Force Choke
KineticDark- Cost
- 3 FP
- Activation
- Action
- Range
- 30 ft
- Recommended Lv
- Lv 10+
Effect
As an Action, you seize the throat of a creature you can see within 30 ft with an invisible grip of the Force. The target must make a Constitution saving throw (DC = 8 + your Proficiency Bonus + your Wisdom modifier). On a failed save, the creature takes 2d8 + your Wisdom modifier Force damage, is lifted slightly off the ground, and becomes Restrained until the effect ends. While Restrained in this way, its speed is 0, it cannot speak or vocalize clearly, and it has disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity checks. At the end of each of its turns, the creature may repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on a success. On a successful initial save, the creature takes half damage and is not Restrained. You must use your Action each round to maintain the choke; if you take no Action to maintain it, become incapacitated, or choose to release the target, the effect ends.
At the Table
A captured smuggler sneers one insult too many, and the Sith acolyte (WIS +4, PB +4) lifts a hand across the cell. Spending 3 FP and her Action, she clamps an invisible grip on the smuggler's throat 30 ft away, forcing a CON save against DC 16. He rolls a 9 and fails: 2d8 + 4 Force damage, feet dangling off the deck, Restrained, speed 0, unable to choke out a word, and disadvantage on every Strength and Dexterity check as he claws at nothing. Each round she burns her Action to keep squeezing, and at the end of his turns he repeats the save, desperate to break free before she loses interest.
In the Lore
Force Choke is the signature terror of the Sith and the dark side, telekinesis turned to murder by simply closing the airway. Darth Vader is its most infamous practitioner, throttling Admiral Motti for his "sad devotion to that ancient religion" in A New Hope and killing Admiral Ozzel and Captain Needa in The Empire Strikes Back. He wields it as intimidation as readily as execution, famously seizing Director Krennic's throat in Rogue One ("be careful not to choke on your aspirations, Director") before releasing him alive. Other dark-siders wield it too: Vader's master Emperor Palpatine, who in canon casually strangled Mandalorians from across a room and even choked Count Dooku over a hologram from light-years away, and, in Legends, numerous Sith Lords of the Old Republic who treated the grip as both execution and intimidation. As an Alter-discipline corruption of benign telekinesis, it is overwhelmingly a dark-side expression, an act of dominance the Jedi forswear because it bends the Force toward cruelty rather than defense.