Witchcraft • Legacy Enchantment

Endless Sleep

Endless Sleep places one creature into an enchanted sleep that lasts until a condition chosen by the caster is fulfilled. It is preserved as a legacy Witch spell rather than imported into later editions.

Endless Sleep at a Glance

5.5e / 2024	No direct conversion published here
5e / 2014	No direct conversion published here
Pathfinder 1e	Not on the Pathfinder Witch list by default
D&D 3.x Legacy	Witch 5

Spell Rules by Edition

5.5e / 20245e / 2014Pathfinder 1eD&D 3.x Legacy

5.5e / 2024

Status: no direct conversion is published here. Modern sleep and curse effects use different durations, saves and removal mechanics.

5e / 2014

Status: no direct conversion is published here.

Pathfinder 1e

Status: not a Pathfinder Witch spell by default.

D&D 3.x Legacy

School	Enchantment (Compulsion)
Level	Witch 5
Components	V, S, M
Casting Time	1 minute
Range	Touch
Target	One creature
Duration	Until the chosen condition is fulfilled
Saving Throw	Will negates
Spell Resistance	Yes

The target falls asleep but continues to age normally and does not die from thirst or starvation while the magic persists. The caster chooses a plausible awakening condition when casting.

Examples include being touched by a specific plant, hearing a particular phrase, or being awakened by someone meeting a clearly defined description. The Games Master decides whether a proposed condition is sufficiently specific and achievable.

The material component should symbolically match the chosen awakening condition.

What Changed?

No later-edition conversion is assumed. The effectively indefinite duration and conditional awakening remain part of the legacy spell only.

Using Endless Sleep in Play

This spell works best as a curse, fairy-tale bargain or long-term story complication. The awakening condition should create play rather than remove a character from the campaign with no practical route back.

Counterplay and Rulings

Initial defence: the creature has the legacy Will saving throw and spell resistance shown above; if either stops the spell, no enchanted sleep begins.
The condition matters: decide the awakening condition when the spell is cast, and make it sufficiently clear that characters can investigate it or satisfy it. Do not silently change the condition afterward.
Ongoing enchantment: adjudicate Dispel Magic and appropriate curse- or enchantment-removal spells using the original legacy rules; neither a normal alarm nor ordinary sleep mechanics automatically substitutes for the stipulated awakening condition.
Counterspell: a valid counterspell can interrupt the original casting under the applicable d20 rules; there is no fifth-edition spell conversion here to counter.
Time still passes: the creature ages normally although the spell protects it against death from starvation and thirst; it is not suspended outside time.

Related Magic

Sleep affects ordinary short-lived magical sleep; Remove Curse and Dispel Magic may be relevant to ending curses and ongoing effects under their own rules. For the historical Witch list, return to the Witch Spell Lists.

Mythical Context

The ancient Greek figure Morpheus could take human form in dreams. Ovid’s story of Morpheus appearing to Alcyone as Ceyx makes sleep a realm of messages and disturbing visions rather than simple rest. An enchanted sleeper might therefore be the focus of prophecy, grief or an unfinished promise. See the Metropolitan Museum’s Morpheus and Alcyone print.

Historical Context

Long enchanted sleep became a literary fairy-tale theme. Charles Perrault published La Belle au bois dormant in his celebrated collection of 1697, long after the site’s medieval setting, while earlier storytelling traditions also existed. That is a publication milestone, not proof of a historical curse. See the historical bibliography of Charles Perrault.