D&D (2024) Overthinking Long Rest in 2024

[mikeburke]

You sleep for at least 6 hours.. After you finish a Long Rest, you must wait at least 16 hours before starting another one.

I had a late night, didn’t get to sleep until 2am. Slept 6 hours, waking at 8am. For the rest of my life, I guess can’t get a Long Rest unless I go sleep after midnight.. unless I stay awake (or stay in bed) all night and the following day.

Think I’ll open a 24 hour “Potions of Alertness” store in Waterdeep (aka cafe). I can see a business opportunity under the new regime.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I think this happened to me.

 

[mikeburke]

I think this happened to me.

Yep, getting flashbacks to my nightclubbing days

 

[James Gasik]

In D&D 5th edition, a Long Rest isn't just sleep. This is something I had to explain to my players.

If you're up 16 hours, and 8 of those are spent working, you can function on a lot less than 6 hours sleep if you're healthy and have access to stimulants. In 1964, a man spent over 11 days awake and he didn't die from having 6 levels of exhaustion.

Neither did Robert McDonald, who in 1986, stayed up for 19 days.

D&D assumes that if you truly need a Long Rest, you've been operating at peak capacity all day, to where you would be bone tired at the end of it. You're in dangerous terrain, facing multiple unknown foes, with traps and hazards potentially around every corner. Who knows what kinds of toll magical healing, casting spells, or weaponized adrenaline surges (Second Wind + Action Surge) take on one's body?

In these circumstances, yeah, maybe six days without rest would kill someone. Remember, just as D&D characters routinely do things we, normal Earth humans would consider very difficult, if not impossible, the strain of doing so has a price that must be paid.

At least, that's how I see it, and I wish the rulebooks would be more clear on this point. Too often, I have to remind my players that just because you slept for the night doesn't mean you got good sleep.

 

[mikeburke]

Yep, these rules, like any rules I guess, are a simplifying abstraction and I am AOK with that. If I want more granularity in my rules I can always crack open the 1e Wilderness Survival Guide and deal with Weakened vs Fatigued vs Distressed vs Incapacitated vs Exhausted.

I guess the 2024 rules somewhat account for “bad sleep” by requiring an extra hours’ sleep per interruption.

Of course there’s an underlying assumption in these rules that a day is at least 22 hours long.. (up to 2 hours downtime, 6 hours rest, 16 hours’ activity). Try not to go adventuring on Jupiter (10 hour days).

 

[mellored]

You sleep for at least 6 hours.. After you finish a Long Rest, you must wait at least 16 hours before starting another one.

I had a late night, didn’t get to sleep until 2am. Slept 6 hours, waking at 8am. For the rest of my life, I guess can’t get a Long Rest unless I go sleep after midnight.. unless I stay awake (or stay in bed) all night and the following day.

Nothing says you can only sleep during a long rest.

So if you finish your Long Rest noon in Saturday. You don't get a long rest Saturday night.
But you can still get one Sunday night. As that has been more than 16 hours.

You just spend one day exhausted.

That said, potion that lets you ignore a level of exhaustion seems fine.

 

[Daraniya]

You sleep for at least 6 hours.. After you finish a Long Rest, you must wait at least 16 hours before starting another one.

I had a late night, didn’t get to sleep until 2am. Slept 6 hours, waking at 8am. For the rest of my life, I guess can’t get a Long Rest unless I go sleep after midnight.. unless I stay awake (or stay in bed) all night and the following day.

Think I’ll open a 24 hour “Potions of Alertness” store in Waterdeep (aka cafe). I can see a business opportunity under the new regime.

So, a starbucks then?

 

[mikeburke]

So, a starbucks then?

It’s true, they really are everywhere.

 

[Zardnaar]

It’s true, they really are everywhere.

Didn't do well in Australia. Or here. Pointless, expensive and crap.

 

[pukunui]

Didn't do well in Australia. Or here. Pointless, expensive and crap.

Starbucks seems to be doing just fine in Auckland.