Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Fast Travel Limitation Poll

I think part of the deal that most are not considering is that Larian is telling us right away that these are special Netherese portals. So, they are letting us know that these are not your standard one-way gates where you can go from A to B, but you can't go from B to A. They are portals with multiple exits, and you can use them to return to places you've been previously. That makes them extremely rare and powerful. They aren't merely Creature Only portals, and they aren't merely Non-Creature (meaning just objects) Only portals. So again, they are VERY rare.

But, being Netherese, that does make sense. The Netherese were extremely powerful spellcasters. So, there is a mystery about the portals, and that's fine, as long as they explain it at some point and don't just say, "They're Netherese. So..."

Well, um, yeah. But why are they in the middle of nowhere Western Heartlands Faerun? Why are they all over the place, and even etched on the side of a building in a town that was decimated over a hundred years ago?

AND... my big pet peeve is that they don't explain at all how these things are used. Why are YOU the only one who can use them? How do you even know? Does Gale tell you? Does he teach you? I mean, clearly he knows, for he steps out of one when you first meet him. But what allows you to activate them? Is there a Word of Power? Do you need a special Word of Power to travel to the one you're wanting to travel to as opposed to another? There's just literally no real explanation, so it comes off as simply a video game Fast Travel tool as opposed to a genuine portal system created by someone in the fantasy world of Faerun.

So, as some have said, if you aren't going to legit explain the hows and whys, just remove the portals altogether and create some animation that shows on the game map your characters traveling from A to B as if they walked the whole way instead of teleporting. You have the same basic result, but you aren't creating a story element and then not explaining the story element.

I like the portals. I want them to keep them in the game. I just want them to give me a really good reason as to why they're there, and I want some details on their functionality. Even if they make it so you find a book on Netherese Portals, and that book details how to use them and so forth, that would be good enough for me.

And finally, there - again - needs to be some sort of Fast Travel limits imo. They shouldn't be too steep. I mean, I agree that it sucks in some of the older D&D games when you have to manually walk for five minutes through an area you've already cleared just so you can return to the merchant and sell gear, ESPECIALLY when you're encumbered. Walking stupidly slow for ten minutes because you have a bunch of cool stuff you want to sell and you don't want to drop it is just a waste of time.

On the flip side, I shouldn't be able to teleport from the inside of the Goblin Base to the Grove when I've just killed all their bosses and they're all super pissed and looking to kill me. I should physically have to sneak out of the base somehow before I can fast travel. Or, as someone else said, if I just fell into the Underdark and I haven't found a portal yet, I shouldn't be able to Fast Travel until I find one.

AND... I think some sort of Exhaustion system should be set up somehow. If you Fast Travel huge distances from portals, you should expend more Stamina Points, or something. So, if you're in the Bog, and you fast travel to the grove area, that's a considerable distance from a waypoint. So, it should take more energy to travel to the grove from there as opposed to traveling to the grove from say Moonhaven right next to the apothecary. A Short Rest could then allow you to recover Stamina Points, making Short Rests more important and valuable in the game.

And again, get rid of the hard 2 Short Rests limit. But that's a whole different topic.

But why create some exhaustion mechanics if a short rest is going to negate it (especially if it's going to be unlimited). This is the creation of mechanics that in practice will not exist.

Sigh. Limit short rest in a different way - ie Hit Dice. You know, 5e's true short rest limitation. Once a character has used up their HD, short rest no longer benefits them. Something LIKE this.

The point is that you wouldn't be hard limiting short rest but having unlimited long rest. That's backwards. Short rest should be used more often than long. So you need to create more purpose for short rest, and adding Exhaustion would do just that, and so would Hit Dice as opposed to a 2 limit system.