D&D 5E Just how long is a long rest anyway?

[Charlaquin]

Actually, with @Charlaquin's idea, B would finish his long rest half-way through C's 4-hour watch.

If you want a more even set-up, you could also do it like this:

View attachment 119814

White and Gray spaces are watches, Blue are sleep.

This way at dusk and dawn, the most active times IME, you have two people on watch for an hour at least. Also, C finishes his long rest first, so it is best to have a stronger character on that watch. Characters with the most resources remaining are good for A since they finish their rest last.

Oh, yeah, that works even better.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Oh, yeah, that works even better.

LOL thanks, but you know, TO-ma-to...to-MA-to...

 

[Hriston]

So why make/accept an assumption based on what you think their intent was in one case, but reject what you think their intent was in the other?

No, I've been saying that the intent is for the long rest to be continuous and for the 2 hour limit on light activity to be tied to the 8 hour long rest. My position is consistent with both of those. I'm not omniscient, however, so I really don't know what the writers intended.

 

[Hriston]

Actually, with @Charlaquin's idea, B would finish his long rest half-way through C's 4-hour watch.

If you want a more even set-up, you could also do it like this:

View attachment 119814

White and Gray spaces are watches, Blue are sleep. For "long rest" your 8-hours are gray and blue, not white.

This way at dusk and dawn, the most active times IME, you have two people on watch for an hour at least. Also, C finishes his long rest first, so it is best to have a stronger character on that watch. Characters with the most resources remaining are good for A since they finish their rest last.

What I don't like about this set up is that it takes ten hours when you could do it in nine hours if everyone just takes a three-hour watch. It seems like an artifact of the rules rather than what would make sense. Also, I'm not the one setting this up for my players. They just say so-and-so takes the first watch, etc., but thank you for the input. This has been really helpful to me.

 

[clearstream]

I think that’s the intent. Having your long rest interrupted by a 3-5 round combat (or heck, even several 3-5 round combats) won’t be a significant enough interruption to prevent you from gaining the benefits of the rest. It’ll just tax your presumably already depleted resources even more, and probably be more dangerous than your typical combat since most of the party will probably be in their long johns for the fight. 5e really doesn’t want late-night monster attacks preventing the party from getting their resources back. To really screw up a long rest, you need to spend significant time not resting.

Frankly, the only scenario where I see a long rest getting interrupted for a full hour is if part way through the rest, the party decides that the place they’ve chosen to rest is not secure enough, and they either abandon the attempt and try to book it to somewhere safer to start over, or they spend significant time re-securing their current resting place. For example, you made the foolish decision to try to take a long rest in a dungeon, and after multiple assaults by wandering monsters, you decide you have a better shot at surviving if you trek through the woods at night back to town than if you try to finish the rest here.

An hour of combat would be more than all the combats fought in a day. Not just one of them. A typical combat is a minute or less, and for sure there are not sixty of them in a day! In fact, that number of combats could represent a good part of an adventurer's whole career. If let stand in the literal sense, it can be reworded as - combat doesn't interrupt rest - which does not seem to be the intent at all. The intent seems to be that combat does interrupt rest.

However, I think this is somewhat cart before horse. What a DM should do first is decide what they want from rests. Do they want want attrition to matter or not? They should then interpret (or revise!) the rest rules to suit their intent. I think you don't want it to matter too much, and that preference informs your interpretation. Is that fair?

 

[robus]

Two hour watches don't work for a three man party. Also, in a four man party they don't allow for eight hours of sleep, which I think should be an option.

This also seems a bit rules-lawyery doesn’t it? Is any one going to feel cheated if you say the PCs can share the watch while the others sleep? I’ve read plenty of fantasy novels where a pair of adventurers share the watch through the night. Make the adjustment to suit your group and move on?

 

[Charlaquin]

To be honest, I just say that a long rest takes 2 consecutive travel periods, assume the party takes roughly even watch shifts, and if they get attacked mid-rest, I roll for who’s on
watch at the time. No need to nitpick over who’s awake at what particular hour, or how the characters divide their shifts, or if it’s exactly 6 hours sleep and 2 hours watch or whatever. I suppose if the party was only two characters I’d give them the option to leave a shift unguarded or take an extra travel period to rest.

 

[DND_Reborn]

What I don't like about this set up is that it takes ten hours when you could do it in nine hours if everyone just takes a three-hour watch. It seems like an artifact of the rules rather than what would make sense. Also, I'm not the one setting this up for my players. They just say so-and-so takes the first watch, etc., but thank you for the input. This has been really helpful to me.

No problem. I think 3-hour watches are fine, we in our group we cover something like 12 hours almost IIRC.

I do think the intent of the designers was to get 6 hours of sleep in an 8-hour period. The middle person in 3-hour shifts (sleep 3, watch 3, sleep 3) would not fit that design intent IMO. But if it works for you that is cool. Glad it helped.

 

[Orban Sirgen]

A long rest is 8 hours of sleep and light activity... According to the warlock invocation Aspect of the Moon in Xanathar's, keeping watch counts as light activity unless there's an attack... Also, it doesn't take anywhere near 2 hours to set up camp or pack it up... It would take 15-30 minutes...

 

[Charlaquin]

An hour of combat would be more than all the combats fought in a day. Not just one of them. A typical combat is a minute or less, and for sure there are not sixty of them in a day! In fact, that number of combats could represent a good part of an adventurer's whole career.

I’m aware.

If let stand in the literal sense, it can be reworded as - combat doesn't interrupt rest - which does not seem to be the intent at all. The intent seems to be that combat does interrupt rest.

I disagree. I think that is precisely the intent, which is why I specifically said that the only situation I can imagine a long rest being interrupted for the full hour required to deprive the characters of the benefit of the rest would be if they decided partway through that they had made a mistake and would be better off traveling somewhere else to rest than trying to tough it out where they are.

However, I think this is somewhat cart before horse. What a DM should do first is decide what they want from rests. Do they want want attrition to matter or not? They should then interpret (or revise!) the rest rules to suit their intent.

Absolutely.

I think you don't want it to matter too much, and that preference informs your interpretation. Is that fair?

No. I definitely want attrition to matter, which is why I adhere to the 6-8 encounter adventuring day guidelines as best I can.