Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Rest Mechanics/ Camping Supplies - Take 1 million

The idea of the HP Recovery Button per character is similar to Hit Dice, but the difference is no roll and thus no RNG with it. The more I thought about it, the more I said to myself, "You know. I could see a lot of non-D&Ders being really put out if they take an SR and click on the HP Recovery button and only get 1 HP back because their character has no Con bonus and they rolled a 1. Whereas, a character with Hit Dice of 1d8 with no Con bonus would at least get 5 HP back per button press. I figured, once again, it could be a difference in Difficulty settings. Core 5e mechanics difficulty = Hit Dice at its finest. Easy Mode = HP Recovery Button. Something like that.

I don't disagree with this necessarily: Resting require supply bags (apples, sausages and other food as supplies ON/OFF) + small chance of unexpected encounters in dangerous area (mini camps) + small chance of unexpected events at camp (main camps) = perfect system.

The issue with that, though, is it would require a considerable amount of work, and there seem to be so many resistant to unexpected encounters anywhere. The system I'm suggesting here, however, wouldn't. It's more of a psychological deterrent to spamming either Long or Short Rest. It's something Larian could control.

And if food spoils, that makes each one even a bit more limited. Spoiling food also, again, provides more meaning and purpose for the Survival skill.

What I like about the food spoiling/ preservation system is that it prevents players from hording over 1,000 camping supplies. It keeps the camping supplies numbers more controlled and minimal.

That said, perhaps buying Camp Supply Packs from vendors wouldn't be good. Then you'd have more packs to craft more camp supply packs with. This would defeat the purpose of the preservation system. Maybe vendors just sell food and not packs. This would do several things. First, backpacks would be a much more precious commodity in the game instead of simple item management tools. Second, like I said, it limits just how much total camping supplies you actually can have at one time. Thus, it promotes less frequent long rests. Third, vendors could each be stocked with variable amounts of food each day. Again, this could also, then, be different based on difficulty settings. Anyway, the point is that it would provide more limits to just how much food you can actually have at one time. And finally, it would be slightly more annoying to buy food. Thus, again, imposing a psychological discouragement from spamming long rests. If I use too many long rests and have to go to a vendor and buy 60 camping supplies worth of food - hopefully I can - in order to just long rest, that's going to make me reconsider this approach. Maybe I'll push myself more and long rest less so I don't have to buy food from the merchants. However, if I'm really not doing well in the game, then it won't matter how annoying it is to buy separate food from the vendors. I'll do it anyway because I have to.

And I TOTALLY disagree with this statement: On a higher level, I wants stronger enemies with better stats and skills, and if possible, I wants them to be smarter. I don't want to increase the difficulty level by food problems.

Stronger enemies means higher volatility in the game. One of the biggest things I don't like in BG3 with the volatility of encounters. I lose initiative and half my party is dead because powerful enemies pounce on me and my entire party. Their damage potential is so OP that they can 1-Hit KO my party members if their RNG is good and mine isn't. That sucks, in my opinion. I like tough fights. I don't like tough enemies that can 1-Hit KO me, or take off a huge amount with a single hit. Meanwhile, I can only deal like 15 damage per hit at best with my toughest person. I still remember the playthrough when the phase spider matriarch pounced on Lae'zel, took off 40 HP, taking her down, and then she turned to my other Drow Fighter I created, and hit her for 40 HP as well in a single round. The fight was going well. I thought I was winning. Then she teleported across the board on top of me and wiped out my two toughest. Meanwhile, my characters are swinging and missing or only doing 5 damage or 10. And you want them STRONGER?

I realize that some monsters are that way, and that's fine. I'm not saying there shouldn't be tough monsters. In fact, I really like the phase spider matriarch. I don't want them to change her. She's one tough mama, and that makes her awesome.
I'm just saying, less volatility please. I'd like more monsters that my party members are more evenly matched with. If I can only do 15 damage to an enemy, I'd like more enemies that can only do 15 damage as well.

What I'm looking for is something more like this: 5-6 fights that are more evenly matched. Maybe I have to use some potions, spells, and take some short rests in between. Then maybe a tough fight like the matriarch, but she's not so tough that I have to absolutely long rest right before facing her in order to defeat her. Maybe I can use potions, scrolls, magic items, etc. to beat her. The idea is, I'd like to be able to do 5-6 moderately difficult fights and a boss fight in a single adventuring day - not stronger, smarter, tougher fights all the time where I have to fight, rest, fight, rest, fight, rest, fight, rest.

I don't know. Maybe you're right. Honestly, if they just made short rest more appealing, people would naturally long rest less. Lift the limit, do something more like Hit Dice, and keep the story prompting and encouraging people to not long rest. It'd probably be enough especially for first-time players who don't know that they can long rest unlimitedly.

But short rest needs to be promoted to make that work, and the limit does not promote that. I'm not sure Hit Dice does, though, either, to be fair. Like I said, roll a 1 and you feel ripped off.

