Threnodic Spell question

[Chloe Rabbit]

My question is how would say four 1HD Skeletons be affected by Threnodic Spell with the Sleep spell? Would they actually fall asleep? Since Sleep is a mind-affecting spell and Threnodic Spell allows the use of mind-affecting spells on undead creatures.

[DM_Blake]

This one is probably up to your GM. I can argue it either way:

Yes, they actually fall asleep. Sure, skeletons don't sleep, but you took a feat and used a 3rd level spell slot to put them into magical sleep. Magic trumps logic every time, and the specific rules of Threnodic Spell trump the general rules about skeletons and mind effects and sleep.

OR...

No, they don't fall asleep. According to the core rules, "Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep." So, Threnodic Spell bypasses their immunity to general Mind-Affecting magic which would allow you to charm them, dominate them, etc., but they ALSO have an immunity to sleep. Elves are able to be affected by Mind-Affecting magic - you CAN charm or dominate an elf, but they are immune to sleep so you can't put an elf to sleep. Likewise, casting a Threnodic Sleep spell on a skeleton would be as worthless as casting a Sleep spell on an elf - no effect.

Me, I'm inclined toward the latter. Use your feat to charm them or make them run away, but you still can't make them sleep.

[Kazaan]

I would go with the latter. Getting around one immunity doesn't automatically mean getting through others. You could dominate the skeleton using Threnodic, but you couldn't make them eat an apple. You could make them take bites out of an apple, but the chunks would just fall through their body onto the ground (that doesn't count as "eating").

[blahpers]

So, you couldn't make a skeleton drink wine, but you could make it remem~~berrr~~~....