..... that was a magnificent play, and it only cost most of a rogue.

We took my niece to buy her first set of D&D dice today. She's 6, and she was excited to tell people she's going to play a Wizard. When she found someone who was actually interested, they asked what spells she was planning to take. She told them "Sleep is going to be my favorite, because the monsters are grumpy and they need a nap."

The line "I know what my fucking sorcerer did..." has such DM energy

“I know what my fuckin’ sorcerer did...” common words of a dm for an experienced sorcerer

Sleep is also one of the only ways to kill a 20th level Zealot Barbarian If you can get them to the “dead man walking” stage, where they’ve failed all of their death saving throws and are standing on rage alone, a sleep spell will automatically knock them unconscious, ending their rage and instantly killing them.

_Did nobody notice the sundial functionality_

DM takes ages to make a highly difficult and unique challenge with few options for the players to go for against weak enemies with a strong plan. He sets the scene perfectly, describing exactly what the players would be able to see. It's all up to them now. Combat begins... And then the fucking spellca-

I once had a party finish off a young green dragon using Sleep. They caught it just as it was flying off and it had few enough hit points to get put to sleep, so it took all the fall damage and died instantly. Unorthodox but effective.

uh yeeeaahhh, So... I'm stealing your tower idea, thanksbye!

The one dislike: a kobold.

A player surprised me with Sleep once. Arcane Trickster separated from his group, about to be discovered by a decently tough enemy. He backstabs on surprise round, wins initiative, then puts the enemy to sleep and gets away. Normally it would have been immune, but he dropped its current hit points enough to affect it.

To all the "why not fireball?" guys, maybe they just weren't level 5 yet?

My party and I were watching a play when the Drow that were hunting us found us. They attacked my bard that was on stage with crossbows, along the half-elf they were after on stage. I could not see them in the group of people to attack, but I rolled well enough to figure out about where the shot came from. I cast sleep knowing, as a half-elf that elves can't be put to sleep, but the 1/4 cr villagers could. About 8-10 of them dropped and there were the elves. My DM didn't expect this to be my plan, he was all "Uh, you know you can't put Drow to sleep right?"

"holy shit, this series is doing way better than I ever imagined." I think I speak for a lot of us when I say I'm glad you've stuck with it. 3+ years later, and your content is still very entertaining.

I'm gonna be completely honest, I thought he was going to throw a fire ball

Meanwhile as soon as your say wooden tower, any other Sorceror would burn it down

“I know what my fucking sorcerer did”

Any outdoor battle. Valor bard. Sharpshooter. Swift Quiver/Haste. Dimension door 500 feet straight up. As reaction, cast Feather Fall. You slowly drift down while having a fantastic firing position as a sharpshooter archer and can rain down death from above.

"I know what my fucking sorcerer did. ¬_¬" Haha that line tickled me.

>i know what my fucking sorcerer did That line had so much hidden anger in it

Something similar happened in the game I'm running yesterday. The players tracked down some goblins, who had been terrorizing a local village and stealing all their chicken. The goblins were hiding out in a local barn, and having spotted the players from afar, they shot arrows, threw eggs, and were a big pain in the ass towards the players, all while being very difficult to hit from outside. Now, one of my players have watched these videos. I know that because he's the one who showed me this video a few months ago. He was sure he could handle this situation, by using the spell Sleep. I had not thought of that possibility, but sure, why not. He rolled his dice, and... 22. Which I guess is okay for first level, and it's enough to put at least 3 of the goblins to sleep. Except... it seemingly did nothing at all. When the puzzled players finally did get inside the barn, they found 22 sleeping chicken on the floor.

The sincerity of "I know what my fuckin' sorcerer did" is incredible.

*F U Z Z L E* *P A I L E D*

“What do you do?” My players probably would wait it out in the outskirts for kobolds to get hungry and leave the tower

I am DEFINITELY going to be using Rickety Tower

If you cast it on a flying creature, it can be used to do damage

i remember having a very similar thing happening with my "sleep" experience where the roll was so good, i put to sleep everyone in the room including my party members LOL

"So what do you do..." "I know what my sorcerer fukin did" The subtle way he swears like, jesus holy shit dude really I planned this tower for ages and then you beat in two seconds, always cracks me up.

In my first session I remember religiously using “detect evil”

Two years later and people keep saying "why not just cast fireball?" Fireball is a 3rd level spell which can't be cast until a character is at 5th level. Considering the party is fighting kobolds and was nearly dropped in the first round, it's entirely possible that the party wasn't at that level yet. Or the sorcerer didn't want to 'waste' a third level spell slot on something like this. Or he chose to run without Fireball in the first place.

