How often to long rest? And other tips for a new player (Tactician)

[Naitmerr]

I'm playing on Tactician for my first run. (I'm a masochist don't judge). MC is an Oath of Vengeance (Wood) Half-Elf Paladin. I tried to build a kind of balanced build, 16 STR, 10 DEX, 14 CON, 8 INT, 10 WIS, 16 CHA. And it sucked hard, missing most attacks, low Initiative, not much HP. I felt like I need to rest after every combat encounter.

Rest of party is Tempest Cleric Shadowheart, Thief Rogue Astarion (with dual crossbows) and Evocation Wizard Gale. I'm aware there are better compositions, but for my first run I want these 3 as my main party. All respecced for better stat allocation.

After hitting lvl 4 I gave almost everyone Alert for the initiative. Also everyone except heavy armor guys have at least 14 DEX for initiative. And the biggest gamechanger was respeccing my MC to 8 STR, 10 DEX, 16 CON, 8 INT, 14 WIS, and 17 CHA, with the plan of using Elixir of Hill Giant Str for 21 STR and getting 1 extra CHA from a quest with some witch in a swamp.

I've heard that the game gets easier and the start is the hardest. I've also heard that long resting too few times locks you out of companion interactions and cutscenes, but rest too many times and some quest auto fail, people you were supposed to save die, etc.

Now I need to rest often because I tend to use pretty much everything for a single combat encounter. I try to get advantage, use stealth and all that, but attacks miss too often no matter what, even with Bless (everyone has at least 16 in their primary attack stat and +1 weapon, 19 or 17 AC). And I don't like save scumming because it is both boring and it takes away the fun. Sure I'll do it every now and then, but I don't want to abuse it.

So how do I do things? I think Short Rest replenishes only health and some specific abilities, but not the most powerful ones that I need.

Any tips and tricks?

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Naitmerr:

How often to long rest? And other tips for a new player (Tactician)
I'm playing on Tactician for my first run. (I'm a masochist don't judge). MC is an Oath of Vengeance (Wood) Half-Elf Paladin. I tried to build a kind of balanced build, 16 STR, 10 DEX, 14 CON, 8 INT, 10 WIS, 16 CHA. And it sucked hard, missing most attacks, low Initiative, not much HP. I felt like I need to rest after every combat encounter.

Rest of party is Tempest Cleric Shadowheart, Thief Rogue Astarion (with dual crossbows) and Evocation Wizard Gale. I'm aware there are better compositions, but for my first run I want these 3 as my main party. All respecced for better stat allocation.

After hitting lvl 4 I gave almost everyone Alert for the initiative. Also everyone except heavy armor guys have at least 14 DEX for initiative. And the biggest gamechanger was respeccing my MC to 8 STR, 10 DEX, 16 CON, 8 INT, 14 WIS, and 17 CHA, with the plan of using Elixir of Hill Giant Str for 21 STR and getting 1 extra CHA from a quest with some witch in a swamp.

I've heard that the game gets easier and the start is the hardest. I've also heard that long resting too few times locks you out of companion interactions and cutscenes, but rest too many times and some quest auto fail, people you were supposed to save die, etc.

Now I need to rest often because I tend to use pretty much everything for a single combat encounter. I try to get advantage, use stealth and all that, but attacks miss too often no matter what, even with Bless (everyone has at least 16 in their primary attack stat and +1 weapon, 19 or 17 AC). And I don't like save scumming because it is both boring and it takes away the fun. Sure I'll do it every now and then, but I don't want to abuse it.

So how do I do things? I think Short Rest replenishes only health and some specific abilities, but not the most powerful ones that I need.

