Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Modding Modding: Guidelines & FAQ

Guide

Whether you are a seasoned modder excited to continue developing mods or you’re new to the scene and want to try your hand at bringing your ideas to life with the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit, there are some guidelines in place to help you understand what kind of content you can upload.

Buckle up and make sure to give these guidelines a readthrough!


Types of Modifications

The Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit gives you access to tools that you can use to either make edits to or create new:

• Items: Equipment like weapons and armours, consumables, and miscellaneous items.
• Cosmetics: Including new hair, beards, and other textures.
• Classes and Subclasses: Create new class types or modify existing ones and edit their abilities, powers, and skills.
• Races: Create and edit new and existing character races to determine their overall appearance, individual powers and abilities.
• Dice Skins: Edit or redesign the appearance of your dice skins.
• User Interface: Manage your extensions and restyle the game UI.
• Spells: Create custom statuses as well as spell stats and properties.
• Scripting Changes: Osiris, our scripting language, is designed to react to player actions and state changes in the world, including things like being attacked, used, and moved.
• Quality of Life Improvements: Such as some mods that edit or improve gameplay which don’t directly rely on tools outside of the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit.

While we hope to make modding more accessible and increase mod compatibility with our mod manager and toolkit, third-party modding will still remain an option for players and creators. We do not plan to limit modding to only our official pipeline!


Scripting Changes

Baldur’s Gate 3 now officially supports some scripted mods using Osiris, our in-house scripting language! This means you’ll be able to reload your own scripts, handle build errors, and also carry out basic debugging.

With scripted mods, you’ll be able to explore creating custom spells, items, and statues. For example, you could create a status effect that, when applied, levels up the target or a spell that, when cast, makes everyone around you flee to safety. You could even create an item that summons a character when you throw it or use it.

Yours to play around with, we’re looking forward to seeing what you create!

▶️ To learn more about Osiris and how you can get started creating scripted mods, head on over to our Introduction to Osiris guide: https://mod.io/g/baldursgate3/r/introduction-to-osiris


General Terms of Service

When you upload a mod through our Tollkit, they will go through some necessary checks, including general stability and a Terms of Service pass. Should your mod fail to pass these checks, your mod might be removed! To read the full Terms of Service, please click here.

TL;DR? Here’s a rundown of the important bits:

• Any element of your Mod, including but not limited to audio, code, asset, or visual (except for the Baldur's Gate 3 Toolkit), must be your own original work, or you must have obtained the necessary permissions to use such element.
• They must not contain any element that can be considered discriminatory, racist, obscene, libellous, offensive, or likely to adversely affect the reputation or goodwill of Larian Studios.
• They must not contain any resemblance to any recognisable third-party brand, character or personality.
• Without personally securing permission, they must not contain any elements from other games published by Larian Studios and its affiliates or any other third-party.
• They must not contain any malicious code or other content that in any way damages or interferes with the operation of the game.

▶️ To read Mod.io's Acceptable Use Policy, please visit: https://mod.io/aup

Common Questions
Why was my mod taken down?
If your mod was removed, it is likely to have broken our Terms of Service. Other players can also flag inappropriate mods, which are then investigated.

Can I reupload my mod if I change it to comply with the Terms of Service?
You may not always be provided with a reason as to why your mod was removed, however, if you have read through our Terms of Service and have made changes to your mod now so that it now complies with our guidelines, and no further action has been taken against your account, then you may reupload your mod.


Best Practices for Uploading Mods
Here are our recommendations for getting your mod seen and downloaded by players:

• Clear Description
  - Your mod description should clearly state what your mod does. If you are familiar with markdown, you can format your description using this.
• Relevant Thumbnail Image
  - Please make sure that your mod thumbnail is relevant to your mod and contains your own content.
• Image Gallery
  - Upload multiple images to show variations or showcase your mod in different ways!
• Crediting Mod Authors
  - If the work is your own, but you have taken inspiration from another mod author, please credit them appropriately.
  - It's a good idea to also include the names of any team members who may have helped you!
  - Do not attempt to credit a mod author if you have not obtained permission to expand, translate, or re-create an existing mod.
• Check Dependencies
  - If your mod requires another supported mod to work, make sure you're listing any dependencies.
  - Players will need to install these alongside your mod.
• Selecting Appropriate Tags
  - Please only use tags relevant to your mod. Select the ones that'll make it easier for players to find your mod based on its actual content.
  - Avoid selecting all or irrelevant tags.

Please note: In some cases, your mod may be removed if your image and description are inappropriate.


