You Can Now Become A Level 30 God In Baldur’s Gate 3

The Baldur’s Gate 3 level cap has been a much-discussed limitation of the game, but there’s now a way to go much, much further than previously allowed. The Dungeons & Dragons leveling system is built around the acquisition of increasingly powerful features, so reaching a certain cap has always been intrinsic to the experience. Baldur’s Gate 3, however, lowered that maximum from the 20 that’s standard in tabletop play to a comparatively measly Level 12, which can be somewhat disappointing if the threshold is reached well before the end of the game and XP starts to become meaningless.

The level cap in Baldur’s Gate 3 ultimately isn’t very surprising, as balancing a game around higher levels would become increasingly difficult. Encounters have to be designed with various possible party compositions in mind, which becomes difficult when casters get access to sometimes absurd spells that can be easily recharged in the game with a long rest. Programming the game in a way that accounts for high-level spells would also be challenging outside of combat, as some can have world-altering effects that would be nearly impossible to wrangle without a Dungeon Master to guide the way.

A Baldur’s Gate 3 Mod Takes The Game To Level 30

The ability to play through Level 30 in Baldur’s Gate 3 is made possible by a mod created by Elmvick and uploaded to Nexus Mods. Simply called “Level 30,” this mod adds unique paths for each class that open up feats, spell slots, passive abilities, and more to arc the characters farther than ever before. As other mods have already covered the normal DnD arc from 13-20, this is built to work in conjunction with those solutions, taking over after Level 20 is reached without causing any hang-ups.

As DnD 5e doesn’t feature any official support for levels above 20, the Level 30 mod strikes out on its own when it comes to determining progression past that point. It’s possible that Elmvick has taken inspiration from homebrew rules for the tabletop game, as there’s no shortage of solutions like this within the DnD community. Regardless, expecting complete balance after installing this mod would probably be a very bad idea, as it certainly hasn’t undergone the extensive honing and playtesting that the official fifth edition ruleset has.

How Leveling To 30 Works In Baldur’s Gate 3

Outside of general increases in damage and health, the majority of level changes across classes are handled by simply opening up more slots in the Baldur’s Gate 3 Level 30 mod. All classes get a feat choice across most levels, typically accompanied by an additional slot for a more unique specialization, whether that’s a spell slot, ki point, extra rage points, or anything else. This technique lets the mod work without creating new spells and abilities for higher levels in Baldur’s Gate 3, although it does open up some spell slots that are higher than anything officially included in the game.

Considering that the game isn’t meant to take players beyond Level 12 (although it does employ an artificial cap to maintain that), actually getting a party to Level 30 unsurprisingly requires some tweaks to progression as well. General XP gains in Baldur’s Gate 3 are doubled with the Level 30 mod, while combat experience is tripled for even bigger effects. 610,000 XP is necessary to level up to the new maximum, a staggering sum that will require plenty of fighting even with the modified experience gains in place.

Higher BG3 Levels Are Great For Multiclassing

Since Level 30 doesn’t exactly bring a host of unique high-level spells with it, leveling up can get somewhat less exciting after the officially supported progression in Baldur’s Gate 3. What can remain interesting, however, is multiclassing, which allows one character to take on levels from more than one class on the standard level up screen. The increased maximum makes it possible to bring a character all the way through Level 12 in two classes and halfway in a third, unlocking some incredibly powerful combinations for chaotically experimental play.

This obviously isn’t likely to make Baldur’s Gate 3 any less broken with a Level 30 mod, as taking advantage of high-level class features that were absolutely never meant to combine could turn some hordes of challenging enemies into nothing more than fodder. At the end of the day, however, playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with this mod isn’t about experiencing the game as intended. Sticking closer to the vanilla experience is still likely to be better for a first playthrough, but anyone looking to jump back in and see just how crazy things can get might get some real mileage out of the mod.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Could Go To Level 40 In The Future

Elmvick doesn’t appear to be content with overhauling level progression to max out at 30, as one reply from the mod author in the Nexus Mod comments reveals even more ambitious plans. In response to a request for a version that extends to Level 40, Elmvick promises to start working on that goal after finishing up requests for compatibility with various requested mod subclasses with the current version. Even if the aims of Baldur’s Gate 3 modders community can sometimes seem daunting in their implications, there’s no denying the passion and ambition of the community.

It’s always possible that Larian could eventually add higher levels to Baldur’s Gate 3 in DLC, although the fundamental development challenges do make this prospect seem fairly unlikely. Whatever the case, it’s easy to confidently say that there will never be any official support for Level 30 play, making the mod that raises the cap to that level an experience that should remain unique for a long time. If the impressive abilities of a Level 12 hero in Baldur’s Gate 3 just weren’t enough, there’s little doubt that the absurd power of Level 30 will do the trick.