Planar Binding: Did the 80s Teach Us Nothing?

Usable By: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard

Spell Level: 5

School: Abjuration

Casting Time: 1 hour

Range: 60 feet

Duration: 24 hours

Components: V, S, M (A jewel worth at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes)

With this spell, you attempt to bind a celestial, an elemental, a fey, or a fiend to your service. The creature must be within range for the entire casting of the spell. (Typically, the creature is first summoned into the center of an inverted magic circle in order to keep it trapped while this spell is cast.) At the completion of the casting, the target must make a Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, it is bound to serve you for the duration. If the creature was summoned or created by another spell, that spell’s duration is extended to match the duration of this spell.

A bound creature must follow your instructions to the best of its ability. You might command the creature to accompany you on an adventure, to guard a location, or to deliver a message. The creature obeys the letter of your instructions, but if the creature is hostile to you, it strives to twist your words to achieve its own objectives. If the creature carries out your instructions completely before the spell ends, it travels to you to report this fact if you are on the same plane of existence. If you are on a different plane of existence, it returns to the place where you bound it and remains there until the spell ends.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of a higher level, the duration increases to 10 days with a 6th-level slot, to 30 days with a 7th-level slot, to 180 days with an 8th-level slot, and to a year and a day with a 9th-level spell slot.

Review by Samuel West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Planar Binding offers your group a pretty sweet option; if you can capture and contain an extraplanar being, you can BEND ITS MIND TO YOUR WILL! MUHAHAHA!

Hypothetically this should be quite strong. Through a convoluted Scooby-Doo style trap or backstabbing your Planar Ally, a group should be able to lock down and grab a new servant for the day. In practice, no group ever has been coordinated enough to pull off this kind of nonsense. Not once.

To get the most out of Planar Binding you need to first contain a creature you want to bind. This is way easier said than done; if you’re using something like Planar Ally or Gate to get aid, you might as well cast higher level summoning magic like Conjure Celestial to get a powerful extraplanar ally. If you’re aiming higher than those CRs, you need to somehow either lock down the target, usually something with twenty strength or more and a whole suite of magic dedicated to killing you.

In the instance that you do successfully lock down a creature you want to bind for an hour, you’re probably thinking “how powerful is this thing, really?” If you’ve been able to lock it down for an hour, is it really that helpful to have over something else you can just summon and save the grand of gold you’re spending? Other summoning spells could get you the effects you’re looking for at a far more reasonable rate, and without needing to have three to four other spells dedicated to the task.

Even should you succeed in all the setup and determine the monster you’re getting is worth the hassle, sometimes you spend the hour and it passes the save. Then you need to set up another Magic Circle, try casting it again over another hour, and just pray this time it fails, because otherwise you need to hold it here for eight hours longer so you can long rest and get some spell slots back.

When it does actually fail the save, you best give it the most specific commands imaginable as it will certainly work to end you. Forcing a creature to act against its own will is a surefire way to get it to hate your guts and strive to rip them out with its incredibly sharp fangs and claws. If you do get this far, though, you do basically get an extra turn in combat if you want it with a monster you captured, which can throw any semblance of encounter balance out the window. If you manage to get to this point and know what hyper specific commands to give, the spell is solid. You probably won’t get past the initial mental barrier of “ugh, we’d have to catch it ourselves” though.

With all this being said, I do love Planar Binding. The spell calls back to old demon summoning rituals and stories around the D&D Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Getting a group together to collectively decide to both summon and bind a devil to your whims is metal, and will be something you’ll think back fondly on. Despite the demonic imagery, it really can be a wholesome teambuilding moment to have a group of friends come together and capture something trying to kill them. Even if you don’t succeed, which you very likely won’t, I’d recommend trying to set up a scenario with Planar Binding simply because it's a pretty cool experience to have at least once.

5e Spells

Planar Binding: Did the 80s Teach Us Nothing?