Wizard Sleep CSR Ruling

[DanmarLOK]

As this is my third posting it's going to be a little short but to whit:

The Wizard Sleep spell can only be 'broken' by the slept creature making its saving throw. Damage, yelling, tickling, cold water, will not affect the magic induced sleep.

That's from a CSR in response to a question I had based on the question of someone else and I was curious as to the real verdict.

Anyway thought in case someone here doesn't use the official forums this might help them if they had a question about it.

 

[jaelis]

Well... I would think the effect could be lifted by a Remove Affliction ritual as well. Just in case you run into a wizard who has managed to impose a -10 penalty on the save

 

[mach1.9pants]

I didn't realise that was in doubt. The spell maybe called sleep but it makes you unconscious, not asleep! You normally cannot wake an unconscious person by tickling them

 

[Caliber]

I didn't realise that was in doubt. The spell maybe called sleep but it makes you unconscious, not asleep! You normally cannot wake an unconscious person by tickling them

In that case I better stop punching my friend and get him to the hospital!

 

[DanmarLOK]

Of course it was in doubt. Everything's in doubt by someone.

I do think it may be very OP by a smart group though, at least 20% of the time. 5 players playing wisely, not exploiting could get 9 critical hits on your BBEG 20% of the time, i.e. when your BBEG rolls a 1-4 on his save versus this effect. It would require them to coordinate attacks and burn an action point but they'd be at a significant +to hit and each hit is an automatic critical if they simply say they're Coup De Grace'ing the thing while it's unconcious. And each time the BBEG manages to fail on its turn that's another 5 possible critical hits. With combat advantage so rogues are having a field day.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Well... I would think the effect could be lifted by a Remove Affliction ritual as well. Just in case you run into a wizard who has managed to impose a -10 penalty on the save

Custserv has also said (save ends) effects wear off in 5 minutes.
Though by RAW that's incorrect, I can see that the intent was for longer durations to require rituals.
So I'm happy with this one.

 

[1of3]

Damage, yelling, tickling, cold water, will not affect the magic induced sleep.

Of course, yelling, tickling and cold water might help, when accompanied by a DC 15 Heal check.

Well... I would think the effect could be lifted by a Remove Affliction ritual as well. Just in case you run into a wizard who has managed to impose a -10 penalty on the save

Wait... Is there a way to impose a lasting penalty to saving throws other than Spell Focus?

 

[Runestar]

Wait... Is there a way to impose a lasting penalty to saving throws other than Spell Focus?

Orb implement.

An epic wizard with wis28 and spell focus can impose a -11 save penalty on a single foe 1/encounter. For normal foes without any innate bonus to their saves, this means that they can never succeed at their saving throw to shrug off said effect (even a natural 20 gives just a net result of 9, shy of the 10 needed for success). As such, any spell which imposes a status effect such as sleep, prismatic spray or legion's hold would effectively lock them down for good.

So if you ruled that sleep had no duration, that implies said monster would be put to sleep forever and ever.

 

[lukelightning]

So if you ruled that sleep had no duration, that implies said monster would be put to sleep forever and ever.

Or maybe until woken by their true love's kiss...

 

[DanmarLOK]

Heh, not having either an orb wizard or a Sleep wizard in my group I hadn't noticed that.

That means that even at first level if a wise orb wizard does this that BBEG now has a 40% chance to fail the saving throw and that 40% continues on each round. So now with an 18 wisdom Orb Wizard casting sleep, a little less that 50% of your BBEG's will go down without a fight in a couple of rounds.

That makes me very glad I don't have a Sleeping Wizard in my group. Because they're smart enough to figure out this legitimate as of right now use for this spell.

Orb implement.

An epic wizard with wis28 and spell focus can impose a -11 save penalty on a single foe 1/encounter. For normal foes without any innate bonus to their saves, this means that they can never succeed at their saving throw to shrug off said effect (even a natural 20 gives just a net result of 9, shy of the 10 needed for success). As such, any spell which imposes a status effect such as sleep, prismatic spray or legion's hold would effectively lock them down for good.

So if you ruled that sleep had no duration, that implies said monster would be put to sleep forever and ever.