I believe the 8 hour time period for a long-rest is non-discriminatory in reference to race. Just some races have more flexibility with what they do in that time period. I equate elf trance/meditation as sleep, where they may sit, lie, or stand still, but may not move. The benefit is they are more aware of their environment (harder to surprise). So in theory, an elf may teach this technique to someone else, versus being a hereditary trait.
D&D 5E Elven trance and long rests
Mercule
Adventurer
I have to believe the "long rest is 8 hours for all" party line is mainly for "game balance". I can't imagine that it'd be game-breaking, though, to let the elf get away with a shorter long rest, since you can only take one per day. I'll worry about that, though, when I have a full party of elves. Until then, the elf PCs just get to stand watch longer.
Probably worth noting that, despite the official rules being that the entire rest is 8 hours, my group all went with the assumption that humans (et al.) needed 8 hours of actual sleep. We assume roughly 10 hours for the entire act of camping for the night, which includes a short rest for dinner (and resetting some abilities before watch begins), time to set up/tear down camp, and a bit of a buffer should trouble actually occur during the night. Looking at the posts in this thread, it's pretty clear the 8 hours was supposed to include a lot of that stuff. I think I'll keep doing it our way, though, mainly so I don't have to wonder whether the goblin raiders caused the wizard to not be able to memorize spells or the fighter from getting her hit dice back.
Probably worth noting that, despite the official rules being that the entire rest is 8 hours, my group all went with the assumption that humans (et al.) needed 8 hours of actual sleep. We assume roughly 10 hours for the entire act of camping for the night, which includes a short rest for dinner (and resetting some abilities before watch begins), time to set up/tear down camp, and a bit of a buffer should trouble actually occur during the night. Looking at the posts in this thread, it's pretty clear the 8 hours was supposed to include a lot of that stuff. I think I'll keep doing it our way, though, mainly so I don't have to wonder whether the goblin raiders caused the wizard to not be able to memorize spells or the fighter from getting her hit dice back.
Ruin Explorer
Legend
Agree re: time of long rest, but this isn't a great filter question unless you're filtering out people who might debate over wording. Cheesemongers aren't interested in cutting a few hours off a rest. The way to detect cheesemonger is to hook them up to a lie detector and ask them "Do the words Warlock 2/Sorcerer 18 mean anything to you". If that needle jumps, they're out! At least that's how I run my games.
With 5E's rules this whole trance deal is probably the least meaningful it's ever been in D&D, because no-one requires eight hours of sleep in 5E (thankfully, given it's been long-debunked by science as an idea), and any part that has 4 members can definitely stand a proper watch. I suppose having an Elf (or other non-sleeper) still helps in that you don't have to sort out a watch rota, or if you have 3 people or less in the party.
Glen Talbot
First Post
The rules state "After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep"
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
The post you’re responding to is 4 years old, and the wording of long rest has been erratad since then. Their position was the one supported by Jeremy Crawford at the time it was posted, and yours is the currently supported one.
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If they did it's a stealth errata, because there's nothing relating to elves or trance on the latest sheet.
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
The wording of long rest has been erratad, not the wording of trance.
Player's Handbook errata said:
Prior to that errata, the wording was:
Player's Handbook p. 186 said:
The reason this change matters to the interpretation of Trance is that Trance says, "After Resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep." Under the previous wording of Long Rest, it was ambiguous whether or not a long rest was one of the benefits that a human gets from 8 hours of sleep. Under the new wording, it is quite explicit. In order to spend 8 hours sleeping, you are by definition spending a period at least 8 hours long, during which you sleep for at least 6. Ergo the benefits that a human gets from 8 hours of sleep now unequivocally include the benefits of a long rest (provided you have not already gained those benefits within the past 24 hours).
There was an article explaining all this on this very site back in August of 2017: http://www.enworld.org/forum/conten...age-Advice-Compendium-(Sleep-Trance-Are-Fixed!)
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So if an elf trances for 4 hours, and can do no more than 2 hours of light activity, but must have at least 8 hours of extended downtime.....than how does an elf actually long rest?
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
By meditating for 4 hours. Or, if you prefer, they don’t “take a long rest.” They spend 4 hours in Trance, and gain all the benefits of a long rest.
It’s very simple: according to Trance, “After resting in [the way described by the Trance trait], you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.” So, the procedure we follow is that once the elf finishes resting in the way described in the Trance trait (specifically, meditating for four hours), we apply the same benefits we would apply to a human character if that character slept for 8 hours. “What benefits are those?”, you might ask. Well, presumably they'd wake up refreshed and ready to take on the day. Also, since that human would have just completed a period of at least 8 hours (since 8=8), during which they slept for at least 6 hours (since 8>6), and did light activity for no more than 2 hours (since 0<2), they would regain all lost Hit Points, regain spent Hit Dice up to a number of dice equal to half of their total number of them (minimum of one die), and regain any spell slots or abilities they might have that recover when you complete a long rest. Unless they had already spent a period of at least 8 hours during which they slept for at least 6 hours and performed light activity for no more than 2 hours (in which case, damn, that’s a lazy-ass human!). If the DM is using the optional rules for sleep deprivation from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, the human would also not need to make a Constitution check to avoid Exhaustion during that 24 hour period.
So, those are the benefits an elf gains from resting in the way described by the Trance trait. Thanks to that trait, an elf technically never needs to spend a period of at least 8 hours, during which they sleep for at least 6 hours and perform light activity for no more than 2 in order to regain hit points, hit dice, spell slots, or long rest recharge abilities (or stave off sleep deprivation if that rule is in play), since they can gain all of those benefits by resting in the way described by the Trance trait.
One interesting side-effect of this particular line of absurd pedantry is that in Tomb of Annihilation, an elf might technically never lose HP due to the Death Curse, since that is arguably not one of the benefits a human would gain from sleeping for 8 hours. And this, kiddos, is why we don’t apply rigorous technical interpretation to text written in natural language.
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