Confused about resting and spell recharging

[Jim_Partridge]

How do i recharge my spells without having to buy campfire supplies?
Im halfway through Rodericks Hold and all my casters are spent. I cant afford more campfires and dont want to have to backtrack outside to camp anyway. Seems v different from BG or IWD.?.

[happybjorn]

I'm assuming by can't afford you mean you are out of camping supplies.

Your main options are resting by camping or at an inn. You can also get some spells from leveling up, although these are not actually recharging spells, but getting access to additional spells from the new level.

There are camping supplies that can be found as loot. Inside the hold there should be at least one set in the basement/dungeon, in a chest near the stairway between the lower level and the kitchen on the main floor.

Edit: for spoiler and grammar

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Well, resting in this game strictly requires camping supplies or an inn/tavern. That is a deliberate game design decision.

If your activity within Raedric's Keep uses up so many per rest abilities that you want to rest often, you may want to consider taking a break, doing other quests and returning later with more capable characters. Or infiltrate the keep, which requires less fighting.

And yes, BG/IWD suffer from the infamous "rest spamming". Players that rest after every fight even withing highly dangerous dungeons where foes are just a few steps away. BG/IWD even made it possible to cast Invisibility 10' Radius before resting as to avoid getting ambushed directly.

[Gilmoy]

Briefly: You don't. This is PoE1. Yes, it's different from other RPGs.
Learn how to do PoE1 things to play PoE1 well.

PoE1 has a fundamental game mechanic of per-rest abilities.
This includes most spells from your class's levels, most abilities on your equipment, and your party's Health.

You recharge all of these abilities by resting, at a campfire or inn. There is no other way.
Therefore, managing your rest needs is the main decision in your planning.

PoE1 compensates by allowing all classes to fire wand/rod/staff as a ranged weapon, infinitely, for free. Think of them as bows or pistols. (Yes, your Fighter or Monk can fire a Wand.) That means your Wizard can "shoot" a wand like a bow, and have DPS roughly equal to any archer, without casting anything.

Hence, your choices are roughly:

A. Play on Story Mode (6 camping supplies) or Normal (4 camping supplies).
Buy more camping supplies, up to your limit.

B. Use your spells quickly, then camp as needed. Camp often. Buy supplies often.

C. Hoard your spells, and almost never use them. Rely on your infinite free wand fire for base DPS. Save your spells for the toughest fights. Even in a tough fight, you might use only 1-2 spells total (per caster), then spend the rest of the mop-up firing your wand.

#B tends to limit your safe adventuring radius to your game difficulty's camping supply limit. When you're out of spells/abilities and you have no more camping supplies, you'll either fight the next N combats without them, or go back to reload. That's PoE1.

On Hard or higher (2 camping supplies), we all migrate toward #C. Then your party's Health is a slow time limit on your non-stop adventuring radius. When Health gets low enough that you must camp or rest regardless, you can shift back to #B and empty out your spell books first.

[smilehigh]

I concur with everything said above. In the early game you should treat your spells as limited resources that you have to manage accordingly.

However I would like to add that by mid-game you will have many more spells and spell-slots and will rely less on resting. Additionally as you grow in power you will eventually be allowed to pick one spell from each spell-level that you will be able to use per-encounter, not per-rest.

[Jim_Partridge]

OK thanks for all the help.
I don't think the game does a good job of explaining these mechanics at all.
:( but really enjoying playing it.

[mr.raider2]

There are two specific areas in the Hold where you can rest for free. Osrya's room, and the priest upstairs whose name escapes me.