I was just reading the SA and my interpretation of Crawford States is that elves finish their rest after 4 hrs. As written by Crawford. So is there a way to reach out to him personally I would really like either his intention or ruling.
This is what I found in the errata. Even though I have also found the rulings you are talking about, I am still unsure of the logic behind this. Please explain how these two sets of information mean the Elf gets 4 hour long rests.
Errata - Long Rest (p. 186). The first sentence of the rule now reads, “A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps for at least 6 hours and performs no more than 2 hours of light activity, such as reading, talking, eating, or standing watch.” In addition, you regain at least one Hit Die when you finish a long rest.
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. At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character's total number of them. For example, if a character has eight Hit Dice, he or she can regain four spent Hit Dice upon finishing a long rest. A character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least I hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.
TRANCE Elves don't need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is "trance.") While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
Is it referring to the idea of sleep? I know that from what I saw they said the DMs can also choose their own ruling, but right now I am uncertain about this rule and would resort to 8 hours required.
Does the Trance trait allow an elf to finish a long rest in 4 hours?
If an elf meditates during a long rest (as described in the Trance trait), the elf finishes the rest after only 4 hours. A meditating elf otherwise follows all the rules for a long rest; only the duration is changed. [This answer has been altered as a result of a tweak to the rules for a long rest, which appears in newer printings of the Player’s Handbook.]
I'm not sure that will really help the situation as much as you imagine. The Errata doesn't actually change the rules of the universe where this DM is hosting the game. He is not angry at you for being up to date on the latest rule revisions, he is upset with you because, in his eyes, you went ahead and altered your character sheet to give yourself some sort of power upgrade to which you were not entitled; without checking if that was what was granted by your elf trait. He then thinks that this might be the kind of thing you are likely to do again - like you might just award yourself 50gp because you personally think it is logical for you to receive that in payment for whatever service your character just provided. Now maybe the DM had made some binding homerule decision about elf rest lengths and just forgot to tell you all (although I admit as a DM I would also make the assumption that long rest = 8 hours and would not think to clarify otherwise), but this is still a failing of communication and trust, not actually a debate about trance mechanics.
I think it would be wisest to frame this conversation in an apologetic manner, despite you finding an internet reference that proves you weren't technically wrong. Admit that you should have asked "do I get my spell slots back after my trance?" or some other clarification, but that you remembered reading somewhere that this was the rule and you had just assumed that replenishing the slot was the correct thing to have done to save time. Express your commitment to playing fairly, having fun, and telling a great story, and maybe promise for the next few sessions to check in with him any time you are replenishing or adding something to your character that hasn't been specifically granted, just to ensure you are all on the same page about how these mechanics work.
Winning the argument by proving internet says you were right will not necessarily improve the environment at the table.
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I was just reading the SA and my interpretation of Crawford States is that elves finish their rest after 4 hrs. As written by Crawford. So is there a way to reach out to him personally I would really like either his intention or ruling.
The Sage Advice Compendium states that it has to be 8 hours.
That's an earlier version. The latest one was changed to allow elves to have a four hour long rest.
Which just goes to show that even Crawford's rulings get changed to match story stuff.
This is what I found in the errata. Even though I have also found the rulings you are talking about, I am still unsure of the logic behind this. Please explain how these two sets of information mean the Elf gets 4 hour long rests.
Errata - Long Rest (p. 186). The first sentence of the rule now reads, “A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps for at least 6 hours and performs no more than 2 hours of light activity, such as reading, talking, eating, or standing watch.” In addition, you regain at least one Hit Die when you finish a long rest.
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. At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character's total number of them. For example, if a character has eight Hit Dice, he or she can regain four spent Hit Dice upon finishing a long rest. A character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least I hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.
TRANCE Elves don't need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is "trance.") While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
Is it referring to the idea of sleep? I know that from what I saw they said the DMs can also choose their own ruling, but right now I am uncertain about this rule and would resort to 8 hours required.
I think I found the Sage Advice update:
Does the Trance trait allow an elf to finish a long rest in 4 hours?
If an elf meditates during a long rest (as described in the Trance trait), the elf finishes the rest after only 4 hours. A meditating elf otherwise follows all the rules for a long rest; only the duration is changed. [This answer has been altered as a result of a tweak to the rules for a long rest, which appears in newer printings of the Player’s Handbook.]
In this case then yes you did get a long rest.
Yeah I'm gonna show the Errata to him
I'm not sure that will really help the situation as much as you imagine. The Errata doesn't actually change the rules of the universe where this DM is hosting the game. He is not angry at you for being up to date on the latest rule revisions, he is upset with you because, in his eyes, you went ahead and altered your character sheet to give yourself some sort of power upgrade to which you were not entitled; without checking if that was what was granted by your elf trait. He then thinks that this might be the kind of thing you are likely to do again - like you might just award yourself 50gp because you personally think it is logical for you to receive that in payment for whatever service your character just provided. Now maybe the DM had made some binding homerule decision about elf rest lengths and just forgot to tell you all (although I admit as a DM I would also make the assumption that long rest = 8 hours and would not think to clarify otherwise), but this is still a failing of communication and trust, not actually a debate about trance mechanics.
I think it would be wisest to frame this conversation in an apologetic manner, despite you finding an internet reference that proves you weren't technically wrong. Admit that you should have asked "do I get my spell slots back after my trance?" or some other clarification, but that you remembered reading somewhere that this was the rule and you had just assumed that replenishing the slot was the correct thing to have done to save time. Express your commitment to playing fairly, having fun, and telling a great story, and maybe promise for the next few sessions to check in with him any time you are replenishing or adding something to your character that hasn't been specifically granted, just to ensure you are all on the same page about how these mechanics work.
Winning the argument by proving internet says you were right will not necessarily improve the environment at the table.