Feat Spotlight: Telekinetic in DnD 5E

A gith manipulates some disks with telekinetic power. — *Art credit to Neil.*

Telekinetic is one of the feats introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. It allows you to increase one of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by 1, to a maximum of 20; it lets you to cast an invisible mage hand without components, with an extended range of 30 feet; finally, you get to shove a creature within 30 feet 5 feet towards or away from you, either willingly, or on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + the ability modifier of the score increased by this feat).

This feat has been rather strong since its release. However, the totality of what this feat allows you to do is often overlooked. In this article, we will explore the potential of the Telekinetic feat, how it can be used both offensively and defensively, as well as when you should actually pick it up. Let’s get into it.

Saving your Allies

Telekinetic can straightforwardly be used as a sort of “bonus action Disengage” on one of your allies with a shove. As you move them without them using their movement, action, or reaction, it does not provoke opportunity attacks (Player’s Handbook, page 195).

Alternatively, you can break grapple or restrain effects from enemies (the shove is a guaranteed success when targeting an ally), since the grappled condition requires the grappler to stay in reach of the creature it’s grappling, and many monsters have their restraints tied to a grapple. To directly quote the grappled condition:

The condition also ends if an effect removes the grappled creature from the reach of the grappler or grappling effect, such as when a creature is hurled away by the thunderwave spell.Player's Handbook (pg. 290)

Or for another option, you can move allies out of dangerous area effects, particularly ones you’re about to cast or those that activate at the start of a creature’s turn, which is a common way spells work. For example, dragging a party member out of the edge of a moonbeam spell.

Synergizing with Yourself or Allies

Besides being used defensively, Telekinetic can also be used offensively in a wide variety of ways. You can shove an enemy to include an extra target in an area of effect, or move them into existing hazards, especially those that trigger on entry. For example, moving foes off ledges, through caltrops and ball bearings, or into spells like spike growth, web, sleet storm, and wall of fire. One particular combo is quite well known, and that is one where Telekinetic is used in tandem with spirit guardians. First, here is the relevant excerpt from spirit guardians:

An affected creature’s speed is halved in the area, and when the creature enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 3d8 radiant damage (if you are good or neutral) or 3d8 necrotic damage (if you are evil). On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage.Player's Handbook (pg. 278)

Note the use of turn instead of round, and the use of the word enters. Keep an eye out for other spells with this wording. Once you start looking for it, you will see it everywhere.

A creature can absolutely be subjected to the damage of spirit guardians multiple times in a round, it is limited only by turns. This is what the Sage Advice Compendium says about such effects:

Entering such an area of effect needn’t be voluntary, unless a spell says otherwise. You can, therefore, hurl a creature into the area with a spell like thunderwave. We consider that clever play, not an imbalance, so hurl away! Keep in mind, however, that a creature is subjected to such an area of effect only the first time it enters the area on a turn. You can’t move a creature in and out of it to damage it over and over again on the same turn.Sage Advice Compendium (p. 18)

Using this interaction, a Cleric can trigger spirit guardians more often, increasing their DPR. If you are interested in a comparison of damage numbers between Telekinetic and spiritual weapon, an often overrated spell, which costs spell slot, see the comparison below, credits to Senile:

In order to analyze spiritual weapon vs. Telekinetic, we’re going to need some breakpoints for comparison, and have to make some assumptions. Since the earliest level you can get spirit guardians is level 5, we’re going to start there. Here are the parameters of our analysis:

The Cleric has 18 Wisdom and Telekinetic.

Around 800 different creatures ranging from Challenge Rating 0 to Challenge Rating 20 were compiled from official 5E sources, taking into account their save bonuses, AC, and whether or not they had Magic Resistance.

Magic Resistance (if relevant) is applied to the creature’s save against spirit guardians, but not against the initial save from Telekinetic, as it doesn’t meet the Sage Advice Compendium definition of a “magical” effect (p. 20).

For spirit guardians, radiant damage is assumed. Additionally, resistances, vulnerabilities and immunities are accounted for in the damage of both it and spiritual weapon. Notably, only actual resistances/immunities/vulnerabilities were included, not abilities that confer some other benefit when a creature is hit with a specific damage type, like the regeneration of vampires.

