Ok. So we agree. By the technical sense of the rules, they are a Coffeelock. They absolutely have all the prerequisites and abilities needed.
Unless they actually choose to learn Greater Restoration, they're not a coffeelock. Are you saying you ban Celestial warlocks in your campaigns, rather than simply banning them from taking that spell?
I personally would disallow the use of shortened long rests to obtain multiple short rests, increasing sorcery points. HOWEVER, if a player makes a Sorlock and frequently short rests the intended way with the party, then I'd be fine with it. I know this, cause I'm making a sorlock. (Divine Soul Sorcerer + 3 levels of Hexblade Warlock)
I personally would disallow the use of shortened long rests to obtain multiple short rests, increasing sorcery points. HOWEVER, if a player makes a Sorlock and frequently short rests the intended way with the party, then I'd be fine with it. I know this, cause I'm making a sorlock. (Divine Soul Sorcerer + 3 levels of Hexblade Warlock)
I agree. The issue is less about if this is\isn't a coffeelock as much as a question of allowing such a build in the game. I'd prefer not to prevent creative builds, but mechanics-wise, allowing the racial trait of a shortened Long Rest to be followed immediately by multiple short rests is what I'd disallow. Short rests done with the party; no problem.
I personally would disallow the use of shortened long rests to obtain multiple short rests, increasing sorcery points. HOWEVER, if a player makes a Sorlock and frequently short rests the intended way with the party, then I'd be fine with it. I know this, cause I'm making a sorlock. (Divine Soul Sorcerer + 3 levels of Hexblade Warlock)
I agree. The issue is less about if this is\isn't a coffeelock as much as a question of allowing such a build in the game. I'd prefer not to prevent creative builds, but mechanics-wise, allowing the racial trait of a shortened Long Rest to be followed immediately by multiple short rests is what I'd disallow. Short rests done with the party; no problem.
This perspective of being fine with that nova Eldritch Blast build (which I would point out has access to Greater Restoration), but not allowing a build that gets a small handful of lower-level slots to offset the loss of higher-level slots... just strikes me as inconsistent.
A couple Misty steps and casting of shield is not a bigger or "worse" exploit than averaging over 100hp of damage per turn at long range through the middle levels.
Elves completing Long Rests in 4 hours is in the Player's Handbook. If they're not allowed to do anything useful with the rest of the time, then what's the point?
Elves completing Long Rests in 4 hours is in the Player's Handbook. If they're not allowed to do anything useful with the rest of the time, then what's the point?
Two elves in the party mean that the rest of the party get to have a full night's sleep out in the wilderness, while the elves keep watch.
Only 2 slots per short rest is a design point, since the other (better?) abilities of the class are built with the 2-slot limit in mind.
Elves completing Long Rests in 4 hours is in the Player's Handbook. If they're not allowed to do anything useful with the rest of the time, then what's the point?
There are many things an elf can do what that extra time. Take a large share of keeping watch while the rest of the party sleeps, replenish consumable supplies like arrows, ritual casting. The build is not being prevented from getting those extra low level spell slots. It is just not getting them by piggybacking short rests after a long rest. If at your table this is allowed, then use the build. You asked if this build would be allowed as presented. I'm stating that I'd be fine with the concept, but we don't allow Short Rests right after a Long Rest.
Elves completing Long Rests in 4 hours is in the Player's Handbook. If they're not allowed to do anything useful with the rest of the time, then what's the point?
There are many things an elf can do what that extra time. Take a large share of keeping watch while the rest of the party sleeps, replenish consumable supplies like arrows, ritual casting. The build is not being prevented from getting those extra low level spell slots. It is just not getting them by piggybacking short rests after a long rest. If at your table this is allowed, then use the build. The OP asked if their build would be allowed as presented. I'm stating that I'd be fine with the concept, but we don't allow Short Rests right after a Long Rest.
Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with giving rests a cooldown, so they can't be spammed, but you could also just make short rests a declared finite resource, like hit dice, per long rest. That would mean they could be spammed in the morning, but the warlock in question wouldn't be able to take any short rests later - if e.g. a PC can only have 3 short rests per day, it's not really a big deal when those 3 are taken.
Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with giving rests a cooldown, so they can't be spammed, but you could also just make short rests a declared finite resource, like hit dice, per long rest. That would mean they could be spammed in the morning, but the warlock in question wouldn't be able to take any short rests later - if e.g. a PC can only have 3 short rests per day, it's not really a big deal when those 3 are taken.
You could, but I could see the challenge doing that if this same Warlock wanted to use Short Rests to gain hit dice. Now preventing them because they were used for spell slots; I'd see a player not liking that ruling. FWIW, our table just doesn't allow consecutive rests (Long or Short). For that reason specifically, this build would not work in our game. Another DM could adjudicate this differently, in which case the concept would work as stated.
Elves completing Long Rests in 4 hours is in the Player's Handbook. If they're not allowed to do anything useful with the rest of the time, then what's the point?
There are many things an elf can do what that extra time. Take a large share of keeping watch while the rest of the party sleeps, replenish consumable supplies like arrows, ritual casting. The build is not being prevented from getting those extra low level spell slots. It is just not getting them by piggybacking short rests after a long rest. If at your table this is allowed, then use the build. You asked if this build would be allowed as presented. I'm stating that I'd be fine with the concept, but we don't allow Short Rests right after a Long Rest.
What cooldown time would you houserule for rests? Long Rests are already only allowed 1/day, and there's no rule in any of the books mandating any length of time between short rests.
Also, sorcerers don't have ritual casting, and don't use arrows, so are you saying that 4 hours of doing nothing but looking around doesn't qualify as short resting? There's not really a game-balance reason to deny the short rests unless the DM is really that concerned about the sorcerer being able to cast shield a few extra times.
What cooldown time would you houserule for rests? Long Rests are already only allowed 1/day, and there's no rule in any of the books mandating any length of time between short rests.
Just to provide an example from the tables at which I DM, my standard house rule is that a character needs to be active at least 2-3 hours since their previous rest before they can gain the benefits of a short rest. This concept allows most characters, who would be spending ~8 hours per day performing a long rest, to potentially be able to complete up to 4-5 short rest during the course of the day. Never really had a group adventure that heavily in a single "game day" that they needed more than 2-3 short rests, but they could potentially do so.
Applying my house rule situation, I would allow your character build to benefit from at least 1 short rest during the remaining time that they'd be waiting for the other characters to finish their short rest. If the group was taking a longer break in the morning, I would maybe even allow an additional [second] short rest on occasion. For example, if the party knows they're walking into a tougher situation for the day, the group might want to take extra steps to prepare, and I'd allow the secondary short rest for the sorcerer/warlock to gain some extra slots/points.
However, while it might strictly be allowable per RAW, I personally wouldn't allow a player to cast a cantrip to end a short rest to immediately start a new short rest. In my opinion, spamming multiple short rests in a row feels more like taking advantage of a loophole than promoting gameplay.
There's not really a game-balance reason to deny the short rests unless the DM is really that concerned about the sorcerer being able to cast shield a few extra times.
This statement is mostly true, but I think that you aren't fully acknowledging just how beneficial gaining those extra 16 points before the adventuring day begins could be. To keep it simple, let's say that we're converting all of those points into 1st level spell slots. At the cost of 2 sorcery points per spell slot, the character would gain eight (8) additional 1st level spell slots before the adventuring day begins. That's triple the number of spell slots that any other caster would normally be able to have. Understandably, they're only 1st level slots in this example, but the character can now cast shield twelve times without needing to use a higher slot or needing any sort of rest. Considering that the character should be gaining at least a couple short rests during the game day, they'll be replenishing spell slots and/or sorcery points before their next long rest as well.
As an alternate example, it'd be somewhat similar to handing another spellcasting character eight or more1st level spell scrolls each game day for free. They have to hand any extra scrolls back at the end of the day, but they gain eight or more new ones before the next adventure day starts.
As I stated is my previous post, I both like the character concept that you're developing and would probably allow it to be played at one of the tables at which I DM. However, I personally wouldn't allow you to take four short rests during the second half of a long rest just because you don't require the full eight hours. As others have pointed out, I am not the only DM to take such a stance despite it theoretically being allowed by RAW. Ideally, whoever your DM ends up being would work with you to find a happy medium between having no benefits during those four hours and having maximum benefits during that time.
