Baldur’s Gate 3 features a ton of mods that players quickly celebrated on the heels of its launch. Some of these mods were present in the early access version and have been updated for the full release. These are the best mods in Baldur’s Gate 3, adding plenty to Larian’s celebrated RPG in the form of strictly cosmetic bonuses or powerful, game-changing boosts.
Before you can start using these mods in Baldur’s Gate 3, you need to have the Full Release Mod Fixer downloaded. This enables the ability to use the other mods on this list, so it is essential. Additionally, as of a recent update from associate editor Andrea Shearon, we’ve got a little explainer at the end of this on how to install BG3 mods; it’s dangerous to go poking around in those files alone.
The AI Friends mod gives BG3 players a simple way to focus on just their Tav, streamlining battles by having your party make de💮cisions for themselves. If you’re someone who prefers to focus on using your player character rather than commanding the entire party and all summons, this mod does that for you.
If you’re frustrated by your Sorcerer’s limited use of magic, then the More Spell Slots mod for BG3 should remedy that. Spell slots are highly limited in this game for magical classes. You are limited to only being able to cast as many spells in battle as you have available slots, and for some of us, a measly once or twice just isn’t enough.
One of the strangest limitations in BG3 is the level cap, but the Increase Max Level Cap mod removes that barrier for you and your party. You can only reach level 12 in Larian’s RPG, which is far lower than other games like it.
You’ll now have a level cap of 20. The way it works is that this Baldur’s Gate 3 mod doesn’t increase thꦑe maximum level you can reach with a single class. Instead, you can reach 20 through multiclassing. You still can only go up to level 12 with a si🎃ngle class, but you can use an extra eight levels for another class.
Larian didn’t make Minthara the easiest companion to recruit in BG3, but the Summon Minthara mod gives us one way to fast-track the Drow into our ranks. She’s one of the trickiest party members to recruit, only obtainable if you side with the goblins and take out all of the Druids and Tieflings at the Emerald Grove. Plus, you miss out on recruiting Halsin if you go this route.
As such, this mod addresses that issue head-on. From the starཧt of the game, you can summon Minthara as a party member. Sh🔴e’ll even progress alongside the player, essentially letting you be a good guy in the game and still recruit the Oathbreaker Paladin.
Perhaps the most bizarre and hilarious mod of them all, the You Were a Goat for 10 Years mod delivers a new background option for your BG3 adventures. You can pick a backstory where you were a goat for 10 years before the start of t🧸he game. That alone makes this one of the most unique mods, bu꧙t this has some gameplay elements.
As a person with some goat experience, yo🅰u automatically gain access to handle animals and have Darkvision. You can use these without having to pick a certain race or class.
Despite only having a max level cap of 12, leveling up can be a bit of a slog in BG3, so those looking for a quick power boost may want to check out the Fast XP moꩲd. This is even the case for completionists who are doing all of the side content available in the game. Considering how toꦅugh this game can be, you might want to over-level.
To do this, you can use this mod to gain experience much faster. There are two interesting options for this mod. The first is it gives yo🤡u double the XP for the first six levels in the game. This ensures you quickly prepare and can access🍌 some of the mid-game spells and feats.
However, the other option is to have fast XP for the entire game all the way to the level cap. Mix this with the level 20 mod, and you could have a much speedier (and easier) playtཧhrough.
The BG3 Party Limit Removal mod is either what brought you here or the one you just l꧒earned you want. No one wants to choose between bringing Karlach, Wyll, Shadowheart, Gale,🔴 Astarion — I can keep going. So, why not just bring even more pals along for the journey?
This removes the party limit of four and makes it a whopping 16 pa▨rty members you can bring with you at once. In addition, it somehow ups the multiplayer party size to eight players. With this, you can have a massive multiplayer party with nearly every major party member all together. This will make battles larger, wilder, and a lot easier.
The only thing you may see more in BG3 than your Tav is that constant roll o꧒f die, so why not dress them up, too, with the Pearly and Glittery Dice mod? For those who are disappointed by the severe lack of dice skins available in the game, this mod is for you. You get 13 new dice skins to choose from, ranging from bright and cheery lime green to deep pearl silver. There is likely an option for everyone in this quick and easy mod.
One of the strangest flaws of the Paladin is the lack of a deity to pick, but the BG3 Paladin Deity mod fixes that. Only Clerics get that option, despite Paladins (lore-wise) following a deity to whom they vow their oath, hinting at this canceled feature in the b✃ackend. This fanmade tweak should smooth over that glaring omission, allowing you to pick between the same gods the Clerics follow.
If you want a complete spell collection for BG3, then try the 5th Edition Spells mod to expand your scroll library. While Baldur’s Gate 3 takes the foundation from Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, it doesn’t contain all of its spells. This mod adds in some of the missing spells, such as Dominate Monster and Mass Heal. This alone makes it worth picking up if you feel the spell book is too limited in ꦯthe base game.
