Am I wrong in thinking this is really good?

[SangoProduction]

A couple months ago, I investigated the idea of building around the Energy Tether destruction talent in Spheres of Power to be a true tank (ie. one that forces attacks to be used on him [or his tether] ). But, I found one that goes a step further in the Telekinesis sphere, called...well...Tether.


You can create a telekinetic connection between two objects of any size, tethering them together. As a standard action you can tether two targets within 30 ft of each other, preventing them from moving further than 30 ft from each other without either breaking the tether or dragging the other target with them. An unwilling creature gets a Reflex save to avoid being tethered. A creature dragging an object follows the normal carrying capacity and encumbrance rules, but must use the drag combat maneuver to drag an unwilling creature. The tether may be broken as a move action with a Strength check equal to the tether’s save DC. A tether lasts as long as you concentrate and an additional number of rounds after that equal to your caster level. You may spend a spell point to maintain a tether with Sustained Force.

The highlighted bit was what made it stand out to me. Then I realized an "object of any size" can include stationary objects like walls, and then I was quite convinced that this was essentially a save or suck for any character without teleportation, particularly melee characters, but with no daily limit. (I have no idea how it interacts with teleportation, since move might be being used in the vague sense that amounts to "any change in position" or the strict sense, where it only prevents the normal movement.)

Anyway, Casters tend to be SAD, while martial types (the ones with high dex/str) tend to be really MAD, leading to lower highs than casters. AKA, the relevant scores for the save DC are higher than the relevant scores for actual saves. And once they fail a reflex save, they now have to go strictly off of the attribute itself, with no bonuses from it being a save, while save DCs continue to scale.

Now, monsters tend to have really good strength...but those that do also tend to have bad reflex. And the high strength monsters really want to be full attacking, and not spending a move action to remove a tether.

Meanwhile, you just sit at range and slowly pelt it down, maybe even applying a couple extra tethers for security's sake...and you win.

Am I missing anything here?

[Elkad]

Big one I see is a tethered opponent can swap his Standard for a second Move every round to break free. So if he can make the check reasonably well, you may have a problem stacking lots of tethers. Any round he breaks the last tether on his first attempt, he can of course use his second move to try to close to melee range.

Or he could throw things at you.


Stacking multiple ropes/chains/stickyballs/whatever to bind a brute, while he breaks them almost as fast, has been used over and over in media. Doing it with power is a pretty cool flavor.

I'd definitely allow teleport to get him free.

[exelsisxax]

Entangle is a 1st level spell with a 40' radius, a far nastier condition, potential for hitting opponents that make the first save, a longer duration, battlefield alteration, requires actions to break free, and also has some meaningless damage.

The only advantage tether has over entangle are at-will use and interesting applications for flying targets, even assuming you can tether to the ground.

I would argue that you can tether to the ground, and it's going to do nothing unless the ground is composed of very large/heavy bits. Tethering to dirt seems like a DC 0 to break.

[AmberVael]

Being able to control someone's movement is great. However, Tether does have its limitations: the tethered target can still move within the range of the tether without any effort, they're not prevented from casting spells or making ranged attacks, and they're not hampered in any other way. Tether alone cannot really defeat a target, and for a lot of enemies it will barely even change their strategy. Its also worth noting that massive objects are easily subdivided in D&D mechanics. You can't break the tether itself, but if you fasten someone to a wall they sure can break off anything the tether is connected to and just drag it around with them.

The opponents most adversely affected by Tether (those who are primarily melee combatants) are also best equipped to break away from it with a move action. Those who struggle more to break free of it due to lower strength are often best equipped to contribute to combat regardless of its effects. You can make enemies spend actions to handle the tether, but note that you're spending your own actions to do so, and unlike with similar mechanics such as Energy Tether or Crystal Blast, you're not inflicting any damage or other conditions at the same time.

I do think Tether can be worth using and can provide advantage in combat, but it won't dominate combat in most circumstances.

[SangoProduction]

Thanks for the feedback.