This Baldur’s Gate 3 mod removes turn based combat so you can fight battles in real time

Baldur’s Gate 3 was one of the biggest games of 2023, winning multiple GOTY awards and being on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Even with all that though, there are plenty of gamers who haven’t touched the game because they simply don’t like turn-based combat — but with this new mod, players can now enjoy the BG3 with real-time combat.

The mod comes from user tinybike, which you can download on GitHub. The modder calls it “an experiment” to see if they could get real-time combat working. This overhaul completely reworks the combat system, which speeds up every fight by a significant amount. Instead of each character getting a turn while the others wait, characters fight each other all at once.

A new Baldur’s Gate 3 mod lets you fight in real-time instead of turn-based

Brawl, the name of the mod on GitHub, is still very much in the early stages. The mod doesn’t even work with the campaign at this time. But impressive videos are posted on the mod page and by tinybike on YouTube that show real-time fights, which show some pretty solid action.

The biggest issues with the mod being fully integrated so far are the lack of being able to pause the game, and fights being very imbalanced. Modder tinybike states in the Status section that they are “just trying to see if the system fundamentally works”, and both of these issues are on their to-do list. Pausing will hopefully be the next update to the mod, and balancing will come at a later time. 

Baldur’s Gate 3 features plenty of memorable fights from start to finish throughout the campaign, from common encounters to imposing boss battles. The game has received countless praise for every aspect, including its turn-based combat. However, since the game has been out for a while now, players are looking to shake up gameplay and this could be the mod that does it. It could make for a whole new experience when starting your new playthrough. 

Since there are so many mods for BG3 for gamers, a lot of them get lost in the trenches of the internet forums. But, if development continues on Brawl, then it could easily rise to be one the best mods for Baldur’s Gate 3 available.

For gamers who can’t get into the genre due to its pacing, this could be the mod that gets them to jump on the bandwagon and enjoy one of the best games of 2023. However, with plenty of work still needing to be done, we’ll just need to keep our fingers crossed for a world where BG3 combat doesn’t take 20 minutes per fight.