Baldur's Gate 3 player unwittingly turns colossal late-game boss into a pal after installing a mod that lets them wield D&D spells more powerful than the RPG allows

Baldur's Gate 3 DLC — (Image credit: Larian)

A Baldur's Gate 3 player has unwittingly turned a late-game boss into their pal thanks to a busted spell - but it was all thanks to a mod.

Earlier this week, the Baldur's Gate 3 subreddit post below drew attention to the fact that the 'Control Undead' spell was apparently "busted," as it allowed them to control the Ansur boss. This isn't entirely true, however - it's actually a mod that's removing the level cap from the spell and thus letting them turn Ansur into their companion.

So, uh... turns out Control Undead is busted. from r/BaldursGate3

Ordinarily, the Control Undead spell wouldn't be able to capture bosses like Ansur, because the spell and the player level is capped at 12. Removing that cap, however, effectively breaks Baldur's Gate 3 wide open, as spells like Control Undead become an absolute force of nature and just fully break the game in ways that shouldn't be possible.

This whole deal is a really good example of why the Baldur's Gate 3 level cap is set at 12. Dungeons and Dragons rules dictate that, beyond level 12, the player should gain access to some wildly powerful spells, not just like Control Undead, but also ones that let them access other plains of existence and warp reality around them. That would've been a hell of a lot more work for developer Larian.

"The description of the spell does say that the target's level must be lower than yours, it just shouldn't have worked on Ansur," writes the top comment underneath the Reddit post. "Ahh, I have the level 20 mod enabled, didn't occur to me that it'd be contributing here," responds the original player, explaining that they'd leave the post up because the entire thing is just wild.

If you're curious about the level 20 mod, you can download it here from NexusMods. Just don't say you weren't warned about the dangers of removing the level cap in Baldur's Gate 3 beforehand.

Good news - the Baldur's Gate 3 Xbox release date is still on track for December, as Larian pledges to reveal the exact date at The Game Awards next month.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.