How much Long Resting is considered normal?

[Urist Microcline]

I got the game recently on GOG and I have never played any kind of D&D based game before. For reference, I had to look up what the heck basic terms like 1d6 meant because it was hieroglyphics to me.

How much Long Resting is considered normal?

It seems to me that based on gameplay I'd want to long rest after almost every fight, especially for mages, and I totally have the camp supplies to do that too but the narrative is saying I have only a couple of DAYS to go from stranded in the wilderness to receiving rare and advanced surgery which says to me I shouldn't sleep, at all. If I've got 48-72 hours until I turn into a Wereoctopus then I'm just not sleeping.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Urist Microcline:

How much Long Resting is considered normal?
I got the game recently on GOG and I have never played any kind of D&D based game before. For reference, I had to look up what the heck basic terms like 1d6 meant because it was hieroglyphics to me.

How much Long Resting is considered normal?

It seems to me that based on gameplay I'd want to long rest after almost every fight, especially for mages, and I totally have the camp supplies to do that too but the narrative is saying I have only a couple of DAYS to go from stranded in the wilderness to receiving rare and advanced surgery which says to me I shouldn't sleep, at all. If I've got 48-72 hours until I turn into a Wereoctopus then I'm just not sleeping.

Without spoilers: you can pretty much do that: long rest after every fight if you wish to. There are only a very few exceptions you will learn later. By then you will get a good feeling when you need that and when not.

Considering you looked up 1d6, you might have use for this too
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3107682627
feel free to ask more if you are still unsure about your first adventure. Until then Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

[KitTheNameless]

Act 1 makes it sound like you have to do things quickly, but you don't. That being said, playing in Explorer mode, I usually do a short rest after each fight if I have any short rests left. But if my party is still low on HP or are going into a big fight next, I do a long rest. (I also save often so that I can go back and try again if things go horribly wrong.)

[Dragon Master]

I personally find fight, short rest, fight or social encounter, short rest, fight or social encounter and then long rest to be a good metric.

[Jhea]

depends...
had a hard fight and no spellslots left?
and a short rest only gives you 50% health back, and yet you still depend on your spellslots to manage a fight?
do a long rest

do you pulled thru a fight and just miss some HP?
but most of the spellslots are still there?
just do a short rest

just get every bit to eat and set it to your camp so you can do long rests if you need to.

there is no need to carry all that food arround, and you are still able to use it at the camp

[Gregorovitch]

A rule of thumb for a beginner would be taking a short rest after each fight meaning (obviously) a long rest after the third. A key to this, especially early game, is being able to judge when your casters need to unleash their main spells and when just spamming cantrips will suffice. Once you got to that you can improve on the fight count per long rest as you get more skilled at defeating regular enemies taking less damage and using less resources.

I tend to rest significantly less often than that but then I've played a lot of this type of game.

This rule does not really apply to boss fights or mini-boss fights. I.e. you should not struggle to defeat bosses and mini-bosses by trying to conserve resources, you should use what you have. I would expect to be fully rested (i.e. all spell and ability uses available) going into a boss fight and probably require a long rest afterwards to recover. For mini-bosses (i.e. unexpectedly difficult fights) I'll throw the kitchen sink at them if necessary and take a long rest afterwards if it was.

The game generally progresses story events according to a "clock" based on long rests taken and following these rules will see events unfold at pretty much the intended rate, neither too fast nor too slow.

[seeker1]

Yeah, one thing I have discovered is certain things will happen at your camp that progress or at least relate to ongoing companion and other stories, and if you long rest too little, you'll never see them. Very occasionally, a quest will straight up tell you to long rest for the next thing to happen - like you'll be told "long rest if you want Mizora to tell you and Wyll something". Also, if you really want the owlbear cub, what I discovered - the hard way - is even if you do the right steps at goblin camp, it takes quite a few long rests to get him to settle in as your 2nd pet (after Scratch). Because it keeps leaving and coming back.

What I have noticed is there is a queue of things that happen at night at your camp in all the three acts. That includes romance interactions; some seem to go at the end of the queue. People say they are bugged, but I think what may really be happening is they simply haven't gotten to the queue point for them by taking enough long rests. You'll know you've exhausted that queue when you can finally long rest and nothing happens, well maybe other than a companion wants to speak to you before you turn in.

In short, even though eventually you can skip long rests by using the potion that gives you long rest benefits - take them anyway. (Plus I think that potion only gives the drinker that benefit.) (and also you occasionally stumble across "restoring founts" that give you the benefit of long rest - there's one right before you meet Ketheric etc.) Within the limits of your food/camp supplies, of course. At least if you're interested in progressing those things.

