Glyph of Warding thrown through a portal.

[Dualswinger]

This seemed a little too involved for the raw thread.

So a glyph of warding placed on an object dispels itself if the object is moved more than 10 feet from its initial casting point.

What if I made a Demi plane, cast a gow on a book, then in future recast demiplane and brought the book through the portal without moving it more that 10’. Would the glyph still be active?

[PhoenixPhyre]

This seemed a little too involved for the raw thread.

So a glyph of warding placed on an object dispels itself if the object is moved more than 10 feet from its initial casting point.

What if I made a Demi plane, cast a gow on a book, then in future recast demiplane and brought the book through the portal without moving it more that 10’. Would the glyph still be active?

I would rule that moving between planes is moving way more than 10', especially between non-transitive planes. So no.

[Spectrulus]

I would rule that moving between planes is moving way more than 10', especially between non-transitive planes. So no.

I concur.

Could you call glyph of warding on a ship though? The ship can move, but I want to say yes.

[Mellack]

I agree with the others. Moving between planes to me would count as having traveled more than 10 feet.

[Dualswinger]

Interesting replies. Several people on this site have said they don’t have an issue with there being a glyph on Leomond’s chest, provided it bamfs in the same spot.

[Man_Over_Game]

Interesting replies. Several people on this site have said they don’t have an issue with there being a glyph on Leomond’s chest, provided it bamfs in the same spot.

The concern is less about technicalities and more about balance (which is why the Glyph only can move up to 10 feet in the first place).

DM's don't care that you trapped your chest that they're never going to have someone touch. They care that you tried to cheese your way out of a fight by casting Gate to toss a Meteor Storm Glyph in the middle of the enemy team.

There is another concern, though. From what I can tell about the Astral Plane, it's overlapped with the primary world, encompassing the same space. Which may mean that it's possible to not move more than 10 feet when moving into the Astral Plane.

That would mean that something like Blink is simply a shift, rather than a teleport (which seems in-line with how the spell acts).

Honestly, though, none of those technicalities matter. It mostly matters around what your DM is comfortable with. Most don't care about traps, but they do care about finding easy, repeatable solutions for combat. I'd be fine with easy and circumstantial, or expensive and repeatable, Glyph of Warding through a portal is neither.

[JackPhoenix]

Interesting replies. Several people on this site have said they don’t have an issue with there being a glyph on Leomond’s chest, provided it bamfs in the same spot.

Different people have different rulings in case the RAW isn't clear.


There is another concern, though. From what I can tell about the Astral Plane, it's overlapped with the primary world, encompassing the same space. Which may mean that it's possible to not move more than 10 feet when moving into the Astral Plane.

Ethereal. Astral is separate from material.

[Damon_Tor]

This seemed a little too involved for the raw thread.

So a glyph of warding placed on an object dispels itself if the object is moved more than 10 feet from its initial casting point.

What if I made a Demi plane, cast a gow on a book, then in future recast demiplane and brought the book through the portal without moving it more that 10’. Would the glyph still be active?

As the others have said, I would rule that most of the time moving between planes constitutes a move of more than 10 feet.

However, the Glyph of Warding spell doesn't have a clear range on how far it can detect targets or trigger its effects. And as far as I can tell, there's nothing that stops spells from being cast through the door of a demiplane (it's not described as opaque swirling mass, but an actual door) So in theory you could have a demiplane loaded with 1,000 disintegrate spells stored inside of glyphs of warding. Set the glyphs to trigger "when a creature who is not me is visible through the door". Then when you find yourself in a challenging combat encounter you can cast demiplane, open the door, and watch the other get turned into atoms.

Obviously no DM would let you get away with this, but apart from rule zero there's not much reason why not.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Obviously no DM would let you get away with this, but apart from rule zero there's not much reason why not.

Many, if not most, spells require line of sight. So that rules out a lot of things. And I would certainly rule (in keeping, I think, with RAI) that planar portals block line of effect. Otherwise many telefrag tactics become much more appealing.

[Man_Over_Game]

Ethereal. Astral is separate from material.

Ah, thanks, you're right.

This does pose an interesting question, though. What happens when you are about to finish your Glyph, you Blink and then you leave your Glyph in the Ethereal Plane? Can it still cast a spell at a creature in the Material Plane?

[Mellack]

Ah, thanks, you're right.

This does pose an interesting question, though. What happens when you are about to finish your Glyph, you Blink and then you leave your Glyph in the Ethereal Plane? Can it still cast a spell at a creature in the Material Plane?

I believe there is a rule somewhere that says spells only effect creatures on other planes when it says so specifically in the description. However I don't see how this could ever happen. GoW has an hour long casting time, so not sure how you would cast blink while still casting.

[Man_Over_Game]

I believe there is a rule somewhere that says spells only effect creatures on other planes when it says so specifically in the description. However I don't see how this could ever happen. GoW has an hour long casting time, so not sure how you would cast blink while still casting.

Uh, with a Glyph of Warding. Duh.

[Seclora]

Uh, with a Glyph of Warding. Duh.

I chuckled, but it also gave me an idea.

What if you had a Glyph of Warding set to cast an identical Glyph of Warding, ten feet away from the starting Glyph in the direction of the caster unless you said Nosethrone in Draconic, at which point it would cast the explosive variety of Glyph instead? Would that be possible? What are the limitations?

[ProsecutorGodot]

I chuckled, but it also gave me an idea.

What if you had a Glyph of Warding set to cast an identical Glyph of Warding, ten feet away from the starting Glyph in the direction of the caster unless you said Nosethrone in Draconic, at which point it would cast the explosive variety of Glyph instead? Would that be possible? What are the limitations?

I don't think the glyph would be able to be placed 10ft away from the prior Glyph, assuming that you are even allowed to have a Glyph of Warding cast Glyph of Warding, on account of its touch range. Your trigger would have to be "when a creature moves within Xft of the Glyph" and it would simply cast the second glyph centered on whatever creature triggered the first. You don't really get to control where the spell stored in the glyph lands beyond specifying how far away the creature that triggered it will be.

Again, that's assuming you're allowed to do such a thing. I can't find a reason you wouldn't be able to but I may have overlooked something. My gut tells me that the touch range of the spell might be a limiting factor but I don't actually know how that interacts with Glyph of Warding.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Glyph can't cast the spell glyph variety--the caster needs to provide both spells and the glyph can only hold one spell, not two.

[Seclora]

Glyph can't cast the spell glyph variety--the caster needs to provide both spells and the glyph can only hold one spell, not two.

Yeah, that sounds right. darn.