Baldur's Gate 3 modders have already cheekily unlocked a developer mode in Larian's toolkit, potentially paving the way for full custom adventures

Look, modders are like sand. Let me explain. I mean that as a compliment – they get everywhere, and often do it faster than you’d ever think. Take, for example, the modder who’s already managed to unearth and unlock a developer mode in Baldur’s Gate 3’s brand new official modding tools, which could soon make custom levels a reality.Yep, if you’re counting, Patch 7 only came out last Thursday, bringing with it that long-awaited official mod support after a few months of beta testing, and we’re already chatting about people going ‘Sod the official stuff you’re making it a lot easier for me to do Larian, I’m gonna try something properly difficult’.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings The mod that unlocks the chance for folks to have a go at this complex stuff is ‘BG3 Toolkit Unlocked’ from modder Siegfre, who’s previously had a go letting you have a LAN party in Skyrim by playing with your mates.According to BG3 unlocked’s description, it “unlocks all the disabled features and enables write permissions for the BG3 Toolkit, including level editing, save editing, and more”. What does that mean? Well, for now, just some exciting possibilities. For example, that level editor could be used to create custom areas for players to explore, which could then perhaps be strung together to form full-on custom adventures/campaigns.The key word there, though, is very much could. You see, while the unlocking of this dev mode does allow people the option of checking out these extra features Larian didn’t include in the default build, the studio had previously said that some stuff would be hidden away like this, especially in comparison to Divinity: Original Sin 2’s modding tools.”With Divinity, there was not a lot of traction on [making custom campaigns], just because it’s so much work,” Larian founder Swen Vincke told PC Gamer earlier this year, explaining that due to its tools being “very complicated”, the studio was going to focus in on making it easier to mod elements of the game it knew people would have interest in making mods for, rather than supporting all of the tools it could potentially offer. There’s also the desire to add consoles into the mix in terms of BG3 mods at some point soon, with those often not supporting the kinds of complex works you can achieve on PC.So, while these tools are now free for modders to experiment with, it’ll likely take folks being willing to put in a lot of work if we’re to get anything resembling custom campaigns further down the road. That’s not out of the question if the BG3 modding scene continues to grow, just look at the kinds of modding projects that’ve been released or are being worked on for the likes of Bethesda’s games, but it does mean you’ll probably want to temper your expectations in the short term.That said, because we can all dream, what would you like to see from a potential custom Baldur’s Gate 3 level or campaign? Let us know below.