For the tadpole urgency vs long rest disconnect, I think there should be more in-game justifications via story/dialog that make resting seem at least somewhat sensible.
Instead of basically doing nothing for us, Nettie, Halsin, Ethel, Priestess Gut, Minthara etc should all have dialog that suggests that they've actually slowed down the ceremorphosis process somehow, even if only temporarily. The more often we rest right now, the clearer it becomes that whatever the normal ceremorphosis timeline is supposed to be, its clearly not working in the same way for the party. But that could also be revealed through the main story beats.
I feel like that would be more interesting than "We need to find a healer!" and then every healer we find can't actually do anything for us. Instead of just perpetually punting the permanent solution to the tadpole prob, the various NPCs we meet along the way should actually step in with some magic or witchery that's ostensibly buying us extra time and affording us opportunities to rest more normally. I liked the idea from earlier posts about having set-piece story occasions to rest after first entering the Druid Grove, or the Goblin camp, or after Waukeen's Rest and the like. Maybe internal dialog that suggests that the tadpole has gone dormant 'for a time' or that resting for now is safe, after interacting with the NPCs who were presented to us as possible solutions. The Nautiloid doesn't even touch on resting as a thing, since it has those recharging pods in every other room and Lae'zel is in a hurry. But something should definitely happen by the time the party has reached the druid grove or the goblin camp to make periodic resting seem logical, even with the worm in our brains.
Last edited by Black_Elk; 16/03/21 05:19 AM.
