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So according to the wonders of multiclassing, it is possible to take levels in both Sorcerer (granting us sorcery points) and Warlock (giving us Pact Magic) which creates the handy combo of turning your unused Pact Magic spell slots into sorcery points thanks to the "flexible casting" ability; PHB101.

Now imagine you start your day as a 2nd level Sorcerer, 2nd level Warlock. You could effectively take 4 hours out of the start of your day in meditation and short rest (4 short rests) to convert each of your 2 pact magic warlock spell slots into 8 sorcery points. Anything sound wrong with this?

Rubiksmoose
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MrShoggs
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2 Answers2

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You cannot keep them as sorcery points, because:

You can never have more sorcery points than shown on the table for your level. (PHB 101)

But you can make spell slots out of them, as

The created spell slots vanish at the end of a long rest. (PHB errata v1.0)

So yes, you can "stack up".

Szega
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    This tweet might relevant: https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/1029177242985742337 – Tommi Dec 10 '18 at 05:38
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    @Thanuir I disagree with JC that that is a valid interpretation of what is written there. The problem is that the relevant passage here is not from the multiclass rules, but from those of flexible casting. Not mentioning something in one place does not overwrite mentioning it in another. He is just backpedaling out of something they did not phrase properly or turned out to be controversial. – Szega Dec 10 '18 at 09:32
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    I have no opinion on the correctness of the interpretation, but figured that addressing the tweet might improve your answer. Up to you. – Tommi Dec 11 '18 at 06:56
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    This is the basis for a cheesy build known as coffeelock, which takes multiple short rests in a row instead of taking a long rest in order to store up a large number of created spell slots. – Ettina Kitten May 12 '21 at 02:58
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Here I go, leaving unpopular clarifications again...

Short answer is NO, but it is complicated...

The question being answered here is "Is it possible to "charge up" a sorcerer/warlock by taking multiple short rests?".

~The assumption is the Coffeelock combo where you turn your Warlock Spell Slots into Sorcery Points, then your Sorcery Points into Sorcery Spell Slots, short rest for 1 hour to regain Warlock Spell Slots, then rinse and repeat. Stacking up to 8 hours worth of spell slots to use during your adventuring day.

There are a couple good reasons why this does not work.

Can work, but not indefinitely

A.) Short Rest and Long Rest are mutually exclusive.

This is backed by a JC tweet confirming that the intent was that you cannot take short rests and long rests at the same time. A long rest does not necessarily need to contain sleep, as there are species that simply do not sleep, like Elves, and Warforged. Also any Warlock with Aspect of the Moon also does not sleep. But they still need to long rest. As an excerpt of Xanathars Guide to Everything mentions.

Whenever you end a 24-hour period without finishing a long rest, you must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion.

It becomes harder to fight off exhaustion if you stay awake for multiple days. After the first 24 hours, the DC increases by 5 for each consecutive 24-hour period without a long rest. The DC resets to 10 when you finish a long rest.

With all that said, you would at this point be able to perform the base actions of a Coffeelock for a period or time before you become too exhausted to carry on, or need to take a night off to restart the long rest cycle. But there is more to elaborate on with regards to this consideration.

General Vs Specific kills it.

B.) Warlock Spell Slots are not eligible to be turned into Sorcery Points.

Another JC Tweet, as mentioned above by "Tommi" in a comment specifies that as intended the wording of the Multiclass and Spellcasting section of the PHB is intentionally excluding Pact Magic from other Spellcasting Classes. The wording is:

Pact Magic. If you have both the Spellcasting class feature and the Pact Magic class feature from the warlock class, you can use the spell slots you gain from the Pact Magic feature to cast spells you know or have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting class feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting class feature to cast warlock spells you know.

With that in consideration, your Pact Magic Spell Slots are separate from your Spellcasting Spell Slots and thus would not be viable with the Flexible casting feature. With this in mind you would most certainly be unable to use your Warlock Spell Slots to convert them to Sorcery Points. Which eliminates the popular Coffeelock combo from being viable, answering the question above as definitively as I can.

The reason your Pact Magic Slots and Spellcasting Slots are separate with this reading is that it specifies that you can use your Pact Magic slots for casting spells. It does not say you can use your Pact Magic slots interchangeably as spell slots in general, just to cast spells.

Font of Magic from the Sorcerer Class does not specify where the slots need to come from. It generalizes slots as its source. But considering the rule of specific vs general; because the multiclassing rules specify you can use your Pact Magic Slots for casting spells from other spellcasting classes, and not that you can use your Pact Magic Slots interchangeably as Spellcasting Slots, they would be ineligible as slots accessible to the Sorcerers Font of Magic feature.

DM-Sei
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  • Having only JC tweets as the only references puts this answer on shaky foundations as JC tweets aren't official rulings anymore. This answer would be improved by citing official sources supporting the ineligibility of pact magic spell slots for flexible casting. – GcL Sep 17 '22 at 01:01
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    Maybe I'm missing something, but I fail to see how long rests are relevant to this question (which is not about the full coffeelock as such, see related Q). And for B you should really show that reading, specifically what part of Font of Magic requires Sorcerer spell slots (being seperate is rather required for regaining on SR). JC presents it as a possible reading, which is very different from claiming it is the correct reading. Finally, I'd generally ask you'd refrain from the editorializing you have at the end. It reads like trying invalidate the opinion of others, which isn't great. – Someone_Evil Sep 17 '22 at 01:11
  • Well, I specified on the General vs Specific sourcing for Pact Magic in Multiclassing and Font of Magic. @GcL, and Someone_Evil, I removed the disclaimer. I have noticed a downvote culture on this website, even if something is factually presented, if it is an unpopular understanding, it is downvoted. So I put that in there hoping to appeal to the logical nature in people, as opposed to the emotional responses. I've removed it as it is indeed editorializing as you put it, and bad form to respond to bad form is just at the end of the day more bad form. – DM-Sei Sep 17 '22 at 02:01
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    @Someone_Evil, the reason I mentioned about Long rests, is that the question is about charging up the Warlock/Sorcerer. Which can work, depending on the DM's understanding of Multiclassing, but only temporarily as long rest would inhibit continual use of it. – DM-Sei Sep 17 '22 at 02:03