Holy Hold (3.5e Spell)

''You chant the holy words and a ring of light appears around your enemies. It rapidly begins to shrink, and your enemies stumble and fall over as the light pushes them back, steadily backwards towards the center of the space enclosed by the ring...''

You create a ring of light whose center point can be any open point in space within Long Range that you have line of effect to. The ring of light starts out as being 50 feet in diameter and 8 feet high, and it is as impenetrable as a wall of force to all creatures other than you or your allies. (Unlike a wall of force, a ring created by a holy hold spell cannot exist within an antimagic field; any part of the ring within an antimagic field winks out of existence until the movement of the rest of the ring carries it outside of the antimagic field again. If the ring's center ends up within an antimagic field, the holy hold fails to establish any sort of hold as described below, though it can still bull rush until it reaches the antimagic field.)

Each round on your turn, the ring shrinks in diameter by 10 feet. Any creatures near the edge of the ring are bull-rushed as though by a forceful hand, except that the ring can push a creature of any size, counts as Large for bull rushing purposes, and has an effective Strength score of 40 + your caster level. It is not considered to be charging for the purposes of its bull rush roll unless you have it shrinking at a rate of 20 feet per round (see below). Creatures can be forced to share the same space (and thusly fall prone) as a result of being bull rushed by the holy hold. The ring passes harmlessly through you and all creatures you perceive as allies. It also passes harmlessly through solid objects, but if a creature is trapped between the shrinking ring and a solid object, it is immediately crushed for 2d6 damage per caster level (maximum 40d6, Fortitude save allowed for half) and is then deposited on the outside of the ring as the ring violently forces itself through the victim's body. By the fifth round, the ring's diameter has become 0 feet. Any creature whose space is entirely enclosed by the ring at any time (including all creatures inside the ring when its diameter becomes 0 feet) is immediately bound in a straightjacket-esque restraint formed of solid light and drops prone, bound, and helpless to the ground. Creatures are entitled to a Reflex save to escape being bound at the last second, but this save is made at a penalty equal to &minus;(⅓ your caster level), and prone creatures take an additional &minus;4 penalty. Other than that, a creature can try to escape via a high jump over the ring (DC dependent on creature size and ring height as described in the Jump skill) or an Escape Artist check with a DC equal to 14 + ½ your caster level to squeeze through. You can position the ring any number of feet above the ground you desire, which can make it more difficult to jump over but makes it easier to crawl under (Tumble DC = 25 &minus; # of feet above ground ring is positioned, size modifier to Hide checks is applied to Tumble check).

A creature trapped and bound by the ring can only escape with a DC 30 + ⅛ your caster level Strength check or a DC 25 + your caster level Escape Artist check. Otherwise, the creature remains bound until its light straightjacket is disintegrated or the duration elapses. The duration is 1 minute/level on a bound creature of good alignment, 1 day/level on a bound creature of neutral (on the good-evil axis) alignment, or 1 year/level on a bound creature of evil alignment. A bound creature still needs to eat, breathe, and sleep if it already had those requirements. The bonds on a neutral or evil creature can be made permanent by a permanency spell with a caster level of at least 13 (costing 2,000 XP).

The ring of light becomes 2 feet higher at caster level 12, and its height increases by another two feet for every four caster levels after that (16th, 20th, 24th, etc.), enabling you to more effectively trap larger (and taller) creatures. Starting at caster level 16, you may have the ring start with 100 feet of diameter and shrink by 20 feet each round, to trap more creatures.

As a final note, this spell works wonders in conjunction with time stop; if you cast holy hold or have one contracting during a time stop, the ring will continue shrinking during the time stop, and is perfectly capable of bull-rushing (or even crushing or binding) creatures frozen in time. Creatures in frozen time automatically fail saves against holy hold. The only problem is getting the same character to be capable of casting both time stop and holy hold... It still counts even if you cast one (or both) spells as spell-like abilities, via magic items, as a contingency effect, or through similar means, but ultimately, the same character has to generate both effects for this combo to work.