How long do Wizards have to rest?

[Story]

How long do Wizards have to rest, and what are the ways to reduce it?

PHB says Elves get the same benefit as Humans sleeping in 4 hours of trancing, which presumably includes spell preparation.

LM says that Undead have to rest for 8 hours. So presumably this means that Undead Elf Wizards rest for 4 hours to regain spells but non-Elf Undead have to rest for 8 hours? This doesn't make much sense, but I guess that's RAW.

Also, how do you reduce resting time? Offhand, the only ways I can think of are
Fortifying Bedroll - 1hr, but only usable every 48 hours.
Ring of Sustenance - 2hrs

[Crake]

In the entry for preparing spells, it says, no matter what, you need 8 hours of restful calm to prepare spells. Note it's not about sleeping, it's about restful calm, so things that reduce your need to sleep don't affect it at all.

Edit: This means that elves only need to trance for 4 hours to gain the benefit of 8 hours of sleep, but if they want to regain spells, they still need another 4 hours of restful calm to regain spells.

[Kraken]

My wizards who don't sleep write trashy romance novels to pass the time. To fit your character you can substitute any other activity that requires no thought or effort whatsoever. :smallbiggrin:

[Barbarian Horde]

Ring of Sustance -This ring continually provides its wearer with life-sustaining nourishment. The ring also refreshes the body and mind, so that its wearer needs only sleep 2 hours per day to gain the benefit of 8 hours of sleep. The ring must be worn for a full week before it begins to work. If it is removed, the owner must wear it for another week to reattune it to himself.

I've always ruled that as 2 hours of sleep to reset spells. That could be argued, has been argued, still is argued.
Why some DM say you prepare spells every 24 hours.
Other DM count 8hours as a days rest.

[Reshy]

Fortifying Bedroll reduces the time needed for them to retain their spells to 1 hour.

[Crake]

The 8 hours is time spent refreshing your mind. While this time can overlap with the time you spend resting to heal/sleep or whatever, they are not the same thing. Gaining the benefit of 8 hours of sleep is not the same as spending 8 hours refreshing your mind. This is made very clear in the section on regaining spells when it says if you do not need to sleep for 8 hours for any reason, you must still spend the remainder of your time in restful calm. It even goes on call out elves as an example, meaning 8 hours of restful calm does not equate 8 hours of sleep. As such, a ring of sustenance will not help reduce the time needed to prepare and cast spells. Only the fortifying bedroll does so, because it specifically says that it does.

[Kraken]

Even the utility of fortifying bedrolls is limited, though. Spells cast in the last 8 hours count against what you can prepare after resting in it, so if you want your full complement of spells the next day, you still need to have spent the last 8 hours not casting any spells. You're just less limited in the things you can do during the downtime.

[Barbarian Horde]

If the character does not need to sleep for some reason, she/he still must have 8 hours of restful calm before preparing any spells.

Sleep is a kind of rest.

The ring says "The ring also refreshes the body and mind, so that its wearer needs only sleep 2 hours per day to gain the benefit of 8 hours of sleep. "

Then again it's wording needs fixing. I've read the arguments.

Otherwise...

You still can only prepare spells once every 24 hours, and the limitation on spell slots you've recently cast from still applies. So no matter what you still wouldn't have new spells, but you did get a full 8 hours of sleep. So would I allow it? Prob not. In my opinion though I vote it does work though. So long as your DM allows you to restock spells after resting for 8 hours normally.
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Also if resting for 24 hours is an issue, get a rod of extend and cast rope trick. Make sure you have a rope that has blasting runes all over it to instant kill something in the night.