Sleeping undead

[Turtlejay]

I was DMing a game today and the wizard sleeped the skeletons. We all felt a little oogie about this so we dug through the rules to see if it is explicitly forbidden and it isnt. Undead are immune to powers that target living creatures, but sleep doesnt specify. While common sense says that the living dead don't sleep, I hate just houseruling something away on that. One player suggested the sleep of the dead, which is a good flavorwise way of putting it, but has anyone else run into this? What did you do?

Jay

 

[Starbuck_II]

I was DMing a game today and the wizard sleeped the skeletons. We all felt a little oogie about this so we dug through the rules to see if it is explicitly forbidden and it isnt. Undead are immune to powers that target living creatures, but sleep doesnt specify. While common sense says that the living dead don't sleep, I hate just houseruling something away on that. One player suggested the sleep of the dead, which is a good flavorwise way of putting it, but has anyone else run into this? What did you do?

Jay

The Sleep spell causes unconsioiusness not sleeping.
More like a robot example: Shutdown sequence. They restart soon (after save) but temporarily they are off-line.

 

[Traken]

I was DMing a game today and the wizard sleeped the skeletons. We all felt a little oogie about this so we dug through the rules to see if it is explicitly forbidden and it isnt. Undead are immune to powers that target living creatures, but sleep doesnt specify. While common sense says that the living dead don't sleep, I hate just houseruling something away on that. One player suggested the sleep of the dead, which is a good flavorwise way of putting it, but has anyone else run into this? What did you do?

Jay

This was taken care of in Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters. The preview books have excellent fluff material (that should have made it into the DMG somehow...). There are three basic things to a creature: the body, the animus, and the soul. The body is... well, the physical part. The animus is a kind of spiritual entity that controls the body. The soul is ... the soul. Won't go much into that for religious reasons.

Most creatures possess a body, an animus, and a soul. Undead, however, are [normally] beings that have had their soul torn out, leaving just the animus.

The spell Sleep actually makes creatures unconscious. [Fluff justification for working on undead How it makes this possible is by interuppting the connection between the animus and the body. Without something to control the body, the body turns into a wet noodle and falls to the ground. After succeeding on a Saving Throw, the animus is reconnected with the body, and everything is quite peachy afterward.

 

[Danceofmasks]

I just chalk it up to "new edition, new rules."
Some constructs are immune to sleep (i.e. anything with the keyword), and that's cool.
Considering how many things have changed, from cosmology to population demographics (including anything without a class not having a ready means to pick up any classes), I'm not fussed about undead physiology.
Y'know .. sort of like the Vampires in Underworld just being mutants, or whatever.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Of course undead sleep! What else do they do during the long centuries of guard work? Play cards?