How to stop the sorcerer from burning the tower. The kobolds have a well for water, and some buckets.

My party saved an NPC with sleep. He had been overtaken by an arcane force and driven to attack the party. I had planned for him to die, but my Sorcerer-rogue cast sleep when he was on his last legs. He's now a fan favorite.

god... i do miss this fast format of "highlight and roll with a story"

Oh look a rickety tower. Lemme just cast shatter at the base and... **sextuple kill** there.

"I know what my fucking sorcerer did" is the best line of the video.

That's a proper kobold trap, right there. In the universe where my group holds their stories, kobolds are essentially the masters of long-term, well-thought-out warfare. Instead of being a thought experiment for breaking game mechanics, Pun-Pun is the world of Soma's equivalent to Sun Tzu, writing not only a treatise on the kobold methods of waging war (use of traps, ambushes, and controlling the environment, limiting your engagements to when victory can be assured, only going all-out when an absolutely vital target is threatened), but also how to achieve your goals from a position of subservience.

You haven't lived until you've cast sleep on a room full of goblins who then drop lanterns that catch the entire structure on fire and your whole party nearly burns alive.

_"I know what my fuck'n sorcerer did."_ It is a strange feeling to be both proud of your players for lateral thinking, yet wholly disappointed by the ease with which they bypass your challenges.

I put a wizard with sleep once--i never managed to use it effectively in combat, but i liked it because I'd decided he took it specifically because he needed to be able to sleep after his parents died Hence sucking at using it--he was used to using it on himself

sleep is one of what my dad likes to call a "low level death spell".

He talks about how this is the last episode of season 1 of animated spellbook, but it's the first video on the channel...

Idk, rickety wooden tower, large radius away from the tree line…. Sounds like the answer to me is FIREBALL

"I know what my *fuckin sorcerer* did"

In a scenario my group had been lost in the wilds for several days, and our food had slipped up. I the wizard still had a few spells and decided to spend one of them for sleep...on a lake. we caught about 20 big fish! and got food for about 5 extra days (rest rottened). Thank you for making me understand how this spell works!

Because of you, more than half of my group is obsessed with using sleep, even in situations where literally any other play would be better. Thank you.

Sleep is (Or was) also a low level party killer back in the day as well especially if said caster was bad at math. I still say my favorite spell is Magic Missile only because we use to get wands of them as treasure drops and only because my gnome artificer took 8 of them and loaded them up like a gattling gun with a crank that used the Trigger spell to fire each wand off when turned. Its also great to nail that munchkin in your game that builds for as high of an AC as they can.

Sleep is an awesome spell for newbie PCs. It stops being useful when you run into monsters with more than 2 hit dice, but hopefully by then you've got more options

I tried pulling the tower thing with my players, only except that the tower was standing on a rock within a lake, with the players being in a boat-home. The kobolds weren’t doing much damage to the boat with their arrows, until they set them on fire, this sent the party into a panic. The wizard decided to cast Enlarge/Reduce on the rock, shrinking it to the point where it was unable to support the tower and it plunged into the lake. Unfortunately, this also created a mini-tsunami and the boat was totaled, everyone lived except the Paladin, who sank thanks to his recently acquired plate armor.

I'm using this tower as a part of the growing adventure that involves kobolds and convinces my players that it's time to move me out from behind the DM screen for a while. Tucker would be proud.

I used this on a group of winged kobolds midflight. They ambushed us in a mountain pass. They all died from fall damage.

"I know what my fucking sorcerer did" ...

Idk why but I love the “I know what my fuckin sorcerer did” line

Elven spellcasters can cast sleep centered on themselves and not have to worry about being affected by it. I've used this more than once to get out of a bad situation.

I love the little recurring sound at 1:39. It's such a silly little tune and you've used it a lot, almost reminiscent of old medieval things, perfect for high fantasy campaigns

Alright, I just ran a similar design to Rickety tower for my players and they fell for it as well. Same trick, hints of kobolds, shadow to the edge of the field... The expression on their faces when it happened was incredible. Thank you for sharing this amazing concept with us.

I love how the music pauses as he quickly says "I know what my fuckin' sorcerer did" in the slightly salty DM tone

The only creatures immune are fey and creatures that don't sleep, so most creatures are affected. Also note the difference between "don't need sleep" and "don't sleep". An Elemental doesn't sleep, while a demon _can_ sleep, but doesn't need to. A demon would be affected, an elemental wouldn't

I played a fledgling vamp recently that almost exclusively used sleep in all situations. I was paired with only a Barb/Warlock multiclass and we were basically playing on 2 player hard mode - every fight was overwhelming odds and we had to use strategy after strategy just to stay alive, and I found myself relying on Sleep in most situations. Dude on a slanted roof? Put em to sleep, and watch em roll to the ground. Surrounded? You can get lucky and drop an entire ambush if you upcast. I put out an entire PD at one point, and just walked in like I owned the place. Sleep is pretty OP in many situations, and damned handy in most.