Any tips and tricks?

a) you need to pick the correct enemies for your main character - the stats sound solid and it is not easy until you reach around level 4-6, depending on your party composition

b) party is fine, depending on your playstyle, though somewhat on the weak side especially with damage output compared to alternatives

c) if you can afford that playstyle with the elexir, go ahead. personally I think there are better choices than alert, but again it depends on your playstyle

d) what you heard about companions and auto quests is half:half worthless - if you play normal it is fine, there are very little time limited events - you will notice them once you come across them. They cannot be missed

e) again = a) , avoid enemies with higher level feels and pick the easy stuff first to level up - pick your enemies correctly

Consider multiclassing
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3124459563
Other than that what you need most is patience and getting an idea of the game. Once you understand how everything works and what to find where it becomes easier. A suggested route you can find here in the section Wilderness Tour
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3140103916
Mind the spoilers

If you want to avoid spoilers entirely then settle with these tips:
use a life cleric, consider sorcerer instead of wizard, multiclass section The Bard and change from Paladin to Fighter or Berserker Barbarian.

[Psychotic_Frog]

First thing everyone should get at level 4 (and 8) is stat increase (to get 20 in your main stat), not Alert.

Don't long rest after each encounter, at most use short rests. The fights are easy enough for you not to go all out every time, and use the different recoveries available to your classes between fights when necessary. Most of the time I had to long rest to progress the story, not because I was totally empty.

[myxlmynx]

Long resting is important because of events happening at camp, but you can space it out nomally. I usually play, do some fights, use 1 short rest to heal up, do another fight, use the 2nd short rest to heal up, and when I'm out of short rests or spell slots after the next fight, or I need *all* my spell slots for a big battle, I do a full rest. You also get more than enough camp supplies to rest often. It's not really a limited resource in practice.

Game is overall rather easy, even on Tactician. There's no need to power-play, but you can of course. Hardest part is when you're still learning the game's mechanics. The more you progress in the game, the easier everything gets. I've played lots of D&D based CRPGs and BG3 is one of the best but also one of the easiest.

[Oonayah]

Tactician isn't so difficult you really have to go hard on min-max. As soon as you hit level 5, the game will become less challenging as your martial classes gain multi-attack then..

You'll find combat is made easier by employing strategies like attacking from high ground, using crowd control abilities, funneling enemies through a chokepoint, and, most importantly, using the "Examine" feature for information on your opponent.

The hardest encounters in the game can certainly be won with overwhelming brute force, but cleverness is a viable strategy.

[Jeff]

long rest as much as you want or need. The game won't move beyond what you are ready until you trigger it to be so. The important part is to save often and keep the saves so you can go back if you decide you made a mistake or want to back up.

There are ways to build characters to be more powerful. And you could try to min/max your build some more. But the order you do things along with understanding tactics will make even mediocre characters do just fine. If you beeline for the goblin camp at level 2 or 3, you will struggle, for example. End act 2 at level 8...it's going to be a near impossible battle. Some of the things you do require you to wait and level up elsewhere. And that balance is hard to figure out when you are new.

I can spoil it if you want, but this game can be really difficult if you do things when you aren't ready. Character build/design is not important if you take it slow. You can definitely build some powerful characters, though, if that is your interest. Most focus on items that people know they will obtain in game and others focus on getting multiple attacks per combat round.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Long rest when you run out of spell sluts.

[Thomas D.]

Stats of your Paladin are ok. But he would be stronger if you give him 18 Strength (when without that Elixir) and less Wis maybe even less Cha. Because You are still primarily a Melee Fighter. If you want to have high Cha I would recommend to go at least 3x Warlock and get Pact of Blade so that you can ditch Strength and go all in to Charisma (because your sword will use Charisma instead of Strength / Dexterity).

But yeah early game you will miss a lot, because you dont have Swords with Enhanchements. But you could grab the (Act3) Silver Sword in the end of Act 1 with the Voss encounter (but it will utilize its full power only on a Githyanki).

Also your Stats are kind of low (its normal for early game) but with Strength Elixirs as you found out, you could increase them.

Also your proficiency bonus is low, it will increase with player level.

Further there are some Spells that increase your Attack Rolls (like bless which you already use).

Besides that there is not much you can do yet.

If you go Warlock + Paladin you could also for example get Fiendish Vigour it gives you temporary hitpoints and you can cast it as often as you want (this way you enter every fight with a health buffer). And if you choose the Fiend you get even more temporary hitpoints when you kill someone (this way you kind of get unstoppable when you keep killing at least one enemy a round).

Alert is a ♥♥♥♥ feat compared to Ability improvement especially at the beginning where you need high stats to hit and do damage. This way you could reach easily 18 strength and 16 Con and some Cha.

Tempest Cleric is basically fine. But if you want them to fight in Melee, War Cleric will be better. And if you want the Cleric to be primarily a Caster / Buffer / Healer maybe Light or Life (especially when Healer) is better.

If you arent preparing fights a lot, hiding in shadows and attack first (before the others can attack and skipping Conversations) and stuff like that, Rogue is one of the most ♥♥♥♥ classes (if pure Rogue). But going 3x in Thief is perfect for a Dual Hand Crossbow Build, just would go Ranger and / or Swords Bard after those 3 levels.

To be honest. Wizards suck (Evocation Wizards, too!) Especially if you dont want to rest after every fight. A Warlock caster can for example be strong with just a Cantrip which you can cast unlimited amount of times. And when it comes to Damage Output a Sorc will beat the ♥♥♥♥ out of a Wizard because he can cast 2 Spells in a round. You could even combine both with an Warlock + Sorcerer and buff and cast Cantrips for cheap twice a round while still being able to cast strong AOE spells from time to time.

You could for example make Gale a Warlock / Sorcerer (which isnt exactly a Wizard but very close), Start with Sorcerer (Storm), get at least 2 (up to 4) Levels Warlock and rest into Sorcerer. Get the Eldritch Blast Cantrip (Warlock). The Agonizing Blast Invocation (the second isnt that important, choose what you think will be most helpful). Get the Hex Spell (at least on low levels). After that choose Twin Cast and Hasten Spell. Twin Cast works on Eldritch Blast (only < level 5, after that you will always have 2 rays) and firebolt. But before you cast the Cantrip ensure that you have debuffed your enemy with Hex for some extra damage.

Also Hellish Rebuke can sometimes be handy. When you get damaged you can damage the attacker with your reaction (on top of your usual actions) and especially on low levels even sometimes kill the enemy.

Some stuff restores on short rests, some on long rests. Spell slots for example usually restore on long rests, except for the Warlock spell slots, they restore on short rests (but the price for this is less spell slots overall). Bardic Inspirations for example restore on long rests except after level 5 where they start to restore on short rests. Also in general some classes / builds work better with short rests than others. Some even work well without any rests (like Fighter), except for healing.

Other than that you could always abuse stuff like barrels, place plenty of them close to the enemy and set them on fire => BOOM, Fight over... And stuff like that.

[jonnin]

as a new player, be sure you are up on details to play tactician.
for example, you don't rest after every fight, but you may need to huddle up and throw a potion or two to heal everyone. Do not waste potions on one person.

there are many key items in the game that can grease your way. Honestly half the game, esp on hard difficulty, is knowing where the good stuff is and how to make it pay out. A simple example... one of the vendors you will meet before act 2 will sell a necklace such that every time you get any sort of heal, you get the max. There is also a mace that heals you a d6 every time you hit with it. Combined, you can heal 12+ damage per round just by fighting. You will be rewarded a hat that when you heal someone, you get healed, so the potion thrower should wear this and be the most hurt party member. Maximizing your out of combat huddle up healing with stuff like this is critical. The smallest heal potions are sold on vendors and are the most economical to buy(gold/hp restored)

In a similar vein to healing, exploding barrels and thrown bombs will trivialize act 1 even on hard. music can group up the enemy, and a high health fire resist character can be your performer if you want to suicide bomb them (there is a character with that exact build, race fire resist and high health). Those void bulbs can be used to pull everyone in a giant radius into like a cloud of daggers, where you can grease the floor... be mean, be nasty, win the fights :)

You can rest as much as you have food for, and since vendors restock when you rest, you can buy food almost daily... so you can pretty much spend a year in act 1 resting after each fight if you want to do that. I feel it is a bit of an exploit and that its a better game experience to only rest a few times per act, but its valid to rest all you need to.

There are a number of camp exploits you can use too. If you need to know and want this stuff, ask, but its worse than sleeping every fight (absolute abuse of the game mechanics). A very simple and basic example is to respec every one of withers' zombie guys to druid and give everyone a bag full of goodberries.

[Naitmerr]

Thanks for all the answers, I know I can make a better party but my first run I want it to be as vanilla as possible (not changing classes, only subclasses and stats), and as roleplay as possible, with MC as a good guy in general, but rebellious at times, greedy, with anger issues and a slight lust for power (kind of Chaotic Good even tho Paladin is Lawful), Shadowheart for romance and besides, Cleric is a good class to have around, Gale because I need a wizard and he's likeable, and Astarion because I need someone to steal and open locks and also because he's not exactly a good guy like the rest of the party, it would be kinda boring if everyone was a goody two shoes. So yeah I'm both playing on a harder difficulty from the start and also gimping my potential, but it is fun most of the time.

[Garf412]

(I didn't read all of the replies so...) BARD. have at least one bard in the party, that 3rd short rest is awesome. Make Asty a Swords Bard multi-class Rogue /Fighter. awesome build. Also Stealth Archer builds is really good for almost one-shoting most Bosses on Tact rule set.

I always have my Tav as a Swords Bard for all those dialogue checks, Ritual Spells and the Extra Short Rest.

Also Hirelings. have couple just in the camp, respec them into Bards. Invite them into your party hit that extra short-rest, remove them, carry on with the game-play :)

My entire runs i only do about 30 to 35 long rests for a 100-hour play-through. (I complete ALL the quests ;p )

[seeker1]

Don't skimp on LRs. A number of things in the game are only advanced by events in camp while long resting.

... owlbear cub, romance progression, companion quest progression, things companions just HAVE to tell you in camp, and Scratch bringing you useless crap.

In short, take as many as you can, it is possible to miss content if you don't. Even on the hardest modes, you shouldn't ever be running out of camp supplies.

[harken23]

There really is no difference in the overall game structure that makes a short rest somehow "better" than a long rest, unless you don't have enough camp supplies. I almost never short rest, bkz it doesn't restore as much of most things as a long rest, you'll soon be rolling in camp supplies, too so there's not really any kind of drawback.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Originally posted by harken23:

There really is no difference in the overall game structure that makes a short rest somehow "better" than a long rest, unless you don't have enough camp supplies. I almost never short rest, bkz it doesn't restore as much of most things as a long rest, you'll soon be rolling in camp supplies, too so there's not really any kind of drawback.

The primary reason for short rest is if you took some dmg or need Warlock spell slots or other recharge-on-short-rest abilities - it's faster than a long rest.

[harken23]

Originally posted by Pan Darius Cassandra:

Originally posted by harken23:

There really is no difference in the overall game structure that makes a short rest somehow "better" than a long rest, unless you don't have enough camp supplies. I almost never short rest, bkz it doesn't restore as much of most things as a long rest, you'll soon be rolling in camp supplies, too so there's not really any kind of drawback.

The primary reason for short rest is if you took some dmg or need Warlock spell slots or other recharge-on-short-rest abilities - it's faster than a long rest.

Yea, you can short rest if you haven't taken a lot of damage or just need warlock spells. But I'm not a fan of warlocks in general, and you might as well long rest and get everyone back to 100%. I mean, yes it's faster, but that's the only real advantage. There are places where you can't long rest, tho, so I guess it's useful there.

[Naitmerr]

Thanks for the advice. I just made Voss drop his sword, it's smooth sailing from now on I guess. Did it with 2 Invisibility potions and Command drop, and got away with 1 hp, no deaths (another self imposed challenge).