Anchor · Game Mechanic Compendium

Definition

An anchor stops its target from leaving: it bars teleporting, blinking, warping, or fleeing the encounter, while the target can still walk, fly, attack, and cast. Slow cuts speed, and its root stops movement while leaving teleports open; stun stops everything; silence stops casting. It counters blink and recall; zone of control, by contrast, makes pieces stop on entering a zone. It runs as a timed condition under status effects.

Behaviour

Most anchors are targeted: a ray that needs a ranged touch attack but allows no save in Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd edition, a move or a fitted module on one chosen target in Pokémon and EVE Online. The effect is narrow: Dimensional Anchor bars “bodily extradimensional travel” and nothing else, and a warp-disrupted ship keeps flying under fire. Area and placed forms hold everything inside, sometimes the user too, as with EVE Online’s heavy interdictors. Counterplay is debuff immunity in Dota 2, killing or outranging the holder, or leaving before the hold lands.

Variations

Escape lock (Pokémon Gold and Silver, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl): the target cannot flee while the user stays in battle, and in Gold and Silver a trainer cannot switch it out.
Binding trap (Pokémon Gold and Silver): Bind and its kin prevent escape and deal damage over 2 to 5 turns.
Area seal (Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd edition; EVE Online): the 3.5 revision’s Dimensional Lock bars travel into or out of a 20-foot emanation for a day per level; a heavy interdictor’s field stops every ship in range from warping or jumping.
Graded disruption (EVE Online): the disruptor trades strength for range; the scrambler also shuts off short-range propulsion.
Grounding (League of Legends): placed clouds or a zone around the user bar dashes and other movement abilities.
Tether leash (Dota 2): the target may move, but only within a radius of the user’s landing point.
Damage lockout (Dota 2): Blink Dagger is unusable for 3 seconds after damage from an enemy hero or Roshan, a rule on the escape item itself.

Gating

Pokémon spends PP, a per-move stock of uses restored by healing between battles or by items such as Ether; Mean Look has 5. Dungeons & Dragons takes a 4th-level spell slot for the targeted form and an 8th-level slot for the area seal. EVE Online’s modules have no cooldown or stock of uses: they draw capacitor, the ship’s shared energy pool, every 5-second cycle, so the hold lasts while energy and range do. The MOBA forms pair a mana cost with a cooldown, and Dota 2’s leash lasts 2.5 to 3.25 seconds.

History and provenance

Mean Look and Spider Web in Pokémon Gold and Silver (Japan, November 1999) are the earliest cited hold on a target’s escape; Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd edition (2000) gives the earliest cited targeted block on teleportation and the name. Forbiddance in the 1989 Player’s Handbook, which seals a consecrated area from teleportation, is an antecedent of the area form, and earlier video games remain unsurveyed. EVE Online (2003) carried the hold into an open world, where warp scramblers at launch, and by 2007 interdiction fields, keep a ship in a fight it would leave. Pathfinder (2009) reprints Dimensional Anchor; League of Legends and Dota 2 recast the hold as grounding and a leash.

Notable examples

Notable examples, in chronological order. Notes describe how the ability behaves in each game; gating is what limits its use there; the latest reference is a widely played game from 2020 or later.
Game	Year	Medium	Gating	How the ability behaves
Pokémon Gold and Silver Game Freak (Nintendo)	c. 1999	Video	Per rest	Mean Look, 5 PP, leaves the opponent unable to escape while the user stays in battle, and Spider Web, 10 PP, also prevents substitutions in Trainer battles; the target still attacks. Bind and similar moves prevent escape while dealing damage for 2 to 5 turns. Wording from the 2000 Nintendo Power guide.
Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd edition Wizards of the Coast	2000	Tabletop RPG	Spell slots	Dimensional Anchor, a 4th-level cleric and sorcerer/wizard spell, is a ray that needs a ranged touch attack and, with no saving throw, blocks bodily extradimensional travel for 1 minute per level, including blink, dimension door, plane shift, and teleport.
EVE Online CCP Games	2003	Video	Mana	A warp disruptor, a fitted module that draws capacitor each cycle, stops the target ship from warping out to 20 km while it keeps flying and firing; the shorter-ranged warp scrambler, with twice the strength, also disables its microwarpdrive and micro jump drive.
League of Legends Riot Games	2009	Video	Mana, Cooldown	Cassiopeia's Miasma places clouds of poison that slow, ground, and lightly damage enemies passing through, and "Grounded enemies cannot use Movement abilities"; Poppy's Steadfast Presence stops enemy dashes around her and grounds those it stops.
Dota 2 Valve	2013	Video	Mana, Cooldown	Slark's Pounce, 75 mana on a 24- to 12-second cooldown, leaps forward and leashes the first enemy hero it reaches, which for 2.5 to 3.25 seconds can move only 400 units from Slark's landing point; debuff-immune units cannot be leashed.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Latest ILCA (Nintendo, The Pokémon Company)	2021	Video	Per rest	Mean Look, a 5 PP status move learned by Zubat, Gengar, and Umbreon among others, pins the target with a look so that it becomes unable to flee.

