Musings on Sleep in OD&D – Is it Over-Powered?

[merias]

From https://smolderingwizard.wordpress.com/ ... r-powered/

Let’s look at the sleep spell in Men & Magic:

Sleep: A Sleep spell affects from 2–16 1st-level types (hit dice of up to 1 + 1), from 2–12 2nd-level types (hit dice of up to 2 + 1), from 1–6 3rd-level types, and but 1 4th-level type (up to 4 + 1 hit dice). The spell always affects up to the number of creatures determined by the dice. If more than the number rolled could be affected, determine which “sleep” by random selection. Range: 24".

My own opinion is that this is not over-powered, especially given the limited number of spells that low-level Magic-Users (MUs) have available per day, even assuming no save is allowed. I would concede that it is too powerful if you allow the spell to affect all of the hit dice (HD) groups at once.

Note that Holmes Basic D&D has the same mechanics, apart from specifically stating that no save is allowed. Holmes also allows MUs to create spell scrolls for minimal cost and time outlay (at least for 1st level spells), so after the first few adventures, MU PCs are likely to have lots of sleep scrolls. I like this scroll-making rule, and I know other OD&D referees also incorporate it into their games. So you might think the sleep spell itself is not over-powered, but that the availability of spell scrolls makes it too powerful in this case.

Whatever the circumstance, if you do think the sleep spell is over-powered or too plentiful, you can try any of the following changes or interpretations to the mechanics to help address the situation.

• Allow a saving throw.
• Have the spell affect anyone within range, not just enemies.
• Randomly roll to see which hit dice (HD) group is affected in multi-HD groups.
• Keep in mind that in OD&D, the range of the sleep spell is specified (240’), but not the area of effect (AoE). You can take the 10’ diameter AoE from Swords & Spells, which will limit its effect quite a bit (to perhaps no more than six man-sized creatures). With this method, you may wish to allow the MU to target a specific HD group within the AoE, or even specific foes.
• Adopt the sleep spell mechanics from B/X – so have the spell affect the lowest HD creatures first, to some total number of HD.
• Exclude the highest HD (up to 4+1) class from being affected by the spell. No sleeping Ogres!
• Avoid the issue altogether, and be creative with encounters. It’s certainly ok to throw undead, fae, constructs, enchanted or as many other sleep-immune creatures as you can imagine at the party.
• Once creatures are asleep, you can make them easy to wake up if they are in a chaotic environment like melee. Perhaps give an increasing chance per round of a sleeping creature being accidentally jostled awake by an errant kick. Also don’t forget that intelligent opponents will try to wake up sleeping allies if they can.

While you can opt to exclude the spell entirely from your games, with the above options, I don’t think it’s necessary.

The option I like to play with when I am running OD&D games is to roll randomly for the affected HD group, and allow the spell to affect any and all creatures within that group (within range), to include party members and allies. This will make a mixed group of, say 10 Orcs (1HD each), all of whom are in melee with the party, and two Ogres (4+1HD each) watching from afar (but still within the 240’ spell range) still dangerous. In this example, I have two HD groups – 1 and 4+. I roll a d6 and get a 1-3, so the spell will affect 2-16 1HD creatures, possibly including 1st level party members. If I had rolled a 4-6, the spell would affect just one of the Ogres, but no one else. If I had some 2nd level fighters in the party, I would now have three HD groups – 1, 2 and 4+, leaving a 1 in 3 chance that only the 2nd level fighters would be affected (or 2-12 of them anyway)!

In the end, the imprecise nature of OD&D helps you here as a referee – just decide on the sleep spell mechanics and effects ahead of time and make it work for you and your gaming group.

[William]

I don't think that it's overpowered either, especially considering how vulnerable Magic Users are at lower experience levels.

B/X also allows "victims" to wake up with a slap or a kick, etc, but I've never seen Holmes Basic so I can't comment on anything from there I'm afraid.

What I don't fully understand from the OD&D description of the spell (I have Chainmail, OD&D, plus Swords & Spells on PDF) is:
If more than the number rolled could be affected, determine which "sleep" by random selection.

How could more than the number of rolled targets be affected? Have I missed something here, or is it just something else from OD&D that needs clarification?

I always forgive OD&D for being a bit vague and confusing due to it being invented as it was written, plus its status as the first RPG (i.e. the one which broke fresh ground).

Bill

[merias]

What that sentence means (probably ) is that for example, if you have 20 Orcs, and you roll 2d8=5, you then have to determine randomly which 5 of the 20 are affected. That might be important if the PCs want to affect the Orcs closest to them, but the ref randomly determines it's some other group of 5 that fall asleep.

[merias]

B/X also allows "victims" to wake up with a slap or a kick, etc, but I've never seen Holmes Basic so I can't comment on anything from there I'm afraid.

With the B/X version you can really see how they wanted to clarify the OD&D version (I imagine that in the mid to late 70s TSR was inundated with snail-mail questions about how the sleep spell works ). It's much easier to adjudicate during play using the B/X version. I wrote something on playing OD&D by starting at B/X and working backwards, simplifying it so it was closer to OD&D, but keeping the sensible improvements (like the spell descriptions).

Here is the Holmes version, btw, it's not much clearer, apart from the bit about not allowing a save:

Sleep — Level 1 ; Range: 240 feet; Duration: 4 - 1 6 turns
Puts all kinds of creatures to sleep for 2-8 turns. Monsters of higher level are less affected as follows. To determine the number of creatures put to sleep by the spell: if the creatures have up to 1 die of hit points (or 1 die +1 point), roll two 8-sided dice to find the number put to sleep, creatures with 2 dice of hit points (or 2 dice + 1 hit point) roll two 6-sided dice, creatures with 3 dice of hit points (or 3 dice + 2 points) roll one 6-sided die, and of creatures of 4 dice (or 4 dice + 1 point) only one will be put to sleep. Creatures with more hit dice are unaffected by the spell. Undead are always unaffected. There are no saving throws allowed.

[rredmond]

IIRC the 1e spell affects lower level HD first. So maybe that means if there are 4 kobolds in a groups of baddies, and you roll a 5, then you can maybe get one orc who is also in the group?

PS: I know 4 kobolds is a ridiculously small number of kobolds just trying to make a point and I’m only one cuppa coffee in

[merias]

IIRC the 1e spell affects lower level HD first. So maybe that means if there are 4 kobolds in a groups of baddies, and you roll a 5, then you can maybe get one orc who is also in the group?

PS: I know 4 kobolds is a ridiculously small number of kobolds just trying to make a point and I’m only one cuppa coffee in

That's the B/X method also, which I think is a better way to go, but I do like the random HD group method as it makes the spell unpredictable and possibly harmful.