D&D 5E Newbie quesiton about trance

[Dr Vink]

So if im reading this right, this means I am not restricted to the 1 long rest every 24hrs, because I can simply short rest for 4 hrs at a time and gain the benefits of a long rest as many times as I want in a 24hr period?

 

[Paraxis]

No not at all.

What it means is that instead of 6 hours sleeping and 2 hours of light activity during a long rest, you have 4 hours of trance and 4 hours of light activity.

Long rests for everyone are 8 hours.

You can only take one long rest in any 24 hour period.

Sage Advice "Trance" as search term http://www.sageadvice.eu/?s=trance

 

[Sunseeker]

No not at all.

What it means is that instead of 6 hours sleeping and 2 hours of light activity during a long rest, you have 4 hours of trance and 4 hours of light activity.

Long rests for everyone are 8 hours.

You can only take one long rest in any 24 hour period.

Sage Advice "Trance" as search term http://www.sageadvice.eu/?s=trance

Hooray another horribly written rule.

I'm going to stick with how it's written in the book, an elvish "long rest" is 4 hours.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Hooray another horribly written rule.

I'm going to stick with how it's written in the book, an elvish "long rest" is 4 hours.

Perfectly fair; I prefer to go with that, too. (That is, I don't require another 4 hours of "light activity" only.) But the book does not say or even suggest that the elvish trance breaks the "only one long rest in a 24-hour period" rule, which I think is the more relevant point.

 

[Coredump]

Play it however you want. But don't blame it on the book. It is written the way it is supposed to work. I can understand potential confusion, but it is correct as written.

 

[Sunseeker]

Perfectly fair; I prefer to go with that, too. (That is, I don't require another 4 hours of "light activity" only.) But the book does not say or even suggest that the elvish trance breaks the "only one long rest in a 24-hour period" rule, which I think is the more relevant point.

Yeah I'm fine with that. I wouldn't stop my players from settling down after a fight but I wouldn't let their rest count until it's been 16 hours from the end of their last rest.

 

[Shiroiken]

Play it however you want. But don't blame it on the book. It is written the way it is supposed to work. I can understand potential confusion, but it is correct as written.

Actually, if you go by RAW (an idiotic notion), then Elves can't Long Rest without doing nothing for 2 hours.

Long Rest = 8 Hours, no more than 2 of which can be spent doing light activity. Trance gives you 8 Hours of sleep for 4 Hours, but you have to take 8 Hours for the Long Rest. Since only 2 Hours are allowed for light activity (including reading, eating, talking, and being on watch), an Elf has to sit and do NOTHING for 2 Hour to make up the full 8 Hours. This is NOT how it's supposed to work, which is why there's a clarification.

Personally, I see allowing Elves a 4 Hour Long Rest (still limited every 24 hours) to be a non-issue. Unless you have an entire party of Elves, you still spend the 8 hours anyway. If you have an all Elf party, then you still have to spend at least 6 hours or go without someone on watch (very stupid). Not to mention that in reality, most Long Rests are much longer than 8 Hours anyway (assume you stop traveling at dusk and wake up at dawn, that's usually 10 hours or more).