LIMITING rest is a bad idea. Period. The WORST thing Larian could do is make it so that players are limited in resting so that if they really need it they are totally stuck. That's why I keep saying that the suggestion is to MANAGE resting so that it is meaningful and creates value to each type of rest - long and short. I want a rest system that provides choice for players.
The system I'm suggesting allows players to choose more. Astarion is out of Short Rests, but MC and the other 3 in the party still haven't used even 1 out of 4 because they're level 4. Switch Astarion out and keep adventuring. Switch in Wyll. Option. Choice.
LR costing more because more characters at camp. Option. Choice. Instead of simply saying, "Doesn't hurt anything to just leave the useless Astarion (I'm picking on him a lot, but lots of people don't like him) at camp, so I'll just ignore him," now you are pushed into making a choice. "Leaving him at camp costs me 10 extra Camping Supplies per Long Rest, and I'm not even using him. I can either:
A. Switch him in and use him to quest so he's actually doing something purposeful each day and helping me to continue my adventuring day beyond 2-3 fights per day
or
B. Kick him because he's not doing me any good whatsoever anyway
or
C. Keep him and pay the price anyway because I might need/want him for later story/quests.
Options. Choices. Roleplaying. Strategy. THAT is the point. It isn't about "I want to make players use long resting less simply because they're abusing the system." It's about providing players with legit, meaningful choices. It's about creating a more unique definition and purpose for the game mechanics instead of "Short Rest is ONLY a quick heal button for quality of life." and "Long Rest is for dialogues and full restores in between fights after 2-3 fights."
And no. 2-3 fights per Long Rest is a VERY sucky RPG experience. VERY SUCKY. Like in the movie Elf "It's very sucky" kind of sucky. I don't care if it's a cRPG or TT. That's VERY bad RPGing.
Seriously. Larian. If you're going to design the game so that players can only, or should only, do 2-3 fights per Long Rest, do away with the entire Long Rest/Short Rest system and implement a NWN Bend the Knee Rest mechanic where you heal and recover all spell slots between every fight with the simple click of a button. Don't force players to take a rest after 5 minutes of adventuring so that they adventure for 5 minutes and rest for 24 hours.
As stated in numerous posts, the story tells you, "Hey player. You and your friends are all INFECTED BY BRAIN EATING MIND FLAYER PARASITES THAT WILL TURN YOU INTO MIND FLAYERS. Now, granted, we don't know when or anything - should be HOURS after infection before you totally cease to exist and all, and after that your body endures a week's worth of wonderful, gruesome transformations - after which you'll butcher everyone and everything in the area - or enslave everyone because you'll BE a mind flayer - but regardless of whether we know WHEN, the fact of the matter is that you WILL turn into one eventually - and probably quite suddenly, as a matter of fact - without likely getting any kind of real warning. SO... you NEED - no ifs, ands or buts about it - you ABSOLUTELY MUST find a healer and quick before your sudden transformation occurs."
So, since the story tells you that you could turn ANY DAY NOW and QUITE SUDDENLY, it makes absolutely no sense to wake up on the beach, meet SH, fight for 30 seconds, and rest for 24 hours. It doesn't even make sense to wake up on the beach, meet SH, fight for 30 seconds, meet Astarion, fight fishermen for 15 seconds, meet Gale, fight Gimblebock for 15 seconds, fight Mari and Barton and company for maybe another 30 seconds, and fight scribes for 30 seconds after exploring a dank crypt. Gods! Putting myself in the ROLE of my MC, I'd push myself literally as hard as I could to get SOMEwhere in order to try to find a healer.
And then, once I met Nettie and everyone at the grove, from a story perspective, I'm urged even more to DO things. Now, not only do I have a tadpole in my head that could or could not turn me into a MIND FLAYER at any point in time - because, you know, nobody REALLY knows because the entire process is totally messed with - but now I have to save a group of tieflings from being kicked out before a nebulous time-consuming ritual is completed - no idea how long it really takes to complete. Oh.... and btw... I also have to defeat 3 goblin leaders and hope that makes the rest of the goblins actually go away (though it doesn't and you still have to kill them all anyway), before they find the grove and butcher everyone within anyway... not to mention take them out so that they don't hurt anyone else on the road - you know, like kidnap a Grand Duke or something from a burning inn that never goes out.
But sure. In spite of all these things that the story throws at us so that we should actually extend each adventuring day as far as possible, let's suspend all semblance of immersion altogether so we can rest for 24 after only doing maybe a total of 1 to 2 minutes of actual fighting. 2-3 fights per day. Clear a tiny area of the map. Then rest for 24 hours.
Well. All we did was go from the beach and cleared the nautiloid, met Gale, and approached the dank crypt. Pshew! What a long day everyone. Guess we should call it a day. Could turn into a mind flayer in hours, but let's call it here at the foot of the crypt.
Well. I know we have a mind flayer parasite in our heads and tieflings are counting on us to save them from the druid ritual, and it's been like 3 days already since the ritual first started, but we just fought 2 phase spiders and 2 ettercaps. No... let's clear the whole spider lair. We fought 4 phase spiders, 2 ettercaps, 6 baby phase spiders and 1 mama phase spider. Total combat time = 2 minutes. Well. Sorry tieflings. Hope the ritual isn't completed today because I'm beat after fighting so many monsters. Man! I sure hope that tadpole doesn't take me over today. Ah, but I fought 2 battles. I'm spent. I should replenish my spell slots and HP because I don't want to use cantrips to keep going - OH! And I also have no more Short Rests that I can do because I used 2 already. Even though 2 out of my 4 characters didn't need those short rests during both times I used them, oh well. Sucks to suck. Time to sleep because 2 battles was rough on me.
