Hello everyone, I have a question with the Glyph of Warding spell. In my campaign I am a cleric and I have a fellow fighter. And I was wondering if the spell can be applied to, for example, an arrow and be able to save it and travel with it and use it at another moment. What I'm trying to do is put the explosive rune or some other spell on the arrow and give it to my partner and he has it saved for another time.
I wonder, can you use it as a grenade? We are in curse of strad, my artificer is thinking of putting it on the inside of a glass vial. When you throw the vial, it breaks and opens, spewing holy water every and blasting with glyph? I have used catapult to throw vials of acid at enemies, the limit is 1-5 pounds.
I wonder, can you use it as a grenade? We are in curse of strad, my artificer is thinking of putting it on the inside of a glass vial. When you throw the vial, it breaks and opens, spewing holy water every and blasting with glyph? I have used catapult to throw vials of acid at enemies, the limit is 1-5 pounds.
As an above poster said, if the glyph moves more than 10 feet from where it is cast, the spell ends. And there's the one hour casting time. So, I'm not going to say it's impossible to make it work, but it's only going to work under some very, very specific circumstances.
My players have asked the sneaky question "what if the trigger on the glyph is "when moved 9.75 ft from origin point", meaning the glyph would potentially go off midflight.
The party has wacky extradimensional holding storage options, so assume the arrow could be prepped and stored in advance. Main question is 1. Would "when object is moved 9.75 ft from origin point" count as a viable trigger and 2. Would the glyph triggering mess up the projectile in such a way that really the glyph goes off but the projectile fired doesn't continue its path to hit anyone?
RAW that doesn't work because the glyph must be transcribed on "a surface (such as a table or a section of floor or wall) or within an object that can be closed (such as a book, a scroll, or a treasure chest) to conceal the glyph". An arrow or other projectile is neither of those things, and unless you're inclined to enable the party's shenanigans you just tell them "no" when they try to have some projectile created that meets those criteria.
My players have asked the sneaky question "what if the trigger on the glyph is "when moved 9.75 ft from origin point", meaning the glyph would potentially go off midflight.
The party has wacky extradimensional holding storage options, so assume the arrow could be prepped and stored in advance. Main question is 1. Would "when object is moved 9.75 ft from origin point" count as a viable trigger and 2. Would the glyph triggering mess up the projectile in such a way that really the glyph goes off but the projectile fired doesn't continue its path to hit anyone?
Well, the core problem is that the wacky extradimensional holding storage option doesn't work because it will just end instantly the moment you remove it from the storage (as that's more than 10' from the extradimensional space) without being triggered.
The proper use of a wacky extra-D holding storage option is to put Healing and Buff Glyphs INSIDE the storage and use it as your Emergency Room.
Storing a Greater Restoration, Heal, Remove Curse, Revivfy, even Protection from Poison can be a lifesaver - particularly as you prep them before going into the dungeon.
This spell is really more about setting traps and protecting specific locations or items that aren’t meant to be moved.
However, not all is lost! Here are a couple of alternatives you might consider!
Spells like Magic Weapon or Elemental Weapon can directly enhance a weapon like an arrow. They don't have the movement restriction and can be more directly applied to combat situations.
But talk with your Dungeon Master about potential homebrew guidelines or magical items that could achieve the effect you're looking for. Maybe a special quiver that preserves magical effects on arrows?
D&D is all about creativity, so even if the guidelines don't directly support what you want to do, there’s always room for some creative problem-solving with your DM.
Eh, "all about creativity" is a bit of a stretch, particularly for a spell like this. It is very expressly meant to be set to a fixed point and left, and as I pointed out there is in fact specific language in the description that precludes it being placed on an arrow in the first place. It's really approaching bad form to push for a more generous interpretation of this spell effect rather than just accept that you can't use the spell to play Hawkeye with trick arrows. If the DM is onboard that's all well and good, but if not it's best to just accept the ruling with grace and discuss alternatives if you have some particular concept in mind.
Honestly, glyph of warding is a kind of broken spell, it should probably just be unavailable for beneficial spells (this runs into a problem of defining a beneficial spell, but it's usually fairly obvious).
I mean, it's only as broken as the DM chooses to make it, given that players typically aren't the ones who can lay traps ahead of time. And narratively speaking the powdered diamond consumed for the M component creates a good excuse for why even a powerful enemy only has a few; there's enough spells that consume diamonds that even if we assume some kind of magical/planar stuff is in play to prevent total resource exhaustion, there's still only going to be so much in a market at a given time. There's a little suspension of disbelief, but you can always handwave some magi-babble about why the boss can't stack a dozen of them in one place if pressed.
I mean, it's only as broken as the DM chooses to make it, given that players typically aren't the ones who can lay traps ahead of time.
Well, yes, but the whole point of the spell has always been to create magical traps anyway, it's just a quirk of 5e that it's more useful for buffs than for traps.
It does still cost 1,000 per cast (and having a stated cost means foci do not help with that). That and the 10' rule weed out almost all the shenanigans
It does still cost 1,000 per cast (and having a stated cost means foci do not help with that). That and the 10' rule weed out almost all the shenanigans
200gp. Which is quite limiting in tier 2, but not so much at higher tiers.
It does still cost 1,000 per cast (and having a stated cost means foci do not help with that). That and the 10' rule weed out almost all the shenanigans
200gp. Which is quite limiting in tier 2, but not so much at higher tiers.
