Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Modding Community/Larian Mod Request: 5E RAW Edition

Now that the game is out, and we have ~1M people playing it, I would like to make an open request to 1st and 3rd party developers for mods that I think a lot of people in this community want to see. There is a large group of players who want to see many of the systems in this game implemented "correctly," i.e. the way they are written in the 5E rules. I think this would be a hugely popular edition of this game if it were available.

There is a long list of mechanical changes that could be made that would give us RAW without having to do a lot of work to make new content. For example, correct racial bonuses, the proper stat rolling procedure, bonus actions only being used for actual bonus actions...etc. I feel very disappointed when these rules are changed and there is no option to play the game the right way. The players' requests for these features were largely ignored during development, but we still want them.

I played D:OS and D:OS2, and those games ended up with both community mods (like on Steam Workshop) and official DLC that enabled significant changes to basic mechanics snd gameplay systems. I used both of these sources to make the games more interesting for me and have more customizable playthroughs. I understand that Larian has their own sales objectives with making romance/drama stories or character creation options, but to me D&D isn't about those things, and I don't value them. I am looking for RAW mechanics and the freedom to use THOSE systems instead of this new homebrew version of the rules. Providing gameplay that matches the PHB/DMG would be very appealing and make BG3 a much more fun game to me.

I hope to see features like this available in the future.

+1

That would be good to have.

Is this thread visible?

I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a "complete 5e" mod compilation. I've already seen a full 5e spells mod that is mostly complete and looks really promising.

It seems to be now, it wasn't before though.

This any use?

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=881086#Post881086

One of the reasons I started this thread was to draw Larian's attention to the idea of making this a "sponsored" mod, like they did with the "gift bags" in DOS:2 that allowed players to enable certain enhancements from the loading screen of the game. I would really like to see this get enough support and debugging to be advertised by Larian.

That covers some of the things in game, but I know that I'm also looking for things that happen at the character creation level. I want to be able to roll for stats, and for racial bonuses to apply as they are written in the books. If ZerdBG3's mod could add those features, I'd think about installing it, but not before, as once I mod the game, I'll want to start over from scratch anyway, and doing so I'll want to be able to create a character according to RAW as well.

Still, +1000 to the OP. I know Kendaric and I have been asking for this for basically all of EA, as have many others, and we've been wholesale ignored. Hopefully some enterprising programmer either on staff at Larian or not, can finally give all of us who've been clamoring for it the game we wanted all along.

Edit: Forgot to say that I'd also very much love to have a fully customizable party, not the current companions/hirelings system, and without having to do the multiplayer workaround.

I thought about starting a new thread for this, but then I realized this is probably where it belongs as it is really another "BG3 isn't 5e and I don't like it," note.

If I were titling this as a new thread, it would be something like: Magic items are mundane: or why BG3 made me realize I actually like 5e's attunement system for magic items.

Anyone else find that finding "little" magic items all over the place actually destroys the enjoyment of finding a magic item? I've just barely passed Act 1 and my main character's inventory is a blinding array of bright colors because a vast majority of the stuff has some sort of, again, "little," magic ability. Stuff like "momentum," "arcane synergy" "lightning charges?" Half of that stuff I don't even know what it does. I don't know about everybody else's experience at the tabletop, but for the game I currently run, and the game I currently play in, magic items are a rare treasure, not something you find on every other corpse.

The 5e DMG says: "Even uncommon items can’t be easily created. Thus, many magic items are well-preserved antiquities." This complimented by the fact that many of the published magic items require attunement, means that finding magic items and deciding who wears/uses them are supposed to be interesting and even perhaps difficult choices. When my parties inventory in BG3 is so full of items that do a little bit of magic, the idea of magic items being valuable disappears. This just reinforces the truth that Larian's version of Faerun is an entirely different universe from the Faerun of the published material.

Why am I bringing this up in the 5e RAW edition thread? Because if indeed someone out there is working on making a mod that will make BG3 closer in step with 5e, I'd very much like to ask that said person/people REALLY pare down how many "magic" items drop as treasure. I'd go so far as to say that I don't want ANY "little" magic items on corpses other than perhaps some potions of healing. On boss or mini-boss corpses, yeah, a magic weapon or wand feels sensible. In secret hidden vaults like Lathander's Blood, yes, of course. Otherwise magic just becomes mundane, and then it isn't magic anymore.

Most of the "little" magic items indeed don't do much by themselves, they are intended to compliment other items and class features. So, if you can't think of a use for an item ( and some of them are VERY situational ), just sell it.

As an example of good "little" items, I have Karlach kitted out with a helm that gives her 3 rounds of momentum ( i.e. increased movement ) at the beginning of combat, "crusher's ring" which increases her movement by 3m, and items that allow her to cast "Jump"/"Misty Step" once per short rest. Together, these greatly improve her mobility, which is very important for melee-focussed builds.

