There’s still some time to go before the final ‘major’ patch for Baldur’s Gate 3 is here. After further unlocking the potential of modding by giving us official mod support in patch 7, Larian is gearing up to release patch 8. It will come with a handful of new content, including 12 new subclasses and the much-requested photo mode.

Stress tests have already started to arrive for patch 8 and bugs are currently being ironed out. There is still no confirmation of when the full update will go live, but it’s likely in the coming months – March or April are currently speculated. In the meantime, we’ve been seeing some fantastic developments from the modding community as custom campaigns start to take shape.

Baldur’s Gate 3 patch 8 will allow mods to realize their full potential

As highlighted by Baldur’s Gate 3 content creator Jay Dunna, the advent of patch 8 means that “mods can finally start to unleash their full potential”. Jay Dunna believes that BG3 “has the potential to overcome Skyrim as one of the best games in modding” and we feel inclined to agree based on what we’ve seen so far.

Just recently, we spoke to the modders behind Path To Menzoberranzan, an upcoming custom campaign with an ambitious scope. The devs revealed there is at least one limitation to fight through, but have already been gearing up for voice role auditions as part of their project. Another custom campaign that recreates the Undead starting area from World of Warcraft has also been creating a buzz online lately.

However, one of the banes of creating mods for a game that is still being actively developed is compatibility. Whenever Larian updates the game in any meaningful way, it could lead to mods being broken. Now that we know patch 8 will indeed be the last “major” patch for the game (with Larian shifting its focus to other projects), it creates a level of stability that mod creators haven’t seen before in BG3.

That said, patch 8 will likely be the last big hurdle for modders to overcome. Talking about what kind of effect it could have in a recent blog post (community update #33), Larian had this to say:

“While it's our hope that supported mods remain mostly unscathed with Patch 8, this stress test also helps us understand how your mods interact with the latest patch and identify any issues ahead of release.

ImpUI users may find that radial descriptions aren't visible, and some menu options don't work as intended. If you are joining us for the stress test, we recommend creating a new save or loading an existing save that does not use ImpUI or any mods that use ImpUI as a dependency.”

Larian

If you’re unfamiliar with ImpUI (improved UI), this mod is one of the most popular out there. Over on Nexus Mods, it has over 1.75 million unique downloads and has become a common download for BG3 players. On top of that, many mods depend on ImpUI to function and will also be affected. Worst of all, the creator of ImpUI put out a statement towards the end of October last year that they are “not going to continue modding for the time being”, so the popular mod remains in limbo for the time being.

All in all, we hope that mod compatibility issues will be ironed out following the release of patch 8 – and as much as possible can be identified during the stress tests. The fate of ImpUI also remains unknown, but we expect such a crucial mod to have any problems addressed, even if it isn’t directly from its creator – they have already welcomed others to “reach out” if they want to work on ImpUI moving forward.

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Charlie Noon

Charlie is the Affiliate manager for PC Guide. He has a vast understanding of most PC hardware and consumer essentials, using his knowledge to provide the best products and the biggest deals.