Ember's Lute (A Music Performance Mod) (2024)

What's Included
Each instrument in this mod enhance music performances in the following ways:

• grant musical proficiency
• enable auto-join of your music performances on supporting instrument types (musical sprites, band summons or companions)
• unlock passives that let you toggle instrument-specific music on and off mid-performance
• add custom VFX
  

Ember's Lute of Musical Sprites

This lute is themed around playing with musical sprites or spirits.

• Musical sprites automatically appear and join music when a performance is started
• There is a unique sprites VFX for each song (6 if you have the DLC), with sprites dancing around the lead performer
• Performing "The Weeping Dawn" has your player joined by the Spirit of a Tiefling bard, who will sing along with you
  

There is a variant of this lute in the chest which does not automatically summon musical sprites, called The Lute of Infinite Showmanship. You may prefer this somewhat theatrically named instrument when performing with party companions.

Ember's Lute of Vicious Rockery

This lute is themed around performing with the spirits of a long-forgotten Rock Gnome ensemble, The Vicious Rockery.

• Summon the members of the Vicious Rockery, play a song, and they will automatically join in
• Toggle specific band members on and off mid-performance by instrument type
  

• Mild Mockery: a no-damage version of the cantrip Vicious Mockery that is shareable with the party. Party members can insult anyone (or each other), without violent retaliation. It triggers the same automated voice dialog as Vicious Mockery.
• Musical Coercion Curses: apply a curse that makes people dance or sing when a specific song is played.
• Etc. etc., you get the idea. This is not an evil lute, but it is a bit of an a-hole.
  

There is currently no in-combat musical performance support for any of the lutes (behaves the same as vanilla in-combat i.e. about as useful as a chocolate teapot), but I am planning to add this in a future update.

Lute Trader Locations

• Act 1 - the halfing by the entrance to the druid and tiefling den
• Act 2 - the harper quarter master at the Last Light Inn
• Act 3 - the Chromatic Scale store
  

All Ember's Lute items will appear on vendors inside an Ember's Lute treasure chest. If you cannot see this chest on one of the above vendors, take a long rest and try again. If you have the Tutorial Chest Summoning mod, you can also find the Embers' Lute chest inside thecartilaginouschest.

Load Order
Because this mod does not overwrite any base game instruments, music statuses or music files, this mod should not impact other mods in your modlist. All statuses, stats, spells, items etc. in this mod are prefixedto minimize the chance of conflict. In general, load order shouldn't matter, but there may be exceptions (see next subheading).

Common Issues

Interrupted Music Performance Issues / No Performance Animations
Some mods that continuously re-apply statuses can interrupt vanilla music performances. I recommend you check in-game that you can perform music before adding any music or instrument mods to your load order, especially if you have not performed music in-game for a while.

If you are experiencing interrupted musical performances, then read thisarticlefirst and see whether adding the optional musicperformworkaround pak under the Optional Files section helps. This pak is safe to add or remove mid-playthrough and has no dependencies. Note it is a workaround, not really a fix. The better fix is to identify the mod and report to the mod-author, but this may be difficult if you have a very large load order.

Dependencies

Norbyte's Script Extender is a requirement for this mod to work correctly. I recommend that you confirm you can see the message on your BG3 Main Menu screen, which should read something like "Script Extender v16 loaded, built on May 14 2024 21:45:04" in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

Known Conflicts / Compatibility Information

I'll update a list here of mods that I know either to not work with this mod, or require a specific load order.No current known conflicts on latest version.

• This mod uses custom statuses and spells, which are only triggered when one of its custom instruments are used, or if a varnish is applied to another vanilla or custom instrument.
• It should not conflict with other music mods, although it may require unequipping the Ember's Lute instruments to switch back to either vanilla music performance functionality, or another music mod in your load order.
• Depending on what the other music mod does, its music changes may not work on the instruments in this mod unless I patch it in to the custom music statuses.
  

Should I Install This Mod?

