D&D 5E What interupts a long rest?

[clearstream]

Sure, I guess? Frankly, I’m just not going to be that much of a stickler for individual minutes spent standing versus walking or how vigorously one needs to be engaged in an activity to count as “adventuring” vs. “light”. Even if I rule as permissively as possible and just let the players get away with this exploit, it’s all much ado about nothing. Great job you got to have like three risk-free encounters. You’re very smart, have a cookie and let’s move on with the adventure.

Meh, the specific examples are simply to illustrate the point. It's all adventuring while resting. If you are comfortable with that, then your RAI is good.

I guess we also touch here on the - can your players do the things the rules allow, or do they ask they DM if they may do those things?

 

[Maxperson]

Ok, here is the complete up-to-date text on the long rest:

A Long Rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for no more than 2 hours. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity—the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.

We have established that, as per Jeremy Crawford’s clarification and the wording in the playtest, walking, fighting, and casting spells, are all part of the category “adventuring activity.” A long rest is a period of 8 hours during which you sleep for at least 6 hours and perform light activity for no more than 2. An interruption of an hour or longer of adventuring activity also forces you to restart the rest.

Now, let’s suppose a party of adventurers sleeps for 3 hours, wakes up and begins adventuring for 59 minutes, goes back to sleep for 3 more hours, wakes up and spends 1 minute reading. Has this party completed a long rest? Let’s check.

Has the period been at least 8 hours long? Yes.
Has it included at least 6 hours of sleep? Yes.
Has it included more than 2 hours of light activity? No.
Has it been interrupted by at least an hour of adventuring activity? No.

My conclusion would be that this adventuring party has indeed completed a long rest, as the RAW defines it.

Which brings us back to the absurd. 3 hours of sleep followed by almost an hour of strenuous activity, followed by 3 hours of sleep is NOT restful at all. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[Maxperson]

My interpretation is that adventuring activities include (but are not limited to) fighting, spellcasting, and walking. In this case, it takes 1 hour of walking to be considered strenuous, whereas walking for less than 1 hour is considered light activity.

So 58 minutes of fighting for your life, or heck, 1 minute of fighting for your life is not strenuous? You have to hit a full hour?

 

[Bill Zebub]

Metagaming interrupts long rests. It yanks me out of immersion so jarringly that my character wakes up.

 

[Laurefindel]

Of course!

From a purely mechanical perspective, the rule revised so that light activity can include travel has rather hairy implications.

the rule mentions "walking", but traveling less than 1 hour is already not considered strenuous activity by any interpretation of a long rest.

In other words, I see rule as long rest = minimum of 8 hours, 6 of which must include sleep, thus leaving a minimum of 2 hours of light activities (presumably more for a long rest lasting more than 8 hours). Long rest is interrupted by strenuous and adventuring activities such as fighting, spellcasting, and walking for more than 1 hour (as opposed to 1 hour of walking, 1 hour of fighting, 1 hour of spellcasting, or 1 hour of similar adventuring activities).

 

[Xetheral]

Ok, here is the complete up-to-date text on the long rest:

A Long Rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for no more than 2 hours. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity—the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.

We have established that, as per Jeremy Crawford’s clarification and the wording in the playtest, walking, fighting, and casting spells, are all part of the category “adventuring activity.” A long rest is a period of 8 hours during which you sleep for at least 6 hours and perform light activity for no more than 2. An interruption of an hour or longer of adventuring activity also forces you to restart the rest.

Now, let’s suppose a party of adventurers sleeps for 3 hours, wakes up and begins adventuring for 59 minutes, goes back to sleep for 3 more hours, wakes up and spends 1 minute reading. Has this party completed a long rest? Let’s check.

Has the period been at least 8 hours long? Yes.
Has it included at least 6 hours of sleep? Yes.
Has it included more than 2 hours of light activity? No.
Has it been interrupted by at least an hour of adventuring activity? No.

My conclusion would be that this adventuring party has indeed completed a long rest, as the RAW defines it.

I disagree. The current text that you quoted says that a long rest is "a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs light activity". So benefiting from a long rest requires at least 8 hours of downtime, and downtime is defined as sleep or light activity. Time spent adventuring isn't sleep or light activity, and thus can't count towards the required 8 hours of downtime.

In your example, the total downtime is only six hours and 1 minute, and thus fails to qualify as a long rest. To work your example would need to be rewritten to look something like:

Sleep for 3 hours, Adventure for 59 minutes, Sleep for 3 hours, Light Activity (or Sleep) for 2 hours.

Then the total amount of downtime would satisfy the eight hour minimum.

 

[Maxperson]

Metagaming interrupts long rests. It yanks me out of immersion so jarringly that my character wakes up.

Another reason not to do it.

 

[Maxperson]

Sleep for 3 hours, Adventure for 59 minutes, Sleep for 3 hours, Light Activity (or Sleep) for 2 hours.

Then the total amount of downtime would satisfy the eight hour minimum.

You have 8 hours and 59 minutes of time there.

 

[Xetheral]

You have 8 hours and 59 minutes of time there.

I have 8 hours of downtime. The 59 minutes of adventuring is not sleep or light activity and thus doesn't count towards the minimum required downtime.

 

[clearstream]

the rule mentions "walking", but traveling less than 1 hour is already not considered strenuous activity by any interpretation of a long rest.

In other words, I see rule as long rest = minimum of 8 hours, 6 of which must include sleep, thus leaving a minimum of 2 hours of light activities (presumably more for a long rest lasting more than 8 hours). Long rest is interrupted by strenuous and adventuring activities such as fighting, spellcasting, and walking for more than 1 hour (as opposed to 1 hour of walking, 1 hour of fighting, 1 hour of spellcasting, or 1 hour of similar adventuring activities).

