Level Up (A5E) acolyte squad casting sleep

[Jacob Vardy]

I might be late to the party on this, and i didn't see anything with a quick search, but a squad casting 'sleep' is really powerful. Assuming five times the damage counts for the sleep spell, that's 100 (20d10) hitpoints. And it is not concentration, so that squad can cast the spell three times.

The humble looking acolytes in the background start singing in chorus, and suddenly you are feeling very sleepy.

A fun little surprise for the players but really good if they are facing someone who doesn't want to kill the PCs.

For me at least, the squad template has been a gift that just keeps giving. Thank you.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I might be late to the party on this, and i didn't see anything with a quick search, but a squad casting 'sleep' is really powerful. Assuming five times the damage counts for the sleep spell, that's 100 (20d10) hitpoints. And it is not concentration, so that squad can cast the spell three times.



A fun little surprise for the players but really good if they are facing someone who doesn't want to kill the PCs.

For me at least, the squad template has been a gift that just keeps giving. Thank you.

i don't think that works raw (it's not damage)...but i'd roll with it. that's wild.

i never even CONSIDERED making spellcasting squads. which is crazy, because i've considered making airships that fly via multiple casters concentrating on a rare fly spell to make it float. that's a whole other REALM of squad possibilities.

 

[Morrus]

The sleep spell doesn’t do damage.

 

[SkidAce]

The sleep spell doesn’t do damage.

"I think" they were suggesting adding the average hp affected by sleep (20 ish) by the number of acolytes in the squad (5?) to get a combined hp total for sleep of 100.

Still not how it works, but interesting.

 

[Morrus]

"I think" they were suggesting adding the average hp affected by sleep (20 ish) by the number of acolytes in the squad (5?) to get a combined hp total for sleep of 100.

Still not how it works, but interesting.

Correct, that’s not how it works.

 

[lichmaster]

Correct, that’s not how it works.

So, a squad multiplies the damage of cantrips but not of leveled spells?

 

[lichmaster]

I might be late to the party on this, and i didn't see anything with a quick search, but a squad casting 'sleep' is really powerful. Assuming five times the damage counts for the sleep spell, that's 100 (20d10) hitpoints. And it is not concentration, so that squad can cast the spell three times.

On top of @Morrus saying this is not how's supposed to work (I did ask for clarification though), I'd add that even if the affected hit points were to be multiplied (meaning multiple simultaneous casts of Sleep) the max hp of each creature affected still has to be below the max of a single cast.
Meaning, if it's 4x5d10, each creature affected could have up to 50hp (which is the strongest creature you could affect with a single cast), not 200hp. So a squad of acolytes won't put a 10th level fighter asleep.

 

[Distracted DM]

My house-rule for squads of casters is allowing them to upcast spells. So they won't have access to higher level spells, but upcasting Sleep would be on the table. Still doesnt make it all that effective at the levels you'd be fighting such things at, but it's something.

Narratively it's sort of like group/circle-casting, all of them working together to cast a greater spell.

 

[Distracted DM]

So, a squad multiplies the damage of cantrips but not of leveled spells?

I can see the strangeness here. I'm going to guess that you won't get much satisfaction cuz the rules just don't cover this instance.

Squads treat their damage as a single attack. A spear, x5 damage, single attack roll.
Casting a cantrip, same
Say they're casting inflict wounds.. lvl 1 inflict wounds, x5, 1 attack roll.

The problem is that Sleep doesn't deal damage...
Ok, so if a squad casts cure wound, yeah we can assume that'd be x5

But sleep is a really weird spell in this instance.

Really you'd just end up rolling 5 separate instances of sleeps base dice, and taking the highest result? Maybe that. Or roll them all and take the highest dice.

But in the end, it's gonna be the GMs ruling cuz it's just not covered.

 

[lichmaster]

Narratively it's sort of like group/circle-casting, all of them working together to cast a greater spell.

Proper rules for group casting are still a design niche that needs to be tapped in a5e IMO. This is simple and reasonable, I may test it at my table