I was wondering if I would need a VPN for the forums by any chance.

I think vpns make it worse, especially if you use one of the popular ones. Because the vpn company still tracks everything you do, but they watch it even more closely because they see you are trying to hide something. Using a vpn is like putting a big sign over your head "Don't look at what I'm doing here!" But of course that just gets their attention and makes them want to look even more.

Use https://thatoneprivacysite.net/#detailed-vpn-comparison to find the best vpn according to your needs. Ideally, find one that doesn't keep any of the types of logs.

I recently choose mullvad, because it doesn't keep logs and acted in ways indicative of user privacy. Obviously, others will work for you, too.

Just a heads up though: I would be wary of NordVpn. They are owned, but actively say they are not, by a company that does lots of datamining on network traffic. They also conveniently very cheap and have tons of servers, almost like they can subsidize their product with lots of cash from selling data.