Provenance

Earliest documented use: Pokémon Gold and Silver (1999), video. Confidence: medium. Provenance is scoped to a hold placed on a target; seals laid on a place are the area variation. Mean Look and Spider Web are the earliest cited form, from the game's Japanese release of 21 November 1999, before Dimensional Anchor in Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd edition (2000), the earliest cited targeted block on teleportation. Forbiddance in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd edition Player's Handbook (1989) seals a consecrated area from teleportation, plane shifting, and ethereal penetration and counts as an antecedent of the area form. The binding moves of Pokémon Red and Green, other 1990s video games, and other tabletop spell lists remain unsurveyed.

Established form: Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd edition (2000), tabletop rpg. 1 year after the earliest documented use. Confidence: low. Dimensional Anchor names the archetype and lists the movement it bars; the 3.5 revision keeps it and adds the area form Dimensional Lock, and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game (2009) reprints the spell almost word for word under the Open Game License. No cited source ties the video forms (warp scrambling, grounding, leashes) to it.

Sources

Nintendo Power. (2000). Pokémon Gold & Silver Player's Guide. Nintendo of America. Book Move list: Bind, Mean Look, Spider Web; Ecruteak City Gym. Accessed 2026-10-28. The PP and effects of Mean Look, Spider Web, and Bind, the tip that they keep wild Pokémon from running away, and the gym trainers whose Mean Look stops the player switching.
Nintendo. ポケットモンスター金・銀. Website 発売日. Accessed 2026-10-28. The Japanese release date of 21 November 1999.
Wizards of the Coast. System Reference Document 3.0, Spells (D). Wizards of the Coast. Rulebook Spells (D), Dimensional Anchor. Accessed 2026-10-28. The ray, ranged touch attack, duration, absent saving throw, and the list of barred travel; Wayback snapshot of June 2003.
Wizards of the Coast. (2003). System Reference Document 3.5, Spells D-E. Wizards of the Coast. Rulebook SpellsD-E.rtf, Dimensional Anchor; Dimensional Lock. Accessed 2026-10-28. The 20-foot emanation of Dimensional Lock, lasting a day per level, that bars travel into or out of the area; Wayback snapshot of the spells archive.
David "Zeb" Cook (TSR). (1989). Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd edition, Player's Handbook. TSR. Rulebook Priest spells, sixth level, Forbiddance. Accessed 2026-10-28. The antecedent seal of a consecrated area from teleportation, plane shifting, and ethereal penetration.
Paizo Publishing. (2009). Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document, Dimensional Anchor. Rulebook Spell Index, Dimensional Anchor. Accessed 2026-10-28. The reprint of the 3.5 spell text, supporting the established form; Wayback snapshot of September 2009.
Prima Games. (2003). EVE Online: The Second Genesis, Prima's Official Strategy Guide. Prima Games. Book Chapter 3, Crucifier, Griffin and Maulus; Chapter 5 fiction. Accessed 2026-10-28. Ship bonuses to jump scramblers (warp scramblers) at launch, and a story in which a scrambled warp drive keeps a ship from escaping.
CCP Fendahl (CCP Games). (2007). New Tech 2 Ships for Trinity. Website Heavy Interdictors. Accessed 2026-10-28. The Warp Disruption Field Generator, which prevents all ships within its range, the user included, from warping or jumping.
EVE Ref. Warp Scrambler I; Warp Disruptor I. Wiki The in-game module descriptions, ranges, warp scramble strengths, and capacitor costs per cycle.
Riot Games. League of Legends Data Dragon 16.21.1: Cassiopeia. Website spells, Miasma. Accessed 2026-10-28. The grounding clouds and the rule that grounded enemies cannot use movement abilities, with cost and cooldown.
Riot Games. League of Legends Data Dragon 16.21.1: Poppy. Website spells, Steadfast Presence. Accessed 2026-10-28. The stopping of enemy dashes near Poppy and the grounding of the stopped enemy.
Valve. Dota 2 hero data, Slark (hero 93). Website abilities, Pounce. Accessed 2026-10-28. The leash, its radius and duration, its mana cost and cooldown, and debuff immunity.
Valve. Dota 2 item data, Blink Dagger (item 1). Website abilities, Blink. Accessed 2026-10-28. The 3-second lockout of the item after damage from an enemy hero or Roshan.
Serebii.net. Mean Look. Wiki The move's effect text and PP, and its learners in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

Cite this entry

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Updated: 2026-10-28
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West, James, Jr. (2026). "Anchor." Game Mechanic Compendium, updated 2026-10-28. http://localhost:4321/abilities/anchor

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