Obviously, if markedly better items become available, I will use them, but until then, the little ones can be useful.

I would also point out that magic-item scarcity is mostly a matter of personal taste, and has only really appeared in the most recent rewrite of the forgotten realms sourcebooks. Any mods aiming at changing the character of BG3's magic item roster should probably allow for a range of options to suit different tastes.

I came to this forum to look for advice on how to start creating mods for the game for this exact reason. I don't have experience with modding Larian games, but as good as it is, I can't bring myself to keep playing BG3 without some changes to the way the rules are handled. The closer the rules get to RAW, the closer I feel to an authentic D&D experience, and I really want that from this game. So I'm either hoping for someone else to do it or I'm going to find a way to do it myself.

Is anyone at Larian interested in promoting this kind of mod?

Maybe, there are many D&D players working at Larian. But I suspect they need to fix the game first, and finish the modding tools second, then maybe third think about extension of their existing platform. I'm sure someone will want to add the missing core rules, as well as the extension source books, but I suspect modding will be unstable for a while, until the game settles down.

The number of items doesn't bother but I would prefer to see the old style + 1 to stat or 5 DR types rather than the gimmicky Larian offerings. Another annoyance is that I'm on the border of acts 1 and 2 and have come across umpteen pairs of boots and umpteen pairs of gloves but not a single cloak. Decent helmets and rings are a bit thin on the ground too.

There are always homebrew items to find or buy in a campaign. I would like to see the basic rules get fixed before changing the item system: character stats, action costs, relative weapon and spell ranges, etc.

This discussion is a little tangential to the topic, but I have a couple of issues with Larians itemization too. First of all, they left out attunement, so a melee'er can have magic weapons, armor, two rings, cape, helmet, bracer. Loading so much magic gear on a fighter or barbarian makes him eclipse casters by a landslide. It should be 3 items, no more.

It's cluttery. So many small things that may, sometimes, be kinda useful, is quite "meh". It's a lot of clutter for intangible impact.

Some of the 'minor' abilites competes with class abilities. If I can give anyone momentum, a rogues ability to dash with a bonus move suddenly doesn't make a rogue the premiere combat mobility unit. It's whoever wears this hat, and there's a reason why the fighter isn't supposed to be super-mobile.

I realise that a DM can handpick items useful for his group, whereas a PC game can't, and so when making a game there's a tendency to add a magic version of all weapons because maybe someone really wants to use a glaive and not a sword; or a magic thingamajig for all builds, damage types, etc. I think this is a mistake, and instead they should have used the Adamantine Forge approach a lot more. Give me a few limited opportunities to pick exactly what kind of item I need for my group, but make it a wide variety of options. Less clutter, less OP'ness, the same customizability.

I am half-considering making a "mundane BG3" mod and strip out most items just to see how it plays with less gear and consumables. I find the game to be reasonably easy, so I think it might a good way to make the middle difficulty option feel right, give power back to casters, and reduce overall clutter. Also some gear is just stupid OP that should not exist in it's current form.

I'm all for less magic items, but it must be done carefully. I think healing potions and poison antidotes should still be plentiful and widely available.

What I'd really love to see is mod that removes the special arrows from the game, especially the multi-target and lightning ones. Other magic items should be changed in accordance with the DMG.

I'm not sure whether it is a good idea without adjust the stats, abilities and HP of enemies first though.

That's not tangential at all. You're literally echoing what I said. The post you replied to was replying to my post saying basically the exact same thing you're saying. The absolute embarrassment of magical riches in Larian's version of Faerun boggles the mind. And you hit the nail right on the head regarding what attunement is supposed to accomplish, echoing my own sentiments. If I can max load every character in my party with magic items, then the classes themselves become less and less important. Magic item rarity combined with the attunement rules make magic items a much more enjoyable and challenging treasure to discover. As it sits now, selling a dozen magic items to a peddler doesn't even register as a noteworthy event.

This thread is here to drum up support for someone making a mod that ratchets Larian's game down to fit the 5e rules. Magic item rarity and attunement are absolutely part of those rules as written.

This battle was lost a long time ago. Larian doesn't want anyone to feel bad about being limited by what they can't do, or worse, by inherent restrictions at all. Mature adventurers know that class identity and balance are the foundation of fun gameplay, but the soap opera-loving audience doesn't want to make hard choices.

Class balance has been gone since this game was put into Early Access. Free shove all the time? Advantage for everyone? Invisibility doesn't work anymore? Everyone has spellcasting?

I think WotC is also to blame for gradually ruining their own product. Removing alignment was a huge mistake. Now we are removing races. This system says that your identity comes from your physical appearance and your "romance", not your class or your moral choices. The items are a just a continuation of this nonsense.

I would love to see a genuine 5E campaign where magic items were rare and the DM wasn't giving +3 weapons to level 11 PCs.

+1

Would use.