A new Baldur’s Gate 3 custom campaign mod has emerged onto the Nexus like Gale’s mitt through that portal, and it’s one you’ll likely want to check out if you fancy getting nostalgic for one of RPG’s classic siblings. Return to Candlekeep, as you might have gleaned from the title, aims to recreate the prologue of the original Baldur’s Gate, by taking you to a certain library fortress.
It’s not surprising someone’s given this a go. After all, daunting tasks as such things might be, a good number of the BG3 custom campaigns being put together with the Moonglasses toolkit have opted to try their hand at taking players to revamped versions of locations from the previous two games.
Enter catchily-named modder 786r786, who released Return to Candlekeep this weekend just gone. Re-creating the opening area from the first game, it’ll let you wander around everywhere from Candlekeep library, to the inn, and the pool/altar combo that makes up the Temple of Oghma.
You get a good look around these, plus a gander at the custom main menu, character creation screen and camp the modder’s included, in the over 20 minute-long tour video below. They don’t do much talking to NPCs in that, likely on account of the mod not having any voice acting at the moment, but write in the description that they’ve pulled across all of the quests and dialogue lines you’d expect from such a recreation. There should be enough to keep you occupied for “about an hour thirty at most”, which is why 786r786 has dubbed this a mini-campaign.
Watch on YouTube
There are some teething issues it’s worth being aware of, not that such a thing’s that surprising given the testing ground advanced BG3 campaign mods still are at this point. Parts of buildings can appear unloaded, leaving roofs awkwardly floating with no supports, while NPC helmets can “disconnect from their head at a distance”. On the plus side, cases of long-term helmet hair affliction are likely lower among the residents of Candlekeep than those of the base game.
786r786 says there’s nothing they can do about these issues at the moment, and as for whether they’ll flesh out the mod more going forwards, they’ve a one word answer: “potentially”.
Regardless of whether they keep at it, this is a cool thing for them to have done, given Larian themselves considered working a return to Candlekeep into Baldur’s Gate 3 while they were weaving their development magic. The devs even got as far as coming up with ideas for a zany seer chilling in the basement, as our Edwin, former RPSer/BG3 lead writer Adam Smith, and keen journo/Larian CEO Swen Vincke chatted about last year.