BG3’s mod manager could use a makeover and some curation

BG3 mod support is here with the arrival of Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7, with dozens of mods to install and an interface that’s actually pretty messy and annoying. When you click the “Mod Manager” tab on BG3’s main menu, it takes you to a 4×6 grid of mods, each with a picture – well, most of them have pictures – a name, and a small set of metrics showing how popular they are.

It’s basically NexusMods’ interface, only without filtering or curation options, additional screenshots, or, frequently, relevant mod descriptions. Take one called “Halsin’s Big Horn,” for example, and no, it’s not that kind of horn. It’s an item that lets you summon Halsin. To do what? Well, you’ll have to install it to find out, I guess.

There’s a nice tattoo mod that adds new ink options, though you’ll need a separate mod installed. It lists which one you need, but has no link to it. Fortunately for me, the base mod was only a few rows down. There’s also a teabagging mod, which toes the line in Larian’s terms of service about “obscene… offensive” material pretty closely. Hopefully, Larian’s system for investigating uploads flagged as inappropriate actually works.

It hasn’t stopped 1 million people from installing mods through the new mod manager, by Larian’s estimation. But I also don’t think it’s unreasonable to hope for basic features like a search function or categories to filter results. Finding something new and surprising is great, but I don’t always want to have to wade through pages of Daddy and Mommy name mods to find a quality-of-life piece or some new outfits.

Larian’s already teasing more patches with unknown new features, despite frequently saying throughout the year that photo mode was the last major update. Maybe there’s still a chance we’ll see something like the Gift Bag in Divinity Original Sin 2, a collection of the most useful and popular mods you can add to the game and toggle on at will. For now, I’m off to install some new head shape options, assuming I can find them between the short Enver Gortash and stat-boosting underwear mods. Although on second thought, maybe I’ll get that undie mod as well.