D&D 5E Should short rest be an hour long?

[Satyrn]

When I next DM a dungeon crawl (especially if it is a megadungeon like Rappan Athuk), I am going to keep short rests as is and rule out long rests as simply impossible while still in the dungeon so that how deep they can delve will be be limited by their success in handling (and avoiding) encounters.

In something like Rappan Athuk, though, I'd rule that certain locations could be safe zones where a camp could be set, allowing long rests.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I find it a bit strange to use the short rest game mechanic in advance of the hour; it's putting the cart before the horse.

Although the players may intend to rest for 1 (or 8) hours, it's not the stated intention of 'taking a short/long rest' which provides the benefits of that rest, but simply the fact that they have just rested for 1 (or 8) hours that gives them the benefit.

It depends on what the in-game reality is which corresponds to the mechanics of taking a short rest, which may or may not depend on other factors, such as your healing options. If the in-game reality of a short rest is just walking around like normal, without getting into any fights or casting any spells, then it could make sense to apply it retroactively. If the in-game reality of a short rest includes actively meditating to recover ki, reading through a spellbook to recover spell slots, or applying a poultice in order to allow Hit Dice to be spent, then you actually need to do those things before you gain the benefit.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

All this talk about "15 minutes being better than 1 hour" (or whatever) completely ignores the true best solution: the right choice is not to make one choice, and force it across all adventures, all stories.

Of course, you also need to keep in mind that characters are aware of whatever in-game reality corresponds to a short rest or long rest. If it takes the monk 5 minutes to regain ki one day, but an hour to regain ki the next day, then there needs to be some in-game reason for why that happens. And whatever reason that is, the characters can take that into account, or try to manipulate it.

If the rules by which your world works are silly or arbitrary, then you can expect the PCs to (quite logically) act in silly or arbitrary ways while following those rules. If it's only possibly to gain the benefit of a long rest while you're sleeping at an actual inn, then the party will figure out some way to drag an inn around with them.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

One thing 4E got right was encounter powers on 5 min rest recharge.

The reason why 5 minute rests worked in 4E is that they expected you to take one between every encounter. They wanted you to always have your Encounter powers available for every encounter, and it didn't matter whether you took two or twenty short rests between encounters, since there was no real benefit to taking more than one.

If a short rest in 5E was 5 minutes, then it would happen between every encounter, and they'd need to adjust every short-rest power under the assumption that they would be available for every encounter forever and that short rests would be chained if there was any benefit to doing so. You can't just say that you only benefit from two short rests per day, because that doesn't correspond to any logical in-game construct. There's no good reason why you can't benefit from more than two short rests in a day, like how sleepiness is a logical in-game factor which prevents chaining long rests.

Given that they couldn't come up with a reason to limit characters to two short rests per day, it makes sense that a short rest would be an hour long, since that's an appropriate length where sometimes you might have time for one (but not have time for a long rest - as you have experienced); if it was much shorter or much longer, then it would come up far too frequently or infrequently.

 

[Jester David]

There's a few toggles for the game. The length of a short rest is a big one. Length of healing, and when you can spend Hit Dice is another.
Don't like it? Change it?

 

[Uchawi]

The 5E rest system is similar to the 4E system and I do not like either. A two state system is too restrictive to fit the broadest range of narratives. So if you modify durations you may as well mess around with both short and long rests.

 

[Arial Black]

It depends on what the in-game reality is which corresponds to the mechanics of taking a short rest, which may or may not depend on other factors, such as your healing options. If the in-game reality of a short rest is just walking around like normal, without getting into any fights or casting any spells, then it could make sense to apply it retroactively. If the in-game reality of a short rest includes actively meditating to recover ki, reading through a spellbook to recover spell slots, or applying a poultice in order to allow Hit Dice to be spent, then you actually need to do those things before you gain the benefit.

On the face of it, your analysis is spot on: it depends on the in-game reality.

However, this in-game reality is already known:-

A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.

Note that you do not have to actually eat, drink, read, and/or tend to wounds in order to gain the benefits of a short rest; you just have to 'do nothing more strenuous than' eating, drinking, reading, or tending to wounds.

So if you have done nothing more strenuous than those things in the previous hour then you have already had a short rest, and gain the benefits thereof.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Note that you do not have to actually eat, drink, read, and/or tend to wounds in order to gain the benefits of a short rest; you just have to 'do nothing more strenuous than' eating, drinking, reading, or tending to wounds.

You have to actually tend to wounds in order to gain the benefit of tending to wounds, and a wizard has to actually recover spells in order to recover spells. You can't gain the benefit of eating if all you do is drink.

The passage which you quoted is descriptive rather than definitive. A short rest is a period of time where you don't do anything super strenuous, but not every such period of time is necessarily a short rest. To gain the benefits of a short rest, you actually need to do those things which a short rest allows you to do - meditating or recovering spells or tending wounds or whatever. Having a free hour in order to do so is merely the most significant limitation that would stop you from doing those things.

 

[knast]

I will echo what CapnZapp and others have already said that a short or long rest should be dependent on the context of a current game and within what is reasonable in that game.

I will add that it is up to the DM to control when and where the players can take a rest. I feel the best way a DM can do so, is by pacing the players, keeping them on their toes etc.

 

[Arial Black]

You have to actually tend to wounds in order to gain the benefit of tending to wounds, and a wizard has to actually recover spells in order to recover spells. You can't gain the benefit of eating if all you do is drink.

The passage which you quoted is descriptive rather than definitive. A short rest is a period of time where you don't do anything super strenuous, but not every such period of time is necessarily a short rest. To gain the benefits of a short rest, you actually need to do those things which a short rest allows you to do - meditating or recovering spells or tending wounds or whatever. Having a free hour in order to do so is merely the most significant limitation that would stop you from doing those things.

Although your model is internally consistent, it is not consistent with the RAW.

There is no rule that says you must eat, drink, read, and/or bind wounds during a short rest, and no rule that says if you don't actually perform these tasks you don't get the benefit of a short rest.

Meanwhile, there is a rule, quoted above, which states that if you do nothing more strenuous than those tasks then you gain the benefit of a short rest.

Furthermore, there is no suggestion that periods of 1 hour where you do nothing strenuous fail to count as short rests. The rules are what they say they are. It says that, 'A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds'.

Therefore, if I have done nothing strenuous for the last hour, then I've just had a period of downtime that qualifies as a short rest. There is no suggestion that anything else is required, nor that some such periods of downtime fail to qualify as short rests.

(apologies for the bold type; I'm not sure what happened. Probably something to do with copy/paste)