New spell: wall of tentacles

[hong]

Something based on Evard's black tentacles, upsized a bit.

Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 8
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft + 10 ft/level)
Effect: Wall of tentacles whose area is up to one 5 ft square/level (S)
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: No

You call into existence a wall of pitch black darkness. The wall blocks line of effect and line of sight, but only in one direction; it is translucent and transparent to spell effects and physical attacks in the other direction. Tentacles lash out from the wall and automatically grapple any creature that approaches within 10’, except for those designated by you (see the hallow spell for how to designate creatures). The wall’s grapple check bonus is equal to your caster level +14. A successful grapple inflicts 3d6 points of damage on the grappled creature. Further, any creature grappled for 3 consecutive rounds must make a Reflex save or be dragged into the wall, where it automatically takes 5d6 points of damage each round.

The wall is immune to all types of damage, with the exception that a disintegrate stops it grappling for 1 round. It cannot be dispelled, but a break enchantment or limited wish will destroy it.

Material component: a black pearl worth 500 gp.

?

 

[the Jester]

I guess the closest comparison is wall of force, since it's impenetrable and almost impossible to destroy, and this is enough better than WoF to justify +3 levels (no disintegrate, plus it deals damage, plus it's transparent in one direction).

Good one, hong- as usual.

 

[hong]

Ta! I always thought D&D didn't have enough tentacular effects. Especially since I was running a dungeon (very) loosely based on G3, which has the original wall of tentacles....

The party ended up dim dooring past it, but they could do that with any wall spell anyway. Speaking of G3, I've updated my Britannia 3E NPC thread with a race of shadow spirits. These are evil quasi-nature spirits who live underground, thrive on bad karma, and have a black-and-white colour scheme, but are NOT DROW. Because I already don't have elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings, and I'm sure not gonna make an exception for drow. Check it out!

 

[Cheiromancer]

I think it is too good, even for 8th level.

Compare Wall of Tentacles to Prismatic Wall. The caster can pass through a Prismatic Wall, but can't grant this ability to anyone else, and can't cast spells or make attacks through it. If he makes attacks, he's subject to retaliation. With Wall of Tentacles an entire party can open up on their enemy without any fear of reprisal. That's a huge advantage to Wall of Tentacles.

Prismatic Wall can't really be brought down by spells, unless someone is specifically equipped for it. Folks aren't going to want to use a limited wish or the equivalent to take down a Wall of Tentacles (even if they knew it would work), and I doubt it will occur to anyone to try a break enchantment. Why would they? It's not an enchantment! So the two walls are pretty equivalent.

Folks with spell resistance can pass through a Prismatic Wall (if they make their checks and/or saves), but not through a Wall of Tentacles. Advantage: Wall of Tentacles.

A Prismatic Wall will blind low hit dice creatures (8 and less) that are close by. A Wall of Tentacles grapples a creature of *any* hit dice, and does significant amounts of damage. Advantage: Wall of Tentacles.

Finally, a Prismatic Wall lasts for 10 minutes per level, and the Wall of Tentacles is permanent. Huge advantage: Wall of Tentacles.

A Wall of Tentacles needs a 500 gp material component. A Prismatic Wall doesn't have any component at all. Slight advantage: Prismatic Wall. What's 500 gp when you are 15th level?

Make Wall of Tentacles 9th level and give it a substantial xp cost (5000 xp or so). Or drop its duration and make it susceptible to disintegrate. Or something. It is too strong as is.

 

[Fieari]

Perhaps make it so that Disintegrate, if the wall fails the save (based on caster saves) makes a hole just large enough for one medium sized creature to jump through. Said hole last one round and one round only, perhaps even less (so that someone could READY an action to jump through, but otherwise can't make it) after which it closes.

I'd also reccomend lowering the duration, or limiting it somehow. Max-Infinite duration concentration might work, so it stays up as long as the caster holds onto it, perhaps even making provision that the caster can make a concentration check to cast other spells even while maintaining this one. Or just give it a set time-limit. Or give it a set number of HP (preferably a huge amount of HP, but still a set amount).

 

[hong]

I've always thought that prismatic wall was rather crappy, actually. By the time you can cast it, a lot of the things you'll be fighting will have teleport magic on hand, so it becomes just a minor annoyance. If you try passing through it you get zapped, but who's going to do that? It's basically just a flashy version of a wall of stone or wall of force.

Oh yeah: add a (D) to the duration line.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Balanced, IMHO. It can be bypassed by teleportation, or the party can just put up an AMF and walk right through it. Both of those options make it inferior to prismatic wall or sphere.

 

[dcollins]

In my conversion of module G3 (which has a wall of tentacles in it), I made the wall a construct, not a single spell. I didn't specify the exact cost/prerequisites, but at least the historical precedent gave all signs of being like a golem in its game effects.