How good is Glyph of Warding?

[Private-Prinny]

Storing any spell below a certain level inside the glyph seems like it could have some fun exploits, and could be a decent stand-in for scrolls if you have a bunch of trinkets. Is it worth taking 5 levels of Geometer to get the Greater version for a Wizard?

And more importantly, what sorts of fun things have you used it to accomplish?

[Jack_Simth]

Storing any spell below a certain level inside the glyph seems like it could have some fun exploits, and could be a decent stand-in for scrolls if you have a bunch of trinkets. Is it worth taking 5 levels of Geometer to get the Greater version for a Wizard?

And more importantly, what sorts of fun things have you used it to accomplish?

Hmm... you know, I never really thought of using the spell-glyph form for beneficial spells. Let's see... container + 200 gp material component to store a 0th-3rd level spell, container + 400 gp material component to store a 4th-6th level spell, and only a ten-minute casting time.

Meanwhile, potions market at 300 gp for a 2nd level spell, 750 gp for third; scrolls at 375 gp for a 3rd level spell, 700 gp for 4th.

So the regular Glyph of Warding (Spell) beats the GP cost of potions starting at 2nd level spells, and scrolls starting at 3rd level spells (although if you are crafting the scrolls / potions yourself, the scrolls and potions are cheaper), and the Greater Gylph of warding starts beating out scrolls immediately, and starts beating out crafted scrolls at level 5 spells.

With the added benefit that almost anyone can use them (caster can't trigger it) and they always use your caster level for when you made them at no additional cost. Drawback: All decisions are made at casting time (similar to potions).

Oh, even better: "retreive a stored item" is a move-action. If you really want to go nuts, getting an item out of a spell component pouch is a free action. So you can use Spell Component Pouches to give you free-action buff spells this way... as long as they don't require any decisions at casting time, anyway.

[Big Fau]

The spell itself is good, but Geometer is only worth a 1 or 2 level dip.

Buy a Glyph Seal (MiC) if you want that kind of ability.

[Jack_Simth]

The spell itself is good, but Geometer is only worth a 1 or 2 level dip.

Buy a Glyph Seal (MiC) if you want that kind of ability.Ah, and reusable, even. Nifty.

Edit: Hmm... of course, the actual spells have a lower initial investment; you can have ten Greater Glyphs of Warding holding spells for you for the cost of one Greater Glyph Seal; five Glyphs of Warding holding spells for you for the cost of one Glyph Seal.

[Big Fau]

Ah, and reusable, even. Nifty.

Edit: Hmm... of course, the actual spells have a lower initial investment; you can have ten Greater Glyphs of Warding holding spells for you for the cost of one Greater Glyph Seal; five Glyphs of Warding holding spells for you for the cost of one Glyph Seal.

Note that the Greater version can only hold 5th level or higher spells.

[arguskos]

Note that Dragon Compendium provides like 30+ "special" glyphs you can use with Glyph of Warding for specialized effects. They're not amazingly powerful, but they are flavorful as hell and very entertaining to play around with.

[WinWin]

I don't see anything preventing the use of metamagic, so long as the spell level is under the normal maximum.

Only use I have seen in a campaign lead to the death of a party member. The cleric had warded a significant portion of his home town vs. evil creatures and an evil party member was unlucky enough to walk though the town square.

Other than that the same cleric did use glyphs on his weapon locker and a closets while in town (triggered by not using a command word). Minor buff spells mainly, such as Protection from Evil 10' when he pulled his mace out.

[Jack_Simth]

Note that the Greater version can only hold 5th level or higher spells.
Yes, and the Greater Spell Glyph can hold 6th or lower; I get it - I don't currently care that the Greater Glyph Seal can store 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells because the current campaign I'm in is still only at 12th. This mostly just means that for occasional use, one has a different usefulness threshold than the other.

[sreservoir]

I don't see anything preventing the use of metamagic, so long as the spell level is under the normal maximum.

Only use I have seen in a campaign lead to the death of a party member. The cleric had warded a significant portion of his home town vs. evil creatures and an evil party member was unlucky enough to walk though the town square.

Other than that the same cleric did use glyphs on his weapon locker and a closets while in town (triggered by not using a command word). Minor buff spells mainly, such as Protection from Evil 10' when he pulled his mace out.

keep in mind that, no matter how much non-sanctum, non-heighten metamagic you stack on, the actual spell level stays the same; only the spell slot changes.