Baldur's Gate 3's seventh major patch is on the way, and with it, PC players will finally be able to get their hands on those highly anticipated official modding tools. Excitingly, some modders have already been able to give them a go, and they're sounding really promising.
Developer Larian Studios released a new community update today, in which it outlined some of the things we'll be able to create with the tools, as well as the feedback from modders who've been testing them out in the closed alpha. Whether you want to try implementing quality-of-life improvements or new weapons, armor, hairstyles, or even variants of classes and subclasses, it sounds like there'll be plenty to go at. While the studio previously noted that certain heavy script alterations and NSFW mods won't be officially supported, you'll still be able to create them separately from the "official pipeline."
Anyway, one of the modders who's been testing the toolkit out is TechRoot – the creator of the popular Faerûn Colors mod, which adds a whole load of themed dyes to the RPG for all the Baldur's Gate 3 fashion icons out there. In a comment shared by Larian, TechRoot notes that up until now, his mod had to be "written entirely in code," and as you'd imagine, "transforming the exact tone of colors without seeing it is no easy task." The official toolkit has changed that, though.
"Now, the toolkit allows me to select exactly the color I want, where I want it, and see how another thousand colors I hadn't even thought of do look. I'm no longer writing; now I'm painting," TechRoot says. "Tasks that used to be tedious, like creating icons and registering them within the game, have now been transformed into easily understandable and usable menus."
Another modder, LostSoul, notes that they were able to make their first mod "within one hour of installing the toolkit." They add: "I have been grateful to Larian for giving mod authors the chance to learn and provide valuable feedback. It's when you actually try to learn and create a mod that you can identify where the improvements are most needed."
Patch seven is planned to launch at some point in September, with the modding toolkit available to use solely on PC. Some time after that, though, curated mods will be available to download on the console versions of Baldur's Gate 3, too.
Baldur's Gate 3 is doing even better in 2024 than it did in 2023, with daily users up 20%, and Larian thinks it knows why: "Mods are very good"
Baldur's Gate 3 dev begs console players to exercise modding restraint, because a new hotfix is about to make your saves temporarily unplayable if you have 100+ installed
