Sleep

[Stormspace]

My group of PC's I'm DMing are going to enter a town that has a secret. In order to add to the mystery of the town I need to be able to put the party to sleep for several days. I've looked at the rules on drugs and the variations on the sleep spell, but without going mythic it seems my only option is DM fiat. While they are asleep various things will happen to them though they will be unharmed when they wake. Over the next few days they'll discover things they don't remember happening which will lead them into the adventure.

So, any ideas on how I can get these guys to sleep or induce unconsciousness?

[Celestia]

DM fiat seems like the best way to go. Not everything has to be 100% by the book.

[noob]

You can also bash the adventurers with non lethal weapons for a few hours and they will be unconscious for days or weeks(or more).
You can start by inflicting regular sleep then bringing 10 men and syncing they non lethal attacks for making targets unconscious one by one then you can bash them while unconscious for making them have 3000 or more non lethal damage.

[chimaeraUndying]

You can also bash the adventurers with non lethal weapons for a few hours and they will be unconscious for days or weeks(or more).

Time for the old "ceiling trapdoor full of mallets" trap.

[Crake]

You can also bash the adventurers with non lethal weapons for a few hours and they will be unconscious for days or weeks(or more).
You can start by inflicting regular sleep then bringing 10 men and syncing they non lethal attacks for making targets unconscious one by one then you can bash them while unconscious for making them have 3000 or more non lethal damage.


Time for the old "ceiling trapdoor full of mallets" trap.

Considering the OP mentioned mythic, he's playing pathfinder where nonlethal damage in excess of your normal maximum hp results in lethal damage, so you cannot simply beat them so far into nonlethal damage that they don't wake up for days, the longest you can keep someone unconscious is their HP/their level hours unless someone's staying there beating them over the head every so often.

[bean illus]

Some dimensional stuff? Zip 'over there' for 3 days and zip back?

Erase their memories? Is there a way for that?

[Darrin]

I'm going to second the DM Fiat option.

However, since you're essentially removing player agency without their consent, you can lampshade it a bit and tell them directly: "Ok, this next part of the adventure, I'm going to take over for a bit and there will be story things going on that your PCs won't be aware of and won't be able to interact with or stop from happening. However, it will only last a few days, and then you all will get control back and can investigate what happened. Is everyone ok with that?"

[Crichton]

Don't know what level your party is or who/what the agent that is causing this sleep effect is, but what about a high level casting of Dominate Person?

[Inevitability]

Don't know what level your party is or who/what the agent that is causing this sleep effect is, but what about a high level casting of Dominate Person?

Dominate Person doesn't block your ability to form new memories, though.

[KillianHawkeye]

Dominate Person doesn't block your ability to form new memories, though.

What if you commanded the dominated subject to do nothing but sleep for three days? Is that possible?

[Crichton]

What if you commanded the dominated subject to do nothing but sleep for three days? Is that possible?

That was my exact thought when I posted it. Should've been more clear. The caster immediately makes all the dominated victims go to sleep and stay asleep, and with a duration of 1 day/level, any caster with high enough level to guarantee the PCs fail their saving throw can keep them dominated more than long enough.

[Zanos]

Characters knocked down to 0 in a mental stat, such as from some poisons, are unconscious until the stat heals back up to at least 1. If you just fill the room with mental damage gas it should be awhile before they wake up, presuming they fail the save.

Not a huge fan of DM fiating knocking out the party for a couple of days, they should get some, however small, chance to defend themselves.

[KillianHawkeye]

FWIW, I used my DM fiat powers to knock out the PCs because the premise of the adventure that I wrote was that they all wake up inside a demi-plane that's ruled by the dark fey and the objective was to figure out how to escape. Although in my case, it turned out to all be a dream (albeit a dream of a real place, because magic).

The thing is, I had built up enough trust between myself and my players that they were willing to go along with a "you wake up in a strange place" sort of adventure, so in the end it turned out great and we all had a lot of fun.