In addition, this mod better balances the overall progression of spells in this game with its numerous extra higher-level spells. You ܫget a better balance of spells across the 5th and higher levels 💞for late-game players.
Larian was pretty generous with its vanilla styles, but the Tav’s Hair Salon mod for BG3 cranks it up another level with tons of new hair options for your party. It’s got new looks, plus looks you’ve longed pined over some NPCs wear, but remain mysteriously absent from the character creator.
It’s also neat to see some hairstyles make a return from Early Access after Larian removed them for the full release for one reason or another. They aren’t all perfectly flowy, and some clipping looks silly here and there, but none of it’s too big a deal and definitely worth the time investment for making this one work.
The BG3 closet gets a little bigger with the Basket Full of Equipment mod. If you’re anything like me, mixing and matching the armor pieces Larian gives you is entertaining enough early on, but in the intense moments, I need my crew lookin’ their best.
It’s the natural next step after swapping up hairstyles, and while most things in the Basket Full of Equipment are for cosmetic purposes, there are some handy additions that buff your party. Dig around in there, and you’ll notice accessories and other gems that don’t have to limit your BG3 party to just looking almighty, it’ll make the brute force to back it up, too.
This mod’s so good, it made the top spot in the 10 best armor and clothing mods for BG3.
The Native Camera Tweaks mod is one of my BG3 must-haves. The vanilla camera just doesn’t do my Tav’s every, very photogenic angle perfect justice, so I love the extra control here. With this mod, you can override some of the zoom and FOV limits, giving you close-ups for better screenshots that aren’t just in cutscenes.
It can get a little finicky sometimes, but it’s way better than your usual options in BG3 and perfect for those of us who are really into dolling our Tavs up.
Ever wanted to explore The Forgotten Realms using your keyboard to guide your movements? Well, you are in luck — that’s exactly what the WASD Character Movement mod does.
This mod allows you to toggle between the game’s default movement style and using the WASD keys. It’s also a really intuitive mod, with the ability to quick-switch between the styles with a swift tap of the Caps Lock key. It even auto-toggles when you enter and exit combat!
With your movement enhanced, why not check out how to really overhaul combat with our 10 best combat mods for BG3.
Do you find BG3’s default character customization options a tad limiting? Then you’ll definitely want to take a peek at the Appearance Edit Enhanced mod. It adds loads of additional options, so you can create the character you really want to play.
You can even change the appearance of all your existing characters, too. However, keep in mind that this mod is dependent on Norbyte’s Script Extender. It’s all explained in the description of the mod though, so you’ll be just fine!
Inventory management in most RPGs can get chaotic at times. Oh, what am I saying? It’s inevitable that we’ll eventually lose track of what’s where and start losing or dropping things we really aren’t supposed to.
That’s where this mod, Bags Bags Bags, comes in. It adds 21 new containers to the game that’ll help you sort out your inventory more effectively. These containers are also purchasable from merchants in all three acts, so no matter where you are in the game, you can kit yourself out with some new practical containers.
I get it, carry weight add to immersion, yadda yadda. How much weight do you think Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z would be able to carry? I ask only because this mod is full of references to the ‘over 9000’ meme.
The mod does what it says on the box — you can increase the carry weight limit to whatever you like, even up to over 9000. So, if you think your character should be able to carry way more, here’s the BG3 mod for you.
I find it quite frustrating that we don’t know when a camp event might play out. So after just about every action, I find myself tempted to go for a long rest, only to find it wasn’t really necessary, and I just wasted my time.
This mod removes the guesswork and shows us a notification when there’s a camp event available. This way, we can stop wasting time and only long rest when absolutely necessary (and when there’s an event available, of course).
Even wanted to clad your entire party in all-black, like you’re the newest emo punk band in The Forgotten Realm? Well, now you can.
Dressing your characters in all-black can give your party a really badass look, as seen in the screenshot above. But, of course, this mod gives you the freedom to choose what to dye black — so at least you’ll have the option now.
This mod takes things one step further and allows you to reuse your dyes unlimited times. This means that you don’t need to obtain new dyes every time you switch gear sets, just whip out the old dyes and use them again.
I haven’t personally tested whether this mod is compatible with Aether’s Black Dye mod, so do be careful when installing. Always ensure you have a backup save, just in case.
Gold weighs a lot in real life, so adding a weight to gold can certainly help immersion a little. But video games have indoctrinated us for the last twenty years i🅺nto enjoying weight-free currency. You can have as much gold as you want (where does it all go, though?) and🎐 never be weighed down.
If you want the same to apply in Baldur’s Gate 3, then this mod needs to be in your load order. As the name implies, it removes the weight from gold, allowing you to carry as much as you want without ever having to store it.