Just popping in to remind everyone that Elves do not take Long Rests in 4 hours in the PHB, that's an SAC/JC ruling that may or may not be RAI (and is definitely stupid), but is absolutely not RAW. They only require 4 hours of trance as part of their long rest, leaving them free for the other 4 hours to do other stuff like keep watch, do Wizard spellbook stuff, perform some simple rituals, work on crafts, etc.... but they're no more able to skip out on a Long Rest early than a warforged, tomelock, or any other light/non sleeper. The new Reborn lineage is the only race that can 4-hour long rest, and its so stupid and disruptive that I'd rather they errata that out of existence than bring other light sleepers into line with them.
There's also no RAW guarantee that you can take multiple Short Rests back to back without adventuring and allowing time to pass in between. Nothing says you can't , but nothing says you can either. You can take "short rests in the midst of a day and a long rest to end it," but a DM is well within their right to to cap "rests in the midst of the day" to a finite number and frequency so as not to be the entire day, or the start of a day before anything consequential has happened.
Just popping in to remind everyone that Elves do not take Long Rests in 4 hours in the PHB, that's an SAC/JC ruling that may or may not be RAI (and is definitely stupid), but is absolutely not RAW.
Wait - what? Elves using Trance get the same benefit from doing so as a human does from 8 hours of sleep - the ability says so. Since a normal long rest for a human is at least 6 hours of sleep and at most 2 hours of light activity - a human who sleeps for 8 hours will gain the benefit of a long rest. Therefore an Elf using Trance for 4 hours also gains the benefit of a long rest. How is that not RAW?
Trance (https://www.dndbeyond.com/races/elf#ElfTraits) Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. [...] After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
Long Rest (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/adventuring#LongRest) 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. [...]
A human that sleeps for 6 hours (or longer) gets two benefits: (1) they satisfy the "sleep for at least 6 hours" portion of an 8-hour long rest, and (2) they don't suffer a level of exhaustion.
An elf gets those same two exact benefits from 4+ hours of trance that the human got from 6+ hours of sleep: (1) they satisfy the "sleep" portion of their 8-hour long rest, and (2) they don't suffer a level of exhaustion.
That's it. As you quoted, a Long Rest is at least 8 hours long, and contains a couple of internal requirements (at least 6 hours of sleep, no more than 2 hours of light activity). Abilities that shorten/alter those internal requirements, by letting you sleep less time (or not at all) or take more than 2 hours of light activity, don't change that it's still an 8-hour block, unless they explicitly say they do. The Reborn is the only race/feature that I'm aware of that does that, and it was a bad idea, because it incentivizes splitting the party, slowing play at the table, and hogging the spotlight.
A human that sleeps for 8 hours: (1) Satisfies at least 6 hours of sleep. (2) Satisfies no more than 2 hours light activity. 0 is not more than 2. (3) Satisfies at least 8 hours rest. Therefore they get the benefit of a long rest.
And because Trance specifically (specific beats general) says that an Elf that Trances for 4 hours gets the "same benefit" that a human does for 8 hours sleep - therefore they get the long rest too. I can't see any wiggle room there.
A standard race's long rest is (1) 8 hours, during which (2) you sleep at least 6 hours, and (3) take no more than 2 hours of light activity.
An elf's long rest is (1) 8 hours, during which (2) you sleep at least 6 hours trance at least 4 hours, and (3) take no more than 2 hours of light activity.
That's the RAW way to read it. Sleeping 8 hours is not sufficient to long rest, as can be demonstrated by sleeping 8 hours a second time during the same 24-hour day, which may give you some sleep benefits of some sort, but certainly won't give you a second long rest.
How can you say that about the Elf's long rest? It literally says:
you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep
If a human gets a long rest with 8 hours of sleep then the Elf gets a long rest from 4 hours Trance because it literally says so specifically. If an Elf still needed to rest for a total of 8 hours then they wouldn't get the same benefit as a human sleeping for 8 hours. I'm super confused on how you're reading it any other way?
With Aspect of the Moon, a human needs 0 sleep, but still requires an 8 hour long rest because "a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." Same for an Undying Warlock with Undying Nature, they may not "require food, water, or sleep," but still "require rest" to benefit from a long rest, which "is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." As a Warforged, you "must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping," but nevertheless "a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." As an Elf, you "don’t need to sleep, and "instead, meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day"... but nevertheless, "a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long."