Use create bonfire on the base of the tower, watch them burn alive.

'I know what my fking sorcerer did' The mix of 'well shit' and 'that was awesome' in that is perfect.

FUZZLE PAILED!

The happy/anger in your voice describing your sorcerer player made me laugh so much.

"I know what my fucking [player] did" is always the lead-in to a great story.

If I had the sleep spell, I would just use it on myself

Everyone: this fireball is about to end their whole career Sleep spell: hold my beer

For our group we got Kobolds to surrender after our bard knocked 5 of the 7 out of sleep, and our paladin intimidated the other two to give up. We gave them a little food but they still ran away scared, and left the littlest one behind. My paladin "adopted" him, and during our boss fight against the orcs the Kobold, thanks to pack tactics and overcast skies, went absolute destroyer on them. So now he's Arix - Kobold Knight Initiate. Honestly, I'm new to D&D, only having played it for about 1 year now, but I keep my eyes out for narratively & thematically valid reasons to show mercy because the stories are so much more compelling then just "congrads on beating an easy/medium/curbstomp difficulty fight." Actually that last fight my Paladin reached level 3, and she naturally took Oath of Redemption; so that should keep things interesting.

My favorite spells are cantrips, can't decide between minor illusion, prestidigitation and thorn whip. Minor illusion is great for hiding things via misdirection or special effects for intimidation. Prestidigitation is great for sleight of hand and other tricks vs enemies. Thorn whip I just like to sit next to a bridge overlooking a drop and wait for enemies to cross, pulling them over the edge... Among other shenanigans. Favorite trick was to take a portable hole, fill it with fun stuff for enemies to die with, lay it down over the floor, cast minor illusion to put a square of color roughly the same color as the ground, await enemies and taunt from other side, Pull in one that doesn't fall into the pit with thorn whip.

I also run this spell with actual HP instead of max HP. When my table tried to capture a hill giant, and they chipped his HP until it reached the 20s

Another (more cruel and brutal) solution is to cast a fire spell at the base of the tower and essentially recreate that one scene from The Wicker Man film. Complete with the dancing.

my favorite spell cause you can use it on a screaming dying teammate so they dont blow your cover

I had an invisible enemy running away from the party and the Ranger was tracking his footprints in the cave as he ran away, and they tried to catch him several times and failed. Right as the enemy was about to flee out of the cave the Arcane trickster said… "oh… I cast sleep." I looked at him and was like… that's brilliant, roll 5d8. He rolled 22, the monster's hit points exactly.

Judging from the responses this video is *still* getting, may I request you do a sort of "Rickety Tower - Revisited", or a video delving into more detail about this tower, how you used it, and so on? I used it to 'test' my new players, to see if they could come up with a solution that didn't involve just blindly charging it. I was very pleasantly surprised. So the PCs at my table included a Half-Orc WM Sorcerer, a Life Domain Cleric and a Drow Rogue. The Rogue was a brand new player and he was being coached by the much more experienced players at the table (which was nice to see. Warms the soul.) The Rogue did what your rogue did, and snuck down the shadow. Unfortunately, his AC was rubbish. Surprise round for the Kobolds, and the Rogue's HP drops to zero. The Life Cleric then rushes to the Rogue - taking care NOT to enter the shadow - to cast Spare the Dying, whilst the WM Sorcerer ran in the other direction around the tower, casting Minor Illusion to try and distract the Kobolds from the other two. Clever... Then, the Drow Rogue's player did something impressive. Impressive because it was something that was perfectly valid play, very clever, and without prompt or advice from the other two. He remembered that Drow have 'Drow Magic', and used it to cast Dancing Lights in front of the arrow slits. The logic being that trying to aim through a specific gap that's being lit up by a point-source of light is going to hamper your aiming ability. Considering this (and as a reward for the clever idea), I ruled that yes, the Kobolds now have disadvantage to hit in the shadow area, and since they already have disadvantage aiming in the stark sunlight, double disadvantage equates to 'unable to target'. It bought the group enough time to close up to the tower and decide whether to blast a hole in it with Firebolt, or try and scale the tower with grappling hooks. Oh, and that WM Sorcerer? The player had actually seen this video, and knew that casting Sleep was the right play. But he wanted to try something different, and followed the lead of the others. I LOVE that. Risky, since it could easily have ended in player deaths, but eh. It was a one-shot, so it didn't matter.