If walking is light activity, then one can 'light activity' from chamber to chamber in the dungeon, saving the strenuous activity for fighting. That stretches out the time one can spend adventuring-while-resting.

EDIT But I see that what you intended is a little different from what I understood from what you first wrote.

 

[clearstream]

I disagree. The current text that you quoted says that a long rest is "a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs light activity". So benefiting from a long rest requires at least 8 hours of downtime, and downtime is defined as sleep or light activity. Time spent adventuring isn't sleep or light activity, and thus can't count towards the required 8 hours of downtime.

In your example, the total downtime is only six hours and 1 minute, and thus fails to qualify as a long rest. To work your example would need to be rewritten to look something like:

Sleep for 3 hours, Adventure for 59 minutes, Sleep for 3 hours, Light Activity (or Sleep) for 2 hours.

Then the total amount of downtime would satisfy the eight hour minimum.

Post errata, the required minimum of sleep is 6 hours, and the maximum of light activity is 2 hours. Seeing as "no more" is also satisfied by "less than", a character can fit their 59 minutes of fighting etc in around their light activity.

 

[Maxperson]

I have 8 hours of downtime. The 59 minutes of adventuring is not sleep or light activity and thus doesn't count towards the minimum required downtime.

The long rest section doesn't exclude the activity from the rest period, though. Unless it interrupts, it doesn't count against. That's a very reasonable house rule to have, as is simply interrupting the long rest because you've adventured for almost an hour, but that's not what is written there.

What is written is that you need at least 8 hours of long rest time, 6 of which have to be sleep. That's it. Then it discusses what resets the timer. At no point does it speak about delays. Now, if you include the light activity time you can end up having to extend past 8 hours by virtue of not having enough time in 8 hours to do light activity + 6 hours of sleep + less than an hour of exertion, but that's the only way as written to end up with a delay.

 

[MarkB]

Which brings us back to the absurd. 3 hours of sleep followed by almost an hour of strenuous activity, followed by 3 hours of sleep is NOT restful at all. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

But even by the most stringent reading of the rules, you can interrupt your sleep with a 59-minute hike and still get a full rest.

 

[clearstream]

the rule mentions "walking", but traveling less than 1 hour is already not considered strenuous activity by any interpretation of a long rest.

In other words, I see rule as long rest = minimum of 8 hours, 6 of which must include sleep, thus leaving a minimum of 2 hours of light activities (presumably more for a long rest lasting more than 8 hours). Long rest is interrupted by strenuous and adventuring activities such as fighting, spellcasting, and walking for more than 1 hour (as opposed to 1 hour of walking, 1 hour of fighting, 1 hour of spellcasting, or 1 hour of similar adventuring activities).

Leaving a maximum of 2 hours of light activity. It's no more than, not at least.

 

[CleverNickName]

Does anyone use the optional Rest Variants (DMG page 267)? It seems like they could be an elegant solution for folks who find fault with the standard rules.

 

[Maxperson]

But even by the most stringent reading of the rules, you can interrupt your sleep with a 59-minute hike and still get a full rest.

Yeah, but again, the rules on long rests are absurd on their face. Try sleeping for 3 hours tonight, set your alarm and then go out for a 59 minute hike, then sleep for 3 more hours exactly. If you can even fall asleep right away when you get back, you are not going to be fully(or even close to it) rested in the morning.

 

[Laurefindel]

If walking is light activity, then one can 'light activity' from chamber to chamber in the dungeon, saving the strenuous activity for fighting. That stretches out the time one can spend adventuring-while-resting.

I'm not sure what you mean.

By any interpretation of a long rest, walking (or traveling) up to 1 hour does not interrupt a long rest.

And even if the PC end-up fighting for 30 rounds - that's three particularly long fights of ten rounds each - that' d still allow them to walk 57 minutes before interrupting a long rest. It's not stretching anything much.

 

[Maxperson]

Does anyone use the optional Rest Variants (DMG page 267)? It seems like they could be an elegant solution for folks who find fault with the standard rules.

I do.......................sort of. I don't have an issue with short rests, so those are still an hour. Long rests in my game are 7 days or when the DM says so. Sometimes it might come sooner, such as if you enter a safe elven glade on day 3 and rest there, and sometimes circumstances will make it longer than 7 days.

We didn't switch to this because of interruptions, though. We did it because the adventuring day mechanic that the entire game is balanced around is ridiculous and we wanted to be able to stretch out the 5-8 encounters over a more reasonable time period.

 

[Laurefindel]

Leaving a maximum of 2 hours of light activity. It's no more than, not at least.

no, it's a maximum to fit in a 8-hour long rest, which is the minimum to be considered a long rest, but long rests can stretch to more than that.

Lets say two PCs set-up for a long rest, but they want to stand watch while the other sleep. Their rest will take 12 hours; each PC will have slept 6 hours and stood watch (light activity) for 6 hours.

 

[MarkB]

Yeah, but again, the rules on long rests are absurd on their face. Try sleeping for 3 hours tonight, set your alarm and then go out for a 59 minute hike, then sleep for 3 more hours exactly. If you can even fall asleep right away when you get back, you are not going to be fully(or even close to it) rested in the morning.

Sure, but your position previously has been "one interpretation of the rules is absurd, the other one isn't."

They aren't perfect. They get absurd when taken to a literal extreme or deliberately exploited. But they get the job done.