Planar Binding

Level 5 Abjuration spell available to Bards, Clerics, Druids, and Wizards. Dominate Person for the things Dominate Person cannot touch: fiends, elementals, fey, and celestials. Wisdom save or it fights for you for ten turns.

Spell description: Target an otherworldly creature and attach its consciousness to your own. It will follow and fight for you as an ally. The target must be a Celestial, Elemental, Fey, or Fiend.

Spell properties

• Range: 18m (60ft)
• Duration: 10 turns
• Concentration spell
• Save: WIS save
• Conditions applied: Seized by Planar Binding. A Celestial, Elemental, Fey, or Fiend fights for you for 10 turns. It repeats the save whenever it takes damage.
• Cost: Action + Spell Slot
• Recharge: Per action

Spell upcasting

Casting Planar Binding at higher levels provides no additional benefits.

How to obtain Planar Binding

• Bard, Cleric, Druid, Wizard at Class level 9

Source item: Scroll of Planar Binding

When to cast Planar Binding

Cast it on the biggest fiend or elemental in the fight. Cambions, elementals in the Underdark, the devils in the House of Hope. Taking one of those off the enemy side and putting it on yours is the same enormous swing as Dominate Person, on a creature list nothing else controls.

Fiends tend to have good Wisdom, so it will fail more often than Dominate Person does on cultists. Elementals are the softer target. Check the save before you spend the slot.

Same rules as every domination: it repeats the save on damage, so your party leaves it alone and lets the enemy hit it. It is Concentration, so the caster stays out of reach.

It is also a surprisingly strong pick for a Cleric, who otherwise has no way to steal an enemy. Against Raphael’s house it is one of the best Level 5 slots you can spend.