I will be starting an urban campaign as a level 2 wizard. I have been agonizing over my spell selections, and loving every moment of it. One of the spells I've been considering is Sleep. I don't have a lot of experience playing D&D, but I've heard Sleep is quite powerful at low levels and is pretty much worthless by about level 5. I'm hesitant to pick Sleep for two reasons: 1) We're starting the campaign at level 2, so that's already cut into the time I have for Sleep to be useful. 2) Being an urban campaign, I'm guessing our party will be encountering a lot of humanoid enemies - ie. what is found in the PHB as playable races. I'm thinking Sleep would be able to take down fewer humans and dwarves and such even at low levels than a bunch of goblins. This second reason is just speculation. I don't know what my DM has planned for how the city is populated. There might be goblins and trolls living along side everyone else for all I know. Any advice I could get on how useful Sleep might be in my situation would be appreciated. Also, the spells I'm pretty settled on so far are: Mage Armor, Shield, Detect Magic, Magic Missile, Grease, and Feather Fall. The other spells I've been thinking the most about adding to my finalized spell list along with Sleep are Alarm and/or Tasha's Hideous Laughter. Advice on these is also welcome.
The thing with sleep is that people are under the impression that it has to be used at the beginning of a fight, with the idea being that you are ending a battle before it even begins. And if you happen to be fighting lower HP enemies such as the aforementioned goblins then this is a good strategy. However, outside of such scenarios, sleep can still be quite potent in the middle of a fight or even near the end. Because whether you are facing a group of enemies or a single one, eventually, the HP of your target (or targets) will be within reach of sleep. Granted, using sleep like this requires more strategy and familiarity with your enemies as well as the HP of your allies. But those two issues shouldn't be a problem, especially if your DM is good at indicating the HP of foes.
If you don't need Sleep at higher levels, then just don't prepare it. Learning it now isn't going to cost you in the long run either, since as a wizard, you can simply inscribe new spells into your spellbook at a cost. Also note that the spell says current hit points, so it's not completely useless at higher levels either, as you can damage your enemy a bit before putting them to sleep.
If nothing else, making people fall asleep could be a pretty funny way to avoid a social encounter if your wizard is shy.
Yup, sleep remains a pretty good spell at higher levels.
Think of this - at say 7th level you could cast it using a 4th level spell slot. The upcasting adds an additional 6d8 hp for a total of 11d8 hp affected. On average that's 50 hit points.
As a 7th level wizard, what has 50 hit points or less? Almost guaranteed any other Wizard or Sorcerer.
Sleep doesn't even allow a saving throw.
As a side note - as a DM, always try to surround your casters with a minion or two who have slightly lower max hit points, to counter this. ;)
Another good thing about sleep is when you need to get information from someone, you can cast it late in the fight to take them out of play. Also useful for stopping runaway bad guys.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I will be starting an urban campaign as a level 2 wizard. I have been agonizing over my spell selections, and loving every moment of it. One of the spells I've been considering is Sleep. I don't have a lot of experience playing D&D, but I've heard Sleep is quite powerful at low levels and is pretty much worthless by about level 5. I'm hesitant to pick Sleep for two reasons: 1) We're starting the campaign at level 2, so that's already cut into the time I have for Sleep to be useful. 2) Being an urban campaign, I'm guessing our party will be encountering a lot of humanoid enemies - ie. what is found in the PHB as playable races. I'm thinking Sleep would be able to take down fewer humans and dwarves and such even at low levels than a bunch of goblins. This second reason is just speculation. I don't know what my DM has planned for how the city is populated. There might be goblins and trolls living along side everyone else for all I know. Any advice I could get on how useful Sleep might be in my situation would be appreciated. Also, the spells I'm pretty settled on so far are: Mage Armor, Shield, Detect Magic, Magic Missile, Grease, and Feather Fall. The other spells I've been thinking the most about adding to my finalized spell list along with Sleep are Alarm and/or Tasha's Hideous Laughter. Advice on these is also welcome.
The thing with sleep is that people are under the impression that it has to be used at the beginning of a fight, with the idea being that you are ending a battle before it even begins. And if you happen to be fighting lower HP enemies such as the aforementioned goblins then this is a good strategy. However, outside of such scenarios, sleep can still be quite potent in the middle of a fight or even near the end. Because whether you are facing a group of enemies or a single one, eventually, the HP of your target (or targets) will be within reach of sleep. Granted, using sleep like this requires more strategy and familiarity with your enemies as well as the HP of your allies. But those two issues shouldn't be a problem, especially if your DM is good at indicating the HP of foes.
If you don't need Sleep at higher levels, then just don't prepare it. Learning it now isn't going to cost you in the long run either, since as a wizard, you can simply inscribe new spells into your spellbook at a cost. Also note that the spell says current hit points, so it's not completely useless at higher levels either, as you can damage your enemy a bit before putting them to sleep.
If nothing else, making people fall asleep could be a pretty funny way to avoid a social encounter if your wizard is shy.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
D&D Beyond FoundersYup, sleep remains a pretty good spell at higher levels.
Think of this - at say 7th level you could cast it using a 4th level spell slot. The upcasting adds an additional 6d8 hp for a total of 11d8 hp affected. On average that's 50 hit points.
As a 7th level wizard, what has 50 hit points or less? Almost guaranteed any other Wizard or Sorcerer.
Sleep doesn't even allow a saving throw.
As a side note - as a DM, always try to surround your casters with a minion or two who have slightly lower max hit points, to counter this. ;)
Pun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Another good thing about sleep is when you need to get information from someone, you can cast it late in the fight to take them out of play. Also useful for stopping runaway bad guys.