If you are after a mod that adds useful utility or improves the gameplay battles in a meaningful, scaleable way, then this probably isn't the mod you are looking for! If whimsy and silliness is more up your street, then I'd love it if you gave this mod a look and let me know what you think.

How Do I Install This Mod?

Installing this mod follows the status quo for installing almost all BG3 mods. I've included a brief summary below, but for thorough installation instructions, including details on where to find BG3 path locations and so on, this is an excellent resource:BG3 wiki.

BG3 Mod Manager

The recommended way to install this is with LaughingLeader's BG3 Mod Manager.

• Choose the Manual Download option from the Files tab on this Nexus page, then in BG3 Mod Manager, go to File -> Import Mod...
• If you do not already haveNorbyte's Script Extender, then go toTools -> Download & Install the Script Extender in BG3 Mod Manager.
• To activate this mod, simply drag it from the right-hand panel to the left-hand panel in BG3 Mod Manager.
  

Vortex
If you are comfortable with Vortex, then there should be no problem in taking advantage of the Nexus integration as a convenient way to install this mod quickly.

• The only thing to keep in mind is that if you do not already haveNorbyte's Script Extender installed, you will need to do it manually. Fortunately, this is very easy to do - just follow the instructions in the link.
  

Manually

• If you wish to install manually, then you will need the information held inmodsettings.lsx, which can be found as an Optional download on the Files tab.
• This wiki page has a great set of instructions for manually installing BG3 mods.
• You will also need to follow the steps for manually installingNorbyte's Script Extender, as per the Vortex instructions.
  

How Do I Uninstall This Mod?

Because this mod add new items, uninstalling requires pre-requisite in-game steps to erase custom mod items. The mod provides some tools to help with this, as well as an in-game book with instructions. My recommendation however, is to just stash the instruments in the Camp Chest. As long as you are not using them, none of the custom functionality in this mod will be triggered.

Update

:
I have just finished testing uninstalling this mod with Volitio's excellent Mod Uninstaller.It works really well as a way to track down and cleanly remove custom items. Custom items are one of the main causes of the crash to main menu issue, after trying to load a Save Game following a mod pack removal.

• Before you use the uninstaller in-game, be sure to dismiss any active summons from the mod, unequip the lutes from your characters and companions, and take a Long Rest.
  

You don't have to use the Mod Uninstaller if you prefer to clean items manually or use the tools this mod provides, but I would definitely recommend it, especially if you have many mods - remembering which items came from which mod is a real mental management overhead!

Thanks and Credits
A list of mods that appear in some of the images and videos uploaded to this page:

• Tav's Hairpack, by Toarie - https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/213
• Extra Gear, by pooteeweet - https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/3483
• Fancy Camp Clothes, by pooteeweet - https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/6919
• PseudoKociaras' Heads by PseudoKociara - https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/6152
• Izzli's Pigments and Tinctures by Izzli - https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/4706
• Transmog Enhanced by Eralyne and Wayden - https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/2922
• Gleaming Sun Reshade at Baldur's Gate 3 Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com)
  

(Please let me know if you spot a mod I might have missed and I will add it).

Massive thanks to:

• Norbyte for Script Extender and the LSLib Export Tool
• LaughingLeader for BG3ModManagerand the BG3 Modding Tools
• ShinyHobo for the BG3 Multi-Tool
• Shivero's VFX Auto Color Changer
• An anonymous IRL friend who was guinea pig for some early mod testing
  

Permissions

All the assets in this mod, are either derived and adapted from the BG3 base game, or for better or worse (mostly worse), my own creation.

Anyone is welcome to unpack this mod to inspect how things have been put together and you do not need to request my permission to do this. Provided you can make sense of the chaos! This mod has grown organically over the last few weeks I've been working on it, and it's the result of a LOT of experimentation, trial and error. I've gleefully jumped in to pretty much every rabbit hole that piqued my curiousity as I tried to figure how how the pieces fit together. So, structurally, it won't offer the most straightforward examples of how to achieve things in BG3. I've tried to compensate for this with lots of comments to explain whatever madness was going through my head at the time.