get people to agree on what constitutes a good mod - shiny graphics tend to attract people, but a mod could have bugs, balance issues, lack of depth etc. Alternatively some people just won't like the theme of a mod or will consider it derivative and thus pointless.

Personally I'd love a rating system, but given people's reactions to the idea and the level of mod feedback in general, I don't think it would work out.