The Resting system was always an integral Part of DnD. It was always a tool for a DM to balance things.
Its also Part of the special appeal of DnD.
In DnD a Typical adventure calls for a decent into a Dungeon to find/ Kill / Destroy / Rescue something important. A HUGE part of the dificulty is preparing for the Dungeon (buying potions, ropes, Torches, holy water and ton of other Adventuring tools), and also get the casters prepare spells according to what you maybe expect to encounter.
This ALWAYS Provided an additional layer of tactics and deceisions to make.
A Huge part was always to organize your Spells and resources along the way and dont fire everything you got because you dont know when you can afford to rest next time.
In fact the WHOLE GAME evolved around that as a good party combination always had a healthy mixture of very resource independent Classes with some highdependent classes and some in the middle row. In DND a group of 6 wizards is crap because while powerfull in a single fight you wont get far into the dungeon. While a group of 6 Paladins will be extremly selfsufficiant and thats to their inate healing abilitys while beeing tanky will allow them to stay alive long without a rest. But Lacking any form of Crowdcontrol the Paladins will be easily either outnumbered or stoped by something heavy magical.
THe list goes on as every class has a set of Roles depending on how they are skilled. DnD was ALWAYS about diferent skillsets working together to complement each others.
And the Resting / Camping mechanic always worked INTO that goal.
Larian has never understood those DnD mechanics, and probably never will. Most of their fights are typicaly Hard and require you to THINK how to beat the enemy. However in DnD alot of the challenge lies not in beating the enemy but using teamwork to be extremely efficent to not waste all resources.
A typical DnD dungeon in more glorious days was not filled with one deadly encounter after another. It was filled with obstacles towards your goal. So many trash monsters that didnt pose a huge Danger on themself, but in numbers beeing able to wittle you down slowly. ALso Traps, mazes, and other stuff to make you waste REsources (spells, potions, equipment, hitpoints, use per day abilitys).
The question was in WHAT shape you arive at the various encounters. The limitation of resting is an INTEGRAL Part of the DnD difficulty.
Larian doesnt understand this. Instead they try to make every encounter Challenging fight for life. And to compensate the REsting system is basicaly non-existant and used to push on character storys.
The exictement to find a save resting place is INTENSE in a REAL DnD adventure. It also emphasizes ALOT of different class abilitys.
Examples:
- Druids Goodberry spell is legendary because of getting fed and abit healed when there is NO option to camp
- Certain Character lore help indentify a save rest place (Cleric recognizes a smal Lathander shrine in an UD crypt, Ranger finds a hidden cave to savely rest.)
- Bards with their songs can dracticaly reduce the Resource need of other specialised classes and reduce the need for camping.
the list can go on endless. But Larian doesnt understand it. They dont see that camping is an important part of the Difficulty and not just a story element.
THis game should have never gone to Larian to be honest.