If I'm repeating myself, it's only because you seem to fail to realize that a Long Rest is defined, externally to any race, class, or ability, as a constant "period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." Absent an ability which states explicitly that a Long Rest can be completed in a period shorter than 8 hours long, a Long Rest remains a constant "period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." This is right and proper and good, because a Long Rest is a capstone to end and start the adventuring day for the entire party at once, and not something that there is any benefit to splitting up for different members at different times. The only practical benefit of a 4 Hour Long Rest is precisely the CoffeeLock shenanigans that everyone the world over is opposed to, there's just no innocent/proper/constructive use to such a ruling. Which is why its so plain that JC doesn't understand the design considerations behind his own rule system when he popped off with that ruling the first time, and why its so egregious that it now infected the Reborn in the new book.
There's no new hidden language that hasn't been quoted and referenced exhaustively by this point, ultimately it just comes down to the fact that there's two schools of thought on this, but that RAW, the only language you'll find about Long Rest in the PHB boils down to "a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." You can argue RAI, you can argue about whether elves deserve an errata to give them Reborn's ability, but currently, "a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long" for everyone other than Reborn.
This is false. The RAW on elven trance *explicitly states* that 4 hours of trance gets them the benefits of 8 hours of sleep, and since 8 hours of sleep gives the benefits of a long rest, so must 4 hours of trance.
Q: Does the Trance trait allow an elf to finish a long rest in 4 hours?
A: 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
The Trance is explicitly a Long Rest in 4 hours, confirmed in the official FAQ.
It’s not explicitly that anywhere in the PHB, where actual RULES are to be found, the SAC is meaningless when discussing RAW. Whatever, you either get it or you don’t, you can lead a horse to water etc etc
Unless they actually choose to learn Greater Restoration, they're not a coffeelock. Are you saying you ban Celestial warlocks in your campaigns, rather than simply banning them from taking that spell?
I personally would disallow the use of shortened long rests to obtain multiple short rests, increasing sorcery points. HOWEVER, if a player makes a Sorlock and frequently short rests the intended way with the party, then I'd be fine with it. I know this, cause I'm making a sorlock. (Divine Soul Sorcerer + 3 levels of Hexblade Warlock)
I agree. The issue is less about if this is\isn't a coffeelock as much as a question of allowing such a build in the game. I'd prefer not to prevent creative builds, but mechanics-wise, allowing the racial trait of a shortened Long Rest to be followed immediately by multiple short rests is what I'd disallow. Short rests done with the party; no problem.
This perspective of being fine with that nova Eldritch Blast build (which I would point out has access to Greater Restoration), but not allowing a build that gets a small handful of lower-level slots to offset the loss of higher-level slots... just strikes me as inconsistent.
A couple Misty steps and casting of shield is not a bigger or "worse" exploit than averaging over 100hp of damage per turn at long range through the middle levels.
Elves completing Long Rests in 4 hours is in the Player's Handbook. If they're not allowed to do anything useful with the rest of the time, then what's the point?
Two elves in the party mean that the rest of the party get to have a full night's sleep out in the wilderness, while the elves keep watch.
Only 2 slots per short rest is a design point, since the other (better?) abilities of the class are built with the 2-slot limit in mind.
There are many things an elf can do what that extra time. Take a large share of keeping watch while the rest of the party sleeps, replenish consumable supplies like arrows, ritual casting. The build is not being prevented from getting those extra low level spell slots. It is just not getting them by piggybacking short rests after a long rest. If at your table this is allowed, then use the build. You asked if this build would be allowed as presented. I'm stating that I'd be fine with the concept, but we don't allow Short Rests right after a Long Rest.
Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with giving rests a cooldown, so they can't be spammed, but you could also just make short rests a declared finite resource, like hit dice, per long rest. That would mean they could be spammed in the morning, but the warlock in question wouldn't be able to take any short rests later - if e.g. a PC can only have 3 short rests per day, it's not really a big deal when those 3 are taken.
You could, but I could see the challenge doing that if this same Warlock wanted to use Short Rests to gain hit dice. Now preventing them because they were used for spell slots; I'd see a player not liking that ruling. FWIW, our table just doesn't allow consecutive rests (Long or Short). For that reason specifically, this build would not work in our game. Another DM could adjudicate this differently, in which case the concept would work as stated.
