(A sad thing about the internet is that I know someone will absolutely take that headline seriously.)
Of course, the one essential Baldur's Gate 3 mod remains the one that removes the party limit, as is true of so many RPGs. But if I was going to download a second mod for my current playthrough, Gale Edits—Piercings and Beard would be a strong contender.
There's an issue with facial hair in Baldur's Gate 3 that's most noticeable on Gale's handsome mug, and it's that parts of beards can abruptly shorten or vanish entirely as the face beneath them moves. It's as if the skin's movements aren't fully matching the hair's movements, leaving parts of it to get consumed and temporarily disappear, resulting in a patchy beard rather than the full glory Gale of Waterdeep's chin deserves.
As well as making sure Gale's beard remains lustrous at all times, the Gale Edits mod is compatible with the same modder's Piercing Improvement—Physics mod, which makes your earrings dangle properly rather than staying firmly in place when you're, say, suspended in midair after falling out of a mind flayer flying ship.
As the name suggests, Gale Edits is only a fix for Gale's beard. If your custom character has facial hair of their own, they'll have hair clipping through their face too. Maybe we'll finally get a fix for that in the upcoming Patch 7, which is also adding official mod support at last.
