Baldur’s Gate 3 modder brings the game back to its roots with real-time combat

Baldur’s Gate 3 diverged from the previous entries in the series with turn-based combat, but a modder is now aiming to bring the title back to its roots. With the new mod tools, modder tinybike has sucessfully made BG3 into a game with real-time combat, though it’s still in development.

In a YouTube video published on Sept. 21, the modder showcased how they’ve implemented real-time combat into Baldur’s Gate 3, a title with a detailed and beautiful turn-based combat system. In the video, the player character and an NPC bat it out without pausing to think, though a pause function would probably help out in larger battles (like in Dragon Age: Origins or Kenshi). As the modder explains, this “barebones” system is still very early in development, and it’s probably not recommended that you take it into a campaign. Nevertheless, it’s an exciting change that could see Baldur’s Gate 3 completely shaken up when fully developed and implemented.

The speed of the combat and the encounters are very appealing, even if the system is still in the conceptual phase. Games using the so-called “real-time with pause” or RTWP combat system allow players to speed things up while remaining “in control” of the situation like they would be with your bog-standard turn-based mechanic. Baldur’s Gate 3, and Larian’s other titles, probably have some of the best turn-based systems I’ve ever encountered, but that isn’t to say I wouldn’t like to see their titles turned into action RPGs of sorts with fast, visceral, moment-to-moment combat. Their worlds certainly support the idea, and modders seem to understand that well.

As modders continue to learn the intricacies of the cracked mod tools for Baldur’s Gate 3, we’ll be seeing more and more of these exciting and borderline gamechanging mods as time goes by. I mean, custom campaigns are within spitting distance, and it’s highly likely we’ll get them sooner or later. Those, combined with a potential real-time combat mod, could mean a whole new game running under BG3‘s engine—and that would be a day to remember.