D&D 5E Interrupting a Long Rest

[Yunru]

I'm skipping quite a few pages (sorry), but it logically has to only apply the hour to walking. Otherwise you could declare you're taking a long rest, then walk into the BBEG's lair, slay the villain, rescue the princess, free the kingsom, almost die, and still have it count towards tour time spent long resting.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

A long rest is not interupted, unless combat goes on for 1 hour. This was already clarified by WotC staff. As combat never goes on for that long, a long rest is never interupted by something like an ambush during the rest. It works out just fine like that. It would be silly to force my players to continuously restarting a long rest in the hope they get 8 uninterupted hours in row. They might have to fight 3 battles during the long rest, but in the end, they can at least see their goal coming closer. That seems much more enjoyable to me than "Aww, too bad, after 6 hours, monsters attack you, now you have to start resting all over again".

 

[CapnZapp]

The same.

It is a poorly worded list, I think, as it definitely leaves unintended ambiguity about what that hour applies to.

It is a VERY poorly worded list.

But I'm afraid I'm cynical enough to say it might not be so unintentional as you think...

 

[Plaguescarred]

Even professional MMA boxers or martial artists don't fight for 60 minutes without resting it's too tiresome after a few minutes rounds so you'd probably drop of exhaustion before completing a 1-hour combat!


Yan
D&D Playtester

 

[Plaguescarred]

[DOUBLE POST]

 

[iserith]

Probably the easiest way to handle it in my view is to do it like D&D 4e does - just add anything that interrupts the rest onto the total amount of time the PCs need to rest. So if you fight for a minute, add one minute onto the total resting time. Easy, right? And in my opinion certainly beats needing to start the rest timer all over again. That just makes the PCs look lazy.

 

[Azurewraith]

Probably the easiest way to handle it in my view is to do it like D&D 4e does - just add anything that interrupts the rest onto the total amount of time the PCs need to rest. So if you fight for a minute, add one minute onto the total resting time. Easy, right? And in my opinion certainly beats needing to start the rest timer all over again. That just makes the PCs look lazy.

Easy enough!

Recently I have become a member of camp it if the PC's want to rest there gonna do it... or die fighting your 8th ambush of lich riding a dragon shooting tarrasques from its eyes.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

It is a VERY poorly worded list.

If the intent of the list is that 1 hour total interruption consisting of any combination of those particular activities spoils a rest, what would a wording that is not very poor be?

 

[Helldritch]

It would be:" A long rest will not give any benefits if One hour ..."

Bha... we all know the rule and it worded correctly. The hour applies to all these activities.
But can a long rest be interrupted?
I'd say yes. I did it a few times already with both of my groups. Tactical harrasment is usually the way to go. Otherwise, tough luck. The players will always get their rest.

But... what about the sentries? Do they earned their right to get benefits from the long rest? They were sentries after all...

 

[iserith]

In case it helps anybody, I figured I'd explain how I do rests in my town-to-dungeon campaign, The Delve. Short rests are 8 hours and you can't take them in the dungeon due to population density of threats. Long rests are 1 week and must be done in a town. The campaign is based on a week-to-week cycle of one-day expeditions. The dungeon appears for only 24 hours at a time in this realm, so too much short resting means you cut into your delve time (as does travel time). Thus, managing your time is very important. We're currently preparing for the 18th expedition to The Delve with the character having plunged as deep as the entrance to the Final Level.

Anyway, random encounters occur on an 18+ on a d20. The die is modified by the number of hours you are traveling or resting e.g. an hour rest is 1d20+8, so you have a 55% chance to have a random encounter during that rest. This can be mitigated by setting up your camp well, a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) group check success in which means I roll twice and the players can choose which result they want. (Sometimes they want an encounter!) An encounter does not interrupt gaining the benefits of a short rest.

The outcome in play is that the PCs tend to want to take short rests only when they are seriously depleted of resources or if one or more PCs is ready to level up. (You can level up only after a rest in this game.) I think that's a pretty good outcome.

Now, there's the important bit in my view: I probably won't have it set up this way in the next campaign. Why? Because I think we should use the rules to support the play experience we want to achieve. This works well for this set up. It might not work in another type of campaign. So if the rules say rests aren't interrupted unless the fight's at least an hour long, then change them if you're going for another play experience. Just be sure it's actually contributing to your vision of the game and is fun for everyone. If you've been doing it that way because it's just the way you've always handled it, maybe take a harder look at it and see if another way might better support what you're trying to do.