I truly looked over the Witch for the first time today (surprising, given my obsession with Wizards) and found the Hexes to be quite awesome. It took me a moment to figure out how the witch makes up for its reduced spells per day (no domains, specializations, etc.) She does it through repeatable uses of Hexes.
Anyway, I suppose this may be in line with the powers of 18th level characters, but I just wanted to double check my understanding: A witch has unlimited use of Eternal Slumber, so long as its only 1 attempt per person, right? At level 18, you could expect the will save to be 26 to 30. (EDIT: Rather, 1 attempt per person per day. You can try again tomorrow.)
...so can a witch just walk around town and put the entire populace to sleep permanently, such that only a Wish or similarly powerful spell could wake them? Most commoners can't make a save like that. (...and would that take a Wish per person? Expensive!) I guess this isn't HOMG broken, especially by this level, it just seems... odd as an at will ability and no costs.
Wondering what your guys thoughts are. Is this balanced? Is it fun? Have you ever had a Witch as the big bad that you needed to slay to awaken a populace? Seems like potential RPing gold.
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If this is legitimate it is an awesome BBEG plot starter.... the PCs could be the only people in town that made a nat 20 on there saving throw =D. Even if it isn't legit I'd let it work for a BBEG for story purposes. It does seem a little powerful at first but when you think about it... a lvl 18 witch has much more important things to do than put peasants to sleep lol.
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It fits in with fairy tales about witches. In combat use it is really no more powerful than a sleep(except the levels it can effect, going off memory here) but it is a cool campaign effect thing. A witch wants the king to do something, he refuses to she puts the princess to sleep forever as punishment or until the king does what she wants. So in comes the hero to save the princess. :)
Given that you can just slay the wicked witch to awaken all those people again, and any 18th-level character could just wander through that village and slay those people (something that is quite hard and expensive to reverse, too), I don't see much of a problem. You can't try it more than once against the same person without waiting a day, and statistically, one in 20 victims will resist (natural 20 on the save).
As the pouty she-demon says, it fits witches like a glove. See Sleeping Beauty.
If this is legitimate it is an awesome BBEG plot starter.... the PCs could be the only people in town that made a nat 20 on there saving throw =D.
Or the town's resident elves and half-elves. :)
In combat use it is really no more powerful than a sleep(except the levels it can effect, going off memory here)
The "basic" Slumber Hex has no HD limit. If it's not immune to sleep effects, a witch can put it to sleep.
Eternal Slumber is a cool story device, and that's about it.
I guess my mind compared it to Temporal Stasis, which costs 5000 gp per cast, (not the best comparison, but meh) so I was just curious if this being an at will ability was RAI and if anyone though that this would create balance issues. Apparently on the balance end, its no problem.
Temporal Stasis is more of a plot device than anything else anyway. :P