Baldur’s Gate 3 is even more chaotic with 16 people in your party

Choosing your party before venturing forth is a fundamental aspect of playing an RPG, but that doesn’t make picking favorites any less excruciating in Baldur’s Gate 3. What if you like more characters than the game lets you play with? What if you want to see what everyone has to say? What if you’re role-playing a non-hierarchical band of polyamorous adventurers? Apparently, lots of people are having this dilemma — which might explain why Party Limit Begone is one of the most popular PC mods for Larian Studios’ hit game.

As the name suggests, the mod allows you to ignore the four-character party limit in Baldur’s Gate 3, upping your choices up to a whopping 16 characters (or eight if you’re in multiplayer). If it sounds bananas, that’s because it is. Players on social media are sharing playthroughs that highlight just why people love the mod so much, and it’s opened the door for all sorts of absurdities. Want to play as a giant band of nudists? Go right ahead; only god can stop you now.

Before we get to the silly stuff, let’s talk about the useful things that come with downloading this mod. Using the mod allowed player Cayt Landis to see all the party banter at once, which is huge in a dialogue-heavy game. Because the game introduces new characters throughout your playthrough, it’s very easy to stick to people you already like and know how to use. You’re probably not going to switch out your romantic interest, for example, even if it means missing out on other characters. And so, the mod lets you appreciate everyone to their fullest in ways that would normally take dozens of hours to see.

Also, you’re supposed to be traveling with your entire group anyway — that’s why you can visit them at camp. There’s no denying how handy having no party limit is, especially when it comes to sorting through BG3’s enormous inventory, Landis says. No more having to wade back to camp to figure out who is carrying what!

You might think that 16 is an untenable number, but people are actually taking advantage of the expanded limit. Landis told Polygon that they did a full playthrough with all party members on board, and while they admit that “it was a bit much,” they also say that they’d do it again on a new playthrough.

X (formerly known as Twitter) user Maz loves the mod so much, they’d go so far as to say that this was the way BG3 was meant to be played: It grants all the characters more nuance.

“For example, we know Shadowheart and Lae’zel aren’t the best of friends, but other characters such as Wyll and Astarion might chip in with their personal feelings during their chats,” Maz said in a DM. “Also, having all the party members means you can see the choices to agree and disagree with throughout the game and shapes them as characters even more.”

“I feel like I got a lot more conversation interjections and obviously much more party banter,” Landis wrote. “There are many times when three of the companions all talk together and I was able to have all of those conversations without switching anyone out. I think it was really helpful for allowing me to experience more of Halsin, Jaheira and Minsc as well.”

At least one player says that using the mod made a (spoilery) narrative payoff all the more powerful, as it allowed them to get maximum revenge on a boss.

While there are obvious benefits to using the mod, we can’t discount one of the biggest reasons it’s exploded within the fan base: shenanigans. What if you’re just a bunch of little guys running around? What if you command a whole gaggle of gays? Now you can make a full band of musicians! The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. You could, for example, choose to command an army of tieflings who unleash hell on their racist-ass world.

According to players who have used it, Baldur’s Gate 3 handles the new limit remarkably well for a game that wasn’t built with it in mind. One of the big exceptions is game difficulty, which makes sense: The game isn’t expecting you to bring a battalion into battle. For some, this might simply be a matter of upping the difficulty to match your party, or changing it to “Balanced” to account for the higher number. But based on posts I’ve seen online, some players actually welcome the change in a game that’s notoriously difficult. Landis likens the experience to having a more accessible story mode that lets them focus on what’s happening, rather than the combat. Plus, there’s something undeniably satisfying for some players in decimating the enemy before they even have a turn.

And when you do run into issues, they tend to be funny. A self-identified Astarion simp on X noted that he once experienced a moment when everyone failed the Perception check, and it only endeared the characters more to him.

“Like alright I guess we’re ALL dumbfucks then, rad,” he said of the moment, which remarkably wasn’t ruined. “Come along, My motley crew of dipshits.”

Players who spoke to Polygon did note that they occasionally encountered technical issues that rendered party members invisible or inaccessible, but nearly everything had a workaround — or a patch to address it, in due time. Sometimes, though, hiccups are as excruciating as they are hilarious.

“It’s all fun and games until you have 9 people in your party and you have to jump,” wrote X user Juniper, who appended a skull emoji to the anecdote. “For some reason half the time 2-3 always wanna stay behind.” It’s also pretty common to have a bunch of characters blocking doors, which can at times make getting around a living hell.

But these headaches are worth it for moments that would normally be impossible in the base game. Landis recalls a time with the mod where they tried to visit a brothel with their romantic interest, Gale. Because Landis was playing with the entire team, the game couldn’t recognize who was actually there, rendering Gale ineligible for the sexy romp. It was as if Landis got a free pass to cheat, they recall.

“[It] allowed me to have a whole romance scene with Halsin and Astarion, even though I was dating Gale,” Landis wrote in an email. “Gale didn’t register that it had happened though. I don’t think that worked as intended but it was pretty funny.”

You can download the Party Limit Begone mod via Nexus. A caveat: There are specific portions of the game that are hard-coded to only allow you the set party limit, but the mod description page points out a particular instance when this happens — and how to avoid other common issues.