Undead subject to sleep?

[Crashy75]

So, I was looking over the Rules Lite 1.1 and came across this...

Sleep Wizard Attack 1
You exert your will against your foes, seeking to
overwhelm them with a tide of magical weariness.
Daily ✦ Arcane, Implement, Sleep
Standard Action Area burst 2 within 20 squares
Target: Each creature in burst
Attack: Int vs. Will
Hit: The target is slowed (save ends). If the target
fails its first saving throw against this power, the
target becomes unconscious (save ends).
Miss: The target is slowed (save ends).

Bold mine...

I compared it with this:

Blazing Skeleton
Level 5 Artillery
Medium natural animate (undead) XP 200
Initiative +6 Senses Perception +4; darkvision
Fiery Aura (Fire) aura 1; any creature starting its turn in the area takes 5 fire damage.
HP 53; Bloodied 26
AC 19; Fortitude 15, Reflex 18, Will16
Immune disease, poison; Resist 10 fire, 10 necrotic; Vulnerable 5 radiant
Speed 6
Blazing Claw (standard; at-will) • Fire +8 vs. AC; 1d4+1 damage, and ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends)
Flame Orb (standard; at-will) • Fire Range 10; +8 vs. Reflex; 2d4+4 fire damage, and ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends)
Alignment Unaligned Languages - Str 13 (+3) Dex 18 (+6) Wis 15 (+4) Con 17 (+5) Int 4 (-1) Cha 6 (-0)

Again, bold mine. This seems to imply that undead are affected by the sleep spell. I'm not sure how I feel about it (it is a per-day after all...) but I figured I'd bring it up.
Thoughts?

 

[Wiman]

Strange.....very strange....but interesting.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Lets see here... Hmm, either misprint. Or...

Perhaps they still want the Slow effect to work on undead... Hmm, could be Sleep works differently on undead, hmm... Time for random made-up fluff!

Sleep effects the target by influencing the passage of time within the mindset, making them feel sleepy as if they have been awake for days or even weeks. It also thusly makes the body feel tired and slowed.

On undead, it affects it differently this contradictory time-frame interferes with the controlling factor of the undead, causing it either unable to control its body thus collapsing or slowing its movements to exact more control over itself.

Ahh, random fluff it is fun.

 

[Satori5000]

Could also be that all undead share certain traits and the ones they have statted only show what that particular one has immunities to minus the basic undead immunities.

 

[Dragonblade]

I look at it like this. It doesn't make the undead really fall asleep per se. Its more of a magical compulsion that suppresses their consciousness and motor control.

 

[Khaim]

minus the basic undead immunities.

There are no basic undead immunities. That's one of the things they wanted to get rid of: important rules (like Immune Sleep) that aren't in the statblock and you have to spend time looking up.

 

[cdrcjsn]

Daily ✦ Arcane, Implement, Sleep

It's interesting that Sleep is a descriptor. Whether that means anything remains to be seen.

 

[Revinor]

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.

 

[Dausuul]

So, I was looking over the Rules Lite 1.1 and came across this...

Bold mine...

I compared it with this:

Again, bold mine. This seems to imply that undead are affected by the sleep spell. I'm not sure how I feel about it (it is a per-day after all...) but I figured I'd bring it up.
Thoughts?

My instinctive reaction was "Wha? I'm house-ruling that, dangit!"

Then I thought about it some more and realized there's really no good reason why undead should be immune to sleep magic. Poison and disease, yes; undead that were vulnerable to those would be monumentally stupid. But sleep? Lots of undead "sleep," usually during the daytime--vampires are the archetypal example.

I wouldn't describe it as sleep in the usual sense, of course, more of a trance--or for mindless undead, a temporary lapse back into death. But I'm cool with undead being subject to sleep.

Now, some things seem a bit less appropriate, like fear effects... but maybe those will specify in the power text whether they work on undead.

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 just hope incorporeal creatures remain immune to nonmagical weapons.

 

[Crashy75]

It's interesting that Sleep is a descriptor. Whether that means anything remains to be seen.

I had assumed it was for things like immunities myself.

I look at it like this. It doesn't make the undead really fall asleep per se. Its more of a magical compulsion that suppresses their consciousness and motor control.

...On undead, it affects it differently this contradictory time-frame interferes with the controlling factor of the undead, causing it either unable to control its body thus collapsing or slowing its movements to exact more control over itself.

I could get behind either/both of these. Consciousness or motor control would depend on whether it affects incorporeal undead I suppose. Thinking about it, I like the idea that it suppresses consciousness the best; it fits with the name of the spell and is believable. It seems that even formerly non-sentient undead now have some sort of consciousness.