Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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At a quick guess, it can't move because the idea was 'a trap spell that holds people and does damage' and the fact that it is an elemental is more flavoring than anything else.
Yes, other Conjurations can move around, but they don't Restrain people as a general rule. You could just as easily say 'other Conjurations can Restrain an enemy, so why not the celestial?' for Conjure Celestial.
Conjurations are a kind of weird area when you think about them. They typically occupy some kind of space but can be moved through and are usually immune to any and all attacks. Not just swords and bows, but Force, Cold, and anything else that would, in theory, be damaging to them. In both the case of Conjure Celestial and Conjure Elemental the Caster has to be able to see the Target to affect them. Even though the elemental is, theoretically, some kind of being, if the Caster has been Blinded or is around a corner the elemental is unable to attempt to Restrain anyone moving through it.
Please understand, I am not talking about whether the spell as it currently sits is balanced. That is an entirely separate tin of subterranean spaghetti. I am simply talking about the 'logic' of 'why can't the Conjuration do X'.
its a kind of weird spell.
It has a decent area and last 10 minutes so you'd think its a big obstruction but it can only target 1 creature.
It does not seem to have a mechanic to stop restraining someone in case a better target comes along.
It is not clear if it stops restraining on death outside the rules logic that hey are no longer creatures and therefore no longer valid targets. And i am not fan of spells that require that kind of rules knowledge in their language.
Given that blight one level lower does 8d8 and that is it, its not a bad damage spell with a restrain attached. but why have it cover a 16 square area as its target if it only targets one person. why does it even have a 10 minute duration if its not mobile, especially since it can only stop one person so it does not work great as a barrier or obstruction
It falls into this weird zone if you are trying to lock a target down there are better options, if you are trying to do damage there are better options. But I guess it does both reasonably well. So its not bad. But it has a really weird design. like someone was designing the mechanic of a single target decent damage restrain and another person was designing the description or a large elemental that can hit anything in reach and they never spoke to one another, then the spell got put together into one spell.
It can only *restrain* one creature. It targets every creature in the area at the start of that creature's turn, or when it enters the area. It only stops targeting creatures when one of those creatures fails the save, survives the resulting damage, and is restrained. When the elemental is restraining a creature, then yes it stops targeting anything else. If that creature dies or escapes the restraint then the elemental starts targeting everything in the area again.
That is not the same function as trying to lock down one creature. It may not seem particularly powerful to you, but it should not be compared to the damage of blight or fireball, or the lock down power of hold monster - because it is a very different mechanic.
If you are trying to target a specific creature with this spell then you can choose to not have any creatures before your intended target roll the save, but yes after the save is rolled and failed then the Restrain cannot be undone. You can, of course, reset the Restrain by killing the restrained creature yourself.
...That sounds like a distinction without a difference though. It does seem like it will be a big obstacle, but then it only ever hurts zero or 1 creature per turn. I'd say it's fair to call that not much of an obstacle. My money is also on the fact that creatures you're battling at this tier of play aren't often getting dropped by 8d8 (or 36) damage. (I'm at least glad you have some different damage types to choose from.)
8d8 is not nothing, especially because you have the chance to deal it to different targets over time. But it feels like you're going to have only very specific situations when you can cast cast this for more than one or two instances of damage. It's double the damage of Bigby's Hand (also 5th level), and it's more efficient (the damage and restraining happen in the same instant as opposed to the damage and grappling of the Hand)... but the Hand is going to be useful in 90% of encounters, whereas this... isn't (in my opinion).
Great flavor; I'm glad they made all the changes to the conjure spells to provide more variety. It's just too restricted for my taste.
Bigby's is definitely a more versatile spell, but note that using it requires every bonus action on every one of the caster's turns. It can grapple, not restrain, and one round later it can damage the grappled target.
The elemental is the spell which can damage multiple targets per round, and it requires no further actions/bonus/reactions. If it Restrains a target then your side has permanent advantage, helping you kill it before the end of the round and activating the elemental again. If there are no targets in the elemental area then the spell is doing its job - you can stand in that area and suffer no melee threats. I know that if I were an average creature I would not willingly walk into the elemental area - even if it was currently occupied restraining another target I would know I'd be next at the start of my turn.
This spell will generally not be useful in a situation where the enemies can deal more ranged damage than the party, but in an ongoing melee situation or to protect ranged PCs from melee threat, there are features to this spell that no other similar level spell can match.
(I will admit this is not a good conjuration spell for a conjuration specialist wizard, as it benefits from practically none of the features of that subclass, so it also means the Adept feat which grants it is less useful for the subclass - but for a druid, another wizard or any other caster who takes the feat, it will be one of their most powerful conjuration spells)
totally agree on all of the distinctions about Bigby's Hand!
But I want to emphasize: "damage multiple targets per round" is going to be a _very_ rare thing.
You can cast it on a group of goblins or or orcs or whatever on your turn; nothing happens immediately. As their turns come up, the bad guys in the area roll their saves, and the spell probably kills them straight away. I think most DMs would rule that a target dying means that the spell drops the corpse to allow the elemental to conceivably restrain others in its area if they fail their saves. NOTE: This is not RAW; the spell says it restrains that creature until the spell ends or the creature makes its save. So, sure, if the party of 9th level characters ran into a dozen orcs or guards in a somewhat constrained area, this spell would damage and kill multiple targets in a round (albeit less reliably than most other area effect spells, but at least there's no friendly fire).
I think that's going to be rare because that is likely not among the more challenging encounters the party will face. The wizard using their only 5th-level slot to cast this on a room full of enemies that can be dealt with using far less valuable and scarce resources is... not out of the question, but, to my point, the circumstances will be more rare.
Most of the threats facing that same party are going to have quite a few more hit points.
cr 4: ettin has 85 hp, bone naga has 65, tough boss 82
cr 5: flesh golem 127, wraith 67
cr 6: wyvern 127
cr 7: young black dragon 127
cr 8: frost giant 149
Too many variations to account for (number of threats to say the least), but if you're up against something that's punching in your weight class, you're generally only going to be restraining and damaging zero or 1 creature per round. Because once it gets one target restrained, it no longer tries to get any others.
Overall, though, you're absolutely right about Bigby's. You have to invest actions to make it do stuff, it doesn't do as much at the same time. At my tables, however, I'm way more likely to memorize it over Conjure Elemental because I can reliably use it in a wide variety of situations and more creatively and against the specific threats I target.
While yes it is possible to hit more than one creature in a round as once a creature dies it is now an object and not a valid target of the spell, that will be rare. And the thing is even against melee enemies it frequently wont be useful. Enemies do not have to accept where and when you decide to fight. Other than the one guy potentially restrained, everyone else can just walk away and close the door and wait for the spell to end. sure if you are guarding the flag and need to only hold it for 10 minutes super cool. They have to come at you. Or a flat open plane where you can destroy them at range easily. But otherwise they can just fall back and say super cool spell bro, we will sit here behind full cover until it goes away.
A corpse is a creature, not an object. See: the wording within all of the resurrection spells. See also: Rules Glossary / Dead.