With such a long list of suggestions / fixes / "
how to do it"-type of feedback, I am bound to disagree with at least one suggestion. And I doubt that even just a handful of players, if any, will 100% agree. But 100% agreement is not the point. Thanks for taking the time to write a detailed feedback post, and in doing so summarise a lot of ideas that have been aired lately.
My only comment, unsurprisingly, will be about the first paragraph, about why resting is important and why the current system in BG3 doesn't work.
I wouldn't have gone as far as saying that Short/Long Rest
defines DnD 5E. That being said, yes, this distinction between the two Rests, just like Reactions or Advantage, is a
typical 5E element.
Thus, I suppose an argument could be made that these typical elements probably should be implemented at all, to start with, and not be butchered, on top of that. So as to retain the impression that the game is based on 5E, just a bit homebrewed. Not "vaguely inspired by DnD but then we discarded all the things we didn't like and we never paused to see if that was a little or a lot".
I'm not saying the Short-vs-Long Rest is good aspect of 5E. Just that it is somewhat iconic. Likewise, spell-slots, as well as the difference between Spell Level and Caster Level are typical DnD thing. I think they're retarded, and thankfully not widely used in too many other CRPG, but it is hard to discard them and call the result a DnD game. Anyway, I said "an argument could be made", and preserving what is typical of DnD 5E isn't the argument I would go for.
The better argument in my view is that of resources, which you mentioned.
From a pure mechanical point of view, Long Rest is Recover-All-Resources (Hit Points, Racial Abilities, Class Abilities, be they class-unique like Sorcery Points or more widely used like Spell Slots). Short Rest is Recover-Some-Resources. And these Rests are, themselves, resources. This is not ground-breaking, and some Larian designers know it. By making Rests freely available, while changing nothing else throughout the ruleset, Larian completely alters the balance. (Yes, I've used the B-word. Sorry, it was hard to go around it. Please don't call me a min-maxer.)
If Larian wants to remove Short Rest (which is effectively the case when Long Rest is free), then Battle Masters, Monks, Warlocks, and all the Short-Rest (Sub-)Classes should see their resource pool tripled.
If Larian wants us to start every encounter with full resources, they should significantly decrease the number of resources (e.g. Spell Slots) that fully rested characters have. I wouldn't go as far as saying that free Long Rests completely invalidates Spell Slots. But it certainly invalidate damage cantrips : why bother with Fire Bolt or Sacred Flame, when we can spam Magic Missiles, Scorching Rays and Guiding Bolts ?
Anyway, all this to say, I would have put the mechanical argument first and the iconic argument second, in "resting is important" paragraph.
