Undead subject to sleep?

[Dragonblade]

Maybe I'm just not paying enough attention, but where did this info come from? This is the first time I've seen the term "animus" come up concerning 4e.

They talk about it in the Worlds and Monsters preview book that came out in January.

 

[Exen Trik]

They talk about it in the Worlds and Monsters preview book that came out in January.

Ah I see, I haven't read that firsthand yet. Thanks.

And I for one like this change, because the idea of tired, drowsy, yawning skeletons makes me giggle.

 

[Raith5]

As far as I understand 4th edition, they wanted to have all effects working on all enemies, to avoid situations in which you lose too much effectiveness due to resistances.

I'm 99% sure that there is no blank immunity for undead against mind affecting spells/sleep/etc.

I don't see any problem here - undead have animus in 4th ed, sleep is affecting animus,
original monster/humanoid from which skeleton was created was sleeping, so animus 'remembers' the idea of sleeping.

I think that sleep works also on the races which never sleep (some kind of fey/elf/eladrin?). So even elven skeleton will happily take a nap if enchanted.

Hmmm. I appreciate this (and admire the end of spell resistance and crit immunity), but at what point does this become absurd? Are golems going to be affected by sleep?

There is also a danger that this "give everyone a chance" to affect the outcome of combats conflicts with the roles of specific PC classes. Should clerics turn goblins?

 

[Demigonis]

It's a magical sleep spell... is further explanation necessary?

 

[med stud]

It's a magic sleep spell, there are no magic sleep spells in the real world that we can compare to. There are also no undead in reallity to compare with, therefore we can't say if it's logical that undead are immune to sleep or not.

When there is no examples to draw from reality, it can be either way. Zombies could be awake 24/7 or they could sleep like cats. No answer is better than the other. Even if they never sleep, a magic sleep spell could be potent enough to put even the sleepless to sleep.

 

[UndeadScottsman]

It's a magical sleep spell... is further explanation necessary?

That's the way I look at it. Regardless of whether a target is able to experience natural sleep, the spell forces them into a magical sleep.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm sure if one looked in myth, legend, and other fiction, we'd find the vast majority of constructs & undead neither sleep nor are affected by magical compulsions to sleep or mimic other bodily function.

In fact, the Western Vampire is the only one I can think of offhand that goes into any form of dormancy in a daily cycle...but even so, legends vary as to whether this is a true torpor dictated by "biological" functions or just the nececcity of seeking shelter from the sun. In many older stories, sleeping vampires are often easy pickings for vampire hunters unless they have a living thrall watching and guarding their crypts, but modern fiction like 30 days of Night depict vampires that need not "sleep" unless threatened by sunrise.

 

[hong]

Mummies sleep until awakened by grave robbers intent on desecrating their tombs. Wights ditto.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

But is that sleep or merely a "stand-by" mode?

I can't speak to the wights, but in some of the rare fiction in which the mummy's point of view is depicted, its about a 50/50 split between "sleep" and a fully aware immobility.

 

[hong]

But is that sleep or merely a "stand-by" mode?

Discerning the difference is an exercise left to the reader.