D&D 5E Sleep spell overpowered?

[SheckyS]

So I'm kinda new to 5e and I am about to DM my first game (via FantasyGrounds).
I've got 5 PCs, one of which is a Wizard with the Sleep spell.

According to all of the encounter difficult calculators I can find, 4 Kobolds will be Easy for this group and 5-7 will be medium difficult. But...

Kobolds average 5 HPs each.

And Sleep affects 5d8 hit points worth of enemies, right (for an average of around 22.5 HPs)? So that's at least 4 Kobolds knocked out and essentially dead in one shot. And apparently the Kobolds don't even get a save - or at least the spell description doesn't indicate one.

So isn't that kinda... overpowered?
Or have I got something wrong?

 

[slaughterj]

Sleep happens to be particularly effective in that situation, but you can see another recent Sleep thread to get more perspective on it.

 

[kbrakke]

Clarification, it's not at least 4, it's on average 4.
Sleep is pretty good early in a fight against large numbers of low hp targets. This prevents the aoe from potentially hitting allies (Though at 5 hp, it's unlikely a PC will go to sleep first) and it presents the foes with a decision of wake up the allies or try to win with fewer numbers. That is what it was designed for and that's what it is good at.

It's really bad in other situations. Repeat the same encounter with the same xp worth of zombies, it's really bad there. Or just a single CR 1 enemy, like the 40ish HP bugbear.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

There's a very particular range of creatures that Sleep is useful against, and this is one of them. Sure, you might get four Kobolds, but you would only get one single Orc. In general, the HP of monsters scale much more quickly than the Sleep spell does, so it's not that great against anything much more powerful.

One of the reasons the game includes fights against small monsters is so that the characters will use up their resources (HP and spells), so that later fights will be more dangerous. Even if the Wizard just casts this one spell, and ends the encounter instantly, that's still half of the Wizard's spell slots that are gone for the day! The Wizard can't do that in every encounter, and if she has nothing left when they get to the Kobold Boss, then she's not going to be very useful (although she still probably has a dagger or a light crossbow or something).

Also, keep in mind that you can wake someone up from sleeping by spending an action. If there are six Kobolds in the group, and four of them go to sleep, then the other two can spend their actions to wake up two of the sleeping ones. It doesn't necessarily end the fight right away. Just be careful about making the Wizard player feel lame, if only half of the group falls asleep and the other half wake them up, and it's like the spell didn't really do anything.

 

[SheckyS]

Clarification, it's not at least 4, it's on average 4.
Sleep is pretty good early in a fight against large numbers of low hp targets. This prevents the aoe from potentially hitting allies (Though at 5 hp, it's unlikely a PC will go to sleep first) and it presents the foes with a decision of wake up the allies or try to win with fewer numbers. That is what it was designed for and that's what it is good at.

It's really bad in other situations. Repeat the same encounter with the same xp worth of zombies, it's really bad there. Or just a single CR 1 enemy, like the 40ish HP bugbear.

All good points. It just so happens that my first adventure is Kobold-heavy, though. And the PCs are gonna mop the floor with them.

 

[kbrakke]

All good points. It just so happens that my first adventure is Kobold-heavy, though. And the PCs are gonna mop the floor with them.

Given how quickly the tides can turn in low level 5e I wouldn't worry. After they use this on the first group the second one will get them. I remember my experience with the first starter set encounter which is 4 goblins. Every time there were a few turns where a goblin hitting a PC would have turned the tied in favor of the goblins, this is after a sleep spell took two of them out.

Unless your party really pushes for the 5 minute adventuring day, the wizard using his spells to significantly alter encounters is his job, but not game breaking.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The easiest way to even the odds is to spread the kobolds out and engage in ranged attacks in the beginning, rather than grouping them in a single formation. That way, the sleep spell can only target one or two at a time.

According to all of the encounter difficult calculators I can find, 4 Kobolds will be Easy for this group and 5-7 will be medium difficult. But...

Kobolds average 5 HPs each.

And Sleep affects 5d8 hit points worth of enemies, right (for an average of around 22.5 HPs)? So that's at least 4 Kobolds knocked out and essentially dead in one shot. And apparently the Kobolds don't even get a save - or at least the spell description doesn't indicate one.

So isn't that kinda... overpowered?
Or have I got something wrong?

 

[slaughterj]

Just be careful about making the Wizard player feel lame, if only half of the group falls asleep and the other half wake them up, and it's like the spell didn't really do anything.

Actually that's still quite powerful, basically like a Time Walk or mini-Haste type effect. If half the foes sleep, and the other half spend their combat action to wake their sleeping comrades, then the rest of the PCs get a whole extra free round of attacks on the Kobolds while not getting attacked back, that's pretty significant.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Actually that's still quite powerful, basically like a Time Walk or mini-Haste type effect. If half the foes sleep, and the other half spend their combat action to wake their sleeping comrades, then the rest of the PCs get a whole extra free round of attacks on the Kobolds while not getting attacked back, that's pretty significant.

It's something, but we've also all been in fights where the party misses for the whole round. Especially at level 1, when nobody is going to do anything fancy, it could easily turn out underwhelming.

Personally, if I was DMing that encounter, I would have the remaining Kobolds run away. That gives the players something interesting to do on the next round, and even if those ones escape, it doesn't negate your big spell that was cast. That's just me, though. Kobolds are a cowardly lot.

 

[I'm A Banana]

All good points. It just so happens that my first adventure is Kobold-heavy, though. And the PCs are gonna mop the floor with them.

Keep in mind the #1 weakness of any spellcaster: they only have so many slots. Stick to the daily XP guidelines in the DMG, and space out encounters, and you might see sleep dominate in a fight or two, but over the course of the whole adventure, it shouldn't dominate.