Juming off my suggestion on resting

One factor of DnD 5e, but also the old Baldur's Gate games, that I miss from BG3 is Random Encounters. And I had a thought on how to bring it back.

As mentioned in my other post, it should be possible at resting, since resting should have a risk involved.

But another place it could be implemented is in Fast Travel. Fast Travel is a nice quality of life system, I love it, but traveling shouldn't be "free". Give us a chance to get a random encounter when we use Fast Travel would make it feel less like a "freebie" and more like we actually traveled across the land from the Goblin Camp to the Sacred Grove.


It could also give the Ranger back some of their "tracking" style features from 5e, by having them lower the risk, or giving you the opportunity to ambush the ambushers etc.

Little things like this can make the world feel a lot more alive, and the quality of life systems feel a lot less "gamey", especially since there's no day and night cycle or time currently in the game.

EDIT: Alternatively having respawns happen after a long rest could help too. My main point is: Make going to camp for a long rest actually be a choice that matters, and not just a "hey I want all my wizard spells back, and I can flirt with Astarion while I'm at it" option.

For me this feature would just be annoying, pathfinder kingmaker had that and It was, for me, a nuisance, in a game where you have to manage resources and time os one of them having enemies interrupt your rest, do damage, cut you out while traveling, was obnoxious. And once you were strong enough those encounters were just a pushover and a waste of your time.
That's How I felt about this mechanic, and I feel like here It would be no different

Personally I am not a fan of random encounters. Most of the time I throw in "random" encounters if I felt the party hasn't fought in a while, or if I thought of a cool encounter that I can't quite fit into the game.

What I don't do is have my players be afraid to use all of their arsenal in a tough fight because they might get ambushed by a roving band of orcs during their long rest. Which is exactly what true random encounters are.

They can't fit random encounters but they can fit a million barrels and explosives and make sense out of it, go figure

I would love random encounter to increase the feeling of danger... Especially at resting if you don't rest at camp.
This could become a great feature if Larian rework a bit the actual immersion breaking rest system.

About fast travel I don't really know. I would love that too but what do you think about ?
An instance out of the map in which you fight against several creatures ? (immersion breaking too),
Creatures appearing on the road between 2 fast travel points ? Hard to implement I guess.

I'm not a fan of random encounters in games like this. There's so much to do and I feel I'm always working towards a goal that can help me get to the next goal. Explore this area to find money to buy the item to improve my damage to win a fight to get to a new area etc. Random roadblocks to that are annoying.

100% agree, this is not a race and the journey is the destination in all advatures.

I would like random encounters! They add a bit of excitement to fast travel. I'd like it if there was a smaller camp for when you long rest in dungeons, with a higher chance for a random encounter.

Random encounters is one of the aspects of earlier editions that I really do not miss. It suits a certain style of gameplay, but is very disruptive for a story arc or contained narrative.

In a PnP game I will make up people or encounters as required to push a story along, but it's been a long time since I used a random table to have monsters wander by. I do recall playing the old Basic D&D introduction scenario, Keep on the Borderlands, and our party walking past a group of skeletons who were walking in the opposite direction. Thanks to (another random) good reaction roll, we waved happily to each other and carried on our way. It is fun looking back to those times, but my games and tastes have moved on from all that now.

The point I was making wasn't "throw them at the player all the time", but to give the gamey parts some sense of presence.
The Random encounters don't need to be huge, but considering you are traveling in an area with Gnolls and Goblins that is supposedly doing things in the world, it would add to the immersion if you happened upon a patrol.

In my table top games I don't use them a lot either, but not because I don't need them. I use them just enough for the players to still consider the safety of their rests.


Especially for longer travels I put some of it in to add to a sense of the danger.

Thing is: Right now the world is too safe. I can long rest after every battle, at no cost.
While Random Battles can be annoying, I think it has a place in a game like this, especially if it's a form of controlled randomness.

Agreed for Random Encounters.

Doesn't have to happen too often, just occasionally to trip up the player.

Doesn't even always have to be a combat encounter. Maybe sometimes you meet a special merchant on the road.

Maybe sometimes you get ambushed. Maybe sometimes you accidentally fall into the underdark.

That's the thing though - how would you control for it. You did well and barely used resources because you played well/lucky rolls - here is an encounter for you to fight. For me that would unrewarding to put it mildly.

