Questions for some experienced DM's out there!

[starkfan84]

First of all i would like to thank you for providing this forum. All of my questions will be involving 2nd edition DnD.

1. At the moment i am a 6th lvl high elf mage, and my party and I are pushing our way thru a forest and decided to camp for the nite. When we where asked to set up our sleep arangements and to see who is on watch at what times, I said I didnt need sleep (elves do not need sleep, but can if they wish.) But in order for a mage to memorize spells he must have a full nites rest. I argued with the DM that i should be able to memorize my spells with maybe 4 hours of sleep since i am a elf. My DM is a great DM everyone loves him but he wants some evidence that i can memorize my spells with little to no sleep. Please help we all looked in every manual we could to find the correct rule, but we left it at a elven mage must sleep at least 8 hours before he can memorize his spells again.

[Angelo]

In the "gold box" AD&D video games, spells of a particular level took the same amount of time to memorize, regardless of race. But then again, really high level characters would spend multiple days memorizing spells, not just a night's rest.

If elves really don't need sleep in your game setup, then I would probably agree to allow you to keep watch while memorizing your spells: a sort of compromise where you can't be as alert as you'd like to be because you're focusing on the memorization and/or meditation required. This means that while you'd be on watch, creatures still might have a small chance of surprising you, esp if they're trying.

[Bahumuth]

I think your DM is right on this one. The whole "elves meditate instead of sleep" is just a cultural tidbit to make elves different than humans. It doesn't mean elves don't need to meditate as much to get a full night's rest or that they can memorize spells with less "sleep." So I'm afraid your party will just have to stick around for an extra 4 hours in order to get their daily quotient of spells.