Quickly Mod BG3

I host 8 man coop games. I hang around the Larian Discord because I enjoy coop more than running the full party myself. Since then as I've advertised my game I've had too many DMs asking me how to mod and there really isn't any one concise guide. This is my attempt to be both brief and concise so as to have a place to point potential players just how to quickly go about it so they can join my games asap.

Managing Mods

The first step if you are going to install more than a couple mods to your vanilla BG3 game is to acquire a mod manager. There are two available predominantly.

One is an all-game mod manager from the NexusMods[www.nexusmods.com] site called Vortex. It uses virtualization and has a more complicated mod storage file structure than the game specific alternative LaughingLeader's Baldur's Gate 3 Mod Manager[github.com] which only deals with this one game. It is this latter manager that I use and this guide will use.

I am going to assume that if you're running Windows that you know how to install applications. On the page go down to setup[github.com] and do steps 1 -5 to get the BG3MM running. Unzip to a directory you will remember. I recommend making a shortcut to the exe on your desktop or in start or the taskbar.

Extending Mod Scripts

There is a mod that allows extra scripting functionality to mod authors. It is Norbyte's Baldur's Gate Script Extender[github.com]. It is easily required by half the mods you'll wish to check out. If it is not used it does nothing so there is little harm in installing it.

Before you download or try to install it, if you've gotten this far in the guide you have a working install of the BG3MM. I suggest that you simply select the option to Download & Extract the Script Extender from the Tools menu. I have yet to see any issue in doing so beyond a minor one.

If this is your first time your script extender will not update to the latest version until you run it. This means that you may see version errors, an exclamation point in a red circle, on mods requiring it until you run the game. You can usually ignore these as the script extender updates to the most recent version on run.

Installing Mods

This guide is not going to go into detail on installing, choosing, and maintaining mods or using BG3MM beyond sharing mods and getting our group synced. Vortex is more integrated into the NexusMods site and you can choose to download a mod directly into it.

BG3MM is a manual process. You click the manual download button option and download a zip file to your download directory. Whether you leave it there or organize your mods further is up to you. In BG3MM you select Import Mod from the File menu. This essentially moves the zip file contents into your <%LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\Mods> folder.

Most if not all modded coop groups using BG3MM share mods the same way-- a zip file and a load order text file. The modding process[walrusway.com] is straight forward regardless of number. Mod paks go into the appdata mods folder, refresh to ensure mods are seen by BG3MM, import or assign load order, and export the order to the game.

Undoing Mods and Returning to a Vanilla state

To play and host in a vanilla non modded state all you need to do is open your <%LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\Mods> folder and empty it to pristine condition, once again with zero content, and then start BG3. (You weren't running the game while trying to make mod changes I hope) .

Do not continue any unmodded saves that you have while running BG3 modded and expect that they will remain mod free.

It is far easier to add mods to an existing game play than to try and remove any.

References

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Modding:Installing_mods
https://discord.com/invite/larianstudios
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3