Plus you would need to assess how much XP people get for these, because if you don't give XP for them then that would make them less rewarding.

Instead, and I think this is what Larian is going for is story related encounters, that make sense, with at least 2 combat encounters at camp that I have seen. These in add to the long rest and make sense in my mind, instead of unrelated random encounters.

While I like the thought of random encounters, I don't see how it can be tied in with the Camp as it is in its' current state.
I love Leomund's Tiny Hut and Alarm when playing D&D, but again, the Camp as it is in BG3 makes spells such as those obsolete. Perhaps, the camp should be earned instead of being this free, separate dimension of no worries or cares.

It's controlled, because you know when it can happen. Heck maybe you could even get a "threat gauge" (I actually have a system for that at my table)
I said: Don't give Xp for random encounters, because those shouldn't be farmable. I honestly don't like the idea of linking XP to just killing, but that's a computer game thing (I link it to objectives in my campaign)

And as I said, it's not "unrelated" it should be related to the story, but not a "story battle". If you travel from the Inn to the Grove you'll pass through Goblin territory, it makes sense the goblins would have patrols around. Or that more Gnolls appear.


An alternative could be re-spawns.

Right now resting at camp, and fast travel has too many benefits, where its supposed to come at a cost in DnD.




That's another thing, we lose a lot of spells that are fun to have, because we have taken all the danger out of it. I don't think it needs to be earned, it's so integral to the story, but it shouldn't be "free" to rest there imo.

At best this should be an option not a standard feature. Random encounters quickly get frustrating and annoying rather than scary.

While true, it also serves a purpose. If nothing else it makes "going to camp" actually a choice than just something you do after every combat.

I also prefer milestone levelling to xp, but I don't think Larian will rebuild the game around it. Mostly because you can progress through the game in many ways at setting progress points at arbitrary story points wouldn't make sense to me.

That said, if an random encounter doesn't offer XP or tangible loot then I just spent 5-20 minutes doing nothing. I didn't progress the story, I didn't get XP. In fact I may have lost resources to deal with it. How is that rewarding?



If I was just done fighting goblins and I head back to camp and get to fight more goblins - then what is the point. It didn't add variety to my gameplay and if it doesn't offer me a story reward then why bother. Particularly if there is no XP reward like you suggest.


Also, a threat meter that a player sees is a bad idea. If I know there is a 50% chance I will face a random fight on the way to camp I'll heal and prepare my party. At that point if I prepared to fight I don't need long rest and instead I can do another encounter that will progress the story.

I would love random encounters. It would spice replays a lot.

Right now going back to camp is "free" there is absolutely hot a single downside to doing it, there's no threat to it, there's no cost to it, no nothing. This takes away a MAJOR core part of DnD: Resource management. Not to mention the fact that it breaks the balance between many classes. "I'm a Warlock, I get my spell slots back on a short rest, but I get fewer spell slots because of it" then along comes the Wizard "HA looser, I too get all my spell slots back on a short rest, because that's basically what a long rest is in Baldur's Gate 3!"

Not everything in a game has to be a direct reward, a game is about reward and challenge. Adding something to make at least going back to camp something that's not free adds a challenge: "Do I go back and get spell slots? Or do I push on?"
With no timer on anything in the game, you don't have that as an issue (They keep talking about resting being "dangerous because of the tadpole" but that's just flavor)

And the same about fast traveling, if you made it so you could only rest at certain spots? What's stopping you from just fast travel scumming it? And then complain that you have to do that to get spell slots back.

Risk VS Reward is what makes games interesting.

PS: I didn't say I like milestones, milestone leveling is the worst idea ever. I said I put xp on tasks not on defeating monsters. Fighting mosters could be a task though, but the players get the same amount of XP if they found another way to bypass or "defeat" the monsters.
That gives a sense of character progression. Just getting levels at DMs whim is super boring, and I'm happy Larian doesn't have that.

I do feel like there should be some cost to long rests, at least at higher difficulties.

But random encounters, at least the way you suggest are not a good way of doing it.

Let's think of a few examples:

A - I had a tough fight and am stretched on resources. I go to camp expecting a rest and get wiped by a random encounter.

B - I am full health and want to go to take a long rest. Perhaps I want to talk to a companion that said they will share some info with me at camp. I get random encounter, wipe the floor with it, just spend 10 minutes accomplishing nothing.

C - I had a good day of adventuring and ready to go to camp - I have some resources left though. I get a random encounter and it becomes a challenging and enjoyable fight.