What cooldown time would you houserule for rests? Long Rests are already only allowed 1/day, and there's no rule in any of the books mandating any length of time between short rests.
Also, sorcerers don't have ritual casting, and don't use arrows, so are you saying that 4 hours of doing nothing but looking around doesn't qualify as short resting? There's not really a game-balance reason to deny the short rests unless the DM is really that concerned about the sorcerer being able to cast shield a few extra times.
Just to provide an example from the tables at which I DM, my standard house rule is that a character needs to be active at least 2-3 hours since their previous rest before they can gain the benefits of a short rest. This concept allows most characters, who would be spending ~8 hours per day performing a long rest, to potentially be able to complete up to 4-5 short rest during the course of the day. Never really had a group adventure that heavily in a single "game day" that they needed more than 2-3 short rests, but they could potentially do so.
Applying my house rule situation, I would allow your character build to benefit from at least 1 short rest during the remaining time that they'd be waiting for the other characters to finish their short rest. If the group was taking a longer break in the morning, I would maybe even allow an additional [second] short rest on occasion. For example, if the party knows they're walking into a tougher situation for the day, the group might want to take extra steps to prepare, and I'd allow the secondary short rest for the sorcerer/warlock to gain some extra slots/points.
However, while it might strictly be allowable per RAW, I personally wouldn't allow a player to cast a cantrip to end a short rest to immediately start a new short rest. In my opinion, spamming multiple short rests in a row feels more like taking advantage of a loophole than promoting gameplay.
This statement is mostly true, but I think that you aren't fully acknowledging just how beneficial gaining those extra 16 points before the adventuring day begins could be. To keep it simple, let's say that we're converting all of those points into 1st level spell slots. At the cost of 2 sorcery points per spell slot, the character would gain eight (8) additional 1st level spell slots before the adventuring day begins. That's triple the number of spell slots that any other caster would normally be able to have. Understandably, they're only 1st level slots in this example, but the character can now cast shield twelve times without needing to use a higher slot or needing any sort of rest. Considering that the character should be gaining at least a couple short rests during the game day, they'll be replenishing spell slots and/or sorcery points before their next long rest as well.
As an alternate example, it'd be somewhat similar to handing another spellcasting character eight or more1st level spell scrolls each game day for free. They have to hand any extra scrolls back at the end of the day, but they gain eight or more new ones before the next adventure day starts.
As I stated is my previous post, I both like the character concept that you're developing and would probably allow it to be played at one of the tables at which I DM. However, I personally wouldn't allow you to take four short rests during the second half of a long rest just because you don't require the full eight hours. As others have pointed out, I am not the only DM to take such a stance despite it theoretically being allowed by RAW. Ideally, whoever your DM ends up being would work with you to find a happy medium between having no benefits during those four hours and having maximum benefits during that time.
Just popping in to remind everyone that Elves do not take Long Rests in 4 hours in the PHB, that's an SAC/JC ruling that may or may not be RAI (and is definitely stupid), but is absolutely not RAW. They only require 4 hours of trance as part of their long rest, leaving them free for the other 4 hours to do other stuff like keep watch, do Wizard spellbook stuff, perform some simple rituals, work on crafts, etc.... but they're no more able to skip out on a Long Rest early than a warforged, tomelock, or any other light/non sleeper. The new Reborn lineage is the only race that can 4-hour long rest, and its so stupid and disruptive that I'd rather they errata that out of existence than bring other light sleepers into line with them.
There's also no RAW guarantee that you can take multiple Short Rests back to back without adventuring and allowing time to pass in between. Nothing says you can't , but nothing says you can either. You can take "short rests in the midst of a day and a long rest to end it," but a DM is well within their right to to cap "rests in the midst of the day" to a finite number and frequency so as not to be the entire day, or the start of a day before anything consequential has happened.
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Wait - what?
Elves using Trance get the same benefit from doing so as a human does from 8 hours of sleep - the ability says so. Since a normal long rest for a human is at least 6 hours of sleep and at most 2 hours of light activity - a human who sleeps for 8 hours will gain the benefit of a long rest. Therefore an Elf using Trance for 4 hours also gains the benefit of a long rest. How is that not RAW?
