Baldur's Gate 3 modder says the community's been making 'huge strides' towards custom campaigns: 'I think we'll see many of them refined, improved, and released this year'

Shadowheart's eyes go white as she holds a glowing magic artifact
(Image credit: Larian)

Baldur's Gate 3 mods enjoyed a new set of tools last year as part of its seventh patch, tools which it only took erstwhile modders two days to unlock. These untapped kits allow these expeditionary tinkerers to create whole new campaigns, in the vein of Skyrim's ambitious mods. At least, in theory.

In practice, it's a little more complicated than that. Since Larian has not officially recognised or condoned these unlocked toolkits, modders have been left on their own to muddle through without proper documentation. I talked to one of said modders, SquallyDaBeanz aka Brandon Giles, who is hard at work on two projects—restoring some "cut" content from Act 2, and remaking WoW's Forsaken starting zone.

Baldur's Gate 3 - 'Forsaken' Custom Campaign Teaser - YouTube Baldur's Gate 3 - 'Forsaken' Custom Campaign Teaser - YouTube
Watch On

"The main challenges working on a custom campaign is the lack of certain toolkit features and documentation," Giles explains. "The community has done an amazing job delving into all the different systems that Larian used to make their game, but even with tutorials slowly making their way to Discord and YouTube now, it's still quite a learning curve! If you hit a roadblock, you have to hope you can figure it out yourself or someone already solved a similar issue."

I've been touring one of these Discord servers myself, and the amount of cooperation here is lovely to see—it also highlights just how complex of a machine Baldur's Gate 3 is, especially if you're trying to reverse-engineer it. Here's a video on how to make a quest by YouTuber Crucible Gaming, and it's enough to make my head spin.

"There have been huge strides from the community working on unlocking parts of the toolkit that weren't functional before," Giles says. "The big one, of course, being custom maps that serve as the basis for new campaigns.

"A lot of art assets for custom maps have also been made functional. The modding community leaders that have figured out how to add these features are amazing. It's pure wizardry from my perspective, but I'm extremely grateful that I can now work with the full potential of the tools. I see a lot of progress being made in custom cutscenes and dialogue too, with several people working on adding entirely new companion characters."

As for when we can expect to see some of these projects come to life, Giles has a feeling it'll be within the year. "Most of the systems are already here, so I think we'll see many of them refined, improved, and released this year. Once these tools are more wide-spread, I think we'll see new levels and lands comparable to the Skyrim modding community!"

That has me more than pumped, to say the least. I mean, look, Big Naturals Withers will always have a place in my heart, and I've already been enjoying gameplay mods like the roguelike mode, but in terms of longevity? Campaigns are a tall order, but once the documentation's all out there and accessible… well, I think we've only seen the tip of the tarrasque.

Baldur's Gate 3 romanceBaldur's Gate 3 multiplayerBaldur's Gate 3 endingsBaldur's Gate 3 multiclass buildsBest RPGs

Baldur's Gate 3 romance: Who to pursue
Baldur's Gate 3 multiplayer: How co-op works
Baldur's Gate 3 endings: For better or worse
Baldur's Gate 3 multiclass builds: Coolest combos
Best RPGs: The greatest you can play now

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

Read more
Withers Big Naturals mod image - Withers with big naturals
Larian celebrates 100 million Baldur's Gate 3 mod downloads by bringing 'Withers Big Naturals' to consoles
Pixel-art portraits of Astarion and Shadowheart against a seasonal backdrop of Stardew Valley
The Baldur's Gate 3 mod for Stardew Valley is out, so here's another opportunity to romance Astarion
Swen Vincke
Swen Vincke stamps seal of approval on Stardew Valley mod that yoinks the Baldur's Gate 3 cast out of D&D and into a cosy pastoral life
A foppish figure stands in fine clothes and a strange red mask.
Hero modders take a break from their 25-year quest to make the rest of Morrowind to make the Oblivion we should have got instead
Baldur's Gate 3
2024 was still the year of Baldur's Gate 3: Why we're all still playing Larian's once-in-a-decade RPG 16 months later
Skyblivion evil character
With the next Elder Scrolls and Fallout games still years away, here are 6 upcoming total conversion mods for Skyrim and Fallout 4 to get excited about
Latest in Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate 3 player character made to resemble Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher.
Wait a minute, Geralt of Rivia actor Doug Cockle was in Baldur's Gate 3 this whole time
Half Orc wearing rare Bhaalist Armor in Baldur's Gate 3 standing in front of Astarion and Karlach
It turns out you can get Baldur's Gate 3's best assassin armor without killing a baby angel elephant and joining a cult, all you have to do is pickpocket a ghost
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update has, mercifully, made one of its new OP cantrips halfway balanced again—but it's really still quite good
Withers Big Naturals mod image - Withers with big naturals
Sure, why not, here's a guy beating Baldur's Gate 3 without a race or class at all
Baldur's Gate 3 - Lae'Zel looks disaproving
Lae'zel's voice actor Devora Wilde also auditioned for Shadowheart, Karlach, 'And probably Astarion?'
An Oathbreaker Paladin restoring their Oath in Baldur's Gate 3.
Baldur's Gate 3's Patch 8 is so big, it needed its own patch before it even released, and we're one step closer to a Permanent Booming Blade Economy
Latest in News
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021
Storm trooper hero
Another live service shooter is getting shut down, this time before it even launched on Steam