Spells to cast before a rest

[Quoz]

... or in between them. Playing a Ranger/EK multicalss for the first time today. Our party lacks a healer, so I wanted to cast goodberry and have my familiar on revival duty, readying its action each round to administer healing to any allies that fall unconscious. So before our long rest, I cast goodberry 3 times with my leftover spell slots.

But wait, I'm an elf. My long rest only takes 4 hours, so I can wake up in the middle of the night, cast another half dozen goodberries, and still have my full compliment of spell slots in the morning.

What other spells are good to cast for the next day like this? I know Aid and mage armor, even better with sorcerer using extend spell. Elves, warforged, and other creatures that stay conscious through a long rest can use higher slot castings of hex or hunters mark. Are there other good spells that can be cast and banked for the next adventuring day?

[Strifer]

Hey, the long rest rule for elves works differently. You are only uncouncious for 4h, the rest itself is still 8h total. Besides this point, you can only long rest once per 24h.

The trick don't work.

[Man_Over_Game]

Hey, the long rest rule for elves works differently. You are only uncouncious for 4h, the rest itself is still 8h total. Besides this point, you can only long rest once per 24h.

The trick don't work.

That's how it used to be.

Once upon a time, they had all Long Rests be 8 hours, but Elves could spend 4 of those hours doing something other than doing their Trance thing.

Recently (as in, 2017), they said that Trance fulfilled all the requirements for a Long Rest, so now Elves can finish their Long Rest in half the time.

[mephiztopheleze]

Are there other good spells that can be cast and banked for the next adventuring day?

If you have the spellslots remaining before you rest you could scribe a Glyph of Warding with a beneficial 8 hour buff in it, Mage Armour comes to mind (especially if the DM allows extra duration when up-cast). This will add an hour to the rest time and cost you 200 odd gold. You could also do a "Contingency->When I Wake Up Cast X" if you don't have one already, but that's a bit of a waste of a Contingency spell.

Other options would be some Divination type magic, Scrying on the BBEG for example or Contact Other Plane or similar.

I can't think of any useful buff spells with a duration longer than eight hours that you might burn an unexpended spellslot on.

[Dalebert]

But wait, I'm an elf. My long rest only takes 4 hours, so I can wake up in the middle of the night, cast another half dozen goodberries, and still have my full compliment of spell slots in the morning.


It's true. There was once some tweet from Crawford to the contrary but it was retracted and now elves are back to being able to rest in 4 hours. However, you still can't because of the long rest rules. From the PHB in the Resting section:

"A character can’t benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period..."

[Asmotherion]

Rope trick and latter Tiny Hut come to mind.

Now about double resting; You can technically profit of extra short rests to use-regain short rest dependant resources; You can however not profit of two long rests.

in actual gameplay don't expect this to go as planed.

[Guy Lombard-O]

It's not the kind of thing that's good for the next day, but my druid gets a great deal of utility for interruptions of his long rest by casting a Darkvision spell for the overnight.

[JackPhoenix]

It's true. There was once some tweet from Crawford to the contrary but it was retracted and now elves are back to being able to rest in 4 hours.

Reminder that SA tweets are no longer official, and the latest PHB errata doesn't say anything about elves requiring less time to take a long rest. Elves aren't "back to being able to rest in 4 hours", because they never were being able to do so.

[Keravath]

Reminder that SA tweets are no longer official, and the latest PHB errata doesn't say anything about elves requiring less time to take a long rest. Elves aren't "back to being able to rest in 4 hours", because they never were being able to do so.

However, the actual Sage Advice compendium IS considered official rules clarifications. Only JC's tweets are not considered official.

https://media.wizards.com/2019/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf

"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."

[Dalebert]

Reminder that SA tweets are no longer official, and the latest PHB errata doesn't say anything about elves requiring less time to take a long rest. Elves aren't "back to being able to rest in 4 hours", because they never were being able to do so.

The book says and always has said elves get the same benefit from 4 hour trancing as humans get for sleeping 8 hours. That's actually the RAW. It was only nerfed by a Crawford tweet. I agree with you that his tweets aren't RAW but that only backs up my point.

The whole point of the sage advice entry was to retract that Crawford tweet and put it back how it was. So many people were (and apparently still are) misled by it.

[KorvinStarmast]

My Life Domain cleric with Goodberry from Druid Mag Init always casts Goodberry before a long rests. 24 hours of healing/feeding for the next day.

Our Bard used to cast LTH before a long rest, as a ritual.

[Particle_Man]

Alarm if your DM likes to surprise you with night attacks?

[Vogie]

You still have to have a long rest, regardless of the sleep requirement. They've also stated that Aspect of the Moon or Undying Warlocks and Warforged still have to have a "long rest" even if they don't have to sleep - they're stuck with doing light activity - "reading, talking, eating, or standing watch"

EDIT: Also, a Sorcerer could use Extended spell on any spell with an 8+ hour duration, such as Mage Armor, Darkvision, or an upcast Dominate Monster. Divine Soul Sorcs have things like Aid, death ward, or Control Weather that they could use from the cleric list.

