Doran Steele's page

It sounds like the players are mistaking a monster that should be an eventual foe 10 or so levels from now for an adventure hook that they should actively pursue now. I have a few thoughts about this.

I would empower the players to make an informed decision about approaching this monster. Have them encounter the high-level survivors of a failed attempt to attack the monster. (They can't be the only one who want justice after it ate 15% of the city.) These survivors should be traumatized and describe in detail the awful details of what happened to them despite being powerful warriors. In addition, have the local elder describe the long history and legends of all of the visiting heroes who have been eaten and maimed by this monster. Let the elder advise them that he doesn't think that they're anywhere near the league of this monster...not without more training, better weapons, and spells. Also have them encounter the aftermath of another battle between the monster and another clearly ferocious beast...which has been torn to shreds.

However, this is a game of risk followed by rewards and/or consequences. You can leave hints, clues, or encouragement, but don't railroad the players or pigeonhole them into certain outcomes. If they can't be dissuaded from taking this monster head-on, well, that's their choice. Maybe they'll surprise you. Or maybe they'll get eaten.

I would say that any spell that doesn't scale with your class as gain in level. The spell "Sleep" has always been one that I skip past. Granted, you always have the option to swap it out later but always felt that one was a waste of known spell space -- even at early levels.

Yes, this is a good point. In general sorcerers should avoid any spell that references hit dice. They become less and less useful until they are completely useless. During the play test I recommended that they update these spells to scale with the character's caster level, just like how damage spells get stronger as the caster goes up in level. Alas, we are still stuck with spells that only affect 4 hit dice worth of creatures, and so forth.

In an organized play setting with a known level cap, the player may decide that these spells are useful long enough to make them worth selecting. But a 16th level sorcerer facing down a big bad is going to regret his life choices if he's stuck with sleep, cause fear, and hypnotism on his spell list. On the other hand, magic missle, grease, shocking grasp, ray of enfeeblement, and enlarge person could all easily play a role in a high-level fight.