Mods on Consoles

While the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit won’t be available to console players, they’ll still be able to enjoy a range of mods that become available once they pass through an additional curation process that determines whether a mod includes elements that are not supported.

Mods that won’t be available for console include, but are not limited to:

• Mods that add/modify/remove shaders
• Mods that increase the amount of nudity or violence already present in the game
• Mods that fail our internal testing
• Mods that interfere with Booting the game or Managing Mods
• Mods that crash the game
• Mods that include unsupported file formats (.exe, .dll)

Common Questions

Can I request my mod be made available on console?
If you are creating a mod and want to let us know whether you would like it to be curated for console, you can do so by selecting those platforms on the mod.io backend. You can access these through the General settings > File Manager page of your mod.


Image 1: How to request your mod for console curation.

What happens once a mod has been selected for console?
Once a mod has been selected for curation, it will then need to undergo internal testing before it is made available to console players. You will see the status as "Pending approval" during this time.

The marking of mods available for console and the curation process will be a continuously reviewed process, and may change to include additional functionality in the future. Mods ready for console that have passed testing will be released in batches, so bear in mind that it’s not an instant process after a mod is submitted!

Will all mods be made available on console?
Not all mods marked for console platforms will be selected for console curation. Selected mods will still be subject to these guidelines and testing timeframes! Please note that if only one console platform is marked for curation, your mod will still be made available on both.

What does the team look for when testing a mod for console curation?
The team at Larian tests mods for basic functionality, usability, and stability, as well as to make sure that they can be disabled without issues and meet the requirements stated above.

What happens once a mod is selected for curation and passes the testing?
The mod will become visible to players on console through the in-game mod browser. You will see the status of the mod update to "Approved" for those platforms on mod.io. You will no longer be able to edit the image files of your mod, so we recommend that you upload the final images before marking your mod as ready for a given platform.


Image 2: Indication your mod has been approved for console.

What happens if I update a mod once it’s been made available on console?
If you update a mod or add a new file, this update will again need to be tested, which means updates will not be automatic on console. We recommend that you only marking your mod if it’s the final version, to prevent delayed updates.

If you are only updating the description of a mod or including new images, this does not need to go through additional testing and your mod listing will update for all platforms.

Can I submit a version of a mod specifically for console curation?
You absolutely can! But please bear in mind this does not guarantee that the mod will be selected for curation.

Third-Party Mods
If you’re a long-time Baldur’s Gate 3 modder and continue updating your mods outside of mod.io, the game will still recognise your mods, and these are marked as ‘third-party’ through our interface so you know which ones are which!


Achievements, Save Games, And Multiplayer

If you run your game with mods enabled, whether they’re third-party or installed through the Mod browser, your in-game achievements will automatically be disabled.

You can directly manage multiplayer and save game files through an in-game verification UI, allowing you to install missing mods, as well as enable or disable existing ones.

That about sums it up for now! It is worth noting that these guidelines might be updated at any time, but if anything big changes, we’ll make sure to let you know.


Modding FAQ

Which platforms will be able to use and install mods?
Releasing first on PC, we expect to roll out the support to the wider community and various platforms shortly after - including for Mac players, as well as PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

Which platforms will be able to use the modding tools to create new mods?
Limitations in place on some platforms mean that while players will be able to browse, install, and use player-created mods, the official modding tools themselves will not be available to those playing on console.

PC players will have access to the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit to create their own mods, and an internal curation process will determine which of these mods become available for those on console.

Is there a long-term support plan for providing official modding support?
Outside of critical fixing post-release, we do not currently have the technical capacity to provide long-term support while also lending our focus to future projects.

Where will I find supported mods?
You’ll be able to browse through mods, install or uninstall them, as well as manage them within the game or from your web browser.

If I play multiplayer but have mods installed, will my friends also need to have the same mods installed?
Yes, in order for the mods to work in multiplayer, everyone in your party will need to have the same mods installed, including in the same mod load order.

To make this easier, we’re including a Mod Verification UI that allows you to download missing mods and enable or disable mod mismatches between you and the host.

What will happen if two separate mods edit the same existing ID-based entry?
To support implementation compatibility, all mods will load their files and merge them together. However, if two separate mods edit the same existing ID-based entry, the load order will win out.

Will there be a better UI to support finding translated mods?
Unfortunately, there is no translation section available directly through mod.io. However, the mods can utilise a ‘translation’ tag alongside the supported languages, so we are trying to make the translated version more accessible.

Updated: Made a bit more readable and added more information on console mods!