[Insoluble]

It's true. There was once some tweet from Crawford to the contrary but it was retracted and now elves are back to being able to rest in 4 hours. However, you still can't because of the long rest rules. From the PHB in the Resting section:

"A character can’t benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period..."

While I do think that this is the RAI, I would like to point out that the text for trance says that you gain the benefit of one long rest which, when read literally, means that you didn’t actually take one, only gained the benefits. If there’s some Sage Advice going against this, my mistake, but by strictly following the RAW you could benefit from multiple trances per day.

[Yunru]

While I do think that this is the RAI, I would like to point out that the text for trance says that you gain the benefit of one long rest which, when read literally, means that you didn’t actually take one, only gained the benefits. If there’s some Sage Advice going against this, my mistake, but by strictly following the RAW you could benefit from multiple trances per day.

I mean it makes sense, otherwise Catnap gets a little confusing :P
However, correct me if I'm wrong (going from memory), but RAW you get the same benefit as a regular player resting for 8 hours, not a full rest.

[Insoluble]

I mean it makes sense, otherwise Catnap gets a little confusing :P
However, correct me if I'm wrong (going from memory), but RAW you get the same benefit as a regular player resting for 8 hours, not a full rest.

Going from roll20, it says that you get the same benefit that a human does from sleeping for 8 hours, which means they get the benefit of one long rest even though they technically didn’t take one.

[Yunru]

Going from roll20, it says that you get the same benefit that a human does from sleeping for 8 hours, which means they get the benefit of one long rest even though they technically didn’t take one.

No! That's the important distinction. They don't get the benefit of one long rest! They get a long rest, which is the benefit of a human sleeping for 8 hours, if said human hasn't already taken a long rest within 24 hours. If a(n otherwise identical) human wouldn't get the long rest in the situation, the elf doesn't either.

[Lyracian]

While I do think that this is the RAI, I would like to point out that the text for trance says that you gain the benefit of one long rest which, when read literally, means that you didn’t actually take one, only gained the benefits. If there’s some Sage Advice going against this, my mistake, but by strictly following the RAW you could benefit from multiple trances per day.
It is a good job they changed it in the latest printing then. It now says "you gain the same benefits that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.". No mention of Long Rest in Trace. One of the benefits of sleep is a Long Rest which can only be done once per day.

[Yunru]

The real question should be:
Would you let an Elf get the benefit of a short rest after 30 minutes of trancing? :P

[JackPhoenix]

The book says and always has said elves get the same benefit from 4 hour trancing as humans get for sleeping 8 hours. That's actually the RAW. It was only nerfed by a Crawford tweet. I agree with you that his tweets aren't RAW but that only backs up my point.

The whole point of the sage advice entry was to retract that Crawford tweet and put it back how it was. So many people were (and apparently still are) misled by it.

Going from roll20, it says that you get the same benefit that a human does from sleeping for 8 hours, which means they get the benefit of one long rest even though they technically didn’t take one.


Thing is, humans don't get any benefit from sleeping 8 hours. Long rest is its own thing, separate from sleep. You can sleep without it counting as long rest, or you can take long rest without having to sleep. And while you risk taking exhaustion if you don't take long rest every 24 hours according to XGtE, you never need to actually sleep.

[Dalebert]

All the requirements of a long rest are UNAMBIGUOUSLY satisfied by a solid 8 hours of continuous sleep. So yes, an elf gets a long rest by a 4 hour trance. No, an elf still can't benefit from a long rest more than once per 24 hours.

[JackPhoenix]

All the requirements of a long rest are UNAMBIGUOUSLY satisfied by a solid 8 hours of continuous sleep. So yes, an elf gets a long rest by a 4 hour trance. No, an elf still can't benefit from a long rest more than once per 24 hours.

"Have not taken long rest in the last 24 hours" is one of the requirements of taking a long rest, and sleep doesn't change that. So is having at least 1 hp. So no, only *one* of the three requirements of a long rest is satifsied by sleeping for 8 hours.

And again, if you fulfil the other requirements, you can take long rest if you stare at a ceiling for 8 hours, without ever falling asleep, so sleeping has nothing do with taking long rest.

[Dalebert]

"Have not taken long rest in the last 24 hours" is one of the requirements of taking a long rest, and sleep doesn't change that. So is having at least 1 hp. So no, only *one* of the three requirements of a long rest is satifsied by sleeping for 8 hours.

And again, if you fulfil the other requirements, you can take long rest if you stare at a ceiling for 8 hours, without ever falling asleep, so sleeping has nothing do with taking long rest.

I understand and agree. You still have to have 1 hp and you can't benefit again if you've already done so during the 24 hour period. I'm only disputing people who claim an elf has to spend 8 hours of light activity. Sleeping for 8 hours is 8 hours of light activity and an elf trancing for 4 hours gets the same benefit AS IF they had slept for 8 hours. So they are able to fulfill the reqt for 8 hours of light activity in just 4 hours.

[strangebloke]

Hey, the long rest rule for elves works differently. You are only uncouncious for 4h, the rest itself is still 8h total. Besides this point, you can only long rest once per 24h.

The trick don't work.

This is the problem.

You can pull this trick off exactly once, and after that it will mean hours of delay for the party.