Watery Sphere: My Balls are Big and Moist
Usable By: Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard
Spell Level: 4
School: Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 90 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Components: V, S, M (a droplet of water)
You conjure up a sphere of water with a 5-foot radius on a point you can see within range. The sphere can hover in the air, but no more than 10 feet off the ground. The sphere remains for the spell’s duration.
Any creature in the sphere’s space must make a Strength saving throw. On a successful save, a creature is ejected from that space to the nearest unoccupied space outside it. A Huge or larger creature succeeds on the saving throw automatically. On a failed save, a creature is restrained by the sphere and is engulfed by the water. At the end of each of its turns, a restrained target can repeat the saving throw.
The sphere can restrain a maximum of four Medium or smaller creatures or one Large creature. If the sphere restrains a creature in excess of these numbers, a random creature that was already restrained by the sphere falls out of it and lands prone in a space within 5 feet of it.
As an action, you can move the sphere up to 30 feet in a straight line. If it moves over a pit, cliff, or other drop, it safely descends until it is hovering 10 feet over ground. Any creature restrained by the sphere moves with it. You can ram the sphere into creatures, forcing them to make the saving throw, but no more than once per turn.
When the spell ends, the sphere falls to the ground and extinguishes all normal flames within 30 feet of it. Any creature restrained by the sphere is knocked prone in the space where it falls.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Save or dies tend to be polarizing. They can trivialize an entire fight or do nothing at all. Watery Sphere enters as a long term consistent save or die that can restrain up to four creatures at once so long as they’re medium or smaller. Add on the mobility it has, and you’ve got yourself a pretty slick option that can meaningfully add a lot to your team.
The restrained condition reduces creatures speed to zero, imposes disadvantage on their attack rolls and dexterity saving throws, and grants advantage to attackers on their attack rolls against the target. Getting multiple creatures restrained for a 4th level slot can be excellent; getting to continue using it round after round can be exceptional. Watery Sphere can eat dozens of actions with proper placement, and repositioning it offers guaranteed forced saves later. Restrained is no paralyzed, nor is Watery Sphere as impactful on a single entity as something like Polymorph or Banishment, but in the right fight, Watery Sphere can be debilitating.
What I find particularly engaging about the spell is how it affects varying sizes of creatures. This spell obviously excels against medium or smaller creatures but in a pinch can restrain something big. This encourages strategic placement and planning; do you want to attempt to restrain the three orcs with the sphere first, or send it right for the hill giant to try to prevent it from approaching? There will be a lot of fights where you’ll get dynamic choices like this. It offers proactive and reactive choices, making it a useful tool for long term battlefield control.
Overall, I’m a big fan of Watery Sphere. This is how powerful I like save or die effects to be. The restrained condition can cripple some fights, but not all. It clearly will work great against some encounters and be a lot worse, but still mostly usable, in others. Watery Sphere has some fun out of combat applications too, and while it mostly will be used to restrain enemies, can be a neat puzzle solving or exploration tool to pop out in a pinch. You aren’t going to break the game with Watery Sphere, and if your damage is tied to concentration, you probably aren’t ever casting it. If you do have flexibility with your concentration, and are looking to help your frontline allies a bit more, Watery Sphere might just be the spell for you.
Thank you for visiting!
If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.
