D&D Spell Focus: Sleep

The Level 1 enchantment “Sleep” is one of those spells that everyone “wants” to use and seems like a great idea… but in the 2014 rules, after players hit Level 2 or 3, it was usually the caster that fell flat as opposed to the targets. Mechanically, it has been completely overhauled in the new rules, so let’s see if this classic crowd controller is still a snooze fest or if the fantasy that is a good night’s rest has finally come true.

Both versions of Sleep are a single action cast available to Bards, Sorcerers, Wizards, and a few subclasses like the Archfey Warlock or Twilight Domain Cleric. The goal of the spell is to knock foes unconscious, but how they go about it in the 2014 vs the 2024 PHB is completely different.

The older version had a great range of 90 feet, and it affected every creature in an impressive 20-foot radius sphere centred on a point you could see. Most impressively, while the duration was 1 minute, it did not require concentration. That… actually sounds wonderful. So what was the main issue that led to the complete rewrite? Well, that came from the unique way the spell selected targets. Here's how it worked: Cast at Level 1, you rolled 5d8, and that total determines how many hit points' worth of creatures you can affect. For the record, that averages at 22.5. Starting with the creature in the area that has the lowest current hit points, you put them to sleep, giving them the unconscious condition… which is very, very nasty, until the spell ends, they take damage, or someone uses an action to shake or slap them awake. You then had to subtract that creature's current HP from your total and move to the next lowest, and so on, until you hit a creature with more HP than what is left from your roll, and that’s as far as you get.

Importantly, undead, elves and creatures immune to being charmed were totally unaffected by the spell. Upcasting was possible, adding 2d8, or an average of 9HP, to your roll for each level above 1st. This made Sleep an absolute beast at low levels for shutting down groups of weak enemies, like goblins or kobolds, but it fell off hard against tougher foes as you levelled up. Even cast at 6^th level, the average is only 68… when you could be doing 75 Force damage on a target of your choice with Disintegrate.

The spell for when a good night's rest in a D&D Dungeon is hard to find...

Now, shifting gears to the 2024 PHB version, the first thing we see is the impressive range and area of effect, both get nerfed. The range drops to 60 feet, and the area is now a much smaller 5-foot radius sphere. Next, it looks ever more dire, as while the duration is still 1 minute, now it requires concentration, the lack of which was one of the biggest selling points of the spell. But, and it is a Hill-Giant-sized Butt, the way it targets spells is much simpler. Firstly, you get to choose who is affected, so allies are no longer at risk. Then each targeted creature makes a Wisdom save, becoming incapacitated on a fail until the end of its next turn, at which point it repeats the roll. If it fails that second save, it falls unconscious for the full duration unless it takes damage, is shaken awake, or the caster drops concentration. The immunity exception is interesting, too. Creatures that don't sleep, like elves, are still immune, but instead of listing Undead, it is now those creatures immune to the Exhaustion condition who automatically succeed on their saves (FYI, this would include most if not all Undead). The final kicker the Reddit comment section was most unhappy with, though, was the removal of any option to upcast.

Soooo… is it better or worse? 2014 Sleep was all about that burst potential—no saves involved, just a flat HP threshold that let you auto-knock out low-HP critters without them getting a chance to resist. It was incredibly strong in early-game encounters, often ending fights before they started, but it scaled poorly because higher-level enemies had way more HP, and with such a large blast radius, you couldn't easily target selectively due to the lowest-first rule. Even a Goblin Boss with 21HP needed a better than average roll to knock out, and that was IF it didn’t have an ally near them who’d sap that HP pool faster than Warlock accepting the offer of a Short rest.  Not to mention if you had a weakened ally in the fray, even if you cleverly whittled down your main target to a low enough HP to be affected… chances are your front line fighters may get hit first, actually protecting enemies, which would just be frustrating. So while the area was bigger and no concentration meant you could layer it with other spells easily, as soon as you started facing opponents above CR1, 2014 sleep just became a poor, overly complex option compared to other spells.

Argh yep. The Area of Effect is now 4x smaller.

By contrast, the 2024 version feels more balanced and tactical. Introducing Wisdom saves (though granted, needing to fail twice for full effect) means all creatures now have a chance to resist; it also means ALL creatures of your choice have a chance to fail. No more leaving it up to chance of an HP pool roll and the current health of potentially a dozen targets, including your friends, followed by tedious maths, to worry about before you see if the creatures you actually want to lie down are affected. The small 5ft blast means you get more control by choosing targets, and the Incapacitated step before Unconscious is still nasty, robbing it of any actions and breaking enemy caster concentration. But, requiring your concentration is a big downside, as it now competes with other higher-level spells, and the range nerf to 60 feet makes positioning trickier.

Overall, it's less of a "quick win button" at Level 1 as you can’t just knock out a small room of kobolds, but improves its usefulness for crowd control in mid-tier play and beyond, keeping it relevant for much longer and a nasty little surprise for tightly packed low Wisdom foes. Don’t get me wrong, as father to a toddler who has approximately 2HP but a makes Wisdom (Stubboness) rolls at advantage with a +5 modifiy, the old version would be high on my parental wish list just below prestidigitation… but I’m calling the PHB24 version and improvement to the Sleep spell and you can get a FREE copy of both versions of the spell cards and custom spell templates over at my Patreon. In even better news, if you are playing the Archfey Warlock or miss the options to upcast the spell, supporters over there will also have access to my Homebrew version of the spell, where I reintroduce up casting to take Sleep to the next level…. Literally.

Not a new idea, but I think increasing the radius of effect to 10ft at 3rd Level, 15ft at 5th Level, 20ft at 7th and 30ft at 9^th Level just gives this the teeth it needs to move from being a quirky option when you are low on spell slots, to a powerful Enchantment your DM will have nightmares about!

As always, Complete spell card sets that contain this spell card, along with its Condition Tokens and AoE Templates, can be found over at the ZG Store.