Mods explained for a noob

[DamastL86]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum but passionate and excited about Baldur's Gate 3! After playing 1 and 2 in my teens, I was anxiously awaiting 3. That being said I would like to know a few things about how to play the game and install the mods.
So as not to repeat things a thousand times, is there a guide you can link me on how they work and how to install them?
But above all, is there a risk of ruining previous saves? Could it be an idea once you play with the mods to remove the vanilla saves and put them back by removing the ones with the mods when you want to play vanilla again? Or just disable the mods? Please enlighten me and thank you for your patience and availability!
PS do you know anything about the possibility of not only cross-save but also cross play so you can play with friends who have PS5?

Thank you all so much for your availability and patience! :happy:

[Fkemman11]

Everything is usually explained on the individual mod pages for what they do, how to install them and possible (if any) bugs they might cause. Just gotta read stuff. :happy:

[RS13]

Typically the rule is not to uninstall mods that your savegame depends on, but mods that it doesn't depend on are safe. For instance, let's say you use a custom head or face mod. If you remove that mod, the game will likely crash on load b/c it will try to load an asset that doesn't exist. Same with classes, if you try to load a game where you're a custom class, but you've removed the mod that adds that class, it's likely crash o'clock. Armors and Spells are likely more lenient. If you remove a spell mod and a character has that spell, then they just won't have it any more. It's a little tricky, but try it and eventually you'll get a feel for what can and can't be uninstalled.

 

But if I had to give you two pieces of advice:
1. Add mods *slowly.* Add one, maaaybe two mods that you really want to play with, then play with them for a couple of hours to be sure it's stable before adding more.

2. Make backups: Every time I add a mod, I make a (non-quick) save titled "last before {mod name}" If the mod screws stuff up, I know exactly where I can go back to.