D&D 5E Concentration while Short Resting

[Warmaster Horus]

...
I'll point it out one more time.

The question isn't whether a short rest breaks your concentration.

The question is whether concentrating on a spell prevents you from benefitting from a short rest.

So is Concentration any more serious than having wounds tended to? A short rest allows you to do activities no more strenuous than eat, drink and have wounds tended to. My thought would be that if Concentration is more distracting than having an arrow yanked out of your ribcage, then maybe I'll reconsider the caster classes.

 

[Waterbizkit]

I think it's fair to say that the concentration mechanic and the rest mechanics are core pieces of the rules. Now while this doesn't mean mistakes can't have been made I'd personally like to think that if these two core mechanics interacted with each other in a particular manner that it'd be something we could all find rather easily in the rules, and yet we can't.

Nowhere under the rules for concentrating is "resting" mentioned as a means by which it might be broken. Likewise, the short rest rules, while certainly a bit more open-ended in their wording, make no mention of concentration as something that might prevent or interrupt the rest. "Short Rest". "Concentration". Specific mechanical game terminology not mentioned anywhere in the respective rules for one another. Seems fairly clear cut to me.

Of course maybe it's because I don't like all the drama that comes from trying to hash out all this minutiae. In my games my players can short rest while concentrating or concentrate while short resting or whatever third nonsensical way you want to decide to jumble the words around. I don't care how you want to come at it, it works. At least at my table.

If people want to rule otherwise at their own tables the more power to them, as much as I disagree. If for some reason you want to take the fairly ambiguous short rest rules and deem concentration, a game term in the case to be clear and one not listed in the resting rules, as too strenuous... well that's a way to do it.

As someone else pointed out, this would probably have been avoidable if they'd simply used alternative game terminology for what concentration is in the context it's being discussed.

 

[Ganymede81]

So is Concentration any more serious than having wounds tended to? A short rest allows you to do activities no more strenuous than eat, drink and have wounds tended to.

That is precisely the question at hand (though it could also be framed "Is Concentration any more serious than sipping a glass of wine?").

Unfortunately, the rules do not actually give us a concrete answer.

If you couldn't take a short rest while concentrating, it would list taking a short rest as one of the things that would break concentration.
It doesn't, so you can.

Why? Is the absence of a rule suddenly a rule?

As I elucidated out in the post you quoted, no one is actually suggesting that "eating, drinking, reading, or tending to wounds" breaks a spellcaster's concentration.

The question is instead whether concentrating on a spell is more strenuous than "eating, drinking, reading, or tending wounds."


Being enough to break your concentration and being more strenuous than having a snack are two distinct thresholds: one ends a spell and the other ruins a short rest.

 

[Yunru]

Of course not, but you knew that already.

If you can't short rest while maintaining concentration, then taking a short rest would require you to lose concentration, and would thus be listed as one of the things that causes you to lose concentration.

Since it doesn't, then starting a short rest doesn't cause you to lose concentration. Thusly it must be possible to both short rest and maintain concentration.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

... "Is Concentration any more serious than sipping a glass of wine?"

Unfortunately, the rules do not actually give us a concrete answer. ...

Can a bard Concentrate on maintaining an entertaining Major Image spell while drinking ale in a tavern without rolling a Concentration check? Of course they can. The Concentration mechanic is there principally to prevent casters from having multiple buffs running at once and provide an exterior method to drop those spells in combat.

However there is enough flexibility in the rules to have table variability. That's okay, too.

 

[Caliban]

Is there some great power/spell that makes this long concentration desirable. It seems like there are spells with a 24 hour concentration making it useful up to you want to cast another spell with concentration or take damage and need to make a check.

It seems like concentration is akin to when I need to tap my phone to keep it from going black while downloading something and the partial fade before going black reminds me to tap it again.

Pretty much just Hex and Hunter's Mark. Mainly Hex, since warlocks automatically cast it with a higher level spell slot as they gain levels. Some DM's just really don't like the idea of a warlock maintaining Hex all day.

 

[MrHotter]

Hex should be re-written to do more damage when used with a higher spell slot. It's a damage spell and not a class feature that should be 'always on'.

The thing is, how can you tell the difference between a short rest (where you get resources back) and just not doing anything stressful for an hour? A DM could say that a player uses concentration to get their resources back on a rest. That would make the warlock chose between maintaining concentration on their hex or getting their spell slot back while everyone is getting a short rest.

 

[Jer]

Some DM's just really don't like the idea of a warlock maintaining Hex all day.

I think it's more the idea that "Concentration" means something as an English word and that meaning is not the same as what the game mechanic definition of the word "Concentration" is. Concentration connotes effort, and if its something that you can do without risk of dropping it then how can there be effort? Since there's risk in combat and the rules for concentration are clear about how you lose it in combat they're fine with it, but since the rules don't tell you how you could lose it out of combat (save by getting hit by a tidal wave or something) it offends their idea of how the mechanics and narrative should interact.

I think that's a defensible position as a critique of how this edition is constructed - it's similar to how some DMs struggle with "short rests" and "long rests" as terms whose mechanics should relate to their places in the narrative. But as written the intent really does seem to be to allow Warlocks to keep their hex active all day provided they sacrifice their Concentration to do it.

 

[rollingForInit]

True but it's not crazy to imagine that an unexpected distraction while you're relaxing might have more impact than the greater distraction of combat that you know about. But if you went that route you might want to make casters roll to keep concentrating any time they are surprised (in the combat sense or otherwise). Which isn't unreasonable, if you tilt that way.

The question isn't whether a short rest breaks your concentration, but whether concentration prevents you from resting. Concentrating on a spell requires less effort than swinging a sword, but does it require more effort than applying bandages or eating a sandwich? It doesn't necessarily follow.

I mean, I think it's pretty clear by the rules that the intent is for concentration to persist through a rest, but I could imagine a reality where magical concentration did require a focused effort that made resting impossible. If that's the kind of game that the DM wants to run, then the important thing is that they let the players know before the game starts, because otherwise they would have no idea.

Really the same reply to both - yeah, obviously a DM is allowed to houserule whatever. Just important to remember that "Concentration" is a bad name for it, and that's not really what they intended. So changing the rules to fit the poor choice of words will mess with balance.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Really the same reply to both - yeah, obviously a DM is allowed to houserule whatever. Just important to remember that "Concentration" is a bad name for it, and that's not really what they intended. So changing the rules to fit the poor choice of words will mess with balance.

I dunno about that. It certainly seems like it represents that you are concentrating. I mean, you have a chance to lose the spell if you are distracted, and that wouldn't make as much sense if it was just a limit on active spells that didn't correspond to actual concentration.

In general, the name of a mechanic is our best indication of what that mechanic represents. When you Hit someone, that means you hit them. Damage is damage. Your Armor Class is based on your armor. Concentration is concentration.