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Is resting cheesy in RP perspectives?



I've never had much difficulty with BG1/2 even in my first playthrough; I rested after each fight, and my party was almost always fully buffed, in full HP, with arsenal of various spells ready.

Replaying the game with BGEE and BG2EE with Roleplaying mindsets, I am restricting myself by not using any buffs before combats and not using meta-knowledge for things like spell choices. (that's why I always memorize at least one protect from petrification.) This adds a bit of unpredictability. However, I feel it is not enough and magic still feels a bit overpowered. I am thinking of resting in each area only once.

The problem is that I don't know if it makes any sense RP wise. In PnP or real life, how often do adventurers rest? Do they refill used spells after each fight? Or do they clear a dungeon without resting? I can justify it with some made up explanations, but I would like to know which way is the most fitting RP wise. Rest after each fight? Rest after x number of fights? Don't rest until you've returned to INN?

JuliusBorisovkcwise
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  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,714
    This question is often raised on the boards.

    I think that only the player knows how to answer it in each particular case.

    I'd like to mention that in PoE you can only rest not in an inn when you have supplies and on each difficulty the number of these supplies vary: for example, on a hard setting you can only have 2 supplies which means you can only rest 2 times between returning to inns and taverns.

    In some of my BG playthroughs I self-impose a rule that I can only rest when I come back into a town/a village.

    But more often I play with the SCS mod and with a no-reload rule. In this case I think that it's absolutely fine for a character to make everything she can to survive. It's absolutely fine from the RP sense for this character, if she's a caster of some kind and/or has wands and items, to rest everytime she needs it. And quite often it means resting between any major fights becase dealing with the SCS enemies requires a lot of spells/abilities.
    GoturalBlackravenkcwise
  • IntoTheDarknessIntoTheDarkness Member Posts: 118
    edited April 2015
    Actually I'm playing with no-reloads rule as well. In my blind playthrough of BG, Imoen got chunked in the first hour but I pressed on. lol

    Wouldn't the decision to rest be tied to the amount of food supplies one has at his disposal? Even if one wants to be utmost careful, he can't explore a dungeon for a month without going back to inn which will most likely refill the area with threats that they had cleared.

    Since there is no notions of supply or unpredictable respawn in BG, I have to limit myself for a better RPing experience.

    I found that making a clear rule to abide by does help a lot in RP and it prevents myself from cheesing then making lame excuses later to justify it, because one's interpretation of unclear rules can be really biased depending on situations. For instance, I made a house rule of not escaping combat by leaving an area(since AI can't follow) unless at least half of party members die first to represent a loss by enemy's pursue.

    However, I don't know where to exactly draw the line between no rest at all and rest with every fight in this case.

    kcwise
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    edited April 2015
    You could always just rest for 8 hours only after you've taken 16 hrs of non-rest game time. That works out to mean resting only every 80 minutes real world time. Less time if you travel between areas of course.
    BlackravenkcwiseJuliusBorisov
  • IntoTheDarknessIntoTheDarkness Member Posts: 118
    elminster said:

    You could always just rest for 8 hours only after you've taken 16 hrs of non-rest game time. That works out to mean resting only every 80 minutes real world time. Less time if you travel between areas of course.

    Hmm, that gives me an idea.

    Rest only when you are fatigued/in INN. The game doesn't give any disadvantages to resting so players tend to abuse it. This rule would mean rest once in 1~2 areas or go back to inn for resupply. Still not sure if it would make sense RP wise.
    Blackravenkcwise
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437
    edited April 2015
    Personally, I try to only have the party rest after a day's adventuring. They usually don't make it 16 hrs like @Elminister mentioned, but I figure ~8 hrs of walking around a dungeon in heavy armor fighting kobolds/hobgoblins/orogs/whatever is enough to make anyone tired. :smile: Besides, that allows two rest cycles for healing and then re-memorzing spells (if more healing is needed than the party has spells remaining).

