What are the best Baldur’s Gate 3 mods? The modding community working on Larian games has a storied history when it comes to DOS and Baldur’s Gate, and the BG3 community is no different thanks to official mod support for the DnD game. We’ve delved into the BG3 mods that are available to add even more to the already massively entertaining game to find the very best ones.
As we explore in our Baldur’s Gate 3 review, the RPG game is filled with interesting and unique experiences, including hours of content that most players will likely never see, which includes most of the Baldur’s Gate 3 endings. Somehow, though, the modding community has still found gaps worth filling to improve your Baldur’s Gate 3 experience.
The best Baldur’s Gate 3 mods are:
Texture Upscale
If you want to kick the visual quality of the game up a notch, this Baldur’s Gate 3 texture mod might be what you need to enhance the graphics. For some strange reason, the textures in BG3 appear blurry even if your graphics preset is on ultra. With WestAard’s Texture Upscale mod, the texture assets have been improved to clean up the blurry edges and produce results like you can see above.
Hide Weapons
In a game with so many cutscenes, there is something that that bugs us whenever we see it: weapons. You can’t miss it when your characters have conversations – if someone in your party uses a large weapon like a bow, it’s going to appear in the cutscene. Thankfully, with the Hide Weapons mod you don’t have to see any glowing swords or giant axes in the background when your characters are being told something serious.
Best Boy
We’ll make no bones about it, Scratch is the sweetest follower you can recruit in Baldur’s Gate 3. This loyal pup can be summoned as a familiar on your travels, sniffing out hidden items, helping downed allies, and even removing harmful status effects. However, most players miss out on all the utility he brings, preferring to keep him out of harm’s way. The appropriately named Best Boy mod boosts his health, dexterity, and other attributes that can help you keep Scratch in tip-top shape out in the wilds. It even includes an “Invincible Scratch” version, so you never have to watch your faithful companion fall in combat ever again.
More Faces
Baldur Gate 3’s character creator is seriously impressive, but not everyone is capable of making realistic models. If you’d rather not cover up your character’s head with a helmet, you could try out cedastarions’s head presets mod to save yourself a lot of time. This mod adds 31 head presets to the game for elves, humans, tieflings, and short races for both men and women, making it easy to create a good-looking character.
Many More Monsters
Dungeons and Dragons players will tell you that one of their favorite parts of playing campaigns are the random monster encounters. In Baldur’s Gate 3, the main story is incredibly structured to ensure you have a consistent experience, but you can change that with Rob Lapham’s Many More Monsters mod.
This mod is a work in progress, so right now there are only encounters in the first act, but this is set to change over the coming months. Be warned that you’re unable to uninstall this mod during a campaign, otherwise it will break your save, so only install it if you’re committed to seeing it through until the end!
War Scythes
It might surprise you to discover that Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t have a wide variety of scythes, but modder kharneth has come to the rescue with the War Scythes mod. Using the glaives proficiency, these weapons can’t be dual wielded, but they do have incredible reach, making it easy swipe at your enemies from a distance. Take your Necromancer or Warlock to the next level by providing them with weapons that match their grim reaper-like abilities.
Astra’s Spellbook
The spells in Baldur’s Gate 3 can have disastrous effects if you aren’t careful, and now you can add more mayhem to the game using Astra’s Spellbook by Astralities. This mod adds 42 cantrips and spells to the game, including simple spells like summoning several spiders to help you fight, to more advanced spells to hurt enemies by plaguing them with horrific nightmares.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a Sorcerer to have all the fun, as the majority of these spells are available via spell scrolls. This gives anyone the option to use any of the new spells, though these are single use, and you won’t learn them like a magic user could. These spells are finely tuned and add a nice amount of depth to the game, so we highly recommend trying them regardless of your party composition.
Fix Stragglers
Don’t you just hate it when your companions get caught on a rock, causing them to lag behind you when traveling the world? That problem becomes a thing of the past thanks to Volitio, the creator of the Fix Stragglers mod. In those instances where the game seemingly doesn’t want you to bring your party members or summons with you, this mod allows them to jump boost or teleport towards you.
The best part is that this mod does all the hard work for you. You don’t need to recall your party when you notice they’ve been left behind, as the mod will automatically deal with the situation. If you want to cut out the middle man entirely, there’s even a manual keybinding to send your team over to you instantly.
Trials of Tav
Trials of Tav turns Baldur’s Gate 3 into a roguelike game, letting you test your might on hordes of enemies as you are teleported through 38 maps. Enemies are scaled to your level and appear in increasingly harder waves, and they drop random loot when killed.
