Heroic though they might be, adventurers can't spend every hour of the day in the thick of exploration, social interaction, and combat. They need rest-time to sleep and eat, tend their wounds, refresh their minds and spirits for spell casting, and brace themselves for further adventure. Adventurers can take short rests in the midst of an adventuring day and a long rest to end the day.

Combat Fatigue

Any creature performing continued rigorous activity for more than 10 rounds will become fatigued. “Rigorous Activity” is normally defined as melee or similar sorts of activity. A break (not engaging in melee or the like) of up to 1 round will allow further activity without threat of fatigue. If continuing activity for another 10 minutes, while fatigued, the creature will become exhausted. See Conditions.

Benefits of Resting

Quick Rest. Any party exploring an area should rest 10 minutes for every 1 hour spent exploring. Any creature that sustained damage in the last hour and has not been magically healed, can rest for 10 minutes to gain 1 hit point of natural healing.

Long Rest. Creatures that rest at least 24 hours will heal damage naturally. A period of 24 hours spent primarily resting is considered a long rest. At the end of this time, creatures resting will heal 1 hit point of damage for each hit die plus 1 hit point. Barbarians, fighters, rangers and paladins with a 17 Constitution or greater will heal an additional hit point of damage equal to their Constitution modifier -2. Creatures with hit dice with a "+" figure (e.g. HD 2+2) will gain hit points equal to the + figure.

Examples. A 4th level fighter with an 18 Constitution gains 5 hit points for hit dice and adds 2 hit points for their Constitution modifier for a total of 7 hit points gained for a long rest ([[4 HD * 1]+1]+[4 Con mod. - 2]). The fighter's war dog (HD 2+2) will heal 3 for hit dice and 2 for pluses or 5 hit points ([[2 HD *1]+1]+2].

Sleeping Requirements

For healthy humanoids that require rest, such a creature can operate effectively for a time with little sleep. However, at some point, effectiveness will be hampered. The following rules are for periods with little to no travel, otherwise, use rules for a forced march.

Humanoids will require a minimum amount of rest to avoid fatigue:

• 12 hours every 48 hours. At least 6 hours must be contiguous.

• 50 hours every 7 days. At least 4 periods of 6-hour-contiguous-rest is required (in sleep).

If not achieved, the individual will be fatigued. If the activity without rest continues, the individual will become exhausted. Further activity will bring on unconsciousness.

While Constitution plays a role, only low scores or legendary scores affect the sleeping requirement: For every Constitution point under 9, add 30 minutes to each 48-hour rest requirement and 2 hours to each 7-day rest requirement. Reverse this for each point of Constitution above 19.

Conditions (environmental, terrain, noise) may affect a creatures ability to achieve rest in whole or in part.

RESTING AND SPELLS

The time required in rest depends on the spell level to be recovered. See Spells.

HOW MANY SLEEP CYCLES?

In order to achieve the deep rest necessary to regain the ability to replace a prepared spell, a spell caster can only rest twice in any 24 hour span. This means, even spell casters desirous of regaining only lower level spells (e.g. a 4 hour rest) can only do so twice in this span and still recover spells.