[Inevitability]

What if you commanded the dominated subject to do nothing but sleep for three days? Is that possible?

The question is: does Dominate Person grant you control over someone's unconscious brain functions? It's not like everyone can just will themselves to sleep for several days at a time.

[Thurbane]

So, any ideas on how I can get these guys to sleep or induce unconsciousness?

Sepia Snake Sigil (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/sepiaSnakeSigil.htm) can put someone into a state of suspended animation where they are unaware of their surroundings for up to 1d4 days + 1 day/caster level...

[noob]

Sepia Snake Sigil (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/sepiaSnakeSigil.htm) can put someone into a state of suspended animation where they are unaware of their surroundings for up to 1d4 days + 1 day/caster level...
I second that kind of method except for the part where it is a not so low level spell(something like level 3 so the caster is level 1 or 5(depending on how he does it since wizards gets craft scroll and some interpretations allows to craft a level 3 scroll at level 1 if you can boost your cl of 4))
Keeping the adventurers unconscious manually is not a so much hard part once they are unconscious.(just hit them with non lethal damage once in a while)

[KillianHawkeye]

I second that kind of method except for the part where it is a not so low level spell(something like level 3 so the caster is level 1 or 5(depending on how he does it since wizards gets craft scroll and some interpretations allows to craft a level 3 scroll at level 1 if you can boost your cl of 4))
Keeping the adventurers unconscious manually is not a so much hard part once they are unconscious.(just hit them with non lethal damage once in a while)

You can't scribe a scroll of a spell that you don't know and can't possibly cast, and you can't learn or cast a 3rd level spell at level 1 even with boosts to Caster Level. That's not how Caster Level works.

Now of course, you can probably use a scroll of a level 3 spell that someone else made without too much chance of failure, even at level 1. Boosting your Caster Level actually does help in this case.

[noob]

You can't scribe a scroll of a spell that you don't know and can't possibly cast, and you can't learn or cast a 3rd level spell at level 1 even with boosts to Caster Level. That's not how Caster Level works.

Now of course, you can probably use a scroll of a level 3 spell that someone else made without too much chance of failure, even at level 1. Boosting your Caster Level actually does help in this case.

According to some discussions wizard know spells on their spell list that they write in their spell book even if they do not have the level to cast them.(and if you want to argue about that then start a discussion about that with the people who decided it was a logical interpretation of spellbook rules)
then if you know the spell and have the right cl you can write the spell(in fact knowing the spell is enough for being able to craft the scroll according to the text in the scribe scroll feat).
without that you can still use an elven generalist domain wizard and it can cast spells up to ninth level at level 1.(this trick does not needs any particular interpretation of spell book rules)

[King of Nowhere]

rules for poisons give a flat saving throw DC, but in reality it's the amount that makes the poison. I houserule that a large enough dose of poison allows no saving throw (or, rather, a saving throw you can't possibly pass, since I also use the variant rule that a natural 20 is a 30). So, you caan have them drugged. It's still a bit of DM fiat, but at least it's DM fiat with a rational, sensible explanation behind.
and yes, this requires the party to trust you.

[Pugwampy]

I always sucker players into eating and drinking funny things by first saying this seems magical and make it very easy to identify a benefit . Make it temporary too good to be true thing......which they sleep off XD

Oops they forgot to check for a natural sleep potion in all that excitement .

[PaucaTerrorem]

You can also bash the adventurers with non lethal weapons for a few hours and they will be unconscious for days or weeks(or more).
You can start by inflicting regular sleep then bringing 10 men and syncing they non lethal attacks for making targets unconscious one by one then you can bash them while unconscious for making them have 3000 or more non lethal damage.

Oooh. That is NOT good for you. Major brain damage could occur.

[ryu]

Oooh. That is NOT good for you. Major brain damage could occur.

