Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Turn ON/OFF food as ressources to solve long rest issues

From experience I can say that there is a good chance that it may not be enough, but maybe rng doesn't like me
In general, limited food is quite dangerous because it will look different depending on the team composition, player knowledge or stupid rng.
It is impossible to make a "meaningful" rest that will also prevent the player from getting stuck (which the game should not be able to do). RPG games are so long that after such a blockade the player will most likely abandon the game.
Kingsmaker had a meaningful rest and eventually found most of the players didn't like him very much.
In the end, rest will never matter (unless Larian introduces some commonly disliked mechanics), at most there will be half measures that will only make the game more irritating, such as supplies in PoE

Ultimately, what is the importance of food if you can buy unlimited quantities from a merchant?

One thing to keep in mind. Larian said food costs for Long Rest will increase based on level. So, it may be that we are meant to stockpile food and camping supplies for further Acts.

That doesn't solve the Act 1 issues of abusing Long Rests early on and time therefore being this crazy, wacked non-existent element, but that may be their plan.

So, at level 5, Camp Supplies might go up to 50, and food is no longer findable in the Underdark and after. So it might become more of an attrition game later. Level 6 requires 60, 7 = 70, etc.

Note: I think that would suck unless they warn us of this, but it's a thought. I also think this is not a good system.

I still think cost should be based on character level and number of people at camp. Gotta feed everyone, ya know. If you start filling your camp with people, you need to support them. Just saying. Everybody gotta eat.

Side note: I like the "Combine food into Camp Supplies" idea. That's good.

the game's not balanced is my point.... the game is too boring at level 4. fight rest fight rest. I remember the first time i rescued the druid all too well.... then stepping outside. Ugh. That's not a level 4 scenario, that requires you to stuff it up before you can beat it. Tried the swamp / hag without resting in the middle of it. And food doesn't need to be more scarce, there's nothing wrong with it. These are major objectives that generally in RPG terms require them be done start to finish. resting in the middle of them is highly unrealistic but required due to an unbalanced scenario thus why they've bought in these underground camps, quick travelling when not in the overworld, and it all comes down to level 4 cap.

food based on level is a dumb idea as well.... pre 5e it was time to memorize spells etc. 5e does not have food requirements for long resting. although i agree some of the food values could be scaled down, altering how much food is required is just a dumb idea that's NOT 5e.

I must say im little surprised you didnt give single Supply Bag to Hooked Horrors encounter ...
That Drow that is living with them should eat something too. :P

//Edit:
And it would be really cool to find "Bag of rotten supplies" somewhere near that Petrified Drow.
Just for the Roleplay feeling. :3

Kingmaker has a punitive resting mechanic that could lead to a game over. That's not really what I have in mind.

I said 10 but I could have said 12 or 14. It's more to give an idea than to suggest a value.
I really think a balance could be found to make resting more meaningfull while preventing at the same time players from being stucked.

You’re talking about PoE (and I agree that it was boring) but I find Solasta to be a better comparison.
Despite the fact that the map design is linear in Solasta, BG3’s map is also divided in area with a starting point and an end. The end may be different but it does not change that the area is “done” and that you have reached some kind of “checkpoint”.
Supply bags could be a reward after you reach those checkpoints whatever the solution you have choosen.

The restriction should definitely be balanced. It should not be too restrictive but we should not always have 3-6 supply bags ahead in my opinion. It clearly gives us the message that long resting, managing and using wisely your actions/features/spellslots does not matter.
The player should not be the only one to determine when the day is over.


Well, what is the importance of food now ?
Extremely easy to long rest or extremely to long rest without having to look for food if you plan to long rest 40 times during act 1, I guess.



The goblins camp contains enough meat for you to rest the whole EA. Should they remove the barbecue ? I don't really think so.
I think they should give food a value of "0 supply" for players who wants to be challenged by the game's core rules

I really don't understand the purpose of this thread.

Have Larian already stated they aren't going to implement "Create Food And Water"? If / when the game will be released in full, and we will be able to hit level 5, all these oh-so-lovingly-constructed "restrictions" will be immediately flushed down the toilet, because the spell creates enough food for a long rest, by its very definition. Am I missing something here?..

Unless you are all talking about EA specifically. Well, in that case I do agree - the game has way too much food, as it is. Then again, Solasta also had overabundance of pretty much everything during its EA, rations included, but after release all of that was toned down, significantly.

Good to know, it would help players even more not to be stucked, requiring them to plan and manage their spellslots if they really need to rest and don't have supply bags.
(I guess we could consider that Create Food and water would create a supply bag).


Solasta's resting system does not exclusively rely on food. Even with too many rations, you had long rests restrictions requiring you to manage your features and spellslots.

Exactly. After much thought and deliberation, I came to this conclusion also. Food control is not the solution to spamming long rest.

Bottom line is, if someone wants to spam long rest, no matter what method you use to stop it, they're going to do it if they really want to. They'll find a way to abuse the system. Let them. The game will simply be easier for them and more boring.

That said, some of us like some sort of restrictions because it makes the game more enjoyable for us. If we know we can't long rest endlessly, then it gives us a sense of challenge and urgency and excitement. Limitations make the game harder and more enjoyable for those of us who take the game seriously.

That's why we don't like the "you can rest as much as you want" current approach. It's because without the restrictions, the game becomes boring for us. And, as I've said many times before, the fact that we miss out on certain dialogues because we don't long rest so much makes it even more frustrating for those of us who want the limitations and restrictions.

I truly think the solution isn't food but to provide story consequences in the form of complications that discourage long rest spamming. You long rest too much and Lae'zel gets mad at you for taking too long to get to the githyanki patrol, thus you lose relationship points with her, or she outright leaves for a time and you don't see her again until you reach the githyanki patrol. Consequences for taking too long. Not permanent, you can't complete a mission, consequences, but something that makes spamming long rest a bit less desirable and that makes sense from a story perspective.

As an alternative, or in addition to the consequences limitation, because that might get too intensive for Larian to implement, the only other thing that I think would work is having restrictions centered around HP and Spell Slots, which, as a DM, I would do anyway. I never want my players to feel like I'm so restrictive that I'm just trying to kill them, so if their HP and Spell Slots are running low, and they're about to fight a big battle, I'll let them, somehow, find time to long rest so they can keep going.

And so it should be with this game. If your total party HP is less than half, and your spell slots are less than half, your party might need to long rest. Otherwise, you should keep going. You still have plenty left in you to keep up the fight.

100% on this. Hopefully full-release difficulty settings will address this as well, maybe adding possible random encounters during rest for those who want them.

Your suggestion also address some of the lack of urgency you and others have pointed out. I'm less concerned with this, because once we know we aren't changing right away, and we've got some leeway, urgency feels reduced, but having companions getting frustrated, relationships worsening, leaving, if we get to laissez-faire definitely keeps some of that urgency present.

I can only agree with this.
Story consequences would be the best solution and would make a lot of sense but it won't ever happen and if it is... it'll hurt players that don't like "timed quests" (or loosing a companion for a long time in your exemple)



It does not work IMO.
What if you cannot rest (because you were lucky and dodged most attacks or don't use enough spellslots) but only have the matriarch left to kill ? Are your only solutions to "try" another combat or to spend your spellslots on the ground ?

Checkpoints is the only answer in my opinion. And supply bags could be some kind of ("mobile") checkpoints.

Please no timed quests/story consequences for resting!

I honestly don't know how else, then, that they are going to handle Long rest spamming unless they just remove restrictions altogether and say forget it. If players want to spam then let them. Just know we're building encounters around the concept that you won't actually spam long rest, so of the game is too easy, you are probably spamming after every fight.