I don't like that you have to long rest to clear your "tadpoled" counts. I understand the intent was to make the long rest mechanic more rewarding and force camp interactions, but this design choice makes this part of your character's development tedious and consequently undesirable … Eliminate the rest checks, penalize Illithid power use in some mechanically inconsequential way that makes narrative sense (e.g., max health reduction until long rest?), and rebalance the rest system so players don't have to game resting.
I’m happy with the illithid powers being limited to once a day per person. The game indicates that each use takes something you can’t get back, and being able to use the powers whenever you fancied would undermine this. And you can’t just rest to reuse as much as you like unless you’re willing to turn into a True Soul. And though there don’t seem to be any consequences to that implemented in EA I’m sure there will be as the game progresses. Plus having multiple uses of the ability a day would mess up the link with the dream sequences, and the rate at which a player could turn into a True Soul. You’d need to make changes like having visions on use of the power rather than long rest and rework other elements like the illness dialogues.
I think it’s fair enough that the game encourages us to experience this over more time, and that there’s an implication that using the power has a cost to both us and the tadpole so we should pick and choose the times we make use of it. Sure, a player who doesn’t mind turning into a True Soul could just spam long rests and use the powers whenever, but I don’t think that’s a reason to change the experience for others, when the pacing as it currently stands seems reasonably good.
I agree it’s not perfect, though, with some bugs and particularly agree there are problems with the way in which some impacts are party-wide rather than individual. I don’t think it’s okay to hand-wave all of those as related to the tadpoles linking us. (PS Another issue with that, unless it’s been fixed in recent patches, is that if you use the powers to the point that the party agrees no more, then a party member other than the MC uses powers, then the rest of the party complain to the MC rather than the party member who broke the agreement.)
