Baldur’s Gate 3’s biggest mod yet is bringing back the funniest feature from BG2 

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Baldur’s Gate 3 is becoming a haven for modding with many mod creators believing the game’s advanced toolkit gives them a chance to overtake Skyrim. While that can’t be certain, the ingenuity of the game’s community is, and the game’s modders are constantly working on amazing additions to the RPG.

In an interview with VideoGamer, the team behind the game’s most ambitious custom campaign — Path to Menzoberranzan — revealed some new features that are in development for their ambitious mod. 

Baldur’s Gate 3 modders bring back the Cowled Wizards

Speaking to VideoGamer, the team behind the mod revealed that the Cowled Wizards from Baldur’s Gate 2 will be making their return in Path to Menzoberranzan.

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As a mod largely based around the previous game’s main city of Athkatla, a place where magic is strictly regulated, players casting magic in the city will be punished. 

“Athkatla  is a city that magic is canonically banned,” explained lead writer Thomas Loughlin. “In “Baldur’s Gate 2,” when you would cast a spell, a Cowled Wizard would appear and say, ‘Hey, buddy, don’t do that!’ If you did it again repeatedly, you start getting attacked by Cowled Wizards.”


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With the team taking players back to the sprawling city, the modders aimed to “recreate that magic” that gamers experienced with Baldur’s Gate 2 at the turn of the millennium. While the team is creating an entirely original story with its own companions, the spark of BG2 is still alive, albeit with some modern tweaks. 

“At the moment, we’re not looking at a total ban on magic, because that’s a nerf to most magic casters,” Loughlin explained. “I think that’ll be less fun to play. But if you were to say, walk in and cast fireball or some kind of aggressive type of spell, immediately a Cowled Wizard will teleport next to you… It’s so cool.”

However, just like Baldur’s Gate 2, players will be able to get their hands on a magic license to lob fireballs to their heart’s content. Of course, as with anything in Baldur’s Gate 3, players will also have numerous ways of acquiring their licenses… including some not-very-legal ones. 

“There’s a few ways [of getting a license],” we were told. “You can buy one from the Cowled Wizards–that’s probably one of the most clear and obvious ones. The magic banning within Athkatla is just a way to control the populace. If you’re wealthy enough, you are able to purchase a magic license. There’s under-the-table ways of getting a magic license. I’m sure there’s people walking around with magic licenses that might not need them all the time. If you’ve got a rogue in a party, surely something could happen there. There’s going to be not just one way of getting a magic license.”

Path to Menzoberranzan is an incredibly ambitious project, and it’s just the start of something amazing for the Baldur’s Gate 3 community. With other modders making custom campaigns that revolve around cursed rock concerts and other awesome scenarios, this community is exploding with possibility. 

About the Author

Lewis White

Lewis White is a veteran games journalist with a decade of experience writing news, reviews, features and investigative pieces about game development with a focus on Halo and Xbox.

Baldur’s Gate 3

  • Platform(s): macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox Series X
  • Genre(s): Adventure, RPG, Strategy
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