The C outcome is what I think we all want from an encounter in DnD in general. But it can be hard at times to get that result at your table, even when you know the party's strategies and capabilities.

Expecting a video game to hit that standard consistently is optimistic. Particularly where the party composition can vary not only playthrough to playthrough but even encounter to encounter (at least in the early game).

And yes, I do want to get a reward after every encounter, at least in some shape or form. Furthermore, if the encounter was hard and challenging and didn't offer any reward for it I would be generally disappointed.

This ties back to resource management which is a big thing in 5e. You took a risk, in adventuring for longer, and then couldn't make it home. In the future, you'll consider the risks of pressing on when you're almost spent, which imo is more interesting than just continuing to adventure until you're out of all resources. However, in order for this scenario to be really impactful, we need to be able to short rest more than once. Currently it is too easy to lose all your resources.


Again, resource management. In the future, you'll weigh going back to camp when you're full on resources (and probably full resting) with the risk of getting a meaningless fight. This will help balance the long rest vs short rest-based classes, making it so you can't just spam long rests. Although I agree that random encounters should grant some XP/loot, so it wouldn't be entirely meaningless.

I think the key point of any "random encounters" added is their randomness. You shouldn't get an encounter every time you travel back to camp. It should happen occasionally, but with enough frequency that it affects your decisions on when to return to camp and rest. If you make the 'optimal decision', then any random encounters become your option C, where you have some resources left and the fight is challenging and enjoyable. If you take a risk, then you might get punished for it.

Sure, but what do you suggest I do in that specific playthrough - reload a save before the tough encounter and go take a long rest then, potentially loosing a lot of progress/successful checks in the meantime? Just to replay that content again? Or should I waste time replaying a random encounter until I win.

And if I do win, then what do I get? If I get some story/lore that would be something useful, but then that is not really a random encounter.



Sure, but that is just delaying story progression. Hmm, I really want to know what Gale has to say to me, but let's just go kill a bunch gnolls or whatever first. I am delaying a story that I want to learn more about for what - a potential to have a challenging encounter? Hey, in that case I can just save -> try to long rest -> got encounter -> reload and try again.

Plus, from what I can tell Larian really wants to flesh out your camp. From friendly NPC's to companions, to story beats - so why gate those away behind an encounter?

not sure if random encounters are the perfect solution but I do feel that fast travel and long rest in camp are currently too easily available...i mean you can just after every fight go back to camp, rest up and get full health and all spell slots back...what's the difference between a warlock and a mage then? why wouldn't a figher use his action surge and second wind not in every fight then? then thy could just turn these into 'once a fight' abilities instead of "once a day"

these once a day abilities should be used when they matter most, not just at will in each situation as it is too easy to get them back with a quick rest in camp.

I would be ok with some random encounter that might happen when travelling back to camp or taking a short rest.
it should not always be a fight, could be a wandering merchant, perhaps going on a hunt for food or gathering other resources to build your camp,

I disagree, I feel like random encounters goes against the current design. Every combat is deliberately done and adds to the story or the world. There's no real trash mobs. There should be limitations placed on fast travel and resting but that can be done without random encounters, for example requiring rations to rest or you can only fast travel when at a waypoint Witcher 3 style.

Or you game over because you seriously are spent. How long ago was your last save again? Sucks to be you!

I have had encounters immediately after a long rest which were so crippling - I spent so many spells and used up so many health resources, that I reloaded rather than continue.

This is a tricky thing for an algorithm to balance.

Could be okay, but some people would just walk rather than risk having a fight during fast travel, making the whole feature more of a pain. World map traveling was a necessity in BG1&2 but in 3, fast travel is more of a luxury .

Good points! In PnP you'd all make new characters but this doesn't really translate well to video game design...


In this case, you've weighed the benefits (talking to Gale) vs the risks (getting a random encounter that is a bit less challenging) and decided that you're willing to risk it. Seems fine to me. It doesn't delay story progression by that much unless you choose to keep exploring. Plus, there's a realistic/role-playing aspect here: you left Gale all the way back at camp today. Having to (maybe) go through a bit of trouble to talk to him again isn't unreasonable...

Though I do admit, I am partially in favor of random encounters because of the current resting mechanics. If they made long rests more difficult (and gave us another short rest or two), then I'd be ~fine with there being no random encounters.