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

[Helldritch]

We modified short and long rests.
We took a gritty realism stance where a character can not heal without spending HD. Short rest is 10 minutes and allows you to spend 1HD on heal (one more with a medicine check). A long rest is 8h and you can spend as many HD as you want but you recover half your HD as per the rules. You are allowed only 2 short rests and one long rest per 24 hours period.

So yep, a short rest as a long rest must be declared.

 

[Helldritch]

Normally players ask for one, but sometimes in games I've run, or are playing in, if there is a bit of downtime, someone might ask if that can count as a short rest and often the result is yes it can.

I don't understand why downtime can count as short or long rest. In my POV downtime is resting already. Players in downtime are always fully recovered and rested, even if carousing like there is no tomorrow.

 

[cbwjm]

I don't understand why downtime can count as short or long rest. In my POV downtime is resting already. Players in downtime are always fully recovered and rested, even if carousing like there is no tomorrow.

Sorry, I don't mean "downtime" as in the game term, I mean down time as in they've spent an hour or two relaxing at the local inn while they wait for darkness or something. They might be discussing stuff in game and then before they head out ask if the time they've spent sitting around can count as a short rest, in which case the DM usually says yes, or mentions it before they leave if they don't.

 

[Helldritch]

Sorry, I don't mean "downtime" as in the game term, I mean down time as in they've spent an hour or two relaxing at the local inn while they wait for darkness or something. They might be discussing stuff in game and then before they head out ask if the time they've spent sitting around can count as a short rest, in which case the DM usually says yes, or mentions it before they leave if they don't.

Ho, it changes everything then. Yep, I would do likewise. I understand better now. Thanks.

 

[Hriston]

I don't understand why downtime can count as short or long rest. In my POV downtime is resting already. Players in downtime are always fully recovered and rested, even if carousing like there is no tomorrow.

Technically, rests are downtime, and you don’t get the benefit of the rest until it’s over. For example, when using Gritty Realism, full recovery does not take place until the end of a seven day period of downtime.

 

[Helldritch]

Technically, rests are downtime, and you don’t get the benefit of the rest until it’s over. For example, when using Gritty Realism, full recovery does not take place until the end of a seven day period of downtime.

I consider the reverse. Downtime is rest but rest is not necessarily a downtime. It is a pause in the adventuring day. Downtime is used in a "safe place" and of you use some rules in which you can not use a long rest unless you are in "safe" haven. There is a big difference between the two stances.

 

[Blue]

Do you have a sense that getting the time-sensitive thing done without the long rest is possible at all? Like, had you avoided some of those combats? Curious about how that was structured.

The time-sensitive part included several days sailing each way. It wasn't a "per-hour" type of thing

And the DM was using random encounters in an old school way - had us rolling a die every so often. We had two encounters on while sailing. One we availed, the other was with a faster ship that all of our attempts to avoid failed and was a forced fight.

The other fight was traveling across an island, up a set of lava flows that were our only way to get to where we were going. We tried to negotiate out of it but they were Minotaur worshipers of Mogis the God of Slaughter (we're in Theros) who recognized the vestments of our cleric of Purphoros and attacked.

So neither of those do I think we could avoid, and we had tried.

The seeming trigger for the cyclops fight was removing the burning incense from the shrine of Mogis, don't really know if that was avoidable but there's a good chance he was expecting us to retreat. There were caves not too far off that were too small for it - I think he was expecting to go there, but our cleric did a martyr "you all run, I'll stop it" for various RP reasons, and then no one

All of that said, the DM had been hinting to the newer players that we should rest. And with our casters out of slots a short rest would help with HPs, but my rogue would have been the only one at full fighting trim - the barbarian was out of rages, the paladin was out of slots and all but 5 lay-on-hands, and the cleric and the wizard had a single 1st level slot each at the beginning of that.

Later we ended up resting in the caves and he put out hints of riches deeper in them, but we decided to follow up on our time-sensitive mission instead.

This part of a larger campaign - if we take too long on this it will have repercussions but it's not like it is a one-shot where we are seeing if we can succeed on this particular adventure.

 

[Blue]

I can sit down and relax while reading a complicated nonfiction book, but if I was reading that very same book to prepare for an exam it wouldn't be very restful.

In D&D terms that would make studying more strenuous than "eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds" which is the limitation on a short rest. Which it may be.

Though personally while studying can be stressful, my body would still recover from the lawnwork and be ready for more physical activity. Heck at the gym I alternate between upper body and lower body exercises for the same reason - give one set of muscles a chance to recover while working another.

 

[Hriston]

I consider the reverse. Downtime is rest but rest is not necessarily a downtime. It is a pause in the adventuring day. Downtime is used in a "safe place" and of you use some rules in which you can not use a long rest unless you are in "safe" haven. There is a big difference between the two stances.

Yes, there is a difference, and my point was just to clarify what the rules say on the matter, not to say there's anything wrong with how you're doing it. The way rests are presented in the PHB, they are downtime precisely because they are a pause in adventuring, and downtime only counts as a rest if it fulfils the conditions of one of the types of rest.