[quote]Both long and short rest mechanics (including cutscenes & dialogue) in BG3 need to be changed to fix the BG3 resting system; making changes to only one will likely do little. if anything, to help.
- Increase the # of short rests per long rest. There's no reason it should be limited to 2, especially because:
- Hit Dice are a natural limit to # of short rests. Since you only get back half with a LR, this naturally encourages players to LR when they have ~1/4 their hit die left[\quote]
This is exactly what I'm suggesting and why it would work best. Hit Dice naturally limit the # of short rests. But, even if you short rest beyond your hit dice, in order to restore things like Action Surge and a Warlock's Spell Slots, that's GOOD. That's what players should try to do. Anything that would promote short rest over long rest is good because the idea is that in D&D, the DM is supposed to encourage short resting over long resting. That's why Warlocks and Fighters have such rechargeable at short rest abilities. If you strip short rest resets from their classes, you severely nerf their classes. Druids are the same with Wild Shape.
See, here's how it is supposed to work:
Party = Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Warlock
You crash on the beach. You fight intellect devourers. Wizard and Warlock both use their spells; all of them. Fighter uses Action Surge and Second Wind. Short rest. Wizard recovers 1 spell slot using Arcane Recovery. Warlock recovers spell slot. Fighter recovers Action Surge and Second Wind. Everyone uses all their Hit Dice. Party continues. Reaches the crypt and fights Gimblebock and company. Wizard uses last spell slot. Warlock uses spell slot. Fighter uses Action Surge and Second Wind. Short rest. Wizard is out of spells. Fighter and Warlock, however, have their abilities replenished. The party can still continue. Why? Because although everyone is out of Hit Dice, the Fighter and Warlock were still able to replenish their abilities. So the Fighter can still do Action Surge and Second Wind, and the Warlock has spells again. Sure, the Wizard is now out of spells besides Cantrips, but the trade-off is that the Wizard, especially at later levels, will have a LOT more spell slots and a LOT more spells to choose from, while the Warlock - especially at later levels - will have far less spell slots and spells to choose from. But the thing that makes a Warlock not a complete waste as a class is that they can recharge their spell slots via a short rest while the wizard and sorcerer are forced to reset only at Long Rest. Allow Long Rests between every fight, and you give wizards and sorcerers and clerics and such a huge boost in importance as a class while severely hacking Warlocks and Druids and such at the knees.
See, here's how BG3 works:
Same party.
Same scenario except that instead of using a short rest, you can long rest without restraint. So why bother with short rest when everyone can, and is encouraged to, long rest? The result? Full health for everyone and full spell slots. Day 2, the adventure continues. You reach the crypt and fight Gimblebock and company. Wizard has full spell slots just like the Warlock, but gets MORE spell slots because that's how the class is built. So, while the Warlock is stuck with one or two spell slots for many many levels, the wizard's spell slot allowance increases every level. Skip ahead to level 5. Wizard can cast Fireball. Between every fight, he can Long Rest and reset ALL spell slots. Warlock is stuck at only 2 SPELL SOTS even at level 5. Meanwhile, the wizard has - what is it, 10? I can't remember off the top of my head - so the wizard is able to blast enemies with a couple of Fireballs, maybe 4 magic missiles, and so forth, while the poor Warlock only gets 2 spells and that's it.
Why is resting mechanics so vital to this game? THIS is why. They might as well throw the Warlock class in the trash if they don't do something to fix this because it's a completely useless, trash class, if you don't limit long rests and try to focus more on pushing players to short rest. Short rest NEEDS to be the resting that players feel they should go to unless they really feel they cannot continue without a long rest. Short rests should be a valuable mechanic - so much so that players feel they can't play the game without them. It should be their go-to resting mechanic, not their afterthought.
