D&D 5E Concentration while Short Resting

[Caliban]

Let me quote the relevant rule so all can see:

PHB 186
"A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long"

Where exactly are you getting a rule that says a long rest is exactly 8 hours?

Nice try, but if you check carefully, you will not that the word exactly doesn't appear anywhere in my post.

The rules only require 8 hours to get the benefits. You can rest longer if you like, but 8 hours is all you need and you can only get the benefits of a long rest once in a 24 hour period.

 

[FrogReaver]

Nice try, but if you check carefully, you will not that the word exactly doesn't appear anywhere in my post.

The rules only require 8 hours to get the benefits. You can rest longer if you like, but 8 hours is all you need and you can only get the benefits of a long rest once in a 24 hour period.

You only get the benefits of a long rest at the end of a long rest.
PHB 186

"At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains...."

The rules require at least 8 hours of time and ending the long rest in order to get any benefit.

Sorry but by rule you don't get any benefit after resting 8 hours if you continue resting 4 more instead of ending the rest.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

You, as a DM, will end up either with a player that cannot cast a spell, or a rest that never ends.

No, I haven't, and I won't.

The character that the player is playing as has no spell slots free. Now either he has reached the END of the rest and regained his slot - and as such he CAN cast the spell, and then rest again without you saying "that's not how resting works" - or he has no slots and will then proceed to rest until he can cast the spell (and subsequentially again ask for a rest).

You are missing the other possible outcome; The player actually listens to me when I explain how resting works, and as a result finishes a long rest, casts hex, actually does something that he can't do while taking a long rest, and takes a short rest at a later point where it is distinct - both in and out of character - from the prior long rest.

But justifying as "that's not how rest works" and prolonging a rest that has ended even if rulewise it has ended it's clearly a modification of what is written.

That's the thing you seem to be not understanding; when I am saying "that's not how rest works" I am not prolonging a rest that has ended - I'm pointing out that, rules-wise, a rest hasn't ended until the next thing the character is doing is not something they can do as part of the rest they are already taking.

 

[Caliban]

You only get the benefits of a long rest at the end of a long rest.
PHB 186

"At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains...."

The rules require at least 8 hours of time and ending the long rest in order to get any benefit.

Sorry but by rule you don't get any benefit after resting 8 hours if you continue resting 4 more instead of ending the rest.

I really don't think you are sorry.

As far as I'm concerned, the characters can declare the end of their rest whenever it suits them. They are the ones doing the resting, they have enough agency to decide that. (As a DM I can choose to interrupt their rest, but barring that...)

You and Aaron may have a problem with that, but I really don't care about your opinion on the subject. You are arguing something that I frankly stopped caring about ages ago.

Since you seem to be humor impaired, the original post of mine that you responded to was a joke.

 

[FrogReaver]

No, I haven't, and I won't.

You are missing the other possible outcome; The player actually listens to me when I explain how resting works, and as a result finishes a long rest, casts hex, actually does something that he can't do while taking a long rest, and takes a short rest at a later point where it is distinct - both in and out of character - from the prior long rest.

That's the thing you seem to be not understanding; when I am saying "that's not how rest works" I am not prolonging a rest that has ended - I'm pointing out that, rules-wise, a rest hasn't ended until the next thing the character is doing is not something they can do as part of the rest they are already taking.

One caveat. The rules don't specify when a long rest ends. So while you have picked a perfectly reasonable ending criteria for a long rest, I don't believe you can say it's the only reasonable criteria that may exist. For example, some DM's may just require their players to state that they end the long rest for it to be ended. Since the rules don't dictate what ends a long rest then would this not also be an acceptable answer to the question of what ends a long rest. AND if it is an acceptable answer then would a player in such a game not be able to start a short rest immediately after declaring their long rest over?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The rules only require 8 hours to get the benefits. You can rest longer if you like, but 8 hours is all you need and you can only get the benefits of a long rest once in a 24 hour period.

There are rules about what ends a rest, though. Walking or combat that lasts more than an hour will end a long rest, and casting a spell (or doing anything else more strenuous than tending to wounds) will end a short rest.