So, thinking outside the D&D 5e box, what if they did this instead?:

1. As someone mentioned, do away with food as a cost for resting and make it something players can gather and cook/eat during either long or short rests. Consuming meals grants a bonus of some kind. I was now thinking of something like 1 Combat Inspiration for the whole party per something like 10 camping supplies you consumed during your rest (maximum of 4 Combat Inspiration/40 camping supplies each long rest). Combat Inspiration gives a character Advantage on a single attack or save roll. Just like with how they've implemented Inspiration currently, there is a party total, and you can have anyone in the party use Combat Inspiration at any time. They only work in combat, just like regular Inspiration right now doesn't work in combat.
2. Unlimit Short Rest at the party level. You can do it as much as you want as a party just like long rest.
3. At the character level, you get 1 HP Restore per level. Each HP Restore heals the character, as I said before, the average of their Hit Dice + Constitution score. So, 1d8 with +2 Con bonus is 7 HP.
4. You can use HP Restore more than once per Short Rest, so you can use them all at once if you need to, or you don't have to use any during a Short Rest. It's up to you.
5. You recover ALL HP Restores every long rest, so it's simpler and less confusing to people unfamiliar with the system.
6. You regain special abilities like Action Surge and Warlock Spell slots regardless of whether you spend HP Restore uses.
7. You can spend camping supplies during a Short Rest to get a bonus, just like with Long Rest. So, I was thinking you could also spend camping supplies - your choice how many - during a Short Rest to regain 1 Combat Inspiration per 5 camping supplies - again maximum of 4 Combat Inspirations, for 4 would be the limit regardless of Long or Short Rests. In this way, you could spend comping supplies to replenish your Combat Inspirations, thus promoting more short rests. Also, replenishing Combat Inspiration is cheaper than long rest, so it promotes taking a Short Rest as opposed to a Long Rest.
8. Dialogue is tied to both short and long rests when it makes sense. Again, obviously, you aren't going to trigger Raphael's visit or a Dream Lover dream during a Short Rest.
9. Arcane Recovery Revamped. You get 1 use of Arcane Recovery per character level. It works just like HP Restore, but it is separate from HP Restore. In other words, Gale at Level 4 would get 4 HP Restores and 4 Arcane Recoveries. He could spend 2 HP Restores during a Short Rest and 3 Arcane Recoveries, or whatever he wants. Each use of Arcane Recovery restores - I just know I'm going to get backlash for this - a wizard's spell slots by 50% (round down). So, at level 4, Gale would get 2 level 1 spell slots restored and 1 Level 2 each time he used Arcane Recovery. And he could do it up to 4 times per long rest. Simple. Not perfect, but it would make players who love wizards short rest more frequently as opposed to long rest if they knew they'd be able to get their spell slots back.

Okay, so I just threw this out there. It's not perfect, but I'm trying to think outside the box. Again, the idea is to give things purpose and meaning and to promote the use of both types of rest.

Okay. Now add to this the food preservation concept. Food is no longer a necessity, but it gives you certain bonuses to make the game potentially easier for you. So if food spoils, it's not that big of a deal, but wise players will still want to preserve it. The food spoiling and preservation system concept then still adds more value to backpacks and the survival skill. So they wouldn't have to get rid of food altogether, and players would still probably want to use food in order to gain those bonuses.

In the end your thing is just hit dices without throwing the dices...

Hit dices without RNG doesnt make sense to me. It's like a healing word or a healing potion without RNG.

RNG is what makes combats unpredictable, "evolutive" and so tactical/dynamic. And sometimes frustrating, which make victory or success even more rewardfull. Its the same with hit dices.

I wont answer your other ideas because once again, in my opinion you're making things way more complicated than they should.

About the difficulty you're right, I also hate that the spider matriarch can just OS every characters one after the other. But that's just because ennemies are poorly balanced.
In every DnD games higher difficulty levels means more powerfull and smarter ennemies... and it works.
Don't know how its gonna be in BG3, I still hope that we wont HAVE to use their stupid cheese to finish this DnD game at higher difficulty levels. Though it doesnt mean that I think food should be a (big) part of the difficulty settings. Having to buy/steal/look for/... more food is not harder, its just more boring.

And I agree with that. That part is true. Having to worry about food at all is not fun.

Let me put it simpler:

Each type of rest needs to have value so people will use them both appropriately. Larian needs to create incentives for players to use Short Rest more while using Long Rest only when they need to.

That's what I'm trying to do. Forget "limiting Long rest". I'm trying to shift focus to suggest ways to make Short rest more appealing so players will WANT to short rest more than long rest. I'm also trying to use what Larian has already developed so it's minimal work on their part.

I'm afraid a lot of the suggestions we keep coming up with will only deter players from short rests. Hit Dice, for example. Why use SR Hit Dice when I can just long rest? It's simpler.

You say I'm overcomplicating things, but if you don't create some sort of major benefit for short versus long, people are gonna do like they do now. They'''ll spam long.