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Message: <blockquote data-quote="evilbob" data-source="post: 4032389" data-attributes="member: 9789">People often praise this spell's usefulness, but I just don't see it.  I guess I'm missing something overall in this spell, because it only sounds sorta "eh" to me.My take is that it is cast, and everything in the area immediately has to make a grapple check or be grappled.  Anything not grappled basically takes one full round (or one move action if they move 40+ feet) to get out.  Done.  Any shifting/casting type takes one standard action to shift/cast on their turn and leaves via air - the tentacles don't make AoOs, so that's not hard.  Any incorporeal things just walk right through it.  And say something avoids the initial grapple check:  ok.  So it just takes a penalty to move for a few rounds.  Nothing in the spell's description says the spell tries to re-grapple them every round - only if they leave and re-enter the spell's area.  In fact, you could really hinder your own party, since a thing that avoided being grappled could just stand there and used ranged attacks against the party without your melee guys being able to reach them easily.Now the check is significant, since it would be a +15 the level you can get it, and it does do a small amount of damage, which is great for smaller, weaker things with low HP or that can't move quickly.  And anything that gets stuck isn't going anywhere until they beat a grapple check.  But then they can just leave.  Or just stand there, since the spell only attacks them once.Also, I see the advantage of having grappled opponents at range (since they lose their Dex mod), but wouldn't these grappled enemies get cover or something?  There are giant tentacles in the way, right?  I thought I remembered that firing a ranged weapon at a grappling opponent had a 50% chance to hit either participants in the grapple - although I can't find that in the SRD at the moment.  Would this spell also grant that kind of bonus?Again, I think I must be missing something, because it just doesn't sound that useful to me.  It basically seems like a nice way to attack something without giving it a save or worrying about SR, although if it resists the initial check all it really loses is a little bit of movement.  Additionally, while a good anti-caster spell, it seems like any caster that got free of the effect just received a great defensive area to cast from.  Anyone have thoughts or suggestions?ps.  For those who don't hate it, the FAQ offers a few clarifications about the spell:  first, that it does automatically hit anything in the area, including invisible or concealed creatures (which is nice), although incorporeal creatures are unaffected and a blinking creature gets a 50% miss chance.  Next, the FAQ agrees that anything in the spell's area is attacked once and then that's it (unless they re-enter the area).  Although that doesn't seem to "fit" with the idea of the spell, and it also doesn't clarify whether or not the tentacles impede ranged attacks into it.</blockquote>

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