On game balance

I'm not worried about it, at all.

(I do worry about questions like, "Should this be a tier 3 spell or a tier 4 spell?", because they relate to setting metaphysics. We should expect a consistent level of power between spells of different tiers.)

I don't worry about questions like, "Is this class viable?", because if it isn't, then no one will play it, and there won't be any problem. (If somebody only notices the class sucks after 10 sessions of play, that's too bad, but it won't happen twice. And anyway, it's not really plausible that a character could be totally useless because of their class. I'm strawmanning here.)

I don't worry about questions like, "Is this class overpowered?", because if it is, then most enemy groups should be composed of them, too. (If the class does everything, then why wouldn't all the players be members of that class? Why would  that be a problem for me? And if the class doesn't do absolutely everything, then won't the party still need members of other classes?)

If the sleep spell is "overpowered", then enemies who know about it will develop tactics to resist it. They'll target spellcasters first and make sure to attack in waves to avoid getting knocked out in one go. And they'll develop or hire their own spellcasters to cast sleep right back at the players. The players, too, will have to develop anti-sleep spell tactics.

None of this "breaks the game", none of it could "break the game", unless you have a fixed conception of the scenario the players should embark upon and their tactics within that scenario.

If I told you, "That guy has a million dollars in his pocket right now, but I suspect he'll vaporize us in 10 seconds if he catches us trying to rob him, plus he can fly and see in all directions at once," you should either refuse to rob the guy or start thinking up tactics to counter his spells. If we can't rob the guy, then we can always make another opportunity to score some XP somewhere else. The world is as it is, and the players form scenarios based on the world. Not the other way around.

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