It’s worth pointing out that this mod has been designed for new saves. While you can technically use an existing save, it will break your story progression, forcing you to start a new save if you want to find out what happens at the end of the game.
Magical Musical Instruments
For the musically inclined among us, the selection on offer in Baldur’s Gate 3 can be a little slim. With the Magical Musical Instruments mod, you’ll have more choices with which to weave your beautiful melodies, as it adds instrument rarity, as well as variants to the lyre, and flute. This musical mod also adds some quality-of-life fixes to your playing, such as ensuring that your character always plays the correct tune when joining a performance. A small, but necessary mod for the bards in the group.
No Intro
When you consider the length of Baldur’s Gate 3, the amount of time booting up the game over multiple weeks, potentially months, adds up. Baldur’s Gate 3 plays seven seconds of intro videos, but let’s be honest, you don’t need to see this every time you want to play. You know Larian Studios made Baldur’s Gate 3, you don’t need to be reminded every time you boot up the game. Install Caites and LaughingLeader’s No Intro mod to start saving up those precious seconds.
5e spells
If you’re knowledgeable on Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition already and find that there just aren’t enough Baldur’s Gate 3 spells, then you’re in luck, as the 5e spells mod adds many additional spells from levels 1 to 6. 7th to 9th level spells were also included originally and will be added back in at some point, and spells from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything are included, so there’s plenty more to choose from.
JWL Histories and Occupations
While the default set of Baldur’s Gate 3 backgrounds is fairly comprehensive, what do you do if you want to be a fearless bounty hunter? Or an archaeologist? Or a degenerate gambler? Well, thankfully, the JWL Histories and Occupations adds 26 new backgrounds for you to apply to your BG3 character.
WASD Character Movement
If you want to turn your BG3 experience into a third-person adventure game, then the WASD Character Movement mod is for you. Use your keyboard to move your character around the map; then when combat starts, the game transitions back to the traditional control method — and back again once your fracas is over.
Fantastical Multiverse
This impressive BG3 mod adds a ton of new races to the character creation screen. You’ll no longer be hamstrung by the selection on offer, or even the BG3 universe, as some of these new races come from Eorzea, Etharis, and Krynn. The Fantastical Multiverse is a perfect addition for those who are planning on multiple playthroughs of the RPG.
Customizer’s Compendium
One of our favorites since early access, Customizer’s Compendium was updated to work with the full game, but hasn’t been updated for a while. If you’re still interested in using this mod in the latest build, another modder came to the rescue with the Customizer’s Compendium unofficial fix.
Both mods add a trove of new additions to the customizer, including some hairstyles and options that were previously only seen on NPCs. If any new haircuts, horns, ears, and colors seem to be missing right now, hopefully, they’ll be added in a future update to the mod.
Improved UI
This is quite a subtle mod created to fix a problem that has infuriated some players. Improved UI cleans up the game’s interface, including dialogue option screens and removing the version number, which some players have found irritating.
Carry Weight Increased
Carry Weight Increased does exactly what it says on the tin, adding an incredible amount of slots to your inventory, and allowing you to carry more before you become encumbered. Just ignore the text on the mod page that says weight is increased to 9,000 – this was too much and broke the game, so it’s actually a more-realistic-but-still-more-than-you’ll-ever-need 900.
Mark Books as Read
If you’re super into BG3 lore (and let’s be honest, who isn’t) it can be difficult to keep track of which books you’ve consumed and which are on the to-read pile. With the Mark Books as Read mod, anything you’ve opened and read will be marked as green in your inventory, so you’ll always know what’s next on the list. As we all know, there isn’t anything better than a good book before turning in for the night.
Races Unleashed
There are 11 base BG3 races (not including subraces), and they’re all wildly different, so picking between them can be tough. However, thanks to modder Mharius’ Unleashed mods, you can add some non-existent features to your favorite race. Want a Dragonborn with Darkvision? Then Dragonborn Unleashed could be the mod for you. Playing a Drow but want to be even more intimidating? Then give Drow Unleashed a try!
Achievement Enabler
Installing Baldur’s Gate 3 mods technically prevents you from earning any achievements in the DnD game, but modder Duke the Dropkicker came along and changed all that. Their Achievement Enabler mod allows you to earn achievements as normal with any number of mods running, including this one.
Highlight Everything
It’s possible to highlight items in BG3 already by simply holding down the left alt key, but this only works with certain things meaning that items such as containers or secrets can often be left unseen. This Highlight Everything mod fixes the problem and highlights every interactable item by holding down the left alt key rather than just the default options. This will make finding those sneaky, hidden items easier.