Whaౠt would a fantasy world bꦉe without legendary items to chase down and own, making you a force to be reckoned with in combat? Well, probably vanilla BG3, I guess?
This mod adds legendary items and also gives you a choice of how you obtain them. You can get them straight away, and for free (if you want to test them, I guess), you can obtain them from special places, or you can add them to the loot tables of the world, so it’s all random.
Need even more stuff added? Then may I suggest our post on the 10 best weapon mods for BG3?
Being a D&D game, Feats can be pretty important in shaping your character into the perfect warrior. However, one modder decided that there simply weren’t enough Feats in vanilla BG 3, and hence, Feats Extra was born.
It adds a massive range of new Feats, including FeyTou🍸ched, Orcish Fury, Observant, Skulker, and so, so many more. This adds heaps of additional customization that you can apply to build your perfect warrior, mage, or thief.
The maps in BG3 aren’t terrible, but better maps are always welcome. After using Better Maps, you might come to find that my initial statement could be wrong.
Better Maps All in One combines a bunch of map mods by Nexus user pavelk, giving us a host of improvements on the vanilla maps. You can scale the minimap, drag it, remove the grid from the map, and even find NPCs easil🍰y with better markers. Overall, Better Maps is definitely worth a download.
It’s hard to imagine a world where magic is commonplace yet glasses weren’t invented yet, and hence, we have this mod.
Trips’ Accessory Collection doesn’t only include glasses and a monocle, but also a wide range of piercings to really spice up your characters with a range of accessories not included in the base game.
If you’re like me, you love books. If you’re like me, you also kinda hate books in BG 3, because you’ll have a lot of them and it’s a pain to tell which ones you’ve read and which you haven’t.
That makes this mod an absolute gift. Quite simply, it turns read books green, so you can tell at a glance which books are no longer useful, and which you’ve got to get reading.
This feels a bit like a cheat mod, but allow me to set the stage. You’re low on health, you’ve just stumbled into one more fight. Do you risk it and potentially only get some more tossable junk from your enemies, or do you just run away?
This mode makes that decision easy. With it, you’ll be able to see the item value of enemies, as well as their vulnerabilities. You’ll even be able to see the amount of items in containers. So yeah, it does feel a little like a cheat, but it sure has huge time-saving potential.
This mod allows for lighter and darker skin tones, while also adding tons of different🅠 colors. So if you wanted to be a green-skinned elf, a blu🧔e-skinned human, or even as pale as a vampire, this mod gives you more control over that.
Now you can bring your favorite shade of Avatar blue straight into the BG3 universe.
As we approach the bജottom of the barrel, there are still so many mods to choose from, but this one proves to be quite the time saver and thus deserves its spot on this list.
For the BG3 veterans among us who have seen the intro quite enough times, you can install this mod to simply skip it. Definitely not recommended for new players, but if you’ve ‘been there and done that’ what’s the point in not adding this mod?
Finally, we have a new dice set. I was originally going to add a mod here that gave us multiple new dice sets, but since it’s not been updated for patch 7 yet and looks unlikely to ever be updated, I’ve found a worthy competitor.
The Astral Sea Dice Set mod is just one of a few dice mods from Nexus user JohnZyxx, and if you like this mod I highly recommend checking out their other in case there’s one that catches your fancy even more.
It’s not a big overhaul mod, but in its own small way, it helps to keep this amazing game feeling just that little bit fresher.
How to install mods in Baldur’s Gate 3
To install mods in BG3, you’ll want to begin with a few basics. You could always go the manual route — extracting and placing everything in the proper folder, overwriting certain files, etc. — but I much prefer a mod manager. Specifically, I recommend the from Laughing Leader. For a quick run down, here’s the whole process:
- Download mod manager
- Download any mod requirements
- ,
- Select File, then Import Mod, and click desired mod
- From the Inactive Mods box, drag mods to Active Mods
- Note the load order, place the mod in the correct priority suggested by the modder
- Select Save Load Order to File, then Export Order to Game
After downloading and installing your new mod manager, get the basics installed. You may want to go ahead and install the Full Release Mod Fixer, as we mentioned above. It’s not a requirement for everything necessarily, but so many mods use it it’s worth the download. Improved UI is another you may encounter often.
If you’re using the BG3 mod manager, note the “#” column. This is your load priority. When dragging and dropping mods here, the lower the number, the higher the priority it is. Some mods getting prioritized over others will break them. On some occasions, modders provide help with prioritizing load order, and for some of the tweaks, where they’re at just doesn’t matter.
It can be a bit꧂ of a guessing game, but I suggest loading mods in one at a time, making sure your most recent addition works before adding another.
Published: Nov 26, 2024 09:09 am