I would suggest you play the game as-is for as long as you can, before using mods. This way, you can appreciate both renditions of the game - the core concept as idealised by the developers, and the re-imagination by the fans.

Once you get to the point of modding it, I would use the most basic one: Valheim Plus (from the Thunderstore and Bepinex) which tweaks a lot of the game elements to fit one's style.

Also, I would suggest you turn of Cloud Syncing/Saving for Valheim until IGS fixes the issue of some people losing saves.