Putting this post in spoiler tags.
I got to the party at camp with the Tieflings this evening, on my second playthrough. Having romanced Shadowheart on my first playthrough, I was looking forward to how different an experience it would be to spend a terrifyingly violent night with Lae'zel.
However, when I spoke to Lae'zel, she said something nonsensical to me about how I should enjoy myself and not wipe off any sweat – as if she thought I would go and sleep with someone else. I had not encouraged any advances by any other companions, so this was odd.
I went to bed, "Thinking of Lae'zel". But instead of seeing a romance scene, I instead heard the narrator telling me that I reminisced fondly about old bruises. This indicates that the game believed I had already had the first sex scene with Lae'zel. I had not, because I had not Long Rested enough in the first Act. It is perfectly possible to go all the way through the Nautiloid crash zone and wipe out the goblins without resting more than four or five times.
This made me curious, and I resolved to let the party play out, and then Partial Rest continuously until nighttime events stopped happening.
This took AN HOUR AND A HALF. I saw (in no particular order) Astarion biting me, Shadowheart and Lae'zel almost killing each other, the Owlbear cub visiting twice, Scratch and Owlbear playing together, etc., etc., as well as, eventually, the first romance scene with Lae'zel.
My point here isn't about the Lae'zel romance – although it is clearly riddled with dodgy triggers, like much of the game. The point I want to make is the same as many have made before me: this system, in which you have to metagame, completely break immersion, and waste hours of your life by Long/Partial resting until plot events stop happening, is simply not fit for purpose. It does not work. If a solution is not found and implemented, the vast majority of players will continue to miss out on huge swathes of story events – and even the events that they do see will feel incoherent and out of place.
I'm aware that others have said this before, but I found this exasperating enough that I wanted to add my voice.
