Spellcasters and interrupted rest

[Hypersmurf]

Wizards need eight hours of rest to prepare spells.

Each interruption adds an hour to the requirement.

So if you sleep four hours, then get woken up to cast a spell, you need five hours more to make up your quota - eight plus one for the interruption.

Now, my PCs didn't feel like making it easy on me. They slept four hours, woke up to fight a fifteen-round combat with the gnolls I ambushed them with (involving spellcasting, melee, tumbling, etc), then walked four hours back to town, then had an hour-long conversation with the local authorities, then went back to sleep.

How much more sleep do the spellcasters need? Does it all count as one 'interruption'? Does a five-hour 'interruption' basically mean "Sorry, start over"?

-Hyp.

 

[Grog]

Now, my PCs didn't feel like making it easy on me. They slept four hours, woke up to fight a fifteen-round combat with the gnolls I ambushed them with (involving spellcasting, melee, tumbling, etc), then walked four hours back to town, then had an hour-long conversation with the local authorities, then went back to sleep.

Depending on how tired the party was when they went to sleep before the ambush, I would probably apply either fatigue or exhaustion penalties and work it out that way. After all, if the party has a long, grueling day, then sleeps for four hours, then gets woken up and fights for 15 rounds, and then, after all that, walks for another four hours, they're going to be at least fatigued, and quite possibly exhausted.

So, assuming they're fatigued, I'd make the spellcasters take the eight hour rest and then they could memorize spells again. If they were exhausted, same thing, except they'd need an extra hour.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

How much more sleep do the spellcasters need? Does it all count as one 'interruption'? Does a five-hour 'interruption' basically mean "Sorry, start over"?

-Hyp.

Well, this was more than just an interruption. They had an intense combat, marched 4 hours back to the village, and then had a serious discussion for another hour. That's almost a full day's worth of activity right there!

I'd say they need another full eight hours. Not only because they did a lot of strenuous activity in that five hour interruption, but because it prevents strangeness from popping up. For instance, if the wizard cast 5 of 10 spells during the day, then slept for 4 hours, then casts another 3 of 10 spells, then sleeps for another 4 hours, how many spells can he now cast? 10 (2 never used + 8 recharged)? Or 7 (2 never used + 5 recharged for 8 hours, the 3 cast in the middle of the night have only been recharging for 4 hours)?

Just require another rest period, start fresh the next day, and avoid the headaches, I say.

 

[Bauglir]

You'd get wizards sleeping for 7 hours before heading out to adventure since that way they could regain their spells with only 2 hours rest .

How about setting a limit of say 1 hour before the value of the previous rest is lost and you have to start over?

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

I'd institute the forced march rules beyond the 8th hour. I'd let the casters nap back up to the 8 hours rest with the slots used remaining used.

So they'd be running around likely fatigued with less spell-power.

 

[geezerjoe]

I'd say for every hour the pc's do something stressfull (like marching) subtract one hour from the amount that they've slept to a minimum of 0 hours ... if they were just doing something simple (like talking ... even a heated discussion) then I'ld use a 2:1 ratio instead.

This would be purlely a house rule but I think it would work for ya.

l8r

Joe2Old

PS: (You might like the idea but not the ratios ... I was thinking about using a "sliding rule" kind of thing instead but that would get COMPLICATED )

even l8r

J2O

 

[Murrdox]

That wasn't merely an interuption... they CEASED their rest period.

Since they stopped resting, they need another full 8 hours.

I'd allow other members of the party to get off a bit light in terms of sleep and their fatigue and such... but the wizard definitely needs to re-start his rest period in order to re-memorize his spells.

 

[Chimera]

Count another vote on the "Start over" side.

I dunno about you, but I'm pretty wiped out if I get woken after only four hours of sleep. Add four hours of walking and an hour of talking and I'd be exhausted and surly.

Eight hours MINIMUM after that, probably more to deal with the fatigue.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'd count it as one interruption. It's very tough to make yourself sleep 12 hours in a 17 hour period, no matter how much exertion is involved. I could see making them sleep one extra hour (for a total of 6 post-interruption) but doing more just seems extreme to me.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

This really comes down to a dm judgement call.

I would read the mood, if the players are trying to ignore rest then I would throw the book at them in terms of fatigue and ill effects. If on the other hand they are being hard-pressed by persuers I'd be a bit more forgiving.

As for rest, I don't think they need to strictly sleep an extra 8 hours on top of the 4 but they would need to relax.