Baldur's Gate 3 fans unlock forbidden D&D-style modding allowing for "level editing, save editing, and more" that Larian felt it "wouldn't be able to support"

Baldur's Gate 3 Minthara, a drow with pale purple skin and light blonde hair, smirks as her face is covered in blood splatter — (Image credit: Larian Studios)

Baldur's Gate 3's long-awaited Patch 7 has finally arrived, and it hasn't taken very long for fans to make the most out of the RPG's new modding tool - players have already unlocked a secret developer mode, allowing for the creation of custom campaigns and more.

Only two days after Patch 7's hotly anticipated release, a mastermind modder known online as 'Siegfre' uploaded BG3 Toolkit Unlocked. This handy utility mod reactivates "the disabled features and enables write permissions for the BG3 Toolkit" - opening up the opportunity for "level editing, save editing, and more." While fans have discovered a way to access all of this now, though, developers never intended for players to be able to use any of it.

Speaking to PC Gamer during this year's Game Developer's Conference, Larian Studios lead Swen Vincke revealed that Patch 7's official mod kit wouldn't allow for custom campaigns or level editing akin to Divinity: Original Sin 2's own. "With Divinity, there was not a lot of traction on [making custom campaigns], just because it's so much work," he explained. "And also, our tools are very complicated."

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Larian instead chose "to focus on things that we know a lot of people want to mod" and "try to make that process easier" in Baldur's Gate 3 rather than shipping everything "we wouldn't be able to support." That brings us to now - and while the game doesn't officially allow for the use of its intricate internal tools to create custom campaigns, levels, or saves, modders are able to nonetheless now thanks to Siegfre's BG3 Toolkit Unlocked.

I can't wait to see what the community comes up with myself - custom Baldur's Gate 3 campaigns in true Dungeons & Dragons fashion sound like a dream come true. New areas may come to the RPG's already massive map, too, including those axed by Larian during development such as Candlekeep or Wyll's Red War College. There's no telling what creative modders will conjure up, though - while I wait, I at least have Patch 7's new Dark Urge content to enjoy.

Baldur's Gate 3's official mod support prompts over "a million mods installed in less than 24 hours," from new races to fresh XP cheats

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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.