D&D 5E Second Wind

[Chocolategravy]

So far in my experience:

• The ability is being used in combat, or right after combat.
• The party has not taken excessive short rests.
• The ability was a lot more powerful at 1st level than 2nd level.

This is going to be a table playstyle issue, but with long rests healing everyone I think most parties will opt for 1 short rest or retreating and taking a long rest. The party that camps up for 4 hours to heal the fighter is going to be an odd duck.

Why, because saying "can we rest for 4 hours rather than 1? " "ok". Takes... 2 seconds? It's not an odd duck, it's standard operating procedure. The party that insists the fighter go into combat wounded or uses up limited resource cure wounds rather than resting longer is the extreme.

 

[ChaosDent]

Why, because saying "can we rest for 4 hours rather than 1? " "ok". Takes... 2 seconds? It's not an odd duck, it's standard operating procedure. The party that insists the fighter go into combat wounded or uses up limited resource cure wounds rather than resting longer is the extreme.

This is just asking for the DM to apply the bag of rats rule. Since a short rest is defined as a period of downtime at least 1 hour long it stands to reason that a period of downtime that is 4 hours long is still just one short rest. No amount of metagaming (run around for a minute after each hour of rest or something) would convince me that you have faced a significant enough threat to justify an effective second short rest.

 

[TerraDave]

This is just asking for the DM to apply the bag of rats rule. Since a short rest is defined as a period of downtime at least 1 hour long it stands to reason that a period of downtime that is 4 hours long is still just one short rest. No amount of metagaming (run around for a minute after each hour of rest or something) would convince me that you have faced a significant enough threat to justify an effective second short rest.

Basically this.

And, if the party wants to take that approach, then take a long rest. Everyone gets back everything (well, half their HD, but everything else).

 

[drjones]

A short rest is an hour or longer. 'Chaining' then would require a DM who wants you to be able to chain them. It is as possible to abuse short rests as it is to abuse long rests (which give you much more in return than the short ones) and it is up to the DM to curb that impulse with the usual tools (time based goals, random encounters, unsafe adventuring areas, enemies that reorganize themselves or repopulate when the PCs leave the dungeon, etc.) and up to the players to not be snippy when their rule-lawyering is not successful.

In my experience while much sturm and drang was made of this issue on forums, in play it has never been an issue. Any fighter who uses the ability knows he may not have it in the next fight or the fight after that because you never know for certain when you will be able to rest. Just as with a heal spell or spending hit dice or drinking a potion it is a resource that is limited, it is just less limited (and less powerful) than the others.

 

[Lalato]

This is just asking for the DM to apply the bag of rats rule. Since a short rest is defined as a period of downtime at least 1 hour long it stands to reason that a period of downtime that is 4 hours long is still just one short rest. No amount of metagaming (run around for a minute after each hour of rest or something) would convince me that you have faced a significant enough threat to justify an effective second short rest.

THIS!

Short Rest is 1-8 hours. Long Rest is 8+ hours. You're welcome to rest for 4 hours, but you get no extra benefit. It's just one, single, solitary short rest.

Now, you can play it like you can string multiple short rests if you like. That's what we call a house rule around these parts, pardner. You can certainly say that you're "interpreting" the rules a certain way, but when I see "at least 1 hour" I don't see "exactly 1 hour". If you do, great. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not saying you're right either.

 

[Chocolategravy]

You guys can house rule it that way, but that is not what the rules say. It is perfectly legitimate to do multiple short rests. In fact it is very strange for you to say that resting longer doesn't give greater benefits. It is not only against the rules but against common sense.

 

[GrumpyGamer]

Why, because saying "can we rest for 4 hours rather than 1? " "ok". Takes... 2 seconds? It's not an odd duck, it's standard operating procedure. The party that insists the fighter go into combat wounded or uses up limited resource cure wounds rather than resting longer is the extreme.

My thought being that if you can rest for 4 hours then you could likely rest for 8 hours. Why would a party only get resources back for the fighter and not the entire group?

 

[GrumpyGamer]

You guys can house rule it that way, but that is not what the rules say. It is perfectly legitimate to do multiple short rests. In fact it is very strange for you to say that resting longer doesn't give greater benefits. It is not only against the rules but against common sense.

I am sure that most DM's would let a dedicated party find a way to string together a few short rests, but RAW is:

A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long,​

during which a character does nothing more strenuous​

than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.​

It is up to the DM to count 4 hours as 4 rests and not something the players actively control.

 

[Mistwell]

You guys can house rule it that way, but that is not what the rules say. It is perfectly legitimate to do multiple short rests. In fact it is very strange for you to say that resting longer doesn't give greater benefits. It is not only against the rules but against common sense.

By the rules you would need an encounter between short rests. It specifically says, "A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long..." which means a single short rest can last longer than 1 hour. The hour long is a minimum (floor) time frame, not a maximum (ceiling) time frame.

And also by the rules, Wandering Monsters are a major "thing" again in this game. The longer you rest, the greater the odds something will find you.

 

[Mistwell]

My thought being that if you can rest for 4 hours then you could likely rest for 8 hours. Why would a party only get resources back for the fighter and not the entire group?

Probably because you can only have 1 long rest every 24 hours.