D&D 5E Song of Rest Abuse?

[Dausuul]

Song of rest seems like a cute little bard class ability that buffs p your healing rate with hit dice a little bit. However we have been talking about a mono class party for fun and games mostly to see what would happen.

Now if you had a 5 person party made up of 100% bards at level 5 song of rest restores an extra 1d8 healing to HD based healing. With 5 bards though if you spent a hit dice to regain hit points would you gain an extra 5d8 hit points per hit dice?

Don't see why not. (Edit: Except for the DMG errata. Should have read past the first post before replying. Sigh.)

As rules exploits go, it's pretty tame. It doesn't make the party any stronger in a given encounter, just boosts their staying power across multiple encounters. And since all of the PCs are full casters, their staying power depends as much on their spell slots as their hit points.

 

[John Blaise Lent]

Except, as I just noted, you should have read the ENTIRE errata - "while their durations overlap". There is no duration of song of rest, it is an instant, it stacks just fine.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I am not sure. You are doing it during a short rest. So you can easily rule that you can't benefit from 2 songs of rest in a single short rest.

 

[John Blaise Lent]

That would be the equivalent of "casting time" not "duration."

 

[Zardnaar]

IDK where you find 5E errata so we tend to play RAW if something comes up in play and the rules matter. unless the rule is really stupid.

 

[jaelis]

"Different game features can affect a target at the same time. But when two or more game features have the same name, only the effects of one of them—the most potent one—apply while the durations of the effects overlap."

It's like no one ever finishes reading the sentence (including Jeremy Crawford). These two effects do not have overlapping durations, they are instantaneous effects. No different than two characters casting healing word. Of course they are additive. This is not the same as an aura.

Song of rest says "you can use soothing music or oration to help revitalize your wounded allies during a short rest." I read that to mean the duration of the effect is the short rest, and the benefit comes at the end of the duration. Surely you would agree that a character who wasn't listening throughout the rest does not gain the benefit? That is quite different from, say, an instantaneous spell with a long casting time.

But that's just my interpretation, feel free to rule differently. I think, though, that you are confusing your interpretation with the mythical RAW.

 

[John Blaise Lent]

The very next sentence of the feature says, "If you or any friendly creature who can hear your performance regain hit points at the end of the short rest, each of those creatures regains an extra 1d6 hit points". So clearly, they need to be present for the short rest (or at least have a Clairaudience up). That is exactly the same as for example, Identify, a long casting time (1 minute) spell with instantaneous effects "choose one object that you must touch throughout the casting of the spell." If you don't hold it for the entire minute, you dont get to identify it.

Heroes feast is similar as well (though its effects mostly have a duration - not clear about the 2d10 hit point gain and the curing diseases, but Id assume a second casting will do that again since those are instant effects, while the rest of them are ongoing). Simulacrum is a little different (it has a permanent duration, not instant), but the casting time requirements are the same.

I know Prayer of Healing doesn't say the targets need to be present the entire 10 minutes, but it is otherwise identical to Song of Rest in terms of its effect and how it works. Everyone would agree you can be healed by multiple prayers of healing.

 

[Zardnaar]

THis thread came up over a hypothetical all bard party.

2 valor bards the fighters
1 Lore bard blaster
1 lore bard controller
1 lore bard healer

Level 1 could suck but with 10 thunderwaves/sleep available its doable. Now with Xanathars out you have other options.