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

[clearstream]

I’m not sure what you’re getting at about choosing a number of rounds of combat... The number of rounds it would take to add up to an hour is 600, since each round is 6 seconds. In other words, combat alone just isn’t going to cause the PCs to miss out on the benefits of a long rest, and I believe that is the design intent.

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.

From your earlier post, it sounded like you had in mind some kind of bar for how much combat "won't be significant" with the implication that more than that amount could be significant. It sounded like you had in mind up to several average combats: a few minutes of fighting.

However, I now understand that you mean that any amount of combat is fine. For me that is jarring. Noting the comma after the word "walking" - as in "1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity" - and with everyone I have discussed this with agreeing that 1 hour of fighting, let alone 1 hour of casting spells is implausible, it seems more reasonable to understand that it is a separated list being either 1 hour of walking, or any amount of fighting, or any amount of casting spells, or any similar adventuring activity.

To read it the other way is to ignore cues in the language and problems of reasonableness, in order to sustain the way one wishes to play. Essentially one says - because I don't want combat to interrupt rests, I will assume that comma is not acting as a separation but a conflation. The residual problem is then it must also be 1 hour of casting spells... which on surface sounds preposterous! It is not the most reasonable position to call that "as intended".

 

[Charlaquin]

From your earlier post, it sounded like you had in mind some kind of bar for how much combat "won't be significant" with the implication that more than that amount could be significant.

Well, that bar is 599 rounds.

Noting the comma after the word "walking" - as in "1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity" - and with everyone I have discussed this with agreeing that 1 hour of fighting, let alone 1 hour of casting spells is implausible, it seems more reasonable to understand that it is a separated list being either 1 hour of walking, or any amount of fighting, or any amount of casting spells, or any similar adventuring activity.

That reads as a list to me. I think that if the intent was for it to be 1 hour of walking or any amount of fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity, it would have been worded that way.

To read it the other way is to ignore cues in the language and problems of reasonableness, in order to sustain the way one wishes to play. Essentially one says - because I don't want combat to interrupt rests, I will assume that comma is not acting as a separation but a conflation.

I disagree, I think it is you has decided you want long rests to be easy to interrupt and have interpreted the comma in service of that. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing so, you run your game however you want.

The residual problem is then it must also be 1 hour of casting spells... which on surface sounds preposterous! It is not the most reasonable position to call that "as intended".

It’s far, far easier to spend an hour casting spells than it is to spend an hour in combat - all it takes is casting 6 rituals, which I could easily see a wizard doing during a long rest, perhaps to identify several magic items they had found but not wanted to waste time identifying in the middle of a goblin-infested cave.

 

[Orban Sirgen]

It’s far, far easier to spend an hour casting spells than it is to spend an hour in combat - all it takes is casting 6 rituals, which I could easily see a wizard doing during a long rest, perhaps to identify several magic items they had found but not wanted to waste time identifying in the middle of a goblin-infested cave.

Or one casting, ritual or not, of Find Familiar...

 

[pming]

Hiya!

In my game, PC's don't have digital watches.

A "Short Rest" in my game is 1d4 hours. I roll randomly. If the PC's haven't been 'doing much' since they woke up, I'll subtract 1 or 2. If they have been 'adventuring' for at least an hour, then I roll 1d4. If they've been adventuring for more than 6 hours, I'll add 1, 2 or 3 hours.

A "Long Rest" is "one night". Basically from dusk till dawn. Of that time, most of it has to be spent sleeping (at least 6 hours continuous). This will typically account for about 12 hours of the day, plus or minus.

In short, I don't let it be 'exact'...so if the PC's have 4 hours of oil left for their lamps and decide to take a short rest, they can't just assume that they have 3 hours of oil left. No digital watches, remember?

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[fearsomepirate]

It's an hour of being busy. So if goblins awake you, and you smite them, you can go back to sleep. If goblins awake you, and there are too many to smite, and you spend an hour fending them off as you beat an escape to safer territory, you do not get a long rest.

You should realize you need to flee long before you get to 599 individual groups attacking you.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Hiya!

In my game, PC's don't have digital watches.

A "Short Rest" in my game is 1d4 hours. I roll randomly. If the PC's haven't been 'doing much' since they woke up, I'll subtract 1 or 2. If they have been 'adventuring' for at least an hour, then I roll 1d4. If they've been adventuring for more than 6 hours, I'll add 1, 2 or 3 hours.

A "Long Rest" is "one night". Basically from dusk till dawn. Of that time, most of it has to be spent sleeping (at least 6 hours continuous). This will typically account for about 12 hours of the day, plus or minus.

In short, I don't let it be 'exact'...so if the PC's have 4 hours of oil left for their lamps and decide to take a short rest, they can't just assume that they have 3 hours of oil left. No digital watches, remember?

^_^

Paul L. Ming

Are your PC's allowed to have hour-glasses? That pretty much establishes roughly what an "hour" is.

Seriously, though, I sort of like this idea, but I think I will recommend to my table to make it DM fiat. When the DM has decided the party has spent sufficient time to short or long rest, they have.

 

[Fenris-77]

I don't see time in these schedules for elevenses and second breakfast.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I don't see time in these schedules for elevenses and second breakfast.

Excellent point!

Halflings (e.g. Hobbits) don't travel slowly because they have short legs, it is because of all the frigging breaks for meals!

 

[Fenris-77]

Excellent point!

Halflings (e.g. Hobbits) don't travel slowly because they have short legs, it is because of all the frigging breaks for meals!

It's one of my favorite things about playing halfling characters.

 

[DND_Reborn]

It's one of my favorite things about playing halfling characters.

Suddenly, in my other thread I am leaning towards a halfling now...