The first "random" encounter of the game, on the way to Caer Lem, where the bandits surprise your party... the "surprise" function of the encounter overrides the Peaceful Rest feature of the Oblivion Cleric, which is supposed to make it so your party is unable to be surprised in these wilderness encounters. I suspect because this encounter is forced, this override may have been applied unintentionally.
The tutorial pop-up mentions this specifically. It is intentional and you will only experience that the very first encounter. Peaceful rest should function as intended for the rest of the game.
Interesting design choice but alright then. Given this isn't my first playthrough, I have tutorial boxes disabled and would not have a way to see that warning.
Looks like it's not working on other wild encounters either.
EDIT: Posted a screenshot from my clipboard, but it's showing a blank thumbnail and no page found when clicking it...removed screenshot. If it happens again I'll screenshot it and save the screenshot. For reference, it was on the way back to Caer Cyflen right after acquiring the Crown.
Notably, I was ambushed while traveling not while explicitly "camping." I assumed that was descriptive text, but it seems there is actually a distinction, and Peaceful Rest only applies specifically while camping? Or it's just bugged, not sure.
No, descriptions in D&D are to be taken literally, so as to make it less likely to create ambiguous situations. I just checked in the game and it specifically says "While camping, reduces the chances of being attacked and prevents from being surprised."
Considering the feature also reduces the chances of being attacked in the first place (while camping), never being surprised (both while camping and travelling) would be very powerful at lvl. 2.
While I agree that 5e is explicit, Solasta is not. The descriptions feel like they went through numerous translations before reaching English, and I've not seen any mechanical distinction between camping and traveling while moving about in the world map until this, if that is indeed what is going on.
It *would* be very powerful at level 2. That's why I took the class in the first place. Surprise encounters while traveling are the only thing holding back consistent Cataclysm deathless runs (i.e. no revivifying and the like), and I thought this class might be the key to overcoming that. Seems not.
Here's a screenshot for Travel Journal context https://i.imgur.com/TGS4b8K.png
"Travel" while traveling does appear to be mechanically distinct from "Camping" while traveling.