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The freedom of movement would effectively negate every part of the slow spell, as the -1 to attack rolls, ac, and reflex saves are caused by the target moving slowly. Freedom of movement lets you move and attack normally.
Both the paralysis spell, and the paralyzed condition are ignored
Black tentacles cannot grapple you, and the difficult terrain generated by the spell is ignored. If the ground is difficult terrain because, let's say, a wall collapsed where you're trying to walk through and there are bricks everywhere, then it still counts as difficult terrain. The reason for the bricks from a collapsed wall still being difficult terrain vs the black tentacles not being difficult terrain is a little strange. The only reason black tentacles is difficult terrain is because, well. There's a spell there. If the spell was never cast, wallah, you can move at normal rate. The bricks however are not the result of a spell or spell like ability (even if the wall got torn apart by a fireball), and are therefore not ignored, as the spell Freedom of Movement does not say specifically you ignore difficult terrain. Therefore, you try and cross the rubble normally. What is normal in this case? Difficult terrain.
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You are immune to that condition. The item that applies it is irrelevant unless it stated: "effects creatures that are normally immune to this condition" or something similar.
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I looked up Freedom of Movement again. I am mistaken. Nothing in its effects state that you are immune to entangle. It does explicitly say you automatically pass any attempts to escape a pin or grapple, but nothing about entangle. I am used to playing it such that your target cannot be caught in a net, but now I am not so sure that was correct.
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This spell enables you or a creature you touch to move and attack normally for the duration of the spell, even under the influence of magic that usually impedes movement
This line is pretty indicative that mundane means of preventing you from moving and attacking normally are not effective, as well as mystical ones. I think it's a silly scenario when you wander around in a net, not entangled, until the duration ends and then the net takes hold.
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This spell enables you or a creature you touch to move and attack normally for the duration of the spell, even under the influence of magic that usually impedes movement...
'Moving normally' is not limited to avoiding magical effects that impede movement, it includes avoiding magical effects that impede movement.
Among other things, your movement is not doubled by difficult terrain, whether that terrain is the result of magic or whether it occured naturally.
Is it normally a valid space for movement? Then you can move through it uninhibited. A wall is not a valid space for movement.
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Ah the good old Freedom of Movement debate.
I would advise deciding for yourself if you are the DM or just asking your DM how exactly its going to work. As you can see Stikye, there are some varied opinions here on how exactly to handle this spell. A quick Google search could show you tons of other forum discussions on various sights arguing about what it does and does not do for you. Despite everyone in my group having more or less the same theoretical idea about what Freedom should allow/prevent, after years of us playing d&d together we still are at times stumped about how it should function in specific scenarios, particularly in regards to difficult terrain.
In regards to your specific questions, Nanomd is definitely correct about the paralysis, Black Tentacles, and probably the staggered effect of the Slow spell as well, Slow and paralysis being specifically mentioned int he spell description. Freedom of movement does not say however that it allows you to act normally, just move and attack normally, and Slow limits your ability to act because you are staggered. However, as it is a spell that limits your actions because it is "slowing" you, I can also see the logic behind Freedom of Movement trumping it outright, especially since the spell is specifically mentioned in the Freedom of Movement description. But, if you are at 0 hit points, are you not staggered because you have Freedom of Movement? I wouldn't think so, but it is in situations like these that Freedom of Movement shows its legendary vagueness. The spell does clearly make you impossible to grapple, and it certainly seems like it should let you ignore difficult terrain MOST of the time, PROBABLY including when walking through Black Tentacles. I really wish the spell description of Freedom of Movement was more clear about difficult terrain. The fact that Pathfinder did not change the spell description at all despite the clear confusion surrounding the spell kind of disappointed me.
So if you're still reading this, here's everything I and my group have come up with to deal with the spell in various situations. Feel free to stop reading if you would like to figure it out on your own or are just sick of reading this novella I am constructing here. I think we can all agree that the spell clearly does not turn you into Shadowcat. No walking through walls or spaces that you cannot fit through. That's fairly obvious. Generally speaking, any kind of mental attack on you, such as Power Word Stun, functions normally, unless it is a mental attack that causes paralysis since you are clearly immune to the paralysis condition. The stunned condition we treat as flat out not effected by Freedom of Movement regardless of it's source. One of our players does not really agree with that but he has lost the debate. He's still bitter about his fighter getting Power Word Stunned that one time. Clearly you cannot be grappled and automatically succeed in any attempt to escape being grappled, and are immune to the movement limiting effects of the spells Solid Fog, Slow, and Web and therefore, logically, similar spells. If a spell's description actually says that one of its effects limits or impedes movement, like Solid Fog does, I'd call that a clear case in which Freedom of Movement ignores that effect. Web creates difficult terrain and Freedom of Movement specifically mentions Web, and because of that similar spells, like Black Tentacles, which create difficult terrain should also certainly not affect you while under the effects of Freedom of Movement. The "Web Rational" could also be used as evidence that the spell simply lets you ignore difficult terrain period, but that is not how we treat it. Essentially, whether or not you get to ignore difficult terrain depends on why the terrain is difficult in our games and seat-of-our-pants logic takes over from there. If the terrain is difficult because there are "large" obstructions that must be avoided, objects which must be hurdled, holes in the ground that must be avoided, or if you are forced to treat ground as difficult under threat of falling (due to climbing a thin stairway or ledge over a pit for instance), then in such cases we rule that Freedom of Movement does not allow you to treat the terrain as not being difficult. If the terrain is difficult because the ground is mushy or slippery, because there are "small" obstructions that must be avoided or bypassed such as brambles or webs, or because a spell creates magical sources that impede movement, then in such cases we rule that Freedom of Movement does allow you to treat the terrain as not being difficult. Entangle is a fun one. After much deliberation we decided that if you are entangled because you are trapped under or behind some object that makes it impossible to escape then you should still be ensnared and suffer all ill effects (including moving at half speed, does your brain hurt yet?) as, again, you are not Shadow Cat, but if there is a means of escaping the entangle effect such as making a strength check or a combat maneuvers check then in that case you are immune to such sources of entanglement, based on the fact that you cannot be grappled (a similar condition that there is always a means of escaping).
