Slow: Sluggish Like a Wet Sponge
Spell Level: 3
School: Transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Components: V, S, M (a drop of molasses)
You alter time around up to six creatures of your choice in a 40-foot cube within range. Each target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be affected by this spell for the duration.
An affected target’s speed is halved, it takes a −2 penalty to AC and Dexterity saving throws, and it can’t use reactions. On its turn, it can use either an action or a bonus action, not both. Regardless of the creature’s abilities or magic items, it can’t make more than one melee or ranged attack during its turn.
If the creature attempts to cast a spell with a casting time of 1 action, roll a d20. On an 11 or higher, the spell doesn’t take effect until the creature’s next turn, and the creature must use its action on that turn to complete the spell. If it can’t, the spell is wasted.
A creature affected by this spell makes another Wisdom saving throw at the end of its turn. On a successful save, the effect ends for it.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Haste and Slow are the Bless and Bane of the mid tiers to me. These pairs like doing somewhat symmetrical buff/debuff effects. I rave about Haste; that spell gives your allies more attacks, allows for some nonsense speed shenanigans, and has a fun drawback to add dynamics to using it. Slow, on the other hand, is a form of mass save or suck that will sometimes be completely ineffective, and other times debilitate an encounter. It feels like the comparison between Bless and Bane; Bless is something you’re happy to cast regardless of encounter and feel pretty good about it, while Bane is a lot less consistent, often feeling like a waste compared to the other. Ultimately, that’s what kills Slow to me.
The largest difference here is Haste only ever affects one creature while Slow hits up to six. That is a massive difference. Sure, the creatures get to save to ignore it, but most won’t pass the save, giving you something near ⅔ success rates.
Assuming you’re getting roughly ⅔ of the creatures to fail, the actual penalties vary from potentially encounter winning to entirely pointless. A -2 penalty to AC and Dex saves is universally good, but not worth a 3rd level slot (not even close). A creature needing to choose between an action or bonus action often is going to be entirely moot, as most creatures don’t have a bonus action to choose. Halving a creature's speed will often feel like sticking difficult terrain between you and them; for some melee creatures, that’s a big deal. Others won’t care at all, and still make it to your frontline no problem. Limiting attacks to one a turn is great against big villains in the top end of the mid tier to upper tier, but will affect nearly no creatures at the lower tiers. Similarly, creating a fail chance for spellcasting will matter more against more magical creatures, typically seen in the higher tiers of the game.
When most creatures are moving and taking an action for an attack each turn, this spell will feel like -2 AC and -2 to Dex saves. That's not good enough.
All of the other factors contributing do lend it to being incredible against specific enemies, but not as many as you’d think. Something I’d expect this to be great against is a giant; slow them down to prevent melee engagement, drop their attacks to one per round, etc. Unfortunately, giants have access to the Rock ranged attack, which they can only make one of per turn anyway. Casting Slow on them simply says “use your ranged option”, and otherwise has a menial impact on them. Against a spellcaster like a Lich, it’s just going to spend one of its three 3rd level slots and Counterspell this, trading your action for its reaction. That’s a great trade for it. As you delve deeper and deeper digging for monsters this is a silver bullet for, the dawning reality is they’re few and far between.
Slow has interesting text, and can be great against a handful of enemies. I’d much rather have Haste, or an effect like Fear that will reliably debilitate a lot more monsters in a far more impactful way. Still, the floor isn’t that bad. You’re still giving creatures +2 to hit the things that get slowed at minimum. You won’t be devastated to have this on your sheet; I just think you’ll quickly find it falls by the wayside for other concentration effects and more potent condition offerings.
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