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

[Hriston]

Yes, it’s part of the normal play loop. The DM describes a situation that the players think presents an opportunity to rest. The players state their intention to rest for whatever period and how they go about doing it. Then the DM tells them the result of their attempt, whether it was successful or not.

 

[LordEntrails]

Saying that the players play the player characters, not the DM? You're pushing that telling you how to play? That's in the books. Check out the "How to Play" section of the PHB, even before anything about creating a character. If you have a problem with it, take it up with Wizards.

lol, you win. You get the points for winning another useless argument on the internet. I still won't be playing the way you demand, but you can claim victory for your nonsense.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

At 59 minutes and 30 seconds into the short rest we got attacked by goblins... It was tension and time pressure, but it felt so artificial and gamist it left a really bad taste in my mouth.

I think it seems weird because the characters seem to know that they get nothing from the near-hour they rested if they don't spend the extra 30 seconds. That's just strange. "Wait for it... wait for it... NOW I feel better!"

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.

Yeah, but I wouldn't argue with a player who wanted to say "After four hours I got bored and started noodling in my spellbook. Can I have switched Grease for Sleep during that?" Sure. Why not.

Table rules.

No, to us they are on the lookout for threats and dangers.

Table rules for sure. I don't consider being "on the lookout for threats and dangers" to be more strenuous than cooking dinner. Not while standing around in a room, at least.

In other worlds, not because taking a short rest involve not doing any streneous activities that not doing any streneous activites automatically involve taking a short rest necessarily.

Sure but if my players want it to enough that they ask for it? Unless I have a good reason to deny them (one that I expect will make the game more interesting) then I'll give them what they want. IMO it's part of "playing nice with others" (which I consider to be Rule One. Speaking of which...

We all get to play however our table agrees to, regardless of what you think. There is no one-true-way.

Yeah, in my IRL group, we pretty much all make suggestions for what everyone is doing. Sure, we know who gets the "final say" (DM for NPCs and Monsters, Players for their own PC) but we collaboratively tell a lot of the story. When anyone has a good idea they are free to throw it out there. The "control" player can go with it or not. It's about trust, and playing nice with others.

 

[DND_Reborn]

when we start at level 1 (rare) I find the first 3-4 levels it is about 10-15% but after level 5 it has only a handful of times maybe not even a whole handful in my own games over the last 8 years... players normally get pretty good at picking out ways to besafe.

I found it is less at higher levels, when powerful spells allow the PCs to retreat to "absolute" safety (teleportation circle, etc.). Also, players in my game know they cannot count on a rest, so manage resources sufficiently to try to finish the adventure (or the current part anyway) before needing to rest. Not always easy, but it works for us...

 

[MrWildman]

I tend to keep wandering monsters as a pool of threats separate from any that are keyed to specific areas. One never truly clears out a dungeon in my games. They are places of supernatural evil, festering underworlds that belch forth monsters indefinitely.

"The Burping Portal"

 

[Blue]

In a practical aspect of this, our 4th level party went through a bunch of combats without a chance for a short rest that brought everyone to single digits in HPs (most had fallen at some point) and two 1st level spells between the entire party. That was last session. Tonight we ended up having a battle with a cyclops justa few minutes later. At the end of that we were tapped out of everything. It was only about noon in-game but the DM was going to let us take a long rest.

We're on a somewhat time-sensitive mission, and I'm playing a rogue and suggested that I only short rest and blow HDs, and then can take watch for the rest of the time since we didn't need to actually sleep. Just to keep the time spent on the long rest to the minimum.

DM jumped to the end, and said that because I hadn't done anything too strenuous - basically stayed in the area and occasionally circled around keeping an eye out, I also got the benefit of the long rest.

Now, in this particular case it the DM was bending the "one long rest in 24 hours", and since the period was noon to the evening we didn't need to actually sleep, but that was an unprompted undeclared rest granted by the DM. Who definitely hasn't read this thread.

 

[iserith]

In a practical aspect of this, our 4th level party went through a bunch of combats without a chance for a short rest that brought everyone to single digits in HPs (most had fallen at some point) and two 1st level spells between the entire party. That was last session. Tonight we ended up having a battle with a cyclops justa few minutes later. At the end of that we were tapped out of everything. It was only about noon in-game but the DM was going to let us take a long rest.

We're on a somewhat time-sensitive mission, and I'm playing a rogue and suggested that I only short rest and blow HDs, and then can take watch for the rest of the time since we didn't need to actually sleep. Just to keep the time spent on the long rest to the minimum.

DM jumped to the end, and said that because I hadn't done anything too strenuous - basically stayed in the area and occasionally circled around keeping an eye out, I also got the benefit of the long rest.

Now, in this particular case it the DM was bending the "one long rest in 24 hours", and since the period was noon to the evening we didn't need to actually sleep, but that was an unprompted undeclared rest granted by the DM. Who definitely hasn't read this thread.

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.

 

[pnewman]

#3 is only a rest on good terrain such as wagons on well made roads and well handled ships on smooth water. If you are bouncing around inside your vehicle, even a little, than you can't rest because that is more strenuous than the RAW definition allows.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

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.

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.

 

[cbwjm]

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.