D&D 5E Do you have to declare a rest before the rest?

[LordEntrails]

does your player have to 'intend' to rest at the beginning of the rest?

Yes. Even with most of the examples given. Sure, there are exceptions to every rule. But allowing the warlock to say, "Oh, hours past, I was resting" also seems to mean that you would allow then to say "Oh, a wandering monster appeared, I was on guard duty so I'm not surprised."

I guess if the party agrees that their default action is to rest when not doing anything else fine, but my default assumption is that people are on alert when not specifying anything else. Seems to be the same assumption that players in the games I've been in seem to assume as well. But if a group want's other assumptions, go with it.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

would allow then to say "Oh, a wandering monster appeared, I was on guard duty so I'm not surprised."

yeah we handle surprise differently then the raw...
unless someone is ATTEMPTING to surprise or be hidden we go with the "Did you see that coming" and let each player decide on there own.

 

[billd91]

To me a rest is a time you take to specifically do so, not a default recharge mecanism that automatically happen after period of inactivity. You take mesure for it, put yourself in the right mindset to relax body and mind etc... Not because you lay down still that you necessarily rest ask anyone who suffer from stress or insomnia. Resting is more than just inactivity.

As long as you're not specifically depriving yourself of food and water and a bit of bandaging (as necessary), is it really necessary to make a distinction between inactivity and rest? I get that it's better if people knowingly rest in the sense that then they can ensure they're not engaging in activity that would prevent rest, but if they didn't declare it and aren't specifically engaging in rest-breaking activity, why would inactivity not be enough?

As per the Devs you do not get the benefit of a short rest after 1 hour into a long rest for exemple.

This, I can agree with - in a sense. You shouldn't automatically assume the PCs are spending hit dice while trying to get a long rest - after all, they only get half their level in HD back and don't normally have to spend any in hit point recovery during a long rest. But if the long rest is interrupted after at least an hour has passed, I'd definitely give them the benefit of a short rest and ask if they want to spend some hit dice regaining hit points to reflect the fact that they did meet or exceed the requirements for a short rest.

 

[Deset Gled]

FWIW, in real life I generally do better when I make a conscious decision to rest ahead of time. If I sit down and say to myself "time to relax for a little while", I will be much more refreshed at the end. Conversely, the are also plenty of times when I can look back and think I didn't really do very much, but it was completely exhausting anyway.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

FWIW, in real life I generally do better when I make a conscious decision to rest ahead of time. If I sit down and say to myself "time to relax for a little while", I will be much more refreshed at the end. Conversely, the are also plenty of times when I can look back and think I didn't really do very much, but it was completely exhausting anyway.

IRL when I lay down and say "Okay, time for sleep" it has a 50/50 chance of working... but if there is a show I want to watch on late (aka that same time I would be laying down) and no one is watching with me, there is 120% chance I will fall asleep first commercial break and miss it

 

[Maxperson]

So I just had a player ask something I had not considered.

if (by defualt) your rests are 1hr and 8hrs does your player have to 'intend' to rest at the beginning of the rest?

I was given 2 examples and came up with a 3rd.

1) you mid dungeon, and you come across a puzzle. You are a warlock that is not to bright and not helpful. You sit there while the wizard and the rogue play with the puzzle. it ends up taking 2 1/2 hours. Can that warlock then say "Hey, I just sat out 2 1/2 hours I'm taking a short rest"

2) (more common) you are laying an ambush. You expect the carriage to come over that hill any minute, and the ranger will signla you... an hour and a half later that signal comes can they spend HD since they just sat for over an hour?

3) (this one I came up with) you are traveling. someone is on the wagon and not really useful... but some others are on look out, driving, what ever... can the one not doing anything claim a short rest after an hour?


normally players declare what they are going to do to get a short rest, and what precisions they will take... but if time just passes, it's still restful right?



the player brought this up because at his job the computers went down today. They expected they would be up in a few minutes, but it turned into hours. They pretty much got hours of break unexpectedly.

Resting is resting is resting. If the 4 of the 5 PCs are just sitting around for 2 hours doing nothing while the last one scouts, a short rest has happened for those four. There's nothing mystical about a declaration of intent by the player.