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A human that sleeps for 6 hours (or longer) gets two benefits: (1) they satisfy the "sleep for at least 6 hours" portion of an 8-hour long rest, and (2) they don't suffer a level of exhaustion.
An elf gets those same two exact benefits from 4+ hours of trance that the human got from 6+ hours of sleep: (1) they satisfy the "sleep" portion of their 8-hour long rest, and (2) they don't suffer a level of exhaustion.
That's it. As you quoted, a Long Rest is at least 8 hours long, and contains a couple of internal requirements (at least 6 hours of sleep, no more than 2 hours of light activity). Abilities that shorten/alter those internal requirements, by letting you sleep less time (or not at all) or take more than 2 hours of light activity, don't change that it's still an 8-hour block, unless they explicitly say they do. The Reborn is the only race/feature that I'm aware of that does that, and it was a bad idea, because it incentivizes splitting the party, slowing play at the table, and hogging the spotlight.
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A human that sleeps for 8 hours: (1) Satisfies at least 6 hours of sleep. (2) Satisfies no more than 2 hours light activity. 0 is not more than 2. (3) Satisfies at least 8 hours rest. Therefore they get the benefit of a long rest.
And because Trance specifically (specific beats general) says that an Elf that Trances for 4 hours gets the "same benefit" that a human does for 8 hours sleep - therefore they get the long rest too. I can't see any wiggle room there.
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A standard race's long rest is (1) 8 hours, during which (2) you sleep at least 6 hours, and (3) take no more than 2 hours of light activity.
An elf's long rest is (1) 8 hours, during which (2) you
sleep at least 6 hourstrance at least 4 hours, and (3) take no more than 2 hours of light activity.That's the RAW way to read it. Sleeping 8 hours is not sufficient to long rest, as can be demonstrated by sleeping 8 hours a second time during the same 24-hour day, which may give you some sleep benefits of some sort, but certainly won't give you a second long rest.
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How can you say that about the Elf's long rest? It literally says:
If a human gets a long rest with 8 hours of sleep then the Elf gets a long rest from 4 hours Trance because it literally says so specifically. If an Elf still needed to rest for a total of 8 hours then they wouldn't get the same benefit as a human sleeping for 8 hours.
I'm super confused on how you're reading it any other way?
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With Aspect of the Moon, a human needs 0 sleep, but still requires an 8 hour long rest because "a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." Same for an Undying Warlock with Undying Nature, they may not "require food, water, or sleep," but still "require rest" to benefit from a long rest, which "is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." As a Warforged, you "must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping," but nevertheless "a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." As an Elf, you "don’t need to sleep, and "instead, meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day"... but nevertheless, "a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long."
If I'm repeating myself, it's only because you seem to fail to realize that a Long Rest is defined, externally to any race, class, or ability, as a constant "period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." Absent an ability which states explicitly that a Long Rest can be completed in a period shorter than 8 hours long, a Long Rest remains a constant "period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." This is right and proper and good, because a Long Rest is a capstone to end and start the adventuring day for the entire party at once, and not something that there is any benefit to splitting up for different members at different times. The only practical benefit of a 4 Hour Long Rest is precisely the CoffeeLock shenanigans that everyone the world over is opposed to, there's just no innocent/proper/constructive use to such a ruling. Which is why its so plain that JC doesn't understand the design considerations behind his own rule system when he popped off with that ruling the first time, and why its so egregious that it now infected the Reborn in the new book.
There's no new hidden language that hasn't been quoted and referenced exhaustively by this point, ultimately it just comes down to the fact that there's two schools of thought on this, but that RAW, the only language you'll find about Long Rest in the PHB boils down to "a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long." You can argue RAI, you can argue about whether elves deserve an errata to give them Reborn's ability, but currently, "a long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long" for everyone other than Reborn.
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This is false. The RAW on elven trance *explicitly states* that 4 hours of trance gets them the benefits of 8 hours of sleep, and since 8 hours of sleep gives the benefits of a long rest, so must 4 hours of trance.
sage advice compendium, version 2.6, page 2
The Trance is explicitly a Long Rest in 4 hours, confirmed in the official FAQ.
It’s not explicitly that anywhere in the PHB, where actual RULES are to be found, the SAC is meaningless when discussing RAW. Whatever, you either get it or you don’t, you can lead a horse to water etc etc
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