D&D 5E What interupts a long rest?

[Maxperson]

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.

Other than any semblance of believability anyway.

 

[tetrasodium]

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.

Tried them & found they created more problems than they solved while inflating the difficulties created by the long rest class/short rest class split

 

[MarkB]

no, it's a minimum to fit in a 8-hour long rest, but long rest 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 for 6 hours.

Technically, the first person to sleep will still finish their rest in 8 hours. And the first person to watch doesn't have to stick to light activities only during the first four hours of their watch - they could do something more energetic during that time and still get their long rest afterwards. The time it takes before both of them are fully rested is 12 hours, but they're each taking an 8-hour long rest during that time.

 

[Maxperson]

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

And it still is. There is no following the rules as written that is anything other than ludicrous. The hour makes RAI absurd. It's far more believable that any amount of fighting, hiking or spellcasting will interrupt your rest to the point where you have to start over, and if you can't start over, you're just tired for a day until you can rest again.

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

30 minutes of walking + 20 minutes of fighting + 10 minutes of spellcasting = absurd. 59 minutes of walking + 1 minute of fighting = absurd. Cut it up anyway you like and you aren't going to leave the realm of the absurd while you have an hour of time required for an interruption. There is no believable restful state that can come out of it.

 

[Laurefindel]

Technically, the first person to sleep will still finish their rest in 8 hours. And the first person to watch doesn't have to stick to light activities only during the first four hours of their watch - they could do something more energetic during that time and still get their long rest afterwards. The time it takes before both of them are fully rested is 12 hours, but they're each taking an 8-hour long rest during that time.

That is indeed correct

 

[Xetheral]

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.

You're overlooking the required minimum 8 hours of downtime. The rule helpfully defines downtime as sleep or (up to two hours of) light activity. It further defines light activity. Fighting is neither sleep nor light activity, so time spent fighting can't count as downtime, and therefore can't be used to satisfy the downtime requirement.

If you spend less than the maximum two hours on qualifying light activity, you need more than six hours of sleep to make up the remainder of the required eight hours of 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.

There isn't a delay, per se, there's just a required minimum 8 hours of downtime that must be satisfied to get a long rest. And the text of the rule says that only sleep or (up to 2 hours of) light activity counts towards that downtime.

 

[Rune]

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 couldn’t get my players to buy into that for the current campaign (set in a points-of-light version of the Sword Coast, but that’s just so I could use the maps). Instead, I have a much-increased chance of random encounters: while traveling, each hex results in an encounter on a d6 roll of 1, 2, or 3 (modified by speed of travel and danger-level of environment, also roads). Baseline is 2 or less for normal speed.

Camping is slightly different in that there is a roll for each 4 hours. 2 or less is still baseline. 1, if no campfire or obscured. 3 or less if very obvious.

Many encounters don’t end up with hostilities, however. And some are just a continuation of a running joke.

 

[clearstream]

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.

Yup, even sidestepping the what-about-ism, the rest rules are poor in 5e.

It may be more fruitful to just cut that hour of adventuring from resting altogether (which is close to one of your earlier comments), and then focus on the period characters must spend unconscious and therefore vulnerable.

A character gets the benefits of a long rest if they 1 or more hit points and have spent 6 of the past 8 hours unconscious.

 

[Laurefindel]

... a required minimum 8 hours of downtime that must be satisfied to get a long rest. And the text of the rule says that only sleep or (up to 2 hours of) light activity counts towards that downtime.

ah yes, an important distinction to make. I understand better @clearstream 's reply then.

 

[iserith]

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.

Though I don't find fault with the standard rules really, I do use Gritty Realism or some version of that in various campaigns depending on how I structure the game. In my current hexcrawl, a short rest is 4 hours and a long rest is 1 week, which you can do in combination with a downtime activity in town. (You can't long rest in the wilderness.) This pushes the game to a true trek-to-town set up where the PCs push outward from town and then usually come back before the session is up which is what was intended for the game experience.