Reader beware: This article may be trapped! Today, we're talking about a 3rd-level abjuration spell that can pack a surprising punch, glyph of warding. If you're a player looking for ways to protect your stuff or a Dungeon Master researching creative ways to booby trap your dungeons, glyph of warding can be a versatile addition to your arsenal.
This is a pretty expansive spell, but there quite a few limitations as well, so let's take a deep dive:
- How does glyph of warding work?
- Who can cast glyph of warding?
- Why we love this spell
- FAQ: Glyph of warding
How Does Glyph of Warding Work?
Sometimes you really want to cast a spell on someone, but they don't have the decency to be around when the urge strikes. Luckily, glyph of warding allows you to store a magical effect in a glyph that you can leave behind for them, or some random snooping soul to find. Like preparing a spell to use as a reaction in combat or storing a spell into a magic item, glyph of warding allows you to prep either a spell or an explosive set of runes and store them into a glyph to activate later based on a trigger of your choice.
There are a few limitations to the spell, primarily the cost of using it. Glyph of warding requires incense and powdered diamond worth at least 200 gp, which are consumed by the spell. There's also the hour-long casting time. Based on these factors, this spell is not something you'll likely be casting regularly. But if you have the time to prep, glyph of warding can grant a substantial strategic advantage.
There are two main types of glyphs you can inscribe with a glyph of warding: explosive runes or a spell glyph. The explosive runes are pretty cut and dry. When triggered, a 20-foot-radius sphere erupts centered on the glyph and inflicts 5d8 of your choice of acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage. A creature that succeeds in a Dexterity saving throw against the original spellcaster's spell save DC takes half the damage. We'll talk more about the spell glyph option below.
Before we move on, though, let's talk about what you can cast glyph of warding on. When casting the spell, you inscribe the glyph on a surface. For example, a spot on the floor, a desk, bookshelf, etc., or within an object that can be closed, like that Tupperware of leftovers that someone always steals from your work fridge. The glyph can be up to 10 feet in diameter, and the object it is inscribed on cannot be moved more than 10 feet from where you initially cast it, or else the spell is broken and does not trigger. So while it might be tempting to hide a glyphed item in someone's possessions to strike at them later, it would more than likely just burn some money, casting time, and a 3rd-level or higher spell slot.
What Spells Can You Cast With Glyph of Warding?
Let's talk more about the spell glyph option and what you can do with it. First off, it's important to note that storing a spell in your glyph of warding requires a 3rd-level spell slot for the glyph and a spell slot for whatever spell you want to trigger later. When choosing the spell to cast, keep in mind that there are two types of spell glyphs you can create, ones that target a single creature and ones that target a specific area. The spell will either target whoever triggers it, if it's a targeted spell, or create an area of effect centered on the glyph. The spell must come from the caster's prepared spell list and be equal to or lower than the spell level that glyph of warding was cast. You can also store a concentration spell in the spell glyph, and the spell will last for the entirety of its duration. Spells that target "self" cannot be stored in a spell glyph because those spells can only be cast on the spellcaster.
For a quick reference, here is a table of some popular spells and whether or not they can be stored in a glyph of warding:
|
SPELL |
YES/NO |
Notes |
|
No |
Targets an object, not a creature. |
|
|
No |
Targets self. |
|
|
Yes |
Targets one creature. |
|
|
Yes |
Area of effect. |
|
|
Yes |
Targets a creature. Note that the creature has to be willing. |
|
|
No |
Targets self. |
|
|
Yes |
DM would still roll the d100 for the target location table. |
|
|
No |
Spell description specifies needing to see the target. |
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|
No |
Targets self. |
Dungeon Master Uses for Glyph of Warding
As a DM, there are plenty of fun glyph of warding ideas to unleash upon your players. If used properly, glyph of warding can occupy that same space of dread in your players' minds as a mimic. After players trigger a couple glyphs, it will make them start to doubt the safety of some of the most mundane objects in a dungeon. Go ahead, check for traps on that safe. There's no way to tell that there's a glyph of warding inscribed on the inside back wall, with a potent set of explosive runes that trigger when the safe is opened. Are you sure you want to grab that loot without inspecting it first? Be our guest. Oh, you're going to buff yourselves up before entering this dungeon? Meet this row of dispel magic-infused glyphs you just walked over.
But there's also storytelling and mystery-solving potential in the glyph of warding. It has a pretty hefty material cost, which doesn't have to be exclusively for the player characters. If you've got a wizard or cleric who needs to shop around for material components, maybe they're having a tough time finding incense and diamond powder in a particular town. Maybe shopkeepers mention that someone has bought up most of the local supply. This detail dropped in the prep stage could make the party wonder if someone has a few tricks up their sleeve.
Who Can Cast Glyph of Warding?
So, who can use glyph of warding? It primarily lands in the spell list of artificers, bards, clerics, and wizards. When playing in the Eberron setting, a dwarf character with the Mark of Warding gets access to the spell as part of their expanded spell list.
