Baldur’s Gate 3 Resting: Short Rests, Supplies and Timed Quests
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Rest for the resources you have spent
Use a short rest when the group needs health and abilities that recharge between encounters. Use a full long rest when your spellcasters need their main spell resources back or the party has exhausted its shorter recovery options.
The normal allowance is two short rests between full long rests. Short rests do not consume camp supplies and restore half of a character’s maximum HP, capped at their maximum. They also recover specified class resources. Warlock pact slots are a useful example: a short rest replenishes them, while most other casters’ ordinary spell slots need a long rest.
| Rest | Supplies | Main use |
|---|---|---|
| Short rest | None | Health and abilities labelled as recovering on a short rest. |
| Full long rest | 40 on Explorer/Balanced; 80 on Tactician/Honour | Full recovery and refreshing the normal short-rest allowance. |
| Partial long rest | Below the required supply total | Recovery up to half your maximum HP and resources, rounded down; no reset of short-rest charges. |
Custom difficulty can alter the supply requirement. Use the requirement shown by your own campaign.
Make camp part of the route
Before resting, speak with companions who have something to say and check your equipment. Camp provides a natural place to move consumables to the characters who need them and make a class change with Withers without stepping straight back into combat.
Do not judge readiness from the health bars alone. A group can look healthy while lacking the control spell, pact slot or class action that made the previous battle manageable. Conversely, you may be able to recover enough with a short rest without spending supplies.
A Bard’s Song of Rest supplies another short-rest opportunity from level 2. Treat it as a party resource when planning several encounters in one outing.
Recognise local emergencies
Resting is part of normal play, but some activities advance after travel, a rest or a specific story trigger. The trigger matters more than a blanket rule about never sleeping.
If you have approached a burning rescue scene or discovered people trapped behind rubble, resolve that situation before leaving to pursue an unrelated quest. In Grymforge, travel and resting can advance the trapped-gnome situation after it has been triggered. Do not assume a journal entry stays available indefinitely.
Major area transitions also deserve a pause. Check the Act One route before entering the Mountain Pass or moving onward to the Shadow-Cursed Lands. Finish the local outcomes you care about, then rest and travel with a prepared party.