8
\$\begingroup\$

In our party there is a sorcerer/warlock that is foregoing sleeping during the party’s long rests. Instead they are taking short rests to create spell slots.

So, while the rest of the part is taking a long rest, how many short rests can they officially take?

We are familiar with XGE and the exhaustion penalty; assume for the purpose of this question that the sorlock makes their roll at the beginning of the day. We are not using alternative rest rules per DMG 267-268.

Semi-official (Jeremy Crawford Twitter or Sage Advice) or official answers (printed rulings) please.

\$\endgroup\$
4

2 Answers 2

7
\$\begingroup\$

At least 8 short rests could fit in a long rest, presuming your DM is on board with the shenanigans

With reference to the basic rules, a short rest is defined like so:

A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.

And a long rest is defined thusly:

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.

(Errata clarifies that you must sleep for at least six hours as part of a long rest, but that's not relevant to our problem - the overall durations are unaffected.)

Since a long rest requires a minimum of eight hours, and any given short rest requires a minimum of 1 hour, a character taking consecutive short rests while the rest of the party takes a long rest should be able to manage at least eight short rests in the period. If the rest of the party elects to continue the rest for a longer period, the character may be able to fit in another short rest for every hour their comrades continue lazing about. In most circumstances, though, one imagines that the adventuring party would not want to spend more time resting than they absolutely have to, so eight short rests would seem to be the standard.

Crawford Commentary (AKA Your DM Can Stop You)

Jeremy Crawford has weighed on this subject via twitter:

Is there anything stopping me from taking 8 consecutive rests during an 8 hour period?

The number of hours in a day is the cap on the number of short rests you can take that day. That said, a short rest is "at least 1 hour long" (PH, 186); notice the words "at least." If you spend 4 unbroken hours resting, for example, a DM could say that's one short rest.

After a short rest, the DM decides how much time must elapse or how much activity must occur before another short rest can start. Maybe 0 minutes, 1 minute, 10 minutes, or 1 hour. The key is that rests aren't meant to be a button you press. They're a narrative pause.

As he points out, the definition of a short rest requires a period of "at least 1 hour", and the intended way to play is that rests are defined narratively - so the DM is free to declare that a longer period of uninterrupted rest only constitutes a single short rest.

By cheesy RAW, the character can deliberately interrupt their current short rest after an hour passes simply by doing something strenuous, and then sitting down to rest again, so the period couldn't be defined as a single short rest. As a "strenuous activity" is not well-defined and could be no more than a few seconds of exercise, I assume the lost time devoted to forcing an end to your short rest is negligible when considering how many rests you can take and doesn't meaningfully change how many you can fit into a period.

However, Crawford goes on to state that the DM can decide how soon after finishing one rest the character must wait before they can start another, or how long the interrupting activity must actually be. If the DM is not on board with your shenanigans, this provides a Crawford-supported way to deny them - they can declare you just can't take consecutive short rests (we know the DM was always free to rule that way if they wanted, but now they have official backup, which may matter for some particularly argumentative players).

Actually, we're all elves

Sage Advice clarifies that, for elves:

If an elf meditates during a long rest (as described in the Trance trait), the elf finishes the rest after only 4 hours.

So in the special case where the whole party (or at least the rest of the party) are elves, the short-resting character only gets away with 4 rests while the rest of the party meditates.

\$\endgroup\$
4
  • \$\begingroup\$ If one does something strenuous between each long rest then technically you have a max of 7 short rests per 8 hour long rest since each "strenuous" activity takes up some amount of time greater than one hour. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 20, 2018 at 13:26
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @Rubiksmoose given that a "strenuous activity" could be as little as "exercising for a couple of seconds" I assume the difference is negligible (really, what's the difference between eight hours long-resting and 8hr30s?) but I'll clarify. \$\endgroup\$
    – Carcer
    Jun 20, 2018 at 13:34
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Jeremy Crawford, lead designer, has weighed in showing that the DM is able to require a gap between short rests. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 29, 2018 at 14:44
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @DavidCoffron thanks for the ping, I have incorporated the comments from Crawford into my answer and adopted a more "if-DM-willing..." tone. \$\endgroup\$
    – Carcer
    Jun 29, 2018 at 17:11
9
\$\begingroup\$

There is no upper bound on the length of a Long Rest. The rules give a minimum (at least 8 hours), and state that a character can't benefit from more than one such rest in 24 hours, but conceivably you could lounge about for, say, seventeen years. Or seventy years. Or seven thousand — maybe you're stuck in some very remote part of the Astral Plane.

During that time, a character who isn't taking a Long Rest could take any number of Short Rests, as long as each is at least an hour long. And, you know, as long as the DM doesn't get tired of that and interrupts your carefully-laid napping plans. I mean, after all, this is Dungeons & Dragons, not Dungeons & Dozing.

\$\endgroup\$
6
  • 10
    \$\begingroup\$ "conceivably you could lounge about for, say, seventeen years." If you're a millennial, you could conceivably lounge about for a good 30 years or more. (Joking, I'm a millennial too). \$\endgroup\$
    – GreySage
    Jun 19, 2018 at 20:28
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @GreySage I know it was meant as a joke but some millennials (myself not included) may take offense to that. Not sure if it violates Be Nice, but you may want to consider. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 19, 2018 at 20:31
  • 8
    \$\begingroup\$ @DavidCoffron Yeah I thought it might be risky, but my comedic sensibilities wouldn't let me not do it. \$\endgroup\$
    – GreySage
    Jun 19, 2018 at 20:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ @GreySage Sorry, I'm dumb. Do millennials sleep twice as much as they should, or is this a "living in our parents' basement" joke? \$\endgroup\$
    – chif-ii
    Jun 19, 2018 at 20:49
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @chif-ii the latter \$\endgroup\$
    – GreySage
    Jun 19, 2018 at 20:50

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .