Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Resting system - The Final Solution

I actually think the Rest Point system could work, but maybe tweaked.

As a DM, I need to always be mindful of my character's overall strength before I initiate any encounters with them. A DM's ultimate objective is to provide challenging encounters that don't kill them. So, I need to pay attention to how much health they have and their spell slots.

So, what if we combine an idea I had with the Rest Points idea? That would be more like what a DM would do anyway. HP and Spell Slots are how you determine the overall fatigue of the party. Therefore, I think that should be how a person earns Rest Points. For every point of HP you lose, you earn 1 Rest Point. For every Spell Slot you spend, you earn 2 Rest Points.

Level 1 characters need to spend 5 Rest Points for every Short Rest and 10 for every Long Rest.

Level 2 characters need to spend 10 Rest Points for every Short Rest and 20 for every Long Rest.

Level 3 characters need to spend 15 Rest Points for every Short Rest and 30 for every Long Rest.

See where I'm going with this? The more HP and Spell Slots you have, the more Rest Points you'll be able to earn. However, it also means the more you'll have to recover. So, as you level up, the cost requirements are more, but that's only because you are increasing in the number of HP you have and the number of Spell Slots.

Example: You and Shadowheart face the 3 intellect devourers in the beginning. You're only Level 1. During the fight, you lose 5 HP, but Shadowheart lost none. However, she spent 2 spell slots. That's 9 Rest Points. You can do a Short Rest but not a Long Rest. Why? Because you have a tadpole in your head and you think it could go off in literally hours and transform you into mind flayers. So you would not call it a day if you didn't feel you needed to as a character. Besides, I, the DM, know that there isn't going to be a super tough fight ahead of the party at this time. They can still keep going. So I would not let them do a long rest. A short rest? Yes. They lost 5 HP and spent 2 spell slots. A short rest might be in order especially if health potions are so limited at this time.

Ah! But I level up! What now? Short Rest first and then Level Up and you'd have enough. Did you level up first? Well, short rest is now disabled, but you don't need it. You just got a boost in spell slots and HP because you leveled up. Sure, to short rest first and then level up is a trick to the system to maximize your recovery, but so what? No system is going to be absolutely perfect, and it's the little tricks like that which make the veteran players better than the novices.

Either way, the rest system is then based on the characters actual need. If you wind up suffering heavy hits and lose lots of HP and spell slots, you NEED to rest regardless of how much you actually did. If the battle against the hag, for example, goes really well, then you don't need to rest. However, if the battle against Marli and Barton goes poorly, you might need to long rest after it. It all depends, honestly, on how much damage you took and how many spells you cast. So the Rest Points should be based on these as well, and the cost should be based on level.

Oh, and to address the "inflict damage to yourself to earn Rest Points" thing, if I was the DM, I'd immediately dock relationship points for that. You make Lae'zel jump off a cliff and take damage, whether it was intentional or not, I don't think she'd be too happy with your MC. Same goes with anyone. You are their leader. If you command them to do something that hurts them because of poor judgment, that should cause a docking of at least some relationship points; maybe 1 relationship point per HP lost (depending on how the relationship points work. I don't really know what values they assign to what).