Thanks to its time in early access and existing tools and knowledge from Divinity: Original Sin 2 modders, Baldur’s Gate 3 already has a considerable modding scene. You can find gameplay tweaks, new visual options, and a bunch of good old fashioned cheats, like a barrel filled with all the weapons and armor in the game.
That’s all without official mod tools, too. Larian says those are coming. We don’t yet know what they’re going to look like, but they should only help the scene flourish even more.
Below are our favorite Baldur’s Gate 3 mods so far. We’ll flesh out this list as we continue to play and notice things we’d like to mod, and mods that mods them.
Utilities
Baldur’s Gate 3 Mod Manager: Used for organizing and installing mods. See instructions in the mod installation section of this article.
LSLib Converter Tool: For those who want to mess with Baldur’s Gate 3 game files themselves. Extracts Baldur’s Gate 3 .pak files, and converts its .lsf files in to text-editable .lsx files and back. Can also be used to convert its 3D models (but you’ll need granny2.dll, which can be found in older versions of the converter).
Full Release Mod Fixer: Required by some mods. Can be installed simply by dropping the .pak file in the mods folder. (See mod installation instructions below.)
Improved UI: Allows you to edit Origin character appearances, gets rid of warning messages when using mods, and makes some other interface tweaks, including some that other mods rely on.
Gameplay tweaks
Lone Wolf: Makes it easier to play the game as a solo adventurer with no party members by increasing the rate you earn XP and raising the level cap to 20 (you have to multiclass, since each class caps at 12).
Party Size Begone: The opposite of Lone Wolf. This one raises the party size limit from four characters to eight. Only works in singleplayer at the moment.
Multiclass Unlocker: Allows you to multiclass on Explorer difficulty.
Hide as a Bonus Action: Reverts Hide back to how it worked in early access. (In the full release, Hide is only a bonus action if you have an ability that makes it so.)
Bags Bags Bags and Additional Autosort Containers: Two mods with the same idea, which is that your inventory needs more bags. Either one is good, and will help you declutter your potions, scrolls, and other inventory bobbles.
NPCs Don’t Run From Summons and Druid Forms: Has this ever happened to you? (Cut to a crowd of screaming townsfolk running from bears.)
Visual mods
Dice Set Expansion : You can customize your dice in Baldur’s Gate 3 (there’s a little button in the bottom left of the screen when you’re rolling) but the selection is pretty pitiful. This adds a bunch of nice colors to choose from.
Simply Tats: Adds a bunch of tattoo options.
No More Dirt and Blood: Tired of scrubbing the grime off your party to make them look presentable? Problem solved.
Transmog: Lets you continue to wear your class starting armor while using the stats of better armor you find along the way.
Cheat mods
All Items: Want all the items? This mod puts a barrel in your starting camp with all the weapons and armor in the game.
Fast XP: There are two versions, one that gives you double XP until you reach level 5, and one that gives you double XP for the entire game.
Carry Weight Increased: Increase your carry weight by 1.5X, 2X, 3X, 5X, or 10X. There’s also a 9000X version but that sounds… dangerous.
I Believe I Can Fly: Adds ‘fly’ as an action for all characters in your party.
Ring of Favor: Adds a physical ring that when worn will always give you advantage during attacks.
Invisibility Extended Duration: Increases invisibility from lasting 10 turns to lasting up to 100 turns.
Mharius’ “Unleashed” mods: Gives races and classes additional proficiencies, affinities, passive abilities, and more.
How to install Baldur’s Gate 3 mods
There are three primary ways to install Baldur’s Gate 3 mods. Consult each mod’s installation instructions to know which is recommended or required.
- Using the Baldur’s Gate 3 Mod Manager
- Manually adding a .pak file to your Baldur’s Gate 3 mods directory
- Manually adding loose files to your Baldur’s Gate 3 data directory
The first two methods are similar. The unofficial Baldur’s Gate 3 Mod Manager allows you to import mods (which extracts their .pak files into your Baldur’s Gate 3 mod directory for you), select the order you want them to load in, and then generate a file called modsettings.lsx that tells Baldur’s Gate 3 to load them. (Make sure you hit “Export Order to Game” in the Mod Manager’s file menu to do that, otherwise your installed mods may not load.)
Some mods don’t require installation through the Mod Manager, or don’t work with it at all, and can instead be installed by manually copying a .pak file to the mod directory, no modsettings.lsx update required.
You can find the Baldur’s Gate 3 mods folder in:
- C:Users[username]AppDataLocalLarian StudiosBaldur’s Gate 3Mods
Finally, when a mod is distributed as “loose files,” that means it isn’t set up for Baldur’s Gate 3 to recognize it as a mod. Instead of a .pak file, you’ll get one or more directories that contain a variety of files with extensions like .lsf and .gr2. To install loose files, copy them to your Baldur’s Gate 3 install directory’s “Data” folder, maintaining the folder structure the mod came with (eg, Baldurs Gate 3DataPublicGustavContent[PAK]_CharacterVisuals_merged.lsf). Loose files will be loaded instead of the files Baldur’s Gate 3 would normally load.
If you own Baldur’s Gate 3 through Steam, you can find the install directory by opening the game’s properties in Steam and selecting “Installed Files > Browse.”
[email protected] (Tyler Wilde)
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