Where can mods be found?

[zacctheartoonist]

Howdy,
Where is a good place to find mods pertaining to Baldur's Gate? Thanks for any assistance.

[seeker1]

a) post Patch 7, in the game's built in mod manager, from mod.io
b) Nexus, for others not there, best installed through a separate mod manager

The 2nd type sometimes have script extender as a dependency; if you're on WIndows, you can easily acquire it.

[Feline Pawtism]

The main collection (post patch 7) is on Mod.io, which can be accessed directly from in-game. That's the easiest way to do it.

Mods requiring the Script Extender, containing content that Mod.io won't allow, or just because the author decided so, can be found on the Nexus[www.nexusmods.com], but that requires more in-depth management.

Keep in mind that sometimes you can find the same mod in both places, but that doesn't mean they're identical. They may have different generated IDs for certain data, making some compatibility fixes not work, so mixing from both sources can be tricky.

[seeker1]

Yeah, BTW, the Secret Scrolls mod at Nexus is functional for Patch 7, but the one hosted at mod.io is busted broken, with invisible icons for the scrolls (and other issues).

Yes, the same mod is sometimes at both places, but not necessarily identical in version or features. And functionality.

Console players can't use mods from anywhere other than mod.io, so that secret scrolls is busted sucks worst for them.

Oh, and this is funky. There is a version of the Artificer at Nexus, and another version at mod.io. They are not by the same author, and while both are based on the 5E class (largely found in Eberron material), they have very different implementations. There are other examples of this, where the version of something at mod.io is quite different from what's at Nexus.

[Feline Pawtism]

Originally posted by seeker1:

Oh, and this is funky. There is a version of the Artificer at Nexus, and another version at mod.io. They are not by the same author, and while both are based on the 5E class (largely found in Eberron material), they have very different implementations. There are other examples of this, where the version of something at mod.io is quite different from what's at Nexus.

Yup! There's another one I know of like that as well. 5e Spells by DiZ91891 on the Nexus requires the script extender, whereas 5e Spells on Mod.io does not, but it's incomplete. Apparently they're working with DiZ91891 to port the mod over in full, but they have to do a lot of rewriting of the scripts involved.

[seeker1]

Personally, while I hope the 5E Spells at mod.io gets finished someday, I've long since moved on to Mystra's Spells. Mystra's has everything in the complete Nexus 5E mod and a lot more, and for more caster classes than just wizards. Unfortunately, many of the older Nexus mods integrate with 5E Spells and not Mystra's; and there are no 7th-9th level spells in Mystra's or scrolls, but those are minor things.

[Psychotic_Frog]

I get most of my stuff from Nexus as it's the most popular place, get the rest from modhq (dot org) since Nexus has a political stance and disallow some content.

[Jaeleth]

Originally posted by zacctheartoonist:

Howdy,
Where is a good place to find mods pertaining to Baldur's Gate? Thanks for any assistance.

1. Game's built in mod manager
2. Nexus
3. rpghq (for those mods who were victims of censorship from Nexus)
4. modhq (for those mods who were victims of censorship from Nexus)

[Dizel]

Don't use mod io, just download from nexus+bgModMangaer.
Mod io has much less mods and some mods will never make it to the io mod.

[Orion Invictus]

Nexus and the in-game mod manager. Other places just have the weird mods nobody likes.

[seeker1]

There are now mods at mod.io that have never been at Nexus because they were only made by the Toolkit and the author never went the extra step to also upload them to Nexus, too, and JMHO are also worth it. Of course Nexus has more, there are mods there going back to release and even early access. The Toolkit hasn't been around very long. You want to check both places. Nexus has some older mods that the authors either aren't going to port over to the Toolkit/mod.io or are still working out how to do. My only warning, check to make sure they are Patch 7 compatible, some are not, and any that contain the infamous "Mod Fixer" are NOT.

Script extender based mods will always be at Nexus only, they can't work on consoles/Macs/etc. and thus will never be at mod.io. And yes, I suspect Larian will never host certain things at mod.io that are controversial or very sexual in nature, like BG3 Sex Framework. (It requires SE, anyway.) Note: if you are on Mac/Linux/steamdeck/console, some mod.io versions of certain mods may be usable whereas the Nexus ones are not, because the mod.io ones don't require script extender, which can't be used on those platforms.

Also not usable on Macs: anything that requires Windows DLL files, like the Native Mod Loader, which means Macs can't use any of the camera mods like Native Camera Tweaks (all DLL based). This is why the existing camera mods won't be ported to mod.io. And for reasons unknown (it's none of the above), the Veilyn the Bloodletter added custom companion mod doesn't work on Macs (and is an unfinished "WIP" in any case.)

If you are a Mac user, you may find yourself having to get out of the game and browse mod.io through your web browser. Has to do with their weird decision to tie Mac approval of mods to console mod approval, and the latter being glacially slow. You most definitely can use just about everything at mod.io, but it won't necessarily appear in the in-game browser as it doesn't have approval. No worries, do as I do, just download from the website and install from an external Mac mod manager. Personally, I also find that easier as far as looking at mod documentation and going through comments, anyway. The in game mod manager kinda sucks for that. The web site also seems easier to search and filter.

It is nice that supported mods for your platform can be auto updated without exiting the game. Nice feature. Again, an irritation that mods that should be supported and approved for Mac aren't yet. I just keep updating them manually.

As for the HQs they have nothing I want, and all I will say about them is make sure your virus checker is active when you use them, unlike Nexus they do not check all uploaded mods for viruses.

[harken23]

Originally posted by Psychotic_Frog:

I get most of my stuff from Nexus as it's the most popular place, get the rest from modhq (dot org) since Nexus has a political stance and disallow some content.

Originally posted by Jaeleth:

1. Game's built in mod manager
2. Nexus
3. rpghq (for those mods who were victims of censorship from Nexus)
4. modhq (for those mods who were victims of censorship from Nexus)

Nexus removed some mods because the people who posted them used racist and inflammatory language in the mods' description. Find me anywhere on the internet that lets you do that with impunity. Other than Truth Social, I mean.