Disappearing rations

Redglyph
Level 14
2 years ago

I had 8 rations of food before leaving Caer Cyflen, there were none left when I arrived at the Bone Keep.

How is the player supposed to manage the party if rations disappear completely during the journey? Is the party now supposed to do all the way back to another location just to get some rest, then come back?

It should be possible to hunt enough for food during the journey to avoid that kind of annoyances, I don't think it adds anything positive to the game.

Iggy
Level 6
2 years ago

Do you mean 8 in total, or 8 bundles of 5 rations?

Your party consumes 4 rations per day of travel, so if you only left with 8 rations it’s not surprising you had none left when you got to the Bone Keep; as it’s more than 2 days travel, even at a fast pace.

if you read the journey log, you’ll notice that your party does collect food as they travel. If you travel slower, you increase the likelihood and amount of food they find.

you need to plan your journey appropriately, and buy enough rations before you leave.

Or have someone in your party that can cast Goodberry (bit of a cheat code).

Redglyph
Level 14
2 years ago

8 total, it's heavy enough (and probably in limited resources at Caer Cyflen like many other consumables).

I know they consume that during the journey when they can't find enough food, but that's my point. It's not possible to plan anything because it's random, and I don't want / can't carry more rations, it's really a long trip. My initial plan was to take a 2-rest stock, but it went away, whereas the previous time I came back with more rations than I had when I left.

I don't see the point of micro-managing the food and packing like mules just in case they can't find food, at the risk of wasting what little consumables are available. I'd rather focus on the interesting part of the game, which is the quests and the exploration.

Iggy
Level 6
2 years ago

Solasta is trying to be as faithful as possible to 5e, wherein you don’t receive the benefits of a long rest unless you eat something when you rest.

For some people, needing to consider a trip’s ration adds to the games immersion, and subsequently their enjoyment of it.

mg666
Level 5
2 years ago

Starting a 10+ days trip with 2 days of rations is asking for trouble, but if you don't want to micromanage Ranger and Goodberry is for you.

ovelteen
Level 7
2 years ago

There's plenty of food at the bone keep just murder everything.

Skryia
Level 13
2 years ago

Yeah, if you don’t find the food/travel/survival minI-game interesting (and goodness knows I sure don’t), the developers left easy ways out of it now. Take a Ranger (or green mage Wizard) with Goodberry or a Cleric with Create Food/Water. You trade off a prepared spell and a spell slot per day of travel in exchange for not caring about rations (though I still carry 1-2 per person “just in case”(tm)). I’d rather they added a “make food irrelevant” checkbox so I could get away with not even spending the spell slot, or if they just made food cheap and light enough that it didn’t matter, but barring that they at least provided a relatively low-cost way out of an un-fun mechanic. I doubt they’d remove the mechanic altogether as there are people who find it interesting for whatever reason, and as long as those people aren’t trying to force me to adhere to their preference I’m happy to return the favor.

pj4533
Level 1
2 years ago

I understand the rules. I get how rations work, and my cleric has Create Food. I created food prior to leaving on the trip, had over 20 and they go down by MORE than 4 per long rest. It isn't consistent either. I tried reproducing the bug but couldnt figure it out. Perhaps the magic food rations from the spell time out?

Once you have an option for managing food, it isn't so bad apart from the above mentioned bug(?). My suggestions:

* lower weight of rations - rules are strange on this. Looks like 5e says 1 ration is 2lb and has enough for 1 day, but elsewhere in the rules says that characters require 1 pound of food per day?

* perhaps fix this with homebrew magic items? Some ration-only haversack thing? Available from the start, makes rations weigh MUCH less, so you can load up from the beginning of the game. Tweak the amount for balance. Then players still need to manage it, but it isn't quite as annoying?

Redglyph
Level 14
2 years ago

Solasta is trying to be as faithful as possible to 5e, wherein you don’t receive the benefits of a long rest unless you eat something when you rest.

For some people, needing to consider a trip’s ration adds to the games immersion, and subsequently their enjoyment of it.

You haven't read the problem correctly

Redglyph
Level 14
2 years ago (edited)

Yeah, if you don’t find the food/travel/survival minI-game interesting (and goodness knows I sure don’t), the developers left easy ways out of it now. Take a Ranger (or green mage Wizard) with Goodberry or a Cleric with Create Food/Water. You trade off a prepared spell and a spell slot per day of travel in exchange for not caring about rations (though I still carry 1-2 per person “just in case”(tm)). I’d rather they added a “make food irrelevant” checkbox so I could get away with not even spending the spell slot, or if they just made food cheap and light enough that it didn’t matter, but barring that they at least provided a relatively low-cost way out of an un-fun mechanic. I doubt they’d remove the mechanic altogether as there are people who find it interesting for whatever reason, and as long as those people aren’t trying to force me to adhere to their preference I’m happy to return the favor.

My ranger doesn't have Goodberry, and even if she had, all slots have been used in battle.

Since there's nothing in the SRD about that and it's at the discretion of the GM, it should obviously be an option. I hardly see a GM saying "no, no, you must spend 4 days of travel to get new rations, then 4 days to get back. Game sessions wouldn't be that fun ;-)

And even if the GM made it mandatory, it probably means the game's over. Since the party couldn't hunt in that area, it means they won't have rations for their journey back, so they can't eat, can't rest. And let's assume they don't die of starvation, they wouldn't be able to face road encounters.

Just looking at the numbers, I see there are 50 available rations for the party to buy from Gorim. If I have to count 8 days of travel and let's say 3-4 days there, it's 12*4 = 48 rations. Perhaps I can manage to carry all 480 kg of them, somehow, if they're all paladins for example. But what do I do for the next trip?

EDIT: scratch that, it's 11 days and not 4...

I'm all for that checkbox :-) If they provided alternative solutions, that's because there's a problem to begin with, I just don't find it's a good solution (and it would force me to restart the game with a new ranger, whose spells will have to be sacrified just to eat). The right solution is to leave the rations in the inventory, and let the party hunt for food during the journey, it's quite simple and more realistic.

There's plenty of food at the bone keep just murder everything.

I haven't found any so far, and I can't continue further without getting spell slots back, there are some serious encounters awaiting.

ovelteen
Level 7
2 years ago

Four food in the tree trunk near the camp fire and at least four more in the ranger's hut. There is also at least enough food for a long rest in all the rest areas in the keep.


Anfindel
Level 8
2 years ago

Gorim restocks daily now, so you would simply need to wait a day to grab another 50.  However, you DO forage some food along the route, just not 100% of your needs. 

Redglyph
Level 14
2 years ago

Four food in the tree trunk near the camp fire and at least four more in the ranger's hut. There is also at least enough food for a long rest in all the rest areas in the keep.

No... Last time I played before the Winter update, I found 2 or 3 near the camp fire (not 4), but not this time, zero ration. It may be random. And no food elsewhere, I've really scanned the whole area. Including the first other place to camp withing the keep (last time there was only 1 ration).