I would throw out there though that Freedom of Movement is already powerful enough even if it does not let you ignore any entangle or any kind of mundane difficult terrain, and I lobbied for this side of things at one point with my group on balancing terms but the hive-mind eventually overruled me. If you like the sound of that, then by all means "You Can Go Your Own Way" just like Fleetwood Mac.
There you have it, all I have to offer you on one of the most vague and yet commonly used spells in the game once it becomes available. Despite all of this having been collectively agreed upon by my group (I think) I have no doubt that we have hours ahead of us to look forward to in future sessions trying to figure out whether or not players' characters wearing rings of Freedom of Movement get to ignore some difficult terrain.
Yes, there's more. I forgot to mention figuring out exactly what happens when you have Freedom of Movement under water. My group and I had a nice, lengthy discussion about this recently as we descended into a sunken dungeon. It seems fairly straightforward as it states that you can move and attack freely underwater. The question of whether or not you were able to fly normally if you had a fly speed did come up though, specifically if your flight was granted by wings such as from the wings of flying item, but we decided it was simplest and probably the most logical to simply allow flight and anything else you want to do underwater. You basically get to ignore the water if you want to, but can still swim in it as well if you would like.
It stops outside forces from affecting you. Being at 0 hp would be an internal force (or rather your lack of force moving your muscles due to blood loss), so freedom of movement would have no effect on that.
It stops outside forces from affecting you. Being at 0 hp would be an internal force (or rather your lack of force moving your muscles due to blood loss), so freedom of movement would have no effect on that.
Sounds perfectly logical to me, thus my groups rational that mental effects are not effected by Freedom of Movement. It would have been GREAT if they could have been bothered to add a sentence or two to the spell description mentioning something along those lines.
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When I first came across this spell (35 years ago in 1st ed AD&D when it was called free action) there were very few spells. They were split into four sections: cleric, Druid, magic-user and illusionist spells. You could be looking at the 3rd level magic-user spells and on the same double page you would see the last part of the 2nd level spells and the first part of the 4th level spells.
So it was possible to name all the spells that free action worked against, but even then it was spells like those!
In the 1st ed DMG there was an entire section on underwater adventuring. I don't know why Gary Gygax thought it was so important but he obviously did (along with drunkenness, gems and stream-of-conciousness chapters) and that's why underwater stuff gets mentioned in free action and freedom of movement. That initial wording has hardly changed in over 35 years; a little disappointing considering the arguments it's caused.
I used to wonder why a spell which did so little was 4th level! Then I started to understand that it was 4th level because it's so damn powerful! Any magical or non-magical effect that would reduce your movement is ignored, any glue, quicksand, tentacle grapple, slippery surface, being neck deep in molasses, whatever, this spell beats them all!
If it didn't, it wouldn't be 4th level. : )
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Freedom of Movement, in my personal opinion, is just one of those 'sacred cows' which should simply be butchered and eaten once and for all.
It causes too much trouble, it reduceds to nothingness at least one Combat Maneuver (immunity to Grapple, hello there) and creates a lot of comical situations when the result is not completely cut-clear (like the aforementioned 'snared but not really snared' , or 'tripped but you can still move normally').
All of these for a LOT of time (we are speaking of more than 1 hour at the minimum level).
If it simply gave a large bonus to checks/saving throws/CMB to escape 'situations which impede movement' (and situational bonuses, like 'stand up as swift action which does not provoke Attacks of Opportunity' and so on) it would have been a lot less messy and a lot more balanced...
Just my 2c.
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Freedom of Movement, in my personal opinion, is just one of those 'sacred cows' which should simply be butchered and eaten once and for all.
It causes too much trouble, it reduceds to nothingness at least one Combat Maneuver (immunity to Grapple, hello there) and creates a lot of comical situations when the result is not completely cut-clear (like the aforementioned 'snared but not really snared' , or 'tripped but you can still move normally').
All of these for a LOT of time (we are speaking of more than 1 hour at the minimum level).If it simply gave a large bonus to checks/saving throws/CMB to escape 'situations which impede movement' (and situational bonuses, like 'stand up as swift action which does not provoke Attacks of Opportunity' and so on) it would have been a lot less messy and a lot more balanced...
Just my 2c.
How does freedom of movement help you after you've been tripped? 'Normal' movement while prone is by crawling. The 'normal' way to switch from being prone to standing up is by spending a move action to do so.
If all the spell did was give bonuses, then it wouldn't be 4th level. There are 1st level spells which help you completely ignore the movement penalties for difficult terrain.
If you lessened the power of this spell, another spell would be created to let you ignore the very things that the de-powered freedom of movement would give you bonuses against.