For the creatures with Limited Magic Immunity, the damage of both are 0.

With all of this in mind, the average damage output of both spiritual weapon and a Telekinetic pull into spirit guardians for each individual creature was calculated. Once that was done, the data for both the number of creatures each option did better against and the total average damage output was compiled. Since there was a wide range of creatures, these were further broken down into individual Challenge Ratings, to get a better idea of what kind of monsters Telekinetic and spiritual weapon did better against. Results are compiled here.

The results show that at a 3rd level casting of spirit guardians, spiritual weapon barely beats Telekinetic at higher CRs (though at the cost of a spell slot), while upcasting spirit guardians makes spiritual weapon nigh useless, especially once the DC for the spell and feat increases at higher levels.

Telekinetic or Spiritual Weapon

Keep your eyes out for the capabilities of your allies, and yourself, and see for yourself what is possible with the power of psionics! Even the ability to move someone 5 ft. closer to an enemy could allow an ally to deal tons more damage, if it is the difference between them needing to Dash or Dodge with their action, or do something more useful. In Tier 4 play, this could very well be as much as 100 damage for the cost of a bonus action.

The Critical Mass of Forced Movement

An interesting note is that forced movement has increasing returns the more you have of it in a party. Something like Repelling Blast, ray of frost, or even other Telekinetic users can make kiting very effective. A melee based enemy that can no longer reach anyone of your party becomes a non-issue. In this context, it is for example more effective to move someone out of your spirit guardians than to move them inside, as it will lead to them having to Dash to get close enough to affect you. Damage done per damage taken is the most useful metric of measuring combat effectiveness, and stacking multiple sources of forced movement into your party along with control effects that interact with forced movement is the most effective way of improving this ratio. Whether this is the way you and your party want to play, is up to you and your table.

Telekinetic and You

One aspect of Telekinetic that’s unclear is whether it can be used on yourself, or rather if it would have any effect. You are a creature you can see, that is not the issue. However, it is unclear if you can shove yourself away from yourself. For example, if you move a crate 5 feet, did you move it 5 feet away from itself? Depending on what instances of the crate are compared, the answer is either yes or no. If the answer is yes, Telekinetic allows you to affect yourself. However, even if the answer is no, which is an equally valid interpretation, the feat remains a strong choice.

When to Pick Telekinetic

Telekinetic is a fantastic choice for a feat to round out your main stat, if you would have picked a +2 bonus were it an even score as well. However, even with its additional benefits, core feats that improve concentration are still more important and should take priority first. As we explain in our article More Min Than Max: ASIs versus Feats, concentration protection, like Resilient: Constitution or War Caster, is an often overlooked boon to a player’s individual performance as it increases the duration and thus impact of your spells. A good example is a Cleric who can maintain spirit guardians through multiple combats. Arguably, if your party has good synergy in regards to forced movement, its impact will be much greater, and worth it over concentration protection, especially so if you already have some means of concentration protection. Our Twilight Cleric Flagship build does assume you have a reasonably well optimized party, so it takes Telekinetic after Resilient: Constitution but before War Caster.

As an aside, Fey Touched, another half feat, is worth getting over any other feat, even if it does not round out your main stat, if your party lacks gift of alacrity. Gift of alacrity is an incredible spell that ensures your party gets off more actions sooner by boosting your party’s initiative. If your party already has gift of alacrity or if the spell is simply unavailable, you are likely better off picking Telekinetic, and following the advice for when to pick that feat instead. Most optimized caster builds will use point buy and their racial ability score to start with a 17 in their primary stat used for casting, realistically leaving room for only one half feat to round it to 18 at some point in the build.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Telekinetic feat from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything offers a versatile range of abilities that can be applied both defensively and offensively. Defensively, Telekinetic is useful for rescuing allies from danger, breaking grapples and restraints, or relocating them away from hazardous areas. Offensively, it synergizes well with spells like spirit guardians, leading to multiple instances of damage on a creature’s turn. However, the feat competes with other feats like Resilient: Constitution or War Caster, often making it a feat that should not be picked up right away.

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