No to limiting long rests, or food, or taking away multi classing, that is a surefire way to get people to play honor mode just once and never again, way too limiting in a game that emphasis freedom of choice. It's your choice and right to go full nova each fight and long rest, just the same to self-impose restrictions on yourself by not doing so.
...we need smarter AI.
I agree with you. Honor is just a "honorable" variation of Tactician. Smarter AI is the only right route to take for creating a genuinely challenging mode. Players choosing to limit their long rests, their use of resources, or their leveling up options does not contribute in any way to creating a "smarter" AI.
Tonight, I watched two bg3 streams, both in honour mode.
First was WolfheartFPS. He began by beating the steel watch titan. It happened before the titan even had an opportunity to act. Then he took out Sarevok. Sarevok never got to act. After that, he finished Gortash. All that encounter took was an Otto's spell followed by Lae'zel's sword. There was never a moment where any of it felt difficult or dangerous.
Next, I watched ThePowerHour stream his solo run. Which he won tonight. Now, what he did was not easy; I'm not saying it was. But the fact that he was able to do it solo speaks volumes.
The game is too easy. It just is.
The game is hard to millions of players who can't afford 100s of hours doing just 1 game (to entertain themselves), let alone like certain YouTubers who may spend 100+ hours / week preparing "amazing" BG3 videos to entertain random strangers for "views".
To me, Honor (as it is right now) is just a calling for a new achievement. Once it's done, forever it's done - you can't even trace your steps backward as there is only one save. So, an Honor run is supposed to be VERY different. The easier the Honor mode is, the better. The faster a Honor run goes, the better. Shortcuts, tricks, high-level spells, legit abuses, etc., should all be used to get the achievement.
The only meaningful goal of an Honor run is just an achievement. And any "amazing" YouTuber would show potential Honor runners how to get the achievement in an amazingly short time or otherwise amazingly easy way. In a way, they have to make the game ALWAYS look easy (to you the audience).
It is very understandable if a YouTube only wishes to make a Honor run more or less look like a walk in the park. This has little to do with how easy/hard the game is to millions of players who merely play or role-play the game to entertain themselves.
Imagine this: Should an "amazing' YouTube choose to be silly enough to fight Titan/Gortash/etc. in a "normal" way (like a first-time newbie player) - on Honor Mode - would you still feel their gameplay videos "amazing" at all?
