BG3; modding the game.

In the tradition of these games, Larian have published sufficient to allow mods to be written. Here are my notes and links, with my view of “how to” and some links to several “how to” videos. The original page focused on the 3rd Party and unofficial “BG3Mod Manager”. This article may have been rendered pretty obsolete by the introduction of the Larian Mod Manager in Patch 7.

Patch 7

When I booted the game after installing Patch 7, it came up with errors and would not start the game. I found this thread on Reddit, which points at this thread and followed the latter’s instructions. The latter link offers some very comprehensive advice; maybe I should read more of it.

I then rebooted the game and got warnings for my installed mods. I then inspected the new menu option “mod manager” which shows the mods installed and has warnings against those mods that are “unofficial”. (They seem to work still).

BG3 Mod Manager.

The top community modding site is, nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods. I am using Firefox and Ghostry, I had to mark the site as trusted as the downloads do not work unless this is done.

The BG3 wiki has an article on the subject, Installing Mods. They recommend the installation of the Mod Manager, which is at GitHub. It mandates some .NET programs, I already had the framework, but I installed the recommended .NET desktop app. I used this video as my guide, but later found this video. The latter is very quick but probably deals with the games file folder locations and other things in a better way; it also points you at the BG3 Mod Manager settings menu.

This is what I have done, I hope that having it in text format helps.

1. I have a windows machine and I made system checkpoint.
2. I then installed the bg mod manager from github,
   • Read the mod manager’s comments. It requires two .NET packages which are documented on the github page. This is also advised to be installed outside the program files folders. NB Larian use the Program Files 86 folder.
3. then the bg mod fixer. which I downloaded from Nexus, NB Nexus keeps track of your downloads.
   • I then tested an installation using “Tav’s Hair Salon“. I downloaded the package to ~/Downloads, copied the .pak file to “C:\Users\${ME}\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur’s Gate 3\Mods”. This is where all .pak file based mods need to be stored.
   • This is better done by “drag and drop”, from the download location to the bg3 mod manager to the available/not installed pane; if you do this it will determine if the mod is an override or not and if so locate the .dll in the game’s .\bin directory. It can then be copied to the installed pane using drag and drop
   • One needs to “[File] -> Export Order to Game” from the mod manager, and to text file as a backup and version control tool. The mod manager has icons for this.
4. I marked the Nexus site as trusted by my ad-blocker then downloaded, but not installed, Glasses by Ren to test that Firefox could download files.
5. I then downloaded Norbytes script extender, which requires the copying of the .dll to Steam\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\bin, which is in Program Files (86) folder. The script extender is also available via the mod manager File -> Tools menu selection. NB I did this second which may have caused an overwrite, so we’ll see about order. I had a fail to start message due to so called corrupt mods/files, the comment on the Nexus page, says, “Go to C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\BG3ScriptExtender\ScriptExtender and delete everything that exists in there launch the game again and it should give you the current version.” Worked for me.
6. I then installed, the all 5e spells mod, and a mod called “trickery domain overhaul”; these are for Shadowheart on my first run through.

Nexus keeps track of your downloads from their site.

More on Norbytes Script Extender

After a month or so, I had crash and the game started with an error message that the Mods were disabled. The fix required the reinstallation of NSE, i.e. I downloaded it again, extracted it, and copied it to Steam\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\bin. This may need to be scripted.

I found two more articles, How-to-install-Script-Extender at wiki.bg3.community, and how to get script extender working for bg3 mod at Reddit, I was writing a script for the latter, but am unsure if one still needs to maintain this after Patch 7.

What might I want?

• My first thougts were that I’ll need some of the camera mods, see the BG3 Camera Mod, but it’s behind a subscription, ideally I’d like it to work like NWN, left side pan left etc but I really must get an enhanced pitch, maybe Native Camera Tweaks. Having played it for 20 hours I am not so sure now.
• I also liked the sound of skeleton key, all companions aka party limit be gone and remove level limit or remove level cap for multi-class, but I think I’ll wait.

Shadowheart or Jester

Is it possible to play Shadowheart as a trickery domain cleric? Most commentators suggest not. I have written what turned into an essay on the best Shadowheart build. (I think too hard about some of this stuff.) I came to the conclusion that I wanted her to remain a trickery domain cleric. I first considered the big nerf in the game to be invoke duplicity and this can be fixed using a mod, called UA6 invoke duplicity. While looking for it, I came across a mod called “trickery domain overhaul”. This claims to correct some of the other nerfs and may in fact buff the class when compared with the DnD rulebook version, but also requires the all 5e spells mod. for Toll the Dead. TtD is a cantrip and is an important augmentation to the published build. I have installed these; we’ll see.

How odd, minutes after cutting all this out and making a public page, I find this video, Making Jester, although the author does not install the mods, they took more care in how the avatar looks.

Other people’s recommendations

• The second video about installation suggested above, has some recommendations, but blink and you’ll miss them.
• In my early explorations, I found these recommendation anthologies from Mr Hulthen, who also does masseffect, also videogames.si.com, with a great selection, including [all] 5e spells & Level 20 Multiclass and another list at gamerant.com, and I also found the Ultimate Game Experience of BG3 (Mods List and Guide), they say, “A comprehensive guide for most players who want to play with mod but don’t have much time or don’t know what they want (150 + currently). This will bring the best out of your game experience and save your time!”
• Colby of D4 networks does a video on adding the Artificer & Bladesinger. The Bladesinger mod is at nexusmods but also requires the all 5e spells mod.

The featured image is the screenshot from a youtube video, called “These mods make BG3 even better”.