On the flip side, if the party was sitting around for 8 hours, but didn't know how long they would be there, while I would give the Wizard back his spell slots, I wouldn't let him study to change his spell list retroactively. He would have had to tell me that he is taking time to prepare new spells just in case they are there for 8 hours resting.

 

[Blue]

What would you say made it seem "artificial?" How it was presented perhaps? How did the DM determine the encounter took place 30 seconds before the rest period ended?

If felt artificial as the DM chose that exact 30 second point for no in-world logic, but in the name of tension. A tension that only exists because of the boolean nature of "completing a [short|long] rest" is nothing and then flips to everything, so that for example my monk would either be at zero ki and 7 HPs, or full ki and full HPs are indicated by 30 seconds more of rest - 1/120th of the total time resting having such a large effect.

Basically the issue was that in-world 30 seconds more of rest shouldn't make such a drastic difference, so the tension was created by showing how the rules didn't make sense narratively, not by a real feeling threat.

Looking at what you wrote, what I imagine is someone leading enemies away from wounded comrades so they could recover enough to join the fight which seems like a thing that could happen in a fantasy setting.

Sure, that could make a good scene. Just the way it was done really highlighted the artificial nature of the boolean completion. You have that scene 10 minutes into a rest, where one person desperately hurt decides to lead marauders away so the rest of his companions could live is just fine. Of course, the DM designing a scene where the options are one person will almost certainly die vs. a likely TPK for the whole party is great drama for some tables and against the spirit of others.

 

[Blue]

To me a rest is a time you take to specifically do so, not a default recharge mecanism that automatically happen after period of inactivity. You take mesure for it, put yourself in the right mindset to relax body and mind etc... Not because you lay down still that you necessarily rest ask anyone who suffer from stress or insomnia. Resting is more than just inactivity.

Its a biological recovery. Since a short rest explicitly does not require sleeping, insomnia or such doesn't have an effect on it.

If go from a strenuous lawnwork and instead sit under the shade of a tree and read a book, my intention is to read the book. I am focused on that, my mind is active. However, that is not a strenuous activity (in in RL or as definited in the rest section) and in both real life and by the rules of the short rest, after an hour reading I can have recovered from the sweaty manual labor I was doing before.

Now, not sleeping once every 24 hours does have in game consequences, which is where your insomnia can translate into levels of exhaustion. But trying to say that a hour of high activity vs. two 30 minutes blocks of high activity with an hour of low activity but not "active resting" between them are the same is obviously false.

 

[Blue]

Yes. Even with most of the examples given. Sure, there are exceptions to every rule. But allowing the warlock to say, "Oh, hours past, I was resting" also seems to mean that you would allow then to say "Oh, a wandering monster appeared, I was on guard duty so I'm not surprised."

I [actively did this thing] is something that needs to be communicated to the DM. I [didn't do anything] is communicated to the DM by not communicating to them about doing anything.

So the case of "I didn't do anything" was communicated to the DM, while the "I was on guard duty" was not. Completely separate cases.

 

[LordEntrails]

I [actively did this thing] is something that needs to be communicated to the DM. I [didn't do anything] is communicated to the DM by not communicating to them about doing anything.

So the case of "I didn't do anything" was communicated to the DM, while the "I was on guard duty" was not. Completely separate cases.

Table rules.

At my tables, adventurers that are not someplace safe and secure are assumed to be on the lookout. They are assumed to be looking for wandering monsters, trip wires, etc and not to be doing "nothing" and resting.

My table has found that continuously stating what to us is obvious, "While Mary is deactivating the trap, I am on guard" is simple boring, meaningless and un-fun. To us, it's not obvious that while Zippo is solving a puzzle everyone else is simply doing nothing. No, to us they are on the lookout for threats and dangers.

But each table gets to make it's own assumptions. Maybe DM's should address this OOC or at Session 0 if they don't know their player base. I admit is annoys me as a player when a GM assumes my PC is sitting around with their thumb us their tail pipe while another character is defeating the security system to the highly defended BBEG's place and says "You feel a tap on your shoulder, a guard asks you what your friend is doing."