I mentioned this elsewhere (in another forum thread), but this might be the right place :
Is the Black Tentacles spell description clear ?
The spell was used in our latest gaming session and there was some confusion regarding the rules.
"Every creature within the area of the spell is the target of a combat maneuver check made to grapple each round"
"Roll ONLY ONCE for the entire spell effect and apply the result to all creatures in the area of effect"
entire spell effect : i.e., spell duration ?
"The black tentacles receives a +5 bonus ON GRAPPLE CHECKS MADE against opponents it is already grappling"
But if the check was rolled once for the entire spell effect, what other grapple checks ? Or is the +5 bonus applied to the first roll result ? But if a target has been grappled on the first check and that the combat maneuver check is made against a static DC (as per the combat maneuver rules p. 150), what use is the +5 bonus since the same roll result is used for the entire spell effect?
I would understand if a single roll each round was applied to all creatures in the area of effect (to make things easier) but not one roll for the entire spell effect... Subsequent "checks" against already grappled targets become useless.
Of course, perhaps I'm just misreading the spell description.
Note- there is a typo on p. 150 in the "Performing a Combat Maneuver" section, last line of 1st paragraph : "manuever"
In general, I hope that this spell gets a thorough looking over and both clarifying and a bit of nerfing.
Yes, under the current grapple rules this spell is definitely broken. I'd like to see some clarification, too.