Rosprey’s Guide to Making a Custom Race or Subrace guide for Baldur's Gate 3

Guide

Last Updated: 14.01.25

Hello all :)

My full guide and notes is too long to be put fully here, so I hope it's ok to link the google doc I've been putting accumulated knowledge in as I've been going along in making my race (Playable Aasimar). If not Moderators, let me know and i'll remove.

This is just intended to be a helpful resource to get people started in making their own races / sub races and where they should generally be looking and working to make that happen. I hope others will help me evolve this over time.

Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEo6HoYMt1RealSmSIdUE4sGF4Z4URj2pPRBJFhiokw/edit

Of further note, I'm hoping with additional experienced modders feedback, I can update the guide further and ensure the process and specific details are improved/added. Particularly for aspects of customisation I'm not well versed in: bespoke animation editing, 3d modelling /blender user, outside of basic toolkit character visual resource manipulation, character races / models that are monstrous or creature based for instance. E.g. a mod to be a playable owlbear or something.

So please feel free to comment advice / additions.

All the best in the meantime,

Rosprey

Discussion
21 comments

Pinned

Rosprey

AUTHOROct 3, 2024+3

Hi all. Got a bit going on in the personal life now, but I'll update this when I get some time soon. Hopefully it's helped a fair few out there in working out what to do generally :). Take care, R

CobaltCactus

Jan 1, 20252 replies

Hello! I was able to follow your guide and get a new race functioning in the CC, but I'm running into a weird bug when loading into the nautiloid. All the attributes, passives, etc. are correct but the PC is naked other than their weapon. Any idea what could be causing this?

CobaltCactus

Jan 1, 20251 reply+2

Nevermind, figured it out. Make sure "Show Equipment Visuals" is ticked in your character visual resources if you run into this problem.

Rosprey

AUTHORJan 14, 2025

Sorry I didn't check the comments in time, i've put this fact in the guide as well now. All the best to you. :)

Vilevirtus

Oct 15, 20242 replies+2

Hey, I've been trying to give a subrace a PassiveList. Spelllists seem to work fine. But when I add a PassiveList the choice just doesnt show up in the character creator. Do you know what I'm missing?

BukoMoon

Oct 15, 20241 reply+3

SelectPassives(PassiveListUUID, AmountToBeSelected, ProgressionDescription) Check your passives for any errors. If you need more help Larian Studios discord has a toolkit modder channel, where people will be able to help you.

Rosprey

AUTHORDec 3, 2024

Thanks Buko :)

ModioUser2088703

Sep 27, 20242 replies

Hi, after making my race mod, my character will automatically upgrade to level 3 after creation. I checked many way to fix this yet there is no change. Do you have any clue about how to fix this or how to modify the level or exp.

Rosprey

AUTHOROct 3, 20241 reply+2

Hey there, check in the sidebar when you select the WIP and scroll down to look for Set Level Override. Stick that to lvl 1 if it's at 3 or something else. That should probably do it.

ModioUser2088703

Oct 4, 2024+3

Thanks!!! This helped a lot! Problem solved.

ModioUser2088703

Sep 23, 202410 replies

Hi, appreciate your guidance. I followed your document step by step to make my race mod, but on the CC page, there is no Body Type I created; instead, the standard body type male of the human race covers both males and females of mine. Has this ever happened to you? Or do you have any clue about this?

Rosprey

AUTHORSep 23, 20249 replies

Hi, yes I think i've had that when playing around with making a new race that used the bugbear template. It ended up with just the base human model there too. I think I missed a slight step. I'll add it in my guide. You need to ensure there are seperate WIP files for each body type. This way you can set them each up to be standard or strong size and look how you want. Then you take the guid of them and put them into the RootTemplate (G) column in CHaracterCreationPresets. (Found in [MOD FOLDER NAME] > CharacterCreationPresets> + button > CHaracterCreationPresets. So for my mod for example, there is a standard and large size WIP model for each sub race. Which means four total. If you're just working on one main race, I would do minimum two. So you have a standard female and a male variant. It might be however that some WIP character models just don't work in the character creation window. But i'm not sure where the line is as I've played an imp mod and that's clearly not standard size. I'll keep the guide updated as I clear that up.

ModioUser2088703

Sep 23, 20241 reply

And the error also said my race don't have a default private part. but I create my template from the strong type human male and female directly. I don't understand. XD

ModioUser2088703

Sep 23, 2024

Found under Shared Dev there is default private data

ModioUser2088703

Sep 23, 20246 replies

Thank you for reply! What I did was create two strong body types, male and female, with no standard type, and I used their Guid for the (G) column. Yet, an error message popped up saying there is no visual resource for my race's head and hair, and this error message ended with the human race's standard body type Guid. I think this part covers my CC wip template, but I don't know how to fix it.

ModioUser2088703

Sep 23, 20245 replies

Default visual resource `0d1b6322-1e78-e5aa-866d-ac7b98a25a38` (Hair) for race `a483aede-2f4e-4d9d-a206-b6beae956017`(2) not found in CharacterCreationAppearanceVisuals.tbl nor in Races.tlb for this race Visuals. Root template `fd7f2707-8f86-4836-bda8-e0db99c389cc`

Rosprey

AUTHORSep 23, 20244 replies+2

Ok, so to add head types you need to fill in the CharacterCreationAppearanceVisuals table. I think i've not added that yet either. Sorry, head like a sieve as I end up doing a lot of this in the evenings after work! Broadly speaking, it's a list of different pre made custom heads you can pick from to slot on to the character. I'll add that to my guide too. You can copy them across from other sources - Shared or Gustav I think have them listed out. and then just copy paste your Race UUID from the Races tab, into the RaceUUID (column C). So for example my one uses primarily human head ones and some half elf.

ModioUser2088703

Sep 23, 20243 replies

I don't know what happened. Somehow, the Standard F&M+ strong F&M body type works, but if I only put the Strong type in, the Human race replaces it.

Rosprey

AUTHORSep 24, 20242 replies

What fixed it partially for me was for my humanoid race I was making, to input in Races column C, the humanoid UUID: "899d275e-9893-490a-9cd5-be856794929f". and your custom WIP model GUID in RootTemplate (G) in CharacterCreationPresets menu. Somepoint i'll have to double check how to make it work when I give making bestial / monstrous custom races a go...

ModioUser2088703

Sep 25, 20241 reply+2

Find a mistype in your document, Art icon part second line of the file pathway. It first said races_icons and later is flip. I was trap on this for 10min to figure out this mistyping. "It needs to be: “Assets/CC/races_icons” and the file name must be exactly the same as the Name column in Races (NOT the display name). It's case sensitive as far as I know too. !!Use 300x300 icons in PNG format.(Transparent background I think too).!! You typically need to restart the toolkit after adding in the icons Pathway: “Data\Mods\MOD_NAME\GUI\Assets\CC\icons_races”"

Rosprey

AUTHORSep 26, 2024

Thank you and sorry for missing that! I’ll correct it in morning.

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