D&D 5E What interupts a long rest?

[robus]

Here we go again Doesn’t this question come up annually? The RAW doesn’t make much sense if it requires an hour of fighting as that is some crazy amount of rounds.

My interpretation is that if your brain is fully wakened by either an hour long walk, or any amount of fighting, etc. then the long rest is interrupted and the reward not gained.

 

[abirdcall]

Huh. I see an encounter as its own reward! Esp. a difficult one that comes when not expected!



Conversely, one of my old group's favorite set of encounters, is when they tried to camp out in gnoll country and kept getting attacked, moving camp, getting attacked again. This happened three times over the course of one in-game evening/night and became increasing harrowing as the party ranger tried to find the safest/most defensible spot to make camp. It was also winter and the cold and forced march stuff was hard on them. It was fantastic and fun. So mileage varies, though obvi you probably shouldn't do that kind of thing too often - just when it is appropriate to what's going on.

Is it actually difficult if there are no chance for consequences?

 

[billd91]

Sage Advice answered it this way:

I think it's a bit excessive to look at it in either extreme (any fighting vs a full hour of just fighting) and instead focus on activity lasting up to an hour. Any fighting may be too short since shooting a couple of arrows at a minor night predator might be enough to scare it off. That's not exactly what I'd call strenuous. Yet an hour of fighting and an hour of walking should be, in no way, equivalent in level of exertion.
Personally, I'm more inclined to look at treating things with an eye to proportion. I generally treat a combat as being more than the round it takes up - maybe each alert being raised due to a fight or something else costs the group 30 minutes of the hour of excused activity even if it only lasts a couple of minutes.

Ultimately, I think there are perfectly valid reasons taking a long rest in the wild should be not impossible, but also not necessarily trivial depending on how dangerous that particular region is.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm sort of feeling... torn here. On one hand, ONE HOUR of fighting is one heck of a big interruption. Interrupting a long rest is almost impossible! On the other hand, if any fighting interrupts a long rest, then interrupting a long rest becomes extremely trivial, and this has a major impact on how long rests are taken in the field, so to speak.

One hour of fighting isn’t just a heck of a big interpretation, it’s 600 rounds of combat! That’s literally never going to happen. On the other hand, a minute of combat here, 20 minutes of walking there, 10 minutes of casting a ritual spell there, another minute of combat, a 5 minute chase sequence followed by another minute of combat, a 25 minute walk back to camp… it’s all cumulative.

 

[el-remmen]

Is it actually difficult if there are no chance for consequences?

How do you get "there [is] no chance for consequences" from what I described? There were plenty of consequences, both potential and definite, known and unknown and speculated by the PCs. There were used resource consequences and narrative consequences.

 

[Maxperson]

Sage Advice answered it this way:

I think it's a bit excessive to look at it in either extreme (any fighting vs a full hour of just fighting) and instead focus on activity lasting up to an hour. Any fighting may be too short since shooting a couple of arrows at a minor night predator might be enough to scare it off. That's not exactly what I'd call strenuous. Yet an hour of fighting and an hour of walking should be, in no way, equivalent in level of exertion.
Personally, I'm more inclined to look at treating things with an eye to proportion. I generally treat a combat as being more than the round it takes up - maybe each alert being raised due to a fight or something else costs the group 30 minutes of the hour of excused activity even if it only lasts a couple of minutes.

Ultimately, I think there are perfectly valid reasons taking a long rest in the wild should be not impossible, but also not necessarily trivial depending on how dangerous that particular region is.

Sounds like a "Paladins can't smite with a fist. " ruling. I for one will not be playing that way. It's ridiculous.

 

[Maxperson]

One hour of fighting isn’t just a heck of a big interpretation, it’s 600 rounds of combat! That’s literally never going to happen. On the other hand, a minute of combat here, 20 minutes of walking there, 10 minutes of casting a ritual spell there, another minute of combat, a 5 minute chase sequence followed by another minute of combat, a 25 minute walk back to camp… it’s all cumulative.

Still unlikely to ever happen in an 8 hour period.

 

[NotAYakk]

"A long rest is ruined by 1 hour of walking, any fighting, any spellcasting, or other similar strenuous activity."

To me, common sense is that this is a list of similarly strenuous activities.

Walking and Fighting are not similar in strenuousness in the same duration, unless we compare 1 hour of solid walking to any fighting whatsoever.

Once we have that, "any spellcasting" shows up as also strenuous.

In essence, long rests require a safe spot to set up camp.

I'd be generous with both "fighting" and "spellcasting"; if you do a bit of sparring exercises, fired a bow at a wild animal at the edge of the fire light, or cast prestidigitation once to clean your bedroll, I wouldn't kill your long rest.

 

[abirdcall]

How do you get "there [is] no chance for consequences" from what I described? There were plenty of consequences, both potential and definite, known and unknown and speculated by the PCs. There were used resource consequences and narrative consequences.

I said:

"A single encounter during a long rest is a waste of time if it has no chance of a TPK because the long rest will erase any damage done. And a TPK in such a case is not usually very fun."

You said:

"Huh. I see an encounter as its own reward! Esp. a difficult one that comes when not expected!"

What I described is an encounter with no chance for consequences unless we're putting TPK on the table which I don't think we should.

So, it isn't difficult at all. Just a waste of time.

 

[Charlaquin]

Still unlikely to ever happen in an 8 hour period.

I disagree.