After finally getting the owlbear cub, (who can help you in the endgame if Dammon survives since he gets a suit of barding) I wasn't sure it was worth the effort, though I understand there's some cute interactions in the epilogue. I also love petting Scratch but outside camp in the game world he's useless other than occasionally pointing you to some undiscovered treasure pit you otherwise would have missed. Though I have noticed sometimes he runs off and barks for you to follow and when you get there there's nothing there. Ah, bugs. He is no battle pet, though.

[harken23]

I couldn't figure out why my main character kept getting over-burdened, but then it turned out they're carrying like 150KG of camping supplies! I hardly bother with short rests at all. Supplies seem to be EVERYwhere, so there's really no downside to long resting a lot. The supplies drops may decrease as things go along, I guess (I'm all 4th level, so there's a ways to go).

[Firecam]

Act 1 : 3-5 longrest
Act 2 : 2-3 longrest
Act 3 : 1-2 longrest

You also get a few free longrests at some point of the story but doing so will prevent a lot of camp events.

[seeker1]

Once you get to Act 3, you will find the city of Baldur's Gate is filled with merchants selling nothing but food. Fish, fruit, meat, bread, you name it. Plus all the taverns. Camping supplies are camping supplies, so from the game's point of view you could have a camp supply sack full of booze, wine, and beer, and nothing else, and that's fine - the game considers that enough to sustain you, BTW, besides goodberry, the 5E spells addon adds the spell "Create Food and Water" which also lets you conjure - well - food and water, camping supplies.

Yes, on my first playthrough I too was wondering why my Tav kept getting encumbered. I quickly figured out with his low STR he shouldn't be toting around so many extra suits of armor. But even after putting those in camp chest ... he was still getting encumbered. Yep, I too noticed the heaviest thing he was carrying was not an "item" but his sack of camp supplies. One way to deal with this problem - well outside of modding, of course - is to make sure your Tav/main isn't the only one picking up food and supplies. Every companion has a camp supply sack - make them haul some instead of you.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by Firecam:

Act 1 : 3-5 longrest
Act 2 : 2-3 longrest
Act 3 : 1-2 longrest

You also get a few free longrests at some point of the story but doing so will prevent a lot of camp events.

That is absolutely not the standard. Act 3 is probably the longest (assuming you don't try to speedrun it), so 1-2 long rests is insane.

[Syger]

I have avoided long rests a fair amount largely for one reason - Gale.
I am beginning to question is this though, does the amount of long rests you take actually affect how often he needs magical items? If not I am making things way harder than they should be for myself.

[Firecam]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Originally posted by Firecam:

Act 1 : 3-5 longrest
Act 2 : 2-3 longrest
Act 3 : 1-2 longrest

You also get a few free longrests at some point of the story but doing so will prevent a lot of camp events.

That is absolutely not the standard. Act 3 is probably the longest (assuming you don't try to speedrun it), so 1-2 long rests is insane.

Never said it was the standard, that was my longrest list of my last playthrough on honor.

[seeker1]

Originally posted by Syger:

I have avoided long rests a fair amount largely for one reason - Gale.
I am beginning to question is this though, does the amount of long rests you take actually affect how often he needs magical items? If not I am making things way harder than they should be for myself.

At maximum, he will request 3 magic items from you before gets to ... the reveal of why he's been needing them, and won't ask for anymore. There are plenty of largely useless greens (from my POV anyway) for him to consume. Though it's a bit curious the exact coding on what items he can and can't "feed" on. There was stuff I was all too willing to sacrifice to him but he didn't want those.

BTW, I've had what looks like a thrashing in pain Gale ask for an item even when we're out in the world and not at camp. I'm not sure it's exactly driven by long resting.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by Firecam:

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

That is absolutely not the standard. Act 3 is probably the longest (assuming you don't try to speedrun it), so 1-2 long rests is insane.

Never said it was the standard, that was my longrest list of my last playthrough on honor.

OP is asking for the normal amount, though.

[BIG E.]

You should long rest after every single quest, sometimes twice while doing a quest, while in a dungeon, otherwise game skips cutscenes and dialogs.

Its one of the things that is designed so badly in this game.

So long rest often otherwise you are gonna miss content. Game doesn't tell you this at any point.

There is no downside of long resting outside of 1 quest in the entire game. Supplies are pretty much everywhere infinite.