    I also try to avoid some of the ridiculous things the game will let you do, like resting right outside a Big Bad's chamber (yeah, try that in a PnP campaign!). If my party needs rest, they retreat to a safe location. In the Nashkel Mines, for example, they go to that large chamber on the second level with the guards and where you can give Kylee his dagger.
    MusignykcwiseJuliusBorisov
  • JoshBGJoshBG Member Posts: 91


    The problem is that I don't know if it makes any sense RP wise. In PnP or real life, how often do adventurers rest? Do they refill used spells after each fight? Or do they clear a dungeon without resting? I can justify it with some made up explanations, but I would like to know which way is the most fitting RP wise. Rest after each fight? Rest after x number of fights? Don't rest until you've returned to INN?

    Fighting in a plate armor, or constantly shooting a heavy poundage bow is very strenuous. From RP perspective, you'd have to rest after each, more or less, serious and prolonged encounter. However, by "rest" I mean relaxing your body, not necessarily sleeping. But, the game doesn't allow that.
    Musignykcwise
  • HudzyHudzy Member Posts: 300
    I rest at night or before a map transition that would take the time past sunrise.
    kcwise
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    edited April 2015
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    IntoTheDarknesskcwiselunar
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    edited April 2015
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  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    I rest all the time in BG2, but then, a lot of my runs are no-reload and I play casters, who need buffs to survive normal battles. From an RP perspective, there's probably a limit to resting depending on your character. A timid mage would probably rest more often than an impatient fighter. There's no hard and fast rule.
    kcwise
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    Personally, I am more concerned with the lack of bathing facilities. The days, months and even years worth of sweat and filth is just plain disgusting from a roleplaying perspective.
    elminsterMusignykcwiselolien
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437

    Personally, I am more concerned with the lack of bathing facilities. The days, months and even years worth of sweat and filth is just plain disgusting from a roleplaying perspective.

    I assume a nice hot bath is included when you stay at an inn (at least above the Peasant level - then its a cold bath). :smile:
    MusignykcwiseAristillius
  • MusignyMusigny Member Posts: 1,027
    bengoshi said:

    In some of my BG playthroughs I self-impose a rule that I can only rest when I come back into a town/a village.

    IIRC Jaheira's romance triggers a mandatory event only if you camp in the wilderness.
    Well, a good reason to sleep at the inn I suppose. It is also good to play a female or an evil elf to repulse a certain scheming drow. There seems to be a problem with the new enamoured npcs, it is difficult not to be assaulted with or without regular bathing.
    kcwiseJuliusBorisovBlackraven
  • TuthTuth Member Posts: 233
    I never enjoyed the power/metagaming or whatever. From my first playthrough of Baldur's Gate I only rested when fatigued. Now it's a habit, but the game is more fun that way and I don't feel that I'm abusing anything. I rest anywhere that is relatively safe, since being attacked during the sleep adds to the challenge sometimes.

    I'm not trying to restrict myself with that. Similarly with no pre-buffing, it's just my habit and it's difficult for me when playing Pillars of Eternity. "My characters are barely alive with almost no spells, but they're not fatigued - I may have to rest, but I don't want to".
    MusignyBlackraven
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    I usually rest after finishing a major quest , if necessary. Otherwise I'll just try finishing other quests until my party has ran out of spells and items.

    It also helps us developing good tactics , because you won't be able to re-memorize your spells until you've finished up as many quests as you can.
  • IntoTheDarknessIntoTheDarkness Member Posts: 118
    Thanks for all the advice! I decided to follow this rule: rest only once per area, or in INN. The reasoning is like this:

    1. Resting often essentially makes your 'spell ammunition' bottomless. Considering how overpowered magic is as it is, it is actually worse a cheat than giving yourself infinite magical ammo for ranged characters although the game does not restrict resting. In practice, with unlimited resting, you can use level 9 spells throughout the game against every enemy. This diminishes strategy involving spell choices and makes a whole lot of spells from relatively less useful levels even more meaningless. Also you spam spells instead of saving them for strategically more important fights.

    2. I hate inventory management but I never consoled-in bags of holding unlike some LPers who said going back and forth between dungeons and merchants is tedious because I never did back-and-forth traveling. I simply loot most valuable items or golds then abandon the rest, even if items I left behind are magical items. I don't come back to pick it up for RP reason. Likewise, the game actually doesn't severely limit the number of spell usage; you are simply spamming it.