Why We Love This Spell
We love a spell that feels like it's giving a nod to the preppers among us. So many spells are about instant returns, but glyph of warding is for those who love to sit back and tap their fingers together while a plan comes to fruition.
We also love a spell that opens the door for so many creative uses. Suppose you're deep in a dungeon and preparing to face off against a formidable enemy, for example. A cleric could set up a "medical tent" glyph that activates a powerful healing spell if a particularly hurt party member activates it. Or, they could prepare a casting of haste that will not be bound to their concentration. This might seem like a waste of resources to some, but it could be a critical strategic move if the party's healers are busy with the giant monster thing.
FAQ: Glyph of Warding
Can you cast glyph of warding on a person?
According to the text of the spell, glyph of warding has to be inscribed on a surface or object, not a creature. For example, you could inscribe a glyph onto an article of clothing or an item such as a sword or shield. However, if someone is wearing or carrying those items, they'd still be limited to the 10 feet of range before the spell is disabled. In this case, it would be best used to boost the defenses of a patient sentry who never takes restroom breaks. A more practical use might be hiding it on a piece of weaponry in an armory so that a grabby adventurer may end up surprised.
Can you cast a glyph of warding on or inside a bag of holding?
The description of glyph of warding does not indicate damage is done to the surface on which the glyph is drawn. This means you could cast the spell glyph on the outside of the bag of holding without damaging the bag. However, you would be unable to move the bag more than 10 feet without disabling the spell glyph.
Inside the bag is a gray area that will be up to your DM's discretion as to whether internal items are considered "moved" when the bag is moved more than 10 feet. If the DM allows it, and if the spell is cast outside the bag and the object is placed inside it, crossing the extradimensional threshold at the bag's opening could be ruled as being more than 10 feet and disable the glyph already. If not, when the object is removed from the bag, it would be more than 10 feet from where the rune spell was cast and disabled.
If the DM considers the objects inside the bag of holding to be stationary regardless of whether the bag is moved, you could possibly cast a glyph of warding inside the bag of holding as a trap for a future owner. Since the spell's casting takes a full hour, and a bag of holding only contains enough oxygen for a single creature to breathe for 10 minutes, perhaps there is a grisly dungeon somewhere filled with bags containing the remains of asphyxiated mages alongside inert glyphs.
With DM discretion, a sorcerer who can hold their breath for longer than an hour could cast a glyph of warding inside a bag of holding. At this point, though, we're going beyond the intents and purposes of the spell as written.
Can you cast concentration spells on a glyph of warding?
Yes. And when triggered, the spell won't require the spellcaster's concentration and it will automatically last for its entire duration.
How do you detect and disarm a glyph of warding?
A successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against the original caster's spell save DC will detect the nearly invisible glyph. If the glyph is on a moveable object, it may be disarmed by moving it more than 10 feet from where it was cast. Since dispel magic allows you to target objects or magical effects, it could also be used to disable a glyph of warding.
How does counterspell interact with a glyph of warding?
You cannot use your reaction to counterspell a spell that activated when a glyph of warding is triggered. This is because counterspell specifies that you must see the creature casting the spell within 60 feet. Similarly, storing a counterspell in a glyph of warding wouldn't work for the same reason. The spell glyph would not be able to see the nearby caster preparing the spell in order to counter it.
Can you cast glyph of warding with warlock pact spell slots?
Glyph of warding is not on the warlock spell list. However, a multiclass warlock with access to another class's spell list could use their pact slots to cast it, provided their warlock level places their pact slots at 3rd-level spells or higher.
Can you use Metamagic on the spell cast on a glyph of warding?
No official rulings would disallow spending sorcery points to use Metamagic on a spell glyph. However, Metamagic would not allow you to break the restrictions of the spell glyph, such as the spell glyph's range, area of effect, or ability to target only one creature. Most Metamagic effects would be negated by the nature and requirements of the spell glyph. However, it can work with Heightened Spell, Extended Spell, or the optional Transmuted Spell from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
Why is glyph of warding so expensive?
Glyph of warding is part of a family of spells like hallow and forbiddance that create long-term protection for a location. It's good to picture the physical process of casting the spell, of a mage infusing a glyph with the magical power that would be needed to hold a spell inside it indefinitely. You could cast glyph of warding and, if it hadn't been activated, come back decades, even centuries later, to find the glyphs still intact and waiting for their triggers. The fuel for that kind of arcane battery takes a bit of juice.
Riley Silverman (@rileyjsilverman) is a contributing writer to D&D Beyond, Nerdist, and SYFY Wire. She DMs the Theros-set Dice Ex Machina for the Saving Throw Show, and has been a player on the Wizards of the Coast-sponsored The Broken Pact. Riley also played as Braga in the official tabletop adaptation of the Rat Queens comic for HyperRPG, and currently plays as The Doctor on the Doctor Who RPG podcast The Game of Rassilon. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
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Posted Oct 6, 2022For me it was a cultist mage who prepared 2 and set it to activate when he dies.
