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Originally Posted by Eugerome
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.

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.

Originally Posted by Eugerome
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.

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.

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Originally Posted by mrfuji3
Originally Posted by Eugerome
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.

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.


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.

Originally Posted by mrfuji3
Originally Posted by Eugerome
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.

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.


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?

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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,





Last edited by Charod; 15/10/20 04:39 PM.
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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.

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Originally Posted by mrfuji3

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.


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.

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Originally Posted by Aurgelmir
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.



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 .


If it's what it's takes to save the world, then the world doesn't deserves to be saved - Geralt
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Originally Posted by Eugerome
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.

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

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

Originally Posted by Eugerome
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?

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.

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