Is Entangle too good?

[Rel]

I am running a campaign that includes a druid and has mostly taken place outdoors. I would agree that Entangle is among the most powerful 1st level spells in the game. It has been used often and to great effect in my campaign.

But it has also allowed me to throw large groups of monsters (mostly Gnolls and Orcs) at the party and have them survive (often barely) which has been a lot of fun. I too have seen nights when the battlemat was dominated by big circles (drawn with a green wet-erase pen).

As to the issue of "perfect placement" of the entangles, we made up some templates for various spell radii from mylar. The Entangle template is easily the biggest (16 inches across). When the Druid's turn comes up in the initiative and he says, "I cast Entangle.", I immediately say, "Centered where?" If he can't give me a location in about 2 seconds, I delay his action (going on with the turns of the other players and monsters) until he tells me. Once he points to the center, we just lay the template down and draw the circle. If it catches any "friendlies" in the radius, too bad.

I will say that this player is pretty good at guessing the distances in question, so the spell usually doesn't catch anybody he doesn't want caught. But wouldn't a Druid who casts the spell frequently be able to say the same thing?

 

[Speaks With Stone]

As the druid mentioned by Rel, let me also point out that entangle has become less useful of late in another respect. While I may center the darn thing on a bunch of kobolds, they are fully capable of making saves and escaping.

In a recent encounter, I entangled 6. Five of them made their saves and ran out. The one entangled made an escape artist roll and ran out the next round. I cast another one and entangled 4 (many of them having just escaped the first entangle). Two of them made their save and escaped. Another used escape artist and broke lose the next round. Our cleric did manage to kill the one kobold that got stuck.

The initial DC to not get entangled is still low, eventhough the DC to escape once entangled is rather high.

Against higher level critters, the spell rarely has any effect.

The best use I've found for the spell is for breaking up a charge of massed critters. Most escape, but a little more piecemeal so the front line can handle them. Also, if you place 2 or more of these, then you can channel their approach by leaving only certain areas free of the effect.

As for the Web spell, I've recently had the opportunity to compare the effectiveness. While Web is 2nd level and has a few limitations, it is very tough to escape. We've taken to just carrying an open flame to burn our way through, but even that requires taking damage or casting protection from fire.