Divine Magic • Core Spell Reference
Freedom of Movement
Choose your edition before using the spell. Its level, casting procedure, targets, effects, and limits follow the rules in the selected panel.
Freedom of Movement at a Glance
| 5.5e (2024) | Level 4 |
|---|---|
| 5e (2014) | Level 4 |
| Pathfinder 1e | Level 4 |
| D&D 3.5e | Level 4 |
| Browse | Cleric spells • Cleric class |
Spell Rules
Freedom of Movement — 5.5e (2024)
Cleric spell level 4. Edition source.
| Spell | Level 4 Abjuration (Bard, Cleric, Druid, Ranger) |
|---|---|
| Casting Time | Action |
| Range | Touch |
| Components | V, S, M (a leather strap) |
| Duration | 1 hour |
You touch a willing creature. For the duration, the target’s movement is unaffected by Difficult Terrain, and spells and other magical effects can neither reduce the target’s Speed nor cause the target to have the Paralyzed or Restrained conditions. The target also has a Swim Speed equal to its Speed. In addition, the target can spend 5 feet of movement to automatically escape from nonmagical restraints, such as manacles or a creature imposing the Grappled condition on it.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. You can target one additional creature for each spell slot level above 4.
Freedom of Movement — 5e (2014)
Cleric spell level 4. Edition source.
| Spell | 4th-level abjuration |
|---|---|
| Casting Time | 1 action |
| Range | Touch |
| Components | V, S, M (a leather strap, bound around the arm or a similar appendage) |
| Duration | 1 hour |
You touch a willing creature. For the duration, the target’s movement is unaffected by difficult terrain, and spells and other magical effects can neither reduce the target’s speed nor cause the target to be paralyzed or restrained. The target can also spend 5 feet of movement to automatically escape from nonmagical restraints, such as manacles or a creature that has it grappled. Finally, being underwater imposes no penalties on the target’s movement or attacks.
Freedom of Movement — Pathfinder 1e
Cleric spell level 4. Edition source.
| School | abjuration |
|---|---|
| Level | bard 4, cleric 4, druid 4, ranger 4 |
| Casting Time | 1 standard action |
| Components | V, S, M (a leather strip bound to the target), DF |
| Range | personal or touch |
| Target | you or creature touched |
| Duration | 10 min./level |
| Saving Throw | Will negates (harmless) |
| Spell Resistance | yes (harmless) |
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, such as paralysis, solid fog, slow, and web. All combat maneuver checks made to grapple the target automatically fail. The subject automatically succeeds on any combat maneuver checks and Escape Artist checks made to escape a grapple or a pin.
The spell also allows the subject to move and attack normally while underwater, even with slashing weapons such as axes and swords or with bludgeoning weapons such as flails, hammers, and maces, provided that the weapon is wielded in the hand rather than hurled. The freedom of movement spell does not, however, grant water breathing.
Freedom of Movement — D&D 3.5e
Cleric spell level 4. Edition source.
| School | Abjuration |
|---|---|
| Level | Brd 4, Clr 4, Drd 4, Luck 4, Rgr 4 |
| Components | V, S, M, DF |
| Casting Time | 1 standard action |
| Range | Personal or touch |
| Target | You or creature touched |
| Duration | 10 min./level |
| Saving Throw | Will negates (harmless) |
| Spell Resistance | Yes (harmless) |
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, such as paralysis, solid fog, slow, and web. The subject automatically succeeds on any grapple check made to resist a grapple attempt, as well as on grapple checks or Escape Artist checks made to escape a grapple or a pin.
The spell also allows the subject to move and attack normally while underwater, even with slashing weapons such as axes and swords or with bludgeoning weapons such as flails, hammers, and maces, provided that the weapon is wielded in the hand rather than hurled. The freedom of movement spell does not, however, allow water breathing.
Material Component: A leather thong, bound around the arm or a similar appendage.
Why This Spell Is Dangerous in the World
Freedom of Movement is dangerous because it defeats captivity.
A noble under this spell cannot easily be seized by guards. A priest can walk through a binding circle of roots. A drowned knight can fight beneath a harbour chain. A courier can pass through magical mud, webs, nets, and grasping dead hands while assassins watch their ambush fail.
The spell changes the value of prisons, naval warfare, monster lairs, and battlefield control. It makes certain forms of law enforcement, enslavement, execution, and ritual restraint unreliable unless the captors understand magic and prepare accordingly.
In the hands of adventurers, it saves lives. In the hands of tyrants, spies, cultists, assassins, and oath-breakers, it makes binding them much harder.
Historical and Mythic Context
Freedom of Movement belongs to an old magical idea: the blessed traveller, the sea-protected warrior, and the body that cannot be bound. It is not merely a convenience spell. It answers a deep fear in late medieval adventure: the fear that a person can be stopped, dragged under, webbed, pinned, drowned, or made helpless before courage matters.
In mythic terms, the spell stands near gods and spirits of passage. Hermes, protector of travellers and divine messenger, offers the clearest parallel: movement as sacred permission, not just physical speed. The protected creature does not become faster by brute force. It becomes difficult for the world to deny its passage.
The underwater part of the spell connects it to older sea powers. Poseidon, god of the sea, represents the sea as a divine realm rather than ordinary terrain. A creature under Freedom of Movement briefly fights as though water has stopped being an enemy. It can swing steel beneath the surface, cross drowned halls, and resist the sea’s usual claim on motion, though it still must breathe.
The spell also has a more elusive mythic flavour. Proteus, the old man of the sea, is bound to the idea of what cannot easily be held. His mythic power of escape and change makes him a useful image for the spell’s deeper meaning. Freedom of Movement is not shapeshifting, but it carries a related dramatic force: the body slips the meaning of capture. Rope, claw, current, web, fog, and grip all fail to define the protected creature.
In a campaign world, this makes the spell socially dangerous. A kingdom can build prisons, stocks, drowned cells, ritual bindings, execution chains, and harbour cages, but abjuration introduces doubt. If the prisoner is protected, if the leather thong is hidden, if the priest speaks before the guards notice, then the law’s physical grip may fail. That is why rulers, jailers, slavers, inquisitors, sea-lords, and monster-hunters all care about this spell.
Rules Sources and Licensing
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