Some people are having problems with this mods while it still seems to work for others. This could be a mod conflict issue if you have multiple mods installed, but, either way, there is an alternative, so you can always try Highlight Everything Revised instead.
Tav’s Hair Salon
The hair options in Baldur’s Gate 3 are limited, to say the least. This Tav’s Hair Salon mod will give a bunch of new customization options, and with the addition of the mirror in Baldur’s Gate 3, meaning you can adjust your appearance at any time, you might well find yourself with a hairstyle for each day of the week. Do note, though, that you’ll need to install ImprovedUI and the Patch 3 Mod Fixer for this one to work in-game.
Character Creation Presets
This Character Creation Presets mod does what it says on the tin. These are presets for your custom characters. The faces are said to be “unique”, and whilst the mod is still a work in progress, there are plenty of fun options to expand the diversity of your party. It’s important to mention that if you don’t have animation details set on high in your settings, you will get floating heads, so be warned.
Native Camera Tweaks
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a visually stunning game, but the default camera options can make it difficult to capture the game’s true beauty at times. Fortunately, the Native Camera Tweaks mod removes several limitations on the camera to give you the freedom to take the perfect screenshot. This mod works great regardless of your favorite input method, unlocking the camera for both controller and keyboard and mouse players.
Party Limit Begone
In Baldur’s Gate 3, you’re limited in the amount of companions you’re allowed to take into the overworld. With Party Limit Begone, you can take a total of 16 party members on a jaunt at any one time. This means that all the main cast can be with you at all times, as well as many of the generic party members you can recruit from Withers. Party Limit Begone also increases your online party limit to eight, so you can bring all your buddies along for the ride.
Aether’s Auto Saver
We’ve all been there: you’re exploring a dungeon when suddenly, Astarion decides he wants to dive off the side of a cliff in the hunt for loot but forgets to cast a spell to protect him as he falls. Now, as your companion lies in a crumpled heap, you go to load your save, only to find the most recent save is from several hours ago. Aether’s Auto Saver dictates the game performs a save based on a time period of your choosing, from a selection of every five, ten, or 15 minutes. Now, when your companions have an accident, you can load up the previous autosave and carry on as if nothing happened.
Tattoo Collection by Mari
Another mod that deepens the already-gargantuan character creator in BG3. The Tattoo Collection by Mari mod added a host of new tattoo options so you can further customize your Tav. They’re gorgeous and, in our opinion, an absolute must if you want a tatted-up Tav.
Disable Combat Log Completely
Though the combat log can be incredibly useful to run through everything you’ve just experienced in a fight, you have to admit, it looks dreadful, doesn’t it? Well, you can get that block of text off your screen with MegaCoolBlood’s mod, Disable Combat Log Completely. Whether you’re an expert fighter with no need for a combat log, or you just don’t find the text helpful, now you can hide it entirely. This mod disables the combat feed and adds a button to remove the combat log.
Where can you get more Baldur’s Gate 3 mods?
BG3 modders began their work early, taking full advantage of the three years of early access by uploading a huge amount of mods to Nexus Mods before the game was even officially released. You will find that some of those mods have since been updated to work with the latest patch, and we list the best of them above.
Is there official Baldur’s Gate 3 mod support?
Larian Studios has confirmed that the next major update in September 2024 will include an officially sanctioned toolkit for creating Baldur’s Gate 3 support via its mod.io website – a dedicated Larian-run hub where users can upload their creations. This will include guidelines for how creators can ensure that their mods pass rules and become compatible with consoles.
In a post on the official Baldur’s Gate 3 Steam page, Larian Studios explained that the modding tools will be released in an alpha stage to a small number of mod authors from June 3, 2024. In July, there will be a registration for 1,000 players to explore these same mod tools in a closed beta test.
How to install Baldur’s Gate 3 mods
While we wait for the official Baldur’s Gate 3 modding tools to become available to everyone via mod.io, you will need to install them to your game files manually. Download the required mod, and move the downloaded file to the mods folder on your PC. On Windows, you can find the Baldur’s Gate 3 mods folder location by following these steps:
- Type %AppData% into your search bar and hit enter to open the folder.
- Within app data, click the ‘Larian Studios’ folder, then the ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ folder.
- Open the ‘Mods’ folder, and paste or move your download here.
Those are some of the best Baldur’s Gate 3 mods, and we’re sure there’ll be more to come as we get more time with one of the best PC games of all time. Meanwhile, don’t forget to check out our BG3 companion guide to recruit new party members and — more importantly — find out how to complete a Baldur’s Gate 3 romance, too.