Goodman Games

It is my impression that the elvish resistance to sleep effects is a carry-over from Chainmail wargame rules that were made for mass-combat balance purposes. Is the ability justified by anything in Appendix N? If not, I think it's a bit silly to keep.

Agree with Clay here. In the Elric series (Yaay! got the App N reference in early!) the Melnibonans (Dammit can't think how to spell that!) His love interest gets sent into enchanted sleep all the time (sic) and if Elric is a proto elf so is his beloved Cymoril.

Why basically have any specific resistance to sleep/enchantments?

I think that ALL wizards/elves should get some sort of spell resist as a side effect of there being patron bonded maybe. But only at the cost of a corresponding weakness someplace else..

bonus to willpower saves versus spells in exchange for a penalty for social interactions perhaps

they already got high Will Saves. That represents their affinity with magic and their ability to better dodge its nasty effects. I don't know, it's never been a problem... how often does that immunity come up in your game? IT's more likely that it will come up for an NPC elf the PCs are up against (thus making sleep useless )

Actually I like this ability and it can allow for some tense moments. Otherwise Sleep is essentially Power Word: TPK....

DM: The evil wizard holds his staff aloft and begins to murmur as his eyes roll back in their sockets. As you prepare to close in, the room spins and your head seems to nod for a second. You struggle to remain awake... Ok everyone roll a Will save.

*everyone rolls and fails*

DM: Ha, guess that's a TPK guys. Once you fall asleep the wizard goes around and slits each of your throats, one by one.

I'd much rather this...

DM: The evil wizard holds his staff aloft and begins to murmur as his eyes roll back in their sockets. As you prepare to close in, the room spins and your head seems to nod for a second. You struggle to remain awake... Ok everyone roll a Will save.

*everyone rolls and fails*

DM: Erel, immune to the wizards spell you watch as your companions collapse to the ground helpless around you. Their lives depending on you, you enter in to a Sorcerors Duel with everything on the line...

Something like that may also be (part of) the reason elves are traditionally immune to ghoul paralysis.

So the game is broken unless there is an elf in the party? (10% chance per character!)

I don't buy it. I think it came out of the "Elves don't need sleep" mythology that informed early versions of the game and has just evolved and persisted since then. I can take it or leave it. In play I've found it more flavor than substance. Not nearly as in-your-face as the strangely civilized yet wild two-weapon fighting halflings.

Fear the halfling

Anyway, the game is not broken, but you just have a nice escape route to have that player feel rewarded. I mean, if you really wanted to kill the whole party, nothing could stop you. If you're using sleep, and targeting everyone (if there's no elf, you can wait for one target to be out of the radius of the spell), that means you want to give the elf (or the "away" PC) a chance to shine.

You have a fun scenario. I can see a good DM having the party that lacks an elf finding a cloak of elvenkind that grants sleep immunity to the wearer...

I'm not saying you need an elf to survive in case a wizard casts sleep. As pointed out, you could choose to kill them with or without sleep.

I am saying I like the ability for the fun, tense situations it allows. It's just a bit of flavour that's all.

bholmes4 wrote:I'm not saying you need an elf to survive in case a wizard casts sleep. As pointed out, you could choose to kill them with or without sleep.

I am saying I like the ability for the fun, tense situations it allows. It's just a bit of flavour that's all.

+d14