D&D 5E Interrupting a Long Rest

[Werebat]

One of my players and I had a recent discussion about whether or not a wandering monster encounter could disrupt a long rest.

He argued that it could not, unless the combat went on for at least an hour, pointing out the words in the PHB (Page 186, "Long Rest"):

"If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity -- at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity -- the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it."

At first I shrugged and figured it must be the new 5E "keeping it simple" at play, although it seemed odd that fighting and casting spells would be mentioned at all -- what combats or spell casting go on for a whole hour?

Then I thought it might be that the player was just parsing the sentence wrong. At least 1 hour of walking might disrupt a long rest, as well as ANY AMOUNT of fighting, casting spells, etc.

Is there any clarification or consensus on this?

 

[thalmin]

I have interpreted it as you have, the 1 hour refers to walking.

 

[Satyrn]

The same.

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

 

[discosoc]

I think 1 hour of walking is it's own thing, so just reorder the list to clear it up...

"If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity -- fighting, casting spells, at least 1 hour of walking, or similar adventuring activity -- the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it."

That said, I don't think you're breaking anything by ruling that a combat encounter during a long rest would interrupt it. I've had sleep interrupted for phone calls, sex, crying baby, acrobatic-cat-on-face, etc, without any horrible side effects. Unless the interruptions happen on a daily basis, I just can't imagine either interpretation of the rule being wrong.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Is there any clarification or consensus on this?

Well i never thought it made much sense to have only 60 rounds combat interrupt a long rest but Mike Mearls said it must be 1+ hours on twitter https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/487278381663145984?ref_src=twsrc^tfw


@Hadan_Ashcroft "at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, ..." Long Rest interrupted by any combat or only combat that lasts more than an hour?
@mikemearls Must last 1+ hours to break it


Yan
D&D Playtester

 

[Plaguescarred]

In all the 5E games i ran or played in, i don't think a single combat ever lasted that long


Yan
D&D Playtester

 

[cmad1977]

Combat absolutely interrupts a long rest for me.


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[AaronOfBarbaria]

While Mearls doesn't give official answers on the intention of rules or their intended function as written, Crawford does, and in this tweet has stated entirely clearly that a long rest isn't interrupted by a normal-length combat.

 

[Werebat]

While Mearls doesn't give official answers on the intention of rules or their intended function as written, Crawford does, and in this tweet has stated entirely clearly that a long rest isn't interrupted by a normal-length combat.

Weird. So if a party tries to short rest eight times in a row and fails every time due to eight ill-timed combat interruptions... They get a long rest?

 

[Caliban]

I believe it's intended that a single combat won't disrupt a long rest, mainly so you can still have a random encounter at night with sleeping PC's while not disrupting the normal adventuring the next day.

Assuming that sentient creatures in-world know how recovery of spells and other resources work, if they intentionally want to disrupt the rest of a group of PC's they wont do it via a single combat. Launching flaming arrows into their tents from beyond darkvision range and then running, luring or conjuring wild animals into their campsite, and similar incidents can disrupt their rest if done multiple times - enough so that the PC's can't get back to sleep for at least an hour.