D&D 5E Good news! The RAW answer to: "When does a rest end?"

[Arial Black]

There has been some debate recently about 'how long rests are exactly' and 'when do they end'.

In part the confusion is created because instead of just saying a short rest is 1 hour and a long rest 8 hours the PHB says at least 1 hour and at least 8 hours.

Now, the smart ones among you will realise that the writers put in the 'at least' phrase to prevent pedants from denying the benefits of the rest to those who rest for more than 1/8 hours on the (obviously spurious) grounds that "It says 8 hours, 8 hours and 10 minutes is not 8 hours, therefore you don't get the benefits because you haven't rested for exactly 8 hours!" The trouble is that pedants always find a way....

But the answer, the RAW answer, is there!

At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character’s total number of them.

We also know that Spellcasting slots/Rages/loads of other features are refreshed after a long rest.

The key point is that you only get these things refreshed at the end of a long rest. Therefore, if you have just had these things refreshed, that long rest must have ended!

There is no getting round it. If the long rest had not ended then you would not have gained the benefits. You did gain the benefits, therefore the rest must have ended!

There is an exactly similar (watch out for those pedants!) RAW answer to when a short rest ends:-

A character can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of a short rest, up to the character’s maximum number of Hit Dice, which is equal to the character's level.

...and all the other short rest resources, like Pact Magic/Ki points/Superiority Dice/etc. If you have rested for at least 1 hour, and the DM tells you that you get the benefits of a short rest, then that rest must have ended! If it had not definitely ended, you could not have gained its benefits.

But what about the 'at least' part? Doesn't that mean that rests can be longer than 1/8 hours?

Well, yes and no.

First, the 'yes' part. The DM can certainly say that you guys have been resting for, say, 12 hours, so give yourselves the benefits of a long rest. There is nothing wrong with that.

But for the 'no' part:-

A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps or perform slight activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for no more than 2 hours. 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.

....if you have been resting/avoiding strenuous activity for 8 hours, and you ask the DM, "Have we rested long enough to get our hit points/spell slots back yet?", the answer is an unequivocal 'yes!' Why would your DM deny you the benefits?

Because he thinks you might be resting some more? The problem with that is that the players are resting in order to gain the benefits, and will damn well keep resting until they do! They will only start doing something else when they get their hit points/slots etc. back!

What about an 8 hour rest followed immediately by a 1 hour rest? Isn't that just one 9 hour rest?

It is utterly pointless to have a short rest straight after a long rest, because a long rest has already given you all the benefits that a short rest would. You rest to gain the benefits; a short rest lets you spend hit dice to heal, but you already have all your hit points from the long rest. A short rest lets you get your Pact Magic slots/Superiority Dice/Ki points and so on back, but the long rest you just had already gave you all of those things.

What about if I have just got the benefits of a long rest (indicating that the long rest is definitely over), then I cast some spells/use other short rest resources/take damage? What if that spending of resources only takes a minute? Or 6 seconds?

In that case, you can benefit from a short rest! We know for a fact that the previous long rest is over, because if it wasn't over then you could not have gained those long rest benefits. Therefore, any time spent resting after that long rest must be nothing to do with that already expired long rest.

Any questions?

 

[Parmandur]

We mostly just handwave this to keep things moving.

 

[FrogReaver]

This was already pointed out on that other thread.

And I'll point out again, that if you as a DM only deal with honest players that don't lie to you about their intentions then you as a DM can choose to only end a long rest and give the benefits of the long rest when the players say we are done and ready to go do something other than rest.

But what if the players choose not to go do something after the long rest and instead decide to rest some more? Well then you have lying players and there's going to be bigger problems with the game than resting.

So if the DM has honest players and he states he will only give a benefit to a long rest when the party is ready to go do things other than rest then there will be no way to short rest after a long rest.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

The key point is that you only get these things refreshed at the end of a long rest. Therefore, if you have just had these things refreshed, that long rest must have ended!

A tautology is not the RAW answer as to when a long rest ends - it's ignoring that no answer is given by the RAW.

Because yes, you regain your resources at the end of the rest, but when is that?.

 

[Satyrn]

We mostly just handwave this to keep things moving.

Aye. Resting is not playing, so we just don't care. I don't even care about the length of time. I just essentially consider a short rest to be a lunch break, a catnap, or just sitting down to enjoy a sunset. A long rest is essentially a night's sleep, or a day of lounging in front of the TV.

 

[Parmandur]

Aye. Resting is not playing, so we just don't care. I don't even care about the length of time. I just essentially consider a short rest to be a lunch break, a catnap, or just sitting down to enjoy a sunset. A long rest is essentially a night's sleep, or a day of lounging in front of the TV.

Really is, RAW is DM fiat.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

For me, Short Rest = "50 min + (1d6 x10 min); d6 can be adjusted due to length of time PC's have been up and about. This means that the PC's (and players) never know exactly how long they have rested up...although with keeping track of torches and lantern oil, they can usually guess pretty close. And this is, IMHO, as it should be in a world where nobody has a digital clock or even a pocket watch. A Long Rest = 8 hr + 1d4 hr; d4 can be adjusted due to the same reasons above. Longest rest any party has taken, iirc, was 14 hours (party was all spent...very low hp's, almost no spells, and had been having large fights and running/traveling for something like 20 hours).

RAW is fine if it is used as it is intended: as a guideline.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[bid]

honest players that don't lie to you about their intentions

Woah, talk about adversarial DM.

Yep, every morning that player cheats by doing calesthenics for an hour before breakfast.

 

[Prakriti]

Related question:
If a long rest gets interrupted after 1-7 hours, does it count as a short rest?

For example: The characters stop for a long rest. They are attacked by wandering monsters 4 hours into the rest. The players want to roll HD before combat starts, as though they have taken a short rest.

Thoughts?

 

[FrogReaver]

Woah, talk about adversarial DM.

Yep, every morning that player cheats by doing calesthenics for an hour before breakfast.

Talk about an adversarial player...

1 player doesn't get to hold the group up an hour to stay behind and do exercises for an hour.