I’m now on my third playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3, and slowly but surely my dream of actually making it to the titular city feels like it’s achievable. While my first playthrough stalled because I missed a slew of key story beats by not wandering off the beaten track, my second attempt at the game was cut short by my intense frustration over that one, huge fight in Grymforge – I got yeeted into that lava one time too many. I’ve always found the RPG’s combat a little infuriating, but this new Baldur’s Gate 3 mod completely overhauls it and, honestly, I can’t wait.
Created by ‘tinybike,’ this Baldur’s Gate 3 mod completely overhauls the RPG‘s turn-based combat which, while I’m certainly enjoying it more this time around, still takes up more time than I’d like. At the moment, I find myself wandering from A to B, getting caught up in a fight midway, then it’s 1 am and I need to head to bed (I’m old like that). While the best battles always take time, they really do take time in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Enter tinybike’s mod. Transforming the sometimes laborious turn-based combat into real-time gameplay, they fluidly take down a chonky enemy as a monk with a flurry of perfectly-timed blows, then Eldritch Blast some bandits. Battles are over in a flash, and it all looks fresh and dynamic.
I understand how this could be controversial, though. The beauty of Dungeons and Dragons (and Baldur’s Gate 3 by extension) is its turn-based brawls. Not only does it give your party members time to concoct weird and wonderful ideas to take down foes, it leaves you hanging on every dice roll to see if you’ll be the one who decapitates the boss, or if they’re the one cutting the head off of your party.
For me, though, this looks absolutely perfect. It saves quite a bit of time, makes action feel more play-by-play, and embraces the chaos of Faerûn’s wild and wonderful world. Picture it: spells are being slung, boxes are getting thrown around, and things are probably on fire – that sounds absolutely amazing.
If you’re interested in checking out tinybike’s mod, it’s available on Github. Note that it’s very much still a work in progress.
If you, like me, are replaying Larian’s DnD adventure, we have a list of all the best Baldur’s Gate 3 builds – I’m currently running Gloom Stalker Ranger and it’s my favorite build to date. Alternatively, if you’re looking for something new yet familiar, here are some other games like Baldur’s Gate 3.
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