This is more of a curiosity question as I will accept my DM's ruling.
I'm an Eladrin sorcerer in a Rime of the Frost Maiden campaign. I have Fey Ancestry with the ability to take a long rest with four hours of meditation. 2017 errata says I don't have to do the whole other activities plus sleep the way humans and other creatures do. Our DM is planning a grittier slog through the tundra with a short rest being 8 hours and a long rest not happening for days.
What exactly would that mean for an elf? As a sorcerer I really need those long rests, other wise I won't be an effective member of the party. Our DM wants to use the older ruling that elves still have to hang out for 4 hours on top of their trance to get a long rest. As I said for the sake of the story and to make it easier for the party I will go along with it but I was wondering what others think.
For reference our party is made up of a half orc cleric, a variant human ranger and a halfling artificer. We are currently level 4. I trust our DM not to TPK the party with excessive combat under these conditions. I'm guessing we will be taking levels of exhaustion which makes total sense given the environment. My subclass is Aberrant Mind so after Level 5 when I get the psionic spell Hunger of Hadar I will be trading it with Catnap to help the rest of the party. Thanks!
Technically trance does not give you the benefit of a long rest in 4 hours, what it give you is "the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep."
Normally, a human has the benefit of a long rest from 8 hours of sleep, so that is what it does.
If your DM's rules says that 8 hours of sleep only gives humans a short rest, then it does that instead.
... Our DM is planning a grittier slog through the tundra with a short rest being 8 hours and a long rest not happening for days.
What exactly would that mean for an elf?...
We don't know. This is a situation invented by your DM so anything we say is irrelevant. Maybe your short rests will only take 4 hours rather than 8 for the others. I very much doubt you will be the only member of the party able to take a long rest. The DM here appears to be purposely draining the whole party of resources to try to add drama.
Under normal rules the elf trance is really more of a flavor thing, since unless every member of the party are elves the long rest will still take the same time all up. Elves can spend more time during everyone else's long rest doing miscellaneous things, and if the party is ambushed during the night there is a better chance that the elf is already fully charged up. Otherwise it offers no great benefits.
It is supposed to force players to choose their battles, and run away or use diplomacy more. It works well in a campaign where combat is not the focus.
It is supposed to force players to choose their battles, and run away or use diplomacy more. It works well in a campaign where combat is not the focus.
That is my thinking too. It doesn't have any appreciable affect on the long rest since that will be a few days. I just thought it presented an interesting conundrum and was interested in what others thought.
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This is more of a curiosity question as I will accept my DM's ruling.
I'm an Eladrin sorcerer in a Rime of the Frost Maiden campaign. I have Fey Ancestry with the ability to take a long rest with four hours of meditation. 2017 errata says I don't have to do the whole other activities plus sleep the way humans and other creatures do. Our DM is planning a grittier slog through the tundra with a short rest being 8 hours and a long rest not happening for days.
What exactly would that mean for an elf? As a sorcerer I really need those long rests, other wise I won't be an effective member of the party. Our DM wants to use the older ruling that elves still have to hang out for 4 hours on top of their trance to get a long rest. As I said for the sake of the story and to make it easier for the party I will go along with it but I was wondering what others think.
For reference our party is made up of a half orc cleric, a variant human ranger and a halfling artificer. We are currently level 4. I trust our DM not to TPK the party with excessive combat under these conditions. I'm guessing we will be taking levels of exhaustion which makes total sense given the environment. My subclass is Aberrant Mind so after Level 5 when I get the psionic spell Hunger of Hadar I will be trading it with Catnap to help the rest of the party. Thanks!
Technically trance does not give you the benefit of a long rest in 4 hours, what it give you is "the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep."
Normally, a human has the benefit of a long rest from 8 hours of sleep, so that is what it does.
If your DM's rules says that 8 hours of sleep only gives humans a short rest, then it does that instead.
We don't know. This is a situation invented by your DM so anything we say is irrelevant. Maybe your short rests will only take 4 hours rather than 8 for the others. I very much doubt you will be the only member of the party able to take a long rest. The DM here appears to be purposely draining the whole party of resources to try to add drama.
Under normal rules the elf trance is really more of a flavor thing, since unless every member of the party are elves the long rest will still take the same time all up. Elves can spend more time during everyone else's long rest doing miscellaneous things, and if the party is ambushed during the night there is a better chance that the elf is already fully charged up. Otherwise it offers no great benefits.
His DM is basically just using the gritty realism rest variant from the DMG (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/dungeon-masters-workshop#AdventuringOptions).
It is supposed to force players to choose their battles, and run away or use diplomacy more. It works well in a campaign where combat is not the focus.
That is my thinking too. It doesn't have any appreciable affect on the long rest since that will be a few days. I just thought it presented an interesting conundrum and was interested in what others thought.