The Sphinx's Roar
The Sphinx has attacks. It would rather not use them. Its Roar replaces all attacks for the turn and demands a DC 18 Charisma save from every creature within far range. Fail, and you are paralyzed for 1d4 rounds. That is up to four rounds of doing nothing while a monster stands over you, which for most parties is the whole fight.
Time Bend is the follow-through. One near target, DC 14 Wisdom save, frozen for another 1d4 rounds. So the Sphinx locks the room with Roar, then pins whoever looked most dangerous with a second timer running underneath the first. Charisma saves are where most low-level parties are thin, and DC 18 is not generous. The Wisdom DC is softer, but by then you may already be standing still.
The counter is spacing and saves. Far range is wide but not infinite, so anyone outside it never rolls against the Roar at all. Beyond that, the party members with real Wisdom modifiers should expect Time Bend and plan to be the ones still moving.
At the table: Open with Roar to catch the clustered party, then spend the next turn’s Time Bend on the one PC who made the Charisma save.
Related
Daily field notes, weekly Issues. Follow @ItsAlrdyWritten or subscribe via RSS.