    3. I considered a rule of resting when fatigued, but some spells(haste) makes your party fatigued very quickly. If I rest when fatigued this allows abuse of haste in every fight without suffering consequences of being tired.

    4. AFAIK there are many P&P restrictions that were not implemented in BG2's magic system. My understanding is that many spells in AD&D require you to have materials needed to cast the spell. Seeing how BG2 lacks any of such restrictions, I feel it's necessary to limit myself with house rules and better LP.


    So I will try to clear an area and then rest because at that point in RP perspectives I can be relatively sure that the area is at least momentarily safe. If I can't clear an area and ran out of options, I will travel back to INN and try again later.

    I really think there should have been restrictions to resting from the vanilla game, such as extremely powerful enemies surrounding your party camps when you try to rest. The enemy interruption at rest is a joke and nobody is discouraged from resting after every fight to refresh level 9 spells they just spammed because of it.
    BlackravenDJKajuruJuliusBorisov
  • joluvjoluv Member Posts: 2,137
    Is INN an acronym?
    Blackraven
  • IntoTheDarknessIntoTheDarkness Member Posts: 118
    joluv said:

    Is INN an acronym?

    no it means inn. I just capitalized it because in game it is displayed in capital letters.
  • ArdanisArdanis Member Posts: 1,736
    edited April 2015
    I only rest in inns. Never rest while clearing a major dungeon. Sometimes allow myself 2-4 "cheesy" inn rests per game when I'm busy in city.
  • joluvjoluv Member Posts: 2,137

    no it means inn. I just capitalized it because in game it is displayed in capital letters.

    Ah. Between the capitalization and the omitted article, my best guess was Indoor Napping Nest.
    Metalloman
  • IntoTheDarknessIntoTheDarkness Member Posts: 118
    Ardanis said:

    I only rest in inns. Never rest while clearing a major dungeon. Sometimes allow myself 2-4 "cheesy" inn rests per game when I'm busy in city.

    What do you mean by cheesy inn rests?
  • joluvjoluv Member Posts: 2,137
    image
    mlneveseMetallomanDJKajuruJuliusBorisov
  • ArdanisArdanis Member Posts: 1,736


    What do you mean by cheesy inn rests?

    Resting before my party is out of spells and tired, e.g. if I need to win a particular difficult battle.
    elminsterJuliusBorisov
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    My adventurers spend a lot of time resting because they're lazy and hate adventuring.
    elminsterMalacPokJuliusBorisov
  • reedmilfamreedmilfam Member Posts: 2,808
    I find the spell memorization-loss mechanic of D&D to be unrealistically silly, so I don't try to apply resting to the mechanic (it's why, if I ever do play a spell caster, I'll go with a sorcerer, as I do not find selective memorization from the book to be fun at all). I don't see resting as necessarily sleeping: it could simply be making camp to fix armor, sharpen weapons, study magic or whatever else.

    There's a lot of realism missing from fantasy, for a reason (or, more appropriately, lots of reasons). Equipment wear and tear, food requirements, lingering injury effects and the like can be included in a game, but they're completely un-fun (stopping to repair equipment with consumable blacksmith gear, for instance... I'm looking at you, Bethesda...)

    Anyway, I rest when my party needs to rest - whether for healing, or for spell recovery. It works for me, and I don't normally end up resting more than twice in a given map area (more often in dungeons because of monster density).
    MalacPok
  • hisplshispls Member Posts: 166
    Nothing unrealistic about resting/healing after you've gotten your arse kicked, or even resting/preparing if you think or know you're about to come upon a major battle. P&P games often have frequent resting for spell memorization and healing. You simply weight the odds of surviving whatever is coming next without whatever spells you plan to memorize vs. the odds of getting jumped while resting.

    Somehow implying that NOT healing or re-learning spells just because "we're resting too often" is absurd. As someone else said, at the end of the day there's no style points.... you either won or you lie dead.
    semiticgoddessmlneveseGotural
  • MalacPokMalacPok Member Posts: 96
    In a world where dragons may lurk behind every corner, being prepared and fully rested is the ONLY reasonable thing to do, besides staying home and forgetting about that risky adventuring. Especially from a RP perspective.
    mlnevesejoluvGotural
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