Can you rest while Paralyzed?

[Brennan1612]

Can you rest while Paralyzed?

[InvisibleBison]

Yes, you can. Resting consists of refraining from strenuous physical or mental activity. Being paralyzed doesn't interfere with your ability to not do things.

[Ashtagon]

I'd say yes, provided whoever last moved you left you in a reasonably comfortable position.

[Thurbane]

It really depends: are you looking for RAW (rules as written), RAI (rules as intended) or RAMS (rules as make sense)?

[Rynjin]

If sleeping is not a purely mental action, I don't know what is.

[Necroticplague]

paralysis doesn’t say it prevents rest, and resting doesn’t require an action (much less a physical one). On the contrary, it requires you not perform actions. So I’m not seeing any reason paralysis would prevent resting.

[Mordaedil]

I'd allow it for purposes of restoring hit points and ability points (your body is recovering, after all you aren't dead), but things like preparing spells and the like? You're kind of out of luck because it requires a very specific type of rest.

[Spore]

If sleeping is not a purely mental action, I don't know what is.

It is not. Have you ever worked hard or done sports and then went to bed? Also sleep is explicitly physical for D&D characters, since it removes fatigue, it removes hit point damage. So the question is warranted.

Personally yea, I would agree with Mord up there. Prepared casters won't get back spells. Spell slots maybe, but they cannot fill them.

[weckar]

So a sorcerer could cast their stilled+silent spells the next day?

[Andezzar]

So a sorcerer could cast their stilled+silent spells the next day?Only those that do not require material or focus components.

[King of Nowhere]

real world paralyzed people can rest just fine, and while real world and d&d don't always mesh together, I don't see why they should not in this case.

[Astralia123]

It is not. Have you ever worked hard or done sports and then went to bed? Also sleep is explicitly physical for D&D characters, since it removes fatigue, it removes hit point damage. So the question is warranted.

Personally yea, I would agree with Mord up there. Prepared casters won't get back spells. Spell slots maybe, but they cannot fill them.

Technically it works in this way: you get your slots back through a good sleep of 8 hours, and then you spend one hour (presumably just after you wake up, but it could be done later) reading your spellbook and refill your slots.

Well, by common sense you can't call a paralyzed sleep a "good rest", so I'd say it should work as if you haven't had a good sleep of 8 hours, no matter how you normally renew spells (pray, meditation, studying spellbooks, etc.).


And if you ask me, you can't call it good rest even you are left in a relatively comfortable state. When you get paralyzed, it is assumed all of your muscles "lock" tightly, which, I would assume, would not be very comfortable.

[Ashtagon]

real world paralyzed people can rest just fine, and while real world and d&d don't always mesh together, I don't see why they should not in this case.

It depends to a certain extent on whether the nature of the paralysis is that the muscles are locked in a relaxed state or locked in a tensed state, and the position the paralysed person is in when they became paralysed (or were last moved by a helper).

[OgresAreCute]

It depends to a certain extent on whether the nature of the paralysis is that the muscles are locked in a relaxed state or locked in a tensed state, and the position the paralysed person is in when they became paralysed (or were last moved by a helper).


A paralyzed character is frozen in place and unable to move or act.

"Frozen in place" and the fact that you don't slump over and go prone seem to imply that you're more locked up than ragdolled. In real life, most people who are paralyzed are unable to move because of things like spine damage, so they are limp rather than tensed. That's not how it is in D&D.

Looking up paralysis on Wikipedia, I found out something funny on the topic of this thread:

Temporary paralysis occurs during REM sleep, and dysregulation of this system can lead to episodes of waking paralysis.

That's right, being paralyzed is just a natural part of resting properly!

[Ashtagon]

"Frozen in place" and the fact that you don't slump over and go prone seem to imply that you're more locked up than ragdolled. In real life, most people who are paralyzed are unable to move because of things like spine damage, so they are limp rather than tensed. That's not how it is in D&D.

Looking up paralysis on Wikipedia, I found out something funny on the topic of this thread:


That's right, being paralyzed is just a natural part of resting properly!

Yeah, I was responding to someone talking about the effects of real-world paralysis. But go ahead and use the SRD to disprove real life.

[Rynjin]

It is not. Have you ever worked hard or done sports and then went to bed? Also sleep is explicitly physical for D&D characters, since it removes fatigue, it removes hit point damage. So the question is warranted.

Personally yea, I would agree with Mord up there. Prepared casters won't get back spells. Spell slots maybe, but they cannot fill them.

I think you are confusing the effects of sleep (lowered heartrate, muscle relaxation, etc.) with the actual process.

[Mordaedil]

real world paralyzed people can rest just fine, and while real world and d&d don't always mesh together, I don't see why they should not in this case.

I think that type of paralysis is a bit different from the D&D kind of paralysis. In D&D it just means you kind of freeze up and can't move, while in real life it means you've suffered a crippling injury you often can't recover from and while you may retain consciousness, you can't move certain limbs. And in some cases, you are in eternal pain and can't rest. Fun.