If you go to bed at midnight, and wake up at 0800, then you could make an argument that the long rest hasn't ended until you've been on the road for an hour. Since a long rest doesn't necessarily end after eight hours, and it definitively can't continue through an hour of travel or combat, then you could argue that you're still fatigued and don't have your HP or spells back until you've been on the road for an hour. If you rest for eight hours, and you're jumped by bandits when you're 55 minutes out of camp, then you're still exactly as far down as you were before you went to bed for the night. It's a ridiculous argument, and I can't imagine a DM who would rule that way, but you could make that argument.

After you've been on the road for an hour, you are definitely no longer resting. At that point, a warlock could cast a spell, and if they then decide to stop travelling for an hour so they can recover their energies, they will qualify for having taken a short rest. We know it's not still the same long rest, because they've been travelling for an hour and a long rest can't persist through that. Any sane DM should also tell you that we know it's not the same long rest because the long rest was over when they recovered HP and fatigue after eight hours.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

One caveat. The rules don't specify when a long rest ends. So while you have picked a perfectly reasonable ending criteria for a long rest, I don't believe you can say it's the only reasonable criteria that may exist.

Yes, of course it isn't the only reasonable criteria that exists. I've not been trying to say it is - I've been arguing that a particular interpretation previously presented was not the only way to interpret things, and that my interpretation is no more a "house-rule" than anyone else's interpretation is.

 

[FrogReaver]

I really don't think you are sorry.

As far as I'm concerned, the characters can declare the end of their rest whenever it suits them. They are the ones doing the resting, they have enough agency to decide that. (As a DM I can choose to interrupt their rest, but barring that...)

You and Aaron may have a problem with that, but I really don't care about your opinion on the subject. You are arguing something that I frankly stopped caring about ages ago.

Since you seem to be humor impaired, the original post of mine that you responded to was a joke.

If that's all you are saying now is that players get to choose when to end their long rest then I totally agree. I don't think Aaron does at least in the direct sense. He ties resting to more in game activities and bases his end of rest on what the characters are doing in game. So indirectly the players still control resting, just not directly. I base mine on the players directly. No in game action required to end a rest for me. Simply a player declaring it to be so and it is so.

But, both ways are valid because the rules don't define what ends a rest. It leaves that call up to the DM.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

If you go to bed at midnight, and wake up at 0800, then you could make an argument that the long rest hasn't ended until you've been on the road for an hour. Since a long rest doesn't necessarily end after eight hours, and it definitively can't continue through an hour of travel or combat, then you could argue that you're still fatigued and don't have your HP or spells back until you've been on the road for an hour.

One has to be careful when making that argument, however, as the rules also clearly state that a rest being interrupted in that way means "the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it."

Which is how it is completely true, as [MENTION=6795602]FrogReaver[/MENTION] said, that the book doesn't actually say how to successfully end a rest, leaving it up to DM interpretation - whether that is "It ends when the player says it ends", my "It ends when the players are definitely doing something that isn't a continuation of that rest next," or something else entirely.

 

[FrogReaver]

Pretty close. One thing I wanted to mention. The rules mention interrupting a rest requiring 1 hour of walking fighting casting etc. In the rules "interrupting a rest" is a different thing than "finishing a long rest". So those rules you quote aren't rules for ending a long rest but for interrupting one.

Once a rest is interrupted "the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it" PHB 186

There are rules about what ends a rest, though. Walking or combat that lasts more than an hour will end a long rest, and casting a spell (or doing anything else more strenuous than tending to wounds) will end a short rest.

If you go to bed at midnight, and wake up at 0800, then you could make an argument that the long rest hasn't ended until you've been on the road for an hour. Since a long rest doesn't necessarily end after eight hours, and it definitively can't continue through an hour of travel or combat, then you could argue that you're still fatigued and don't have your HP or spells back until you've been on the road for an hour. If you rest for eight hours, and you're jumped by bandits when you're 55 minutes out of camp, then you're still exactly as far down as you were before you went to bed for the night. It's a ridiculous argument, and I can't imagine a DM who would rule that way, but you could make that argument.

After you've been on the road for an hour, you are definitely no longer resting. At that point, a warlock could cast a spell, and if they then decide to stop travelling for an hour so they can recover their energies, they will qualify for having taken a short rest. We know it's not still the same long rest, because they've been travelling for an hour and a long rest can't persist through that. Any sane DM should also tell you that we know it's not the same long rest because the long rest was over when they recovered HP and fatigue after eight hours.