I'm playing a witch right now, and I'm greatly looking forward to reaching lvl 18 and putting people in an eternal slumber. However, there are a couple of problems with that hex.
In APG, it says the eternal slumber will only end when the witch dies. Does that mean if the sleeping creature is killed and raised, it will still sleep? If not, it shouldn't be too much of a problem to get a lvl 9 cleric ready with a breath of life as a simple and inexpensive solution. Does it practically induce a dead effect just with an extra few quick fixes?
Also, it seems there's no voluntary act on the witch' side to dismiss the effect, is this correct?
Seeing as it requires wish to remove it, I'd be inclined to say that death followed by resurrection does not remove the effect. It clings to the soul.
Because it requires killing the witch or the use of a wish, it is arguable worse than death.
The raise dead spell has this wording included in the spell:
Normal poison and normal disease are cured in the process of raising the subject, but magical diseases and curses are not undone.
If being dead for several days doesn't end a magical curse, it seems unlikely that less than a round of death would end it.
Ah, both are good points. Resurrection however says "restored to full hit points, vigor, and health", where vigor isn't really well defined, but as raise dead points out, curses aren't by default removed by dying. So I'm a bit uncertain of the powers of resurrection and true resurrection here.
It is super cool if eternal slumber works like a stasis with no easy way out (holding things with regeneration, for instance), but again it raises the problem, what happens if the witch regrets it? There still seem to be no voluntary undoing, and as a witch can't cast wish he must actually kill himself to dispel the sleep?
As written? It appears yes, the witch would have to kill herself if she cast eternal slumber and then later wanted that person not to be asleep.
Of course, the breath of life trick would work well here.
Also, eternal slumber is a supernatural ability. If the creature is put into an antimagic field then the effect should be surpressed.
Edit: Also, a high level witch could simply clone herself and then kill herself and respawn in her clone.
Or purchase a scroll of wish and UMD it (which would require an investment into UMD).
Nice, thanks! Antimagic field will work as a 10 min/lvl prison to the otherwise sleeping creature. I didn't think of it myself, but in that there will be a way of contacting or questioning the sleeper, it effectively distinguishes it from a more potent death effect, and I am satisfied. I didn't like the killing my witch off solution as this will undo every eternal slumber ever made by him, but antimagic field is temporary and local which I think makes it pretty smooth.
Glad that solution works for you.