Looking for Portal Spell

[Gorthawar]

After a long time I've been re-reading "Forgotten Realms - Servant of the Shard" and in it the Drow Wizard keeps opening portals or dimension doors of some kind that allow him to push or throw people, things or even fireballs through it. Is there anything similar in 3.0/3.5?

It is meant to support a scene in my current campaign where the party will finally face the BBEG for the first time. I expect the outcome of the encounter to be one of 3.
A. The Heroes are winning and the BBEG either retreats or his remains are whisked away by his minions.
B. The BBEG is mopping the floor with the party and a friendly NPC will open a portal for the party to escape and potentially give his life in doing so. It would be great if I could use some rules for this that would allow others to repeat the trick in other situations.
C. The players do something crazy for which I'm not specifically prepared. I'll make something up as we go along.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[AlanBruce]

I believe you’re looking for Gate, a 9th level spell. That can be used to travel across planes or bring in powerful outsiders as back up.

The books may have taken literary liberty in order to suit the plot, but given what you describe the wizard do, Gate seems like the best option.

[Gorthawar]

Thanks a lot. Unfortunately there is a clause in the gate spell that states: "A gate cannot be opened to another point on the same plane; the spell works only for interplanar travel."
I suppose I can always waive that but ideally I'd look for a lower level solution as well.

[lylsyly]

Fistandantilus's Portal, Dragonlance Campaign Setting (1st Party), pp. 108. Sorc/Wiz 8.

But the casting time is three rounds.

Another limitation is objects can only move thru the front of the portal.

[Kelb_Panthera]

The novels that are ostensibly part of D&D settings don't have to follow the game rules of the edition they were written beside. I'm fairly certain that's a bit of literary license applied to taking the phrase "dimension door" just a bit too literally.

I mean, a few of them do read like dressed up campaign journals (lookin' at you, Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy) but they're ultimately entertainment first, D&D second.

[icefractal]

It may be based on earlier editions' Dimension Door, which used to open a portal.

You could homebrew a version which did. Based on Greater Teleport vs Teleportation Circle, +2 levels (so 6th) may be right.

[lylsyly]

A. The Heroes are winning and the BBEG either retreats or his remains are whisked away by his minions.
B. The BBEG is mopping the floor with the party and a friendly NPC will open a portal for the party to escape and potentially give his life in doing so. It would be great if I could use some rules for this that would allow others to repeat the trick in other situations.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

A. BBEG has a contingent spell that whisks him away when he's in too deep.
B. the NPC simply rescues them. Mechanics can be anything from greater teleport too simply DM fiat.

[lylsyly]

The novels that are ostensibly part of D&D settings don't have to follow the game rules of the edition they were written beside. I'm fairly certain that's a bit of literary license applied to taking the phrase "dimension door" just a bit too literally.

I mean, a few of them do read like dressed up campaign journals (lookin' at you, Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy) but they're ultimately entertainment first, D&D second.

Weiss and Hickman (authors) were D&D players. Dressed up? Sure they were. But they originated from actual game play.

[AlanBruce]

Echoing what has been said above, the books take literary license when it comes to using spells, which is fine. You would think such a multitude of spells would offer the versatility the books describe, but as seen, even the highest level spells have constraining limits.

That being said, I believe the DMG mentions somewhere that a DM is well within his or her right to ad hoc a certain spell or feature not seen in any sources. A way to distinguish a particular NPC from all the others in the world. This, I advise, should not be done for every single NPC the party comes along, lest it turns into a frustrating and lackluster feature for the campaign.

However, having your main villain pull off a Gate/Dimension Door spell that allows him to attack from across the portal within the same plane, well... that would certainly make him a memorable and dangerous opponent.

[Endarire]

What about Ring Gates? What about custom spells which the core rules lets you research? What about items, rituals, racial abilities or other things that may be called spells or be mistaken for spells without officially being spells?

The Sharn creature in 3.5 (Anauroch: Empire of Shade) can open Hex Portals which work as you described: They're 2-way portals to attack and move through.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Ring gates (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#ringGates) are a thing. Those are the closest I know of, but they're a magic item. Maybe if you added at-will usage of greater teleport to send one end to a place you specify, then dive through? Best done if it's a pair of +1 sizing poison rings (Dragon Compendium) with the ring gate property added to them, so you can make them any size you need, and can wear them on your fingers to keep them out of the way.

Is there a weapon property that allows the weapon to do a controlled teleport of itself to elsewhere?

[edit] Partially teleportal'd by just a couple of minutes. :(

[Kelb_Panthera]

Weiss and Hickman (authors) were D&D players. Dressed up? Sure they were. But they originated from actual game play.

Hah. Called it. Never cared enough to look into it, myself. I enjoyed the Dragonlance books (Legends Trilogy is a personal favorite) but the structure of Chronicles always felt kind of slap-dash. It being a novelization of an actual game makes perfect sense.

[Gorthawar]

Thanks a lot everyone. I think I will give my NPC a scroll of fistandantilus portal or gate to use for an emergency. Would the scroll of gate always allow the calling of a creature or only if the person who scribed the scroll invested the XP?

[Vaern]

My party circumvented the restriction on gate preventing our from connecting points on the same plane by putting a gate inside of our bag of holding, arguing that the space inside is a pocket dimension in another plane and therefore technically not connecting two points on the material plane.
This gave us a mobile portal back to our base of operations, which was particularly useful for explaining why a character whose player was absent one session suddenly disappeared, only to turn up again deeper into the dungeon.

[Kalkra]

Isn't Fistandantilus's Portal the thing people use to destroy planets by opening portals to the sun?