What is a ring of sustenance worth to you?

[PallidPatience]

What's a ring of sustenance worth to my character? His entire tribe. I'm not joking at all. My troll, Urok, traded his entire tribe to Drow for a ring of sustenance and a brief lesson in arcane theories. Of course, he's evil, brilliant (for a troll), charismatic (for a troll), and is on the way to becoming a Soul Eater. On top of that, he loves magical theories and is probably the more highly educated arcanist (meaning, in this sense, one who knows about arcane magics) in the party, since we lack an arcane caster. Heck, if he could, he'd trade his current companions for another one... then sell it. Yes, he hates them.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

no one has mentioned that fact that geting the equivelent of 8 hour of sleep in two hours, is great for wizards. it makes sleeping in shifts for guard duty much easier on wizards.

How do you figure? Elves only need 4 hours of sleep but it was plainly said that even they STILL require 8 hours to get their spells back. I'd imagine the ring would follow the same rules.

Edit: Damn... Zhure beat me to it.

 

[JoeBlank]

Starting a new campaign a couple of month ago, and we had limited resources for our 8th level characters, but I went ahead and picked up a ring of sustenance for my half-orc barbarian/fighter/rogue. He is a bodyguard, and ex-slave. It makes perfect sense for him to want limited sleep, so he can stay on watch. And he would eat only for sustenance anyway, eating for pleasure is for his charges, while he stands guard.

 

[shadoe]

In the last game I was in we had one ring of sustenance that was in effect currsed. Who ever had it would die. I think that ring went to three or four different characters, and each of them died at one point with it on. It was the funniest thing, you would get the ring, and then within a couple of battles, you would start rolling the worst rolls in your life until something killed you.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

no one has mentioned that fact that geting the equivelent of 8 hour of sleep in two hours, is great for wizards. it makes sleeping in shifts for guard duty much easier on wizards.

Yeah.

Basically, you can give one of these rings to the fighter and put him on watch. If you have another melee type who can take the remaining two hours, you're good to go. If you don't have another melee type the party's rest period just gets extended to 10 hours, which isn't so bad.

It's also a lifesaver in solo campaigns.

 

[just__al]

Right now I'd kill for one. I have some kind of digestive issue. Every time I've eaten for the last two weeks it's caused me horrible indegistion, heart burn and it's actually made it feel like I had a lot of pressure on my chest and it would get mildly difficult to catch my breath. I'm not talking about gorging my self at the all-you-can-eat buffett either, especially once this started.

Saturday, I had a full-to-bore anieixity attack that I thought was a heart attack and wound up in the emergency room. Well, an EKG and chest X-ray ruled out my heart but I'm definately having digestive issues. They gave me a perscription for Protonix (digestive) and Ativan (nutzo) but I still don't want to eat right now because the Protonix takes a day or two to get rolling.

So, please, where is MY ring of sustenance.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I think the item implies that it magically provides the REM sleep you need, so you gain the full benefit of 8 hours of sleep with only 2. To me this would be the biggest benefit.

Wizards would go for it, recovery of spells in no time. While it was pointed out elf only need to sleep four hours but they still need eight to get their spells back, it is not the same, this says 2 hours equals 8 hours.

 

[Driddle]

If you doubled up and wore a ring on each hand, would that mean you actually regurgitate food you haven't eaten yet?

I can't imagine how you would not sleep more hours than the day has...

 

[Hand of Evil]

If you doubled up and wore a ring on each hand, would that mean you actually regurgitate food you haven't eaten yet?

I can't imagine how you would not sleep more hours than the day has...

I believe you still have to sit down and eat the food, I may be wrong anout that but I know create water cannot be done within a creature.

 

[drnuncheon]

You still need 8 hours of uninterrupted rest to recover arcane spells. Two of those can be the ones spent sleeping with the ring.

That's one of the great rules debates, actually. A ring of sustenance specifically states "its wearer needs only sleep 2 hours per day to gain the benefit of 8 hours of sleep".

OK...so let's check the relevant portions of the 'preparing magic' section: "To prepare her daily spells, a wizard must first sleep for 8 hours." That's pretty straightforward - and it implies that the ring would cut that down to two hours.

"If the character does not need to sleep for some reason, she still must have 8 hours of restful calm before preparing any spells." That's the 'elf clause', and the one people use to argue that a ring of sustenance doesn't let you reprepare more quickly. One could argue that it doesn't apply to the ring, since users of the ring do sleep - but one could also argue that it's needless nitpicking.

Personally, I don't think it's a big deal, as long as you don't make the mistake of letting people regain spell slots more than once per day. That is where the true potential for abuse lies.

J