As I've mentioned in other posts, people either like the per rest/encounter system or they want something like a mana pool to use. I prefer the per rest/encounter system because it forces me to manage my resources intelligently. If I had a mana pool to use, it would be very easy to get my hands on mana potions and be able to sling spells all day. This creates an imbalance and a cap on how many mana potions you can carry will have to be set in place. At that point, you're still working with limited resources some how. 

 

Not to mention that at higher levels, you can use lower level spells on a per encounter base. At that point, there is a good balance between using spells per encounter and the higher leveled ones at per rest. 

 

Then again, it always comes down to preference.

I would prefer some type of mana for spell casters instead of the per-turn/ per/rest system......

 

Thoughts?

Diablo is not a CRPG ...

As I've mentioned in other posts, people either like the per rest/encounter system or they want something like a mana pool to use. I prefer the per rest/encounter system because it forces me to manage my resources intelligently. If I had a mana pool to use, it would be very easy to get my hands on mana potions and be able to sling spells all day.

To be absolutely clear though, the only thing preventing you from slinging spells all day in the PoE system is your style of play. With the exception of two mandatory and maybe another two or three optional areas (all of which are relatively small and contain camp supplies), you always have the option of retreating to town to rest and the game does not penalize you for doing this as often as you like. The same thing was mostly true in Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 (although those games did have a few timed quests).

No matter what decisions the developers make there will always be someone that does not like a particular decision.  Magic is something that does not exist in the real world but that does not mean it shouldn't have rules and restrictions.  In a single player game it is up to the player as to how he or  she wants to play within the limitations of the game.  

 

The fact that we like different things does not make one person right and the other wrong.   The reason I prefer the rest/encounter method in Pillars of Eternity is because the game is spiritually based on the early IE D&D games and that method more nearly  reflects those games just as the isometric view point does.  To have used the mana system I think would have made the game feel differently.

 

This is just my own personal opinion.