Or it could if brain damage was a thing in D&D anyway much less a thing doled out for being knocked unconscious too long. Also the most reliable method of healing someone in negatives if you've no spells or healing skill is to submerge their head in water for a bit.

[noob]

Oooh. That is NOT good for you. Major brain damage could occur.

That would be character development.

[Afgncaap5]

If you want to have some fun with the DM Fiat route that lets the players feel like their rolls matter, you could have the next part of the story occur in media res. Give players the chance to make a Will Save or Fort Save or two, and the better they roll the sooner they wake up and more they see. Players rolling natural twenties still sleep, but they might actually wake up soon enough to hear something super vital (who knocked them out and why from a guard) or something cool ("Boss says the gryphon's treasure room is a death trap, we're not supposed to go there, I don't care how valuable it'd be.") Players rolling super well might even remember the method of their unconsciousness ("There was a half-orc wearing the priestly garb of Joramy with a scar over one eye... you think you remember him running up to you, and blowing something white and like talcum powder into your face... you think maybe some sort of amnesia dust?")

That way, players can still get rewarded for high rolls, but then you can also have the great story you've planned.

[Jay R]

DM Fiat. Bonus points if you can somehow tie a wizard who researched a special spell for it into the adventure.

Double extra points if you can turn that into a clue.

[Vaern]

I think there's a variety of Binding that'll put the subject to sleep for a significant amount of time. Homebrew a "lesser" version that isn't meant to be quite as long term.

[Bohandas]

Custom spell

[noob]

Custom spell

It is not needed if you are ready to bash the adventurers repetitively.


So, any ideas on how I can get these guys to sleep or induce unconsciousness?

So unconsciousness works too.
It is way cheaper to hire a bunch of people to keep someone stunned for a few days by bashing them periodically than researching a new spell or even just copying a spell.
So it makes sense that even if the bbeg was a wizard he might just do that.
Anyway that custom spell would probably end up being as high level or higher level than sepia snake sigil in which case the wizard might just use sepia snake sigil(and a suggestion like "read that book") because sepia snake sigil and suggestion both have a lot of other uses(like defending your books or ordering some people around).
But I really wonder what would be the objective of a spell inducing sleep?
I mean is not hypnosis spam just a better way to get someone to do everything you want?

[Rebel7284]

Combining the ideas, Dominate Person -> Read this and fail your save against Septia Snake Sigil.

[Crake]

According to some discussions wizard know spells on their spell list that they write in their spell book even if they do not have the level to cast them.(and if you want to argue about that then start a discussion about that with the people who decided it was a logical interpretation of spellbook rules)
then if you know the spell and have the right cl you can write the spell(in fact knowing the spell is enough for being able to craft the scroll according to the text in the scribe scroll feat).
without that you can still use an elven generalist domain wizard and it can cast spells up to ninth level at level 1.(this trick does not needs any particular interpretation of spell book rules)

Except for the part where scribing a spell requires you to actually prepare expend the spell slot for that spell, which you lack without enough levels. That's not written in the feat, that's written in the "crafting magic items" section of the DMG:


The creator must have prepared the spell to be scribed ... The act of writing triggers the prepared spell, making it unavailable for casting until the character has rested and regained spells. (That is, that spell slot is expended from her currently prepared spells, just as if it had been cast.)

The scribe scroll feat doesn't have the comprehensive rules for item creation in it.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Considering the OP mentioned mythic, he's playing pathfinder where nonlethal damage in excess of your normal maximum hp results in lethal damage, so you cannot simply beat them so far into nonlethal damage that they don't wake up for days, the longest you can keep someone unconscious is their HP/their level hours unless someone's staying there beating them over the head every so often.

This would be my plan B: go for the DM fiat/custom magic option, if they keep prodding because you can't just do that say someone has been clubbing them down for the full three days.

If you're feeling evil, take a bunch of hitpoints for accidental lethal damage they did as well.