Evard’s Black Tentacles

PHB: P. 238

Evards Black Tentacles

4-level Conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action

Range/Area: 90 feet

Components: V, S, M

Materials: A piece of tentacle from a giant octopus or a giant squid

Duration: Concentration, Concentration, up to 1 minute

Squirming, ebony tentacles fill a 20-foot square on ground that you can see within range. For the duration, these tentacles turn the ground in the area into difficult terrain. When a creature enters the affected area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, the creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 3d6 bludgeoning damage and be restrained by the tentacles until the spell ends. A creature that starts its turn in the area and is already restrained by the tentacles takes 3d6 bludgeoning damage.
A creature restrained by the tentacles can use its action to make a Strength or Dexterity check (its choice) against your spell save DC. On a success, it frees itself.

Available for: Wizard

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What Is Evard’s Black Tentacles? Is It A Good Spell?

Black Tentacles is a spell that sacrifices a lot of the damage you’d expect from a 4th level spell for some amazing control.

The ability to lock down more than ten enemies inside a squirming wall of nightmarish tentacles for up to a minute is insanely powerful. This means that the paltry 3d6 bludgeoning damage per round this spell inflicts is more of a cherry on top than the nightmarish cake itself.

Evard’s Black Tentacles is best deployed against large groups of foes and can effectively neutralize a staggering number of lower-level minions at once. Throw this spell at a horde of charging goblins and watch them get absolutely wrecked.

Also, any spell that can restrain multiple creatures at once is insanely powerful, as it then sets up other members of your party with area of effect magic for near-guaranteed damage – as the restrained condition imposes disadvantage on dexterity saving throws.

I’m a huge advocate of any party having two full spellcasters in their ranks, with one focused on control and utility and the other on raw damage. Twinning Evard’s Black Tentacles with a Fireball is one of the most effective ways to turn a deadly encounter into a wicked easy murder luau.

It’s also a great spell to burn against powerful solo monsters. Because of how D&D 5e compensates for the action economy (the side with more actions per turn usually wins, unless the power levels are super out of whack – which is why CR is more of a rough guideline than an actually helpful metric) most high level bad guys are going to be able to make multiple attacks per round.

Sure, if the party can focus all its attention on a single monster, that monster won’t last for more than, say, three to four turns.

However, pretty much all powerful monsters have access to multiattack and do a crapload of damage, which means a single critical hit can cause the balance of an encounter to swing wildly from one turn to another.

First, the players do a bunch of damage to a monster and then it either dies or directs all its attacks against one PC and maybe kills them.

If you want to avoid that second possibility, any spell with the ability to restrain a powerful enemy is huge. The fact that, once restrained, a target of Evard’s Black Tentacles needs to make a check (not a saving throw) to escape, is immensely powerful, as it basically guarantees that any creature who gets snagged by a black tentacle is going to spend at least one round not beating the party rogue into a bloody pulp.

Commonly Asked Questions About Evard’s Black Tentacles

Do Black Tentacles Affect Allies?

Yes, unfortunately, the wording of Evard’s Black Tentacles makes no distinction between friendly and hostile creatures. All creatures that enter the spell’s radius must save or take damage and be restrained.

Also, all creatures treat the spell’s area as difficult terrain. The only exception to this would be the School of Evocation Wizard’s Sclupt Spells feature.

Sculpt Spells
Beginning at 2nd level, you can create pockets of relative safety within the effects of your evocation spells. When you cast an evocation spell that affects other creatures that you can see, you can choose a number of them equal to 1 + the spell’s level.

The chosen creatures automatically succeed on their saving throws against the spell, and they take no damage if they would normally take half damage on a successful save.

How Tall Are Black Tentacles? There’s no official answer, so it’s up to your DM. Previous editions of D&D have described the tentacles as being 10ft long, but the 5e rules explicitly state the affected area is in the ground (meaning you could imagine it as more of a pit of writhing ebony snakes).

Can You Dispel Black Tentacles? Yes. Also, if the caster of the spell takes any damage, they must make a Concentration saving throw or the spell ends.

Source:  Auther is Harry (https://blackcitadelrpg.com/author/harrym/) 
of the Black Citadel (https://blackcitadelrpg.com/spells/evards-black-tentacles-5e/)

Material Components

V, S, M - A piece of tentacle from a giant octopus or a giant squid

Related Discipline

Wizard

Related School

Conjuration

Effect Duration

Concentration, 1 Minute

Effect Casting Time

1 action

Range

90 ft (20 ft square)

Level

Fourth