Baldur’s Gate 3 Misses One Subtle Trick for Immersion

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 28, 2024 6 Views 7 Min Read
Baldur's Gate 3 Misses One Subtle Trick for Immersion



Baldur’s Gate 3 has been praised for its world building, scale, and attention to detail. These are undoubtedly traits that made the game as popular as it is, but there are always aspects of games that can be improved. Though this detail is a nitpick, its addition could have been a catalyst for new character interactions and lines, ambiance, and environmental changes, taking Baldur’s Gate 3 to a whole new level.




Time is an important aspect of Baldur’s Gate 3’s storytelling. Certain character interactions can only occur at night or at camp, making rests not just important for combat, but also for story progression.

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Short Rests and Long Rests in Baldur’s Gate 3

Rests in Baldur’s Gate 3 largely follow the typical rest mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Players are able to take two short rests before ending their “day” and can complete a long rest at camp. Short rests restore 50% of a party’s hit points, refresh any actions that require a cooldown per short rest, and restore warlocks’ spell slots.


This makes short and long rests cut and dry features. However, more story development occurs over the course of long rests in Baldur’s Gate 3. Players must return to their camp and end their day in order for long rests to occur. While players can visit their camp during the day, some of the only nighttime interactions in Baldur’s Gate 3 occur at camp. It’s surprising that this change in time isn’t visible at other points of game play, particularly with short rests.

It’s understandable that certain character interactions are mutually exclusive to camp and long rests. Taking a short rest is optional for players, whereas long rests are not. Making long rests mandatory solidifies the chances of players developing relationships with Baldur’s Gate 3’s companions and unlocking more character-specific quests.

Baldur’s Gate 3 shows the passage of time during long rests, but neglects this during short rests. Changing the lighting or environment after taking a short rest to indicate the passage of time would have not only made the game even more immersive, but could have led to more character-specific interactions.


Short Rests Could Have Led to Sunsets in Baldur’s Gate 3

It would be impossible for Baldur’s Gate 3 to include its most important story beats through short rests due to the feature being optional, but short rests still could have included their own fun and exclusive scenes. For instance, considering that players can only take two short rests per day, the first short rest could lead to the lighting changing from morning to afternoon and the second could change the lighting from afternoon to dusk. Baldur’s Gate 3 companions are known to make light comments while traveling around Faerun, even outside of player dialogue and cutscenes. These time changes would have been the perfect reason to add even more of these lines while also making the game feel even more immersive.


Short Rest Exclusives

When it comes to exclusive events or features that could occur during these specific time periods, perhaps Larian could have made specific BG3 herbs available at certain times of the day or made vendors change their wares per time period rather than refreshing them daily. Not only would this justify the new immersive element, but these changes could make or break a player’s inventory.

Additionally, maybe some side quests could have been time period exclusive or the time of day could have given players buffs or disadvantages for certain battles. For example, taking on the goblins in Act 1 could have been more difficult if players decided to charge in at dusk rather than in the morning.

These are just a few of the ways that shifting time between short rests could have made Baldur’s Gate 3 feel even more immersive. Though fans shouldn’t hold their breath for a big feature like this so long post-launch, Baldur’s Gate 3 remains one of the most captivating role-playing games in recent memory.

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