The way Long Rests are currently implemented is quite contradictory due to the substantial amount of story content locked behind them and how easily that content is missed or never even experienced if the player immerses fully into the story.

  • From a gameplay perspective, the game encourages the player to extensively Long Rest all the time even when they don't need to rest, in order to experience all of the companion interactions and dream sequences.
  • From a story perspective, the story discourages wasting time due to how wonderfully it instills fear into the player by portraying the effects of ceremorphosis so intricately and applying the imaginary pressure of time through Lae'zel and others.

So the story and the mechanic end up clashing against each other and ruining both aspects of the game, thus creating a problem.

  • By extensively resting in order to talk with our companions, we're slightly breaking the immersion of the story and going against the pressure of time.
  • And by extensively not resting, we are permanently missing out on some scenes and by continuing to do so missing out on 50% of substantial story content, thus breaking the flow of the story and not building a relationship with our companions.

One of the main problems with this is the fact that Long Rests provide only one companion scene per rest while at the same time some scenes can only occur before certain events, such as entering the Grove or talking to Zorru.

So in order to experience these scenes and assuming the player obtains Shadowheart, Lae'zel, Gale and Astarion before getting to the Grove, we'd need to throw story immersion out the window and consecutively rest several times to witness Shadowheart's and Lae'zel's scenes specifically meant before getting to the Grove. And the problem is the area is so small and trivial in terms of difficulty and length, that the player can go through the entire content of the Nautiloid crash and the entire Grove without resting a single time whatsoever, thus permanently missing out on some unique scenes.

Because right now it looks like this after gathering all four companions after the crash:
  • Rest - Talk to Gale (Eleasis 21st)
  • Rest - Talk to Shadowheart (Eleasis 22nd)
  • Rest - Talk to Lae'zel (Eleasis 23rd)
  • Rest - Talk to Astarion (Eleasis 24th)
  • Eleasis 25th - Finally experienced pre-Grove unique dialogue
.

So to make Long Rests less illogical and contradictory to the story immersion;
  • Why not make make all companions who wish to talk with us available, instead of only one per rest.
  • Why not make a simple conversation indicator that replaces the REST button whenever someone in the camp wishes to speak with us, so the player knows there is content in the camp.

This way the player;
  • Would not be afraid of missing out on meaningful companion dialogue if there is an indicator telling us that someone wishes to speak with us in the camp
  • Would not need to consecutively spam Long Rests to experience companion interactions as multiple companions would be able to talk with us during a single Long Rest
  • Would severely reduce the amount of Long Rests required to experience companion stories and make it more immersive with the story
  • Would make the Long Rests less frequent and more spaced in-between content


Because in my current playthrough 37 days have passed since the Nautiloid crash (From 20th of Eleasis to 27th of Eleint). Also I think they misspelled the Eleint month.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
However at least half of those days were before I even left the Grove and not a single day spent was a Full Rest, only Partial Rests because I didn't wish to miss any story content and never even need to rest.

Long Rests allowing every companion to speak with us in a single rest and having an indicator that replaces the REST button while exploring, so we know when they wish to talk.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Long Rests clearly indicating when a camp scene involves all companions present (such as the discussions about dreams and events)
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

[Linked Image from bg3.wiki] Minthara's Compendium Of Issues