I love the subtle callout to the foreshadowing done by the DM. A well placed trap within a puzzle.

"i know what my fucking sorcerer did" said with a mix of frustration for the encounter being one-shot and pride for a player being clever. that about sums up casters in dnd, you hate 'em you love 'em but what they can do always mixes thing up. btw i fucking love these animations.

Sneak over to the tower in the LIGHT instead.

I want that voice clip of “puzzle failed” to play in real life when I fail at a simple task because I’m stupid

In an outnumbering ambush, our party's bard waited to cast Sleep until after we had beaten some of the attackers up a bit, then he put six of the human bandits to sleep, letting up mop up the last three in the following round. The 5d8 roll makes it a better fight finisher than a fight starter against medium CR foes.

A wooden tower? Firebolt it and break out the marshmallows.

My sorcerer cast sleep on an Ogre that had 24 HP and rolled exactly 24 on his dice. Then my Rogue used a sneak attack and killed it with exactly 24 damage. I cried.

our party ran into a puzzle once in a cave. we were looking for a missing kid who'd wandered into the cave, and there were tales of monsters deep within. well, we get deeper down, and there are five kids, all identical, all cowering from the other and claiming that they are the child we are looking for, and that the others are monsters. we're at a loss of what to do, as an attempt to read their minds yields no results. well, our rogue/sorcerer figures that, unsurprisingly, children have low health pools, and casts sleep, knocking him out while the creatures change shape and attack. I'm a paladin, so I swiftly cast a spell that turns fiends, the monsters fuck off, and we take the kid back safely without ever having to swing.

Also my favourite 1st level spell. It became the signature spell of my pacifist bard to the point where the dm started designing half of the encounters to be against undead just to stop me spamming it (undead were a theme of the campaign so no problem there). I later learned Glyph of Warding and then set up elaborate traps to catch goblin warbands in clouds of 40D8 and such.

Zee: “this tower has 6 Kobalds inside, each taking 1 attack each at the shaded area of the tower. The tower is tall too so-“ Sorcerer: “I cast sleep” Zee: “god fucking dammit!”

I had a rogue lead us into a TPK by attempting to use this on Dark Elves

Got an advert for sleeping medicine ... nice.

My group was on horse drawn wagons and horseback fighting/chasing a boss in another horse drawn wagon. Not giving a care in the world I casted sleep in the middle of the 4 horses pulling the boss’s wagon. I got some crazy stares after that battle. Just imagining four horses at full speed pulling a wagon just fall asleep is a hellish thing to imagine. Killed a minion but not the boss cuz bullshit of course

Are we gonna ignore the fact these kobolds built a tower that fucks them over if enemies approach it from anywhere except one 20 degree cone?

Was I the only one that thought they'd burn the tower down with the Kobolds inside?

Reminds me of that Samurai Jack episode with the anubis archers.

one of my favorite 1st level spells is catapult. not only can you use lanterns to light people on fire, and vials of acid and such, but i just love the flavor of picking a random object (say, a severed head) and flinging it across the room at an enemy

I really wish I had someone in my D&D group that could narrate/animate all of our hilarious shenanigans...

Alternatively: fire.

LOL 6 Attacks per turn, the only way to hit them is with reactions, and even then its half cover... what do you do? "I know what my fucking sorcerer did"

"They came at us from the shadow of the tower. A short man attempted to use the line of dark as cover, and got shot by me and my five brothers. Our plan was perfect. The fools would attack and be shot down. But then...one from their group waved his hand, and within seconds, my brothers all passed out. I knew it had to be magic. Now...I had to run. It hurt to abandon them, but I couldn't save them all. It's my greatest regret...so I shall regain my honor and find a way to bring my brothers back." Backstory of the Warlock Kobald

i know what my fucking sorrcer did is one of the best lines i have ever herd

when he said "a wooden tower with kobolds in it", I knew it was gonna be either sleep or burning hands. I think burning the tower might have also been a viable solution. . .

A clever way to beat the encounter for sure but consider: Fire Bolt. Just light the damn tower on fire

Im gonna steal that tower😂

my folks played DnD since 1st ed and they told me; "sleep is a death spell without a save if the target is over a cliff". grease is also a fun spell: deny an area and light the zone on fire with a torch or cantrip. then there's warp wood; for dropping bell towers on enemies and sinking ships. Bind from 2nd ed can be used to unfasten someone's armor, bow, or saddle as well. Remember folks, it's not the power of the spell, it's how it's used.

Will soon be implementing the sinister field tower

I had to stop using this spell because I just kept kidnapping people… I still use it though because it’s funny