Now I am wondering if I am misremembering or if they lowered it. I swear it was 1,000 last I looked at the spell (which has been at least a few months)
It does still cost 1,000 per cast (and having a stated cost means foci do not help with that). That and the 10' rule weed out almost all the shenanigans
200gp. Which is quite limiting in tier 2, but not so much at higher tiers.
Now I am wondering if I am misremembering or if they lowered it. I swear it was 1,000 last I looked at the spell (which has been at least a few months)
You may be confusing it with its beefy older sibling, Symbol.
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Hello everyone, I have a question with the Glyph of Warding spell.
In my campaign I am a cleric and I have a fellow fighter.
And I was wondering if the spell can be applied to, for example, an arrow and be able to save it and travel with it and use it at another moment. What I'm trying to do is put the explosive rune or some other spell on the arrow and give it to my partner and he has it saved for another time.
If you mean the Glyph of Warding, no. You move the arrow more than 10 ft the spell ends.
I wonder, can you use it as a grenade? We are in curse of strad, my artificer is thinking of putting it on the inside of a glass vial. When you throw the vial, it breaks and opens, spewing holy water every and blasting with glyph? I have used catapult to throw vials of acid at enemies, the limit is 1-5 pounds.
As an above poster said, if the glyph moves more than 10 feet from where it is cast, the spell ends. And there's the one hour casting time. So, I'm not going to say it's impossible to make it work, but it's only going to work under some very, very specific circumstances.
My players have asked the sneaky question "what if the trigger on the glyph is "when moved 9.75 ft from origin point", meaning the glyph would potentially go off midflight.
The party has wacky extradimensional holding storage options, so assume the arrow could be prepped and stored in advance. Main question is 1. Would "when object is moved 9.75 ft from origin point" count as a viable trigger and 2. Would the glyph triggering mess up the projectile in such a way that really the glyph goes off but the projectile fired doesn't continue its path to hit anyone?
RAW that doesn't work because the glyph must be transcribed on "a surface (such as a table or a section of floor or wall) or within an object that can be closed (such as a book, a scroll, or a treasure chest) to conceal the glyph". An arrow or other projectile is neither of those things, and unless you're inclined to enable the party's shenanigans you just tell them "no" when they try to have some projectile created that meets those criteria.
Well, the core problem is that the wacky extradimensional holding storage option doesn't work because it will just end instantly the moment you remove it from the storage (as that's more than 10' from the extradimensional space) without being triggered.
The proper use of a wacky extra-D holding storage option is to put Healing and Buff Glyphs INSIDE the storage and use it as your Emergency Room.
Storing a Greater Restoration, Heal, Remove Curse, Revivfy, even Protection from Poison can be a lifesaver - particularly as you prep them before going into the dungeon.
Oh man, there's a complication.
This spell is really more about setting traps and protecting specific locations or items that aren’t meant to be moved.
However, not all is lost! Here are a couple of alternatives you might consider!
Spells like Magic Weapon or Elemental Weapon can directly enhance a weapon like an arrow. They don't have the movement restriction and can be more directly applied to combat situations.
But talk with your Dungeon Master about potential homebrew guidelines or magical items that could achieve the effect you're looking for. Maybe a special quiver that preserves magical effects on arrows?
D&D is all about creativity, so even if the guidelines don't directly support what you want to do, there’s always room for some creative problem-solving with your DM.
Eh, "all about creativity" is a bit of a stretch, particularly for a spell like this. It is very expressly meant to be set to a fixed point and left, and as I pointed out there is in fact specific language in the description that precludes it being placed on an arrow in the first place. It's really approaching bad form to push for a more generous interpretation of this spell effect rather than just accept that you can't use the spell to play Hawkeye with trick arrows. If the DM is onboard that's all well and good, but if not it's best to just accept the ruling with grace and discuss alternatives if you have some particular concept in mind.
Honestly, glyph of warding is a kind of broken spell, it should probably just be unavailable for beneficial spells (this runs into a problem of defining a beneficial spell, but it's usually fairly obvious).
I mean, it's only as broken as the DM chooses to make it, given that players typically aren't the ones who can lay traps ahead of time. And narratively speaking the powdered diamond consumed for the M component creates a good excuse for why even a powerful enemy only has a few; there's enough spells that consume diamonds that even if we assume some kind of magical/planar stuff is in play to prevent total resource exhaustion, there's still only going to be so much in a market at a given time. There's a little suspension of disbelief, but you can always handwave some magi-babble about why the boss can't stack a dozen of them in one place if pressed.
Well, yes, but the whole point of the spell has always been to create magical traps anyway, it's just a quirk of 5e that it's more useful for buffs than for traps.
It does still cost 1,000 per cast (and having a stated cost means foci do not help with that). That and the 10' rule weed out almost all the shenanigans
200gp. Which is quite limiting in tier 2, but not so much at higher tiers.
Now I am wondering if I am misremembering or if they lowered it. I swear it was 1,000 last I looked at the spell (which has been at least a few months)
Which is why you always use a 10' pole or rope with a hook to move any treasure chests or spellbook you findat least 10 feet before opening them.
Also a good anti-mimic tactic
You may be confusing it with its beefy older sibling, Symbol.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.