Tether Essence: Good for the Gander

Usable By: Wizard

Spell Level: 7

School: Necromancy (dunamancy)

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 60 feet

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

Components: V, S, M (a spool of platinum cord worth at least 250 gp, which the spell consumes)

Two creatures you can see within range must make a Constitution saving throw, with disadvantage if they are within 30 feet of each other. Either creature can willingly fail the save. If either save succeeds, the spell has no effect. If both saves fail, the creatures are magically linked for the duration, regardless of the distance between them. When damage is dealt to one of them, the same damage is dealt to the other one. If hit points are restored to one of them, the same number of hit points are restored to the other one. If either of the tethered creatures is reduced to 0 hit points, the spell ends on both. If the spell ends on one creature, it ends on both.

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

Tether Essence is a neat spell. I don’t think it's necessarily something you’ll want often, but the effect it's offering is fairly unique in the world of D&D. Best case scenario, this is doubling the effectiveness of every single target attack, spell, and damaging condition your party has access to. That can be an outrageous advantage. Alternatively, even if both creatures pass the save, it can deal however much damage the smaller one has, then end, resulting in a middling to bad damage spell to the smaller creature for a 7th level slot. I don’t think this is something you’ll want to use as a healing option all that much (if ever), but there might be some niche builds regaining buckets of HP that can “share” their healing with a buddy in exchange for sharing damage.

I have such a hard time reckoning with the spell’s requirements as well. 250 gold per use is a fairly expensive cost, and the outcome it offers may serve no purpose. Needing both creatures to fail the save seems so far-fetched to me too. If you just needed one to fail the save to affect both it’d still be risky, but both? You’re just begging to light your gold on fire at that point. Plus the spell’s concentration; spending your 7th level spell linking two creatures' damage together is going to paint a gigantic target on your head, and not provide any defensive tools to keep concentration up that summoning magic or other powerful concentration effects tend to come with.

Still, I can’t deny that some encounters will be broken in half by this. Going against two midsize creatures that fail the saves will result in a huge damage bump for the team, potentially turning a four or five round encounter into a one or two round encounter. Doubling the effectiveness of a prepped assassin’s crit to carry across two enemies is ludicrous. Doubling the effectiveness of a paladin’s 4th level smite with a greatsword is really good. You want ideally more than just one of these per cast, but you don’t need more than two or three for this to be absolutely worth the slot.

If you’re a high risk high reward player that wants a tool with some odd utility here and there, Tether Essence might be for you. Some encounters will leave it on the bench, while others can be radically warped by it should it connect. Tether Essence is foundationally interesting. I like that.

5e Spells

Tether Essence: Good for the Gander