Honestly, Fast Travel is mostly a Quality-Of-Life functionality in my view.
My primary problem with the way Larian implemented Fast Travel in BG3 is immersion. They have once again gone for a Schrödinger, LOL-who-cares-about-immersion approach : the functionality is simultaneously
- a pure video-game functionality, with Waypoint Portals being a feature that the players can use, that (non-party) characters can't use, and generally that has zero impact in the world-building,
- an in-world element, that has an associated lore (Netherese origins) and is explained to us by a character (Gale) instead of being explained to us using the same UI as for other tutorial elements.
These two are not compatible.
The mechanical implications are coming in as a secondary, but nevertheless a problem, in my view. Currently, we can Fast Travel :
- (a) from anywhere to any discovered portal,
- (b) from anywhere to the pocket-dimension Camp,
- (c) from the pocket-dimension camp to where-we-were-before-teleporting-to-Camp (or any discovered portal, as the pocket dimension is included in "from anywhere" in (a)).
My main issue is with (c), as this allows to essentially Long Rest anywhere, for free. But at this point ... the issue is clearly with the Long Rest system.
The issue I have (a) and (b) is mostly the facts that ...
(1) time does not exist and
(2) the world is utterly static (non-reactive).
Imagine that you have assaulted the Goblins' Stronghold and already killed Gut and Minthara. You're low on resources, and feel you can't take on Dror Ragzlin right now, so you backtrack. You get out of this dungeon and head back to a safe location, like the Sylvanus Grove or the wherever-it-is-supposed-to-be-located Camp, to regroup and rest, before coming back on the next day for the final assault. You find the Goblin Stronghold in exactly the same state as you left it.
I'm not bothered by the fact that you can use Fast Travel as a way to get out of tough spots. After all, the world is utterly static, and it is absolutely inconceivable that a patrol inside the Stronghold (desecrated temple) or some Goblins from outside would have walked in and re-manned (or re-Goblined) the entrance. I'm more bothered by the fact that, even if the game prevented us to Fast Travel from the Camp (say) to where-you-were-before-teleporting-to-Camp, and forced to come back to the dungeon's entrance, nothing inside has been updated ... So much for the famous reactivity Larian talks a lot about.
In the end, I voted for 4 and 6.
- 4 because, for example, if the Goblins are now hostile and you haven't "secured" the Goblin Camp (i.e. killed everyone, and especially the three Leaders), then you should resume from beginning of the dungeon/area.
- 6 because, well ... the world should be reacting to your choice. Currently, it isn't.
I realise I should perhaps have added random encounters. Because, again, I feel it sad that the world is so static, that all encounters are theme-park attractions waiting for you to visit, and that once you've cleaned an area of whatever monsters, enemies and dangers you found there, it is forever devoid of life. Although, I would be more than happy to imagine that the main travel path is now much safer, and the party is reasonably able to avoid encounters, if they have decided to travel fast as they are only passing through a region, and no longer exploring it ... if only I could encounter the occasional respawned danger when not using Fast Travel. Again, it comes back to immersion.