Quick Questions: Elemental Evil's Whirlwind spell

[izoeidolon]

Whirlwind
7th-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 300 feet
Components: V, M (a piece of straw)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
A whirlwind howls down to a point on the ground you specify. The whirlwind is a 10-foot-radius, 30-foot-high cylinder centered on that point. Until the spell ends, you can use your action to move the whirlwind up to 30 feet in any direction along the ground. The whirlwind sucks up any Medium or smaller objects that aren’t secured to anything and that aren’t worn or carried by anyone.
A creature must make a Dexterity saving throw the first time on a turn that it enters the whirlwind or that the whirlwind enters its space, including when the whirlwind first appears. A creature takes 10d6 bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. In addition, a Large or smaller creature that fails the save must succeed on a Strength saving throw or become restrained in the whirlwind until the spell ends. When a creature starts its turn restrained by the whirlwind, the creature is pulled 5 feet higher inside it, unless the creature is at the top. A restrained creature moves with the whirlwind and falls when the spell ends, unless the creature has some means to stay aloft.
A restrained creature can use an action to make a Strength or Dexterity check against your spell save DC. If successful, the creature is no longer restrained by the whirlwind and is hurled 3d6 × 10 feet away from it in a random direction.

1. You have to fail the Dex save, then the succeeding Str save to be restrained, yes?
2. Is the Dex save offered only once, the first time affected by the whirlwind, or every round it's in the area of effect and not restrained (meaning one could fail the save, take the half damage, stay in the whirlwind, then on the next turn, must make the save again)?
3. Does that mean a restrained creature no longer takes the damage, or is the actual reading that you keep making the Dex save in the whirlwind, restrained or not?
4. Can the whirlwind pick up a creature previously hurled out of its effect (by failing the Dex save, failing the STR save, but winning the STR/DEX check on its past turn), subjecting it to another Dex save? In less a paranoid-about-clarity way, can the Whirlwind affect a creature that already escaped it?

Thanks for the help! :)

[Sigreid]

My reading is that you take damage when entering the area of effect, and then are restrained. So it's damage followed by crowd control, not damage+control each round.

[izoeidolon]

Thank you, makes sense, just wanted to be sure.

What about the picking someone up multiple times bit?

[Sigreid]

If they exit the area of effect and come back in, I'd rule they take damage again.

[NNescio]

1. You have to fail the Dex save, then the succeeding Str save to be restrained, yes?
2. Is the Dex save offered only once, the first time affected by the whirlwind, or every round it's in the area of effect and not restrained (meaning one could fail the save, take the half damage, stay in the whirlwind, then on the next turn, must make the save again)?
3. Does that mean a restrained creature no longer takes the damage, or is the actual reading that you keep making the Dex save in the whirlwind, restrained or not?
4. Can the whirlwind pick up a creature previously hurled out of its effect (by failing the Dex save, failing the STR save, but winning the STR/DEX check on its past turn), subjecting it to another Dex save? In less a paranoid-about-clarity way, can the Whirlwind affect a creature that already escaped it?

Thanks for the help! :)

1. Yes, assuming you're Large-sized or smaller.

2. A creature must make a Dex save each time it moves into the Whirlwind's AoE (including forced movement), or each time the Whirlwind moves into its space (generally by the caster using his action to move the Whirlwind, but the Whirlwind also counts as moving into a creature's space when it first appears after casting). This effect can only occur a maximum of once per turn (not per round). Anybody's turn, really, like the Rogue's SA.

This restriction is in place to prevent the caster from moving the Whirlwind in-and-out a creature's space multiple times (they can still do so, but it will trigger only one save).

3. A restrained creature has zero speed and is forced to move along with the Whirlwind. Ergo, it cannot trigger the Dex save (since neither the creature nor the whirlwind can move into each other spaces, as there are within the same space), and therefore does not take further damage while restrained.

4. Yes, if the caster moves the Whirlwind into the creature's space again, or if the creature moves (forced or otherwise) back into the Whirlwind's AoE.