The fat dwarf blocked like 3/4 of the damage for most of the party tho. (He was squeezing and therefore blocked the rune he was literally standing on)
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Posted Oct 7, 2022normally I ignore the sight requirement, most of the time I let players put any spell in a glyph of warding as long as it's reasonable, this way they can have some more creativity with their traps
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Posted Oct 7, 2022Exactly how often will a counterspell work coming out of a GOW?
It would only work if someone actually cast a spell within the area of the GOW.
I wouldn't allow it work anyways since the caster has to see the target and counterspell is a reaction spell meaning another spell must be cast for it to even have something to work on.
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Posted Oct 10, 2022The first time you encounter such a chest, you'll be at its mercy; but I expect future chests will be getting moved 11+ feet as a precaution. 😉
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Posted Oct 10, 2022Most spells that target something require you to see the target, IMO counterspell is nothing special in that regard.
The fact that it's a reaction spell does mean the glyph's trigger will need to be basically the same (i.e- creature casts a spell within 60 feet), at which point I think it's perfectly allowable IMO, after all it's costing two 3rd-level spell slots and an hour to set it up.
Where it gets exploitative is if you're too lenient with the trigger; the glyph doesn't know which exact spell you want to counterspell, so it should go off once the strictest interpretation of the condition is met, to force the players to think about where and how exactly they set this up.
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Posted Oct 10, 2022Even a more limited use than a simple dispell magic spell.
At least the dispell magic spell could turn off a magic item for a while.
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Posted Oct 12, 2022I present you the Dark Lords Bagpipes, they sit by his throne and every day he has his minion cast various spells into the item using glyph. The triggers being Corney catch phrases and melodic combinations. As such after years of service the dark Lord has an amazing weapon that can be used on his throne. The best part is that you can rig the item with triggers for if the item would be moved from its spot, normally all spells would be dispelled if moved outside the range but if you have thousands of triggers for fireballs you can decimate the hero's as they be looting and as a final trigger once those specific ones have fired a res spell can bring back the big bad.
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Posted Dec 9, 2022I'm a bit confused on how Glyph of Warding interacts with Teleport. I can see two scenarios:
A) You cast the Teleport spell into a Glyph of Warding with a trigger such as, anyone approaching within X feet. Then when it is triggered Teleport targets any creature within the Glyph's radius and teleports them to the defined location.
B) When you cast the Teleport spell into the Glyph you are casting it on yourself and up to 8 other creatures. Then when triggered, the Glyph's teleport spell activates and teleports the caster and other 8 creatures to the activated Glyph. No matter where they were in the world.
Does this make sense? I like both ideas, but which is accurate?
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Posted Dec 9, 2022A bound spell must either have an area (in which case it just affects everything in the area) or it has a single target which is the creature that triggers the glyph.
Teleport isn't really an area effect because it can only affect a limited number of targets, so this means when bound into a glyph it would only affect a single target. So if you set the glyph to activate when a creature moves within 10 feet, then only that creature would be teleported.
But it's very much an edge case IMO, so you may want to discuss with your DM what you're looking for the trap to do to see if they're willing to let affect more creatures, e.g- if you set a trigger for the glyph to activate when 5 or more creatures are within 10 feet, they might let it target those 5+ creatures.
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Posted Dec 9, 2022Thanka for the response. Heh I am the DM, so yes I understand I can have it work however I want, but I like having consistent rules across what I can do and what PCs can do, unless it is Magic unattainable by PCs, i.e large scale magical effects.
I was just curious what others thought of as the RAI reading of this particular spell interaction.
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Posted Aug 30, 2023If Haste, which explicitly requires the caster to see the target (as stated in the first sentence of the spell description), can be cast with Glyph of Warding, then I believe it is fair to say Counterspell can do the same.
Let's go through how the casting works!
We must cast Counterspell as part of placing it in our Glyph. Since Counterspell has a somewhat complex casting time, we *should* require a creature to trigger the necessary conditions if we wish to cast it (depending on our DM's interpretation). The relevant conditions for Counterspell are: [... you see a creature within 60 feet of you casting a spell].
Incidentally, we ourselves are a creature. We are also within 60 feet of ourselves. We are also able to see ourselves casting the spell "Glyph of Warding". Thus, we are able to use a reaction to cast Counterspell, targeting ourselves. It's worth noting that the spell placed within the Glyph of Warding does not take effect upon the initial casting, and so the Counterspell does in fact not counter our spell.
If our table determines that we are not an eligible target, we can ask a companion (or our Simulacrum, if we have no spellcasting friends) to cast a cantrip which we use as the trigger for Counterspell.
The Counterspell is safely stored inside the Glyph and everyone is happy! The creature that activates our Glyph becomes the target of our spell, just like any other casting of Glyph of Warding.
Of course, any DM can choose to disallow Counterspells inside Glyphs, but if they do, it should be to make the game more fun/balanced, not because of confusing rules!
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Posted Oct 25, 2023If one casts detect magic on a glyph with a spell stored in it, does it only reveal Abjuration school, or do you get an undercurrent or hint at the school of the stored spell as well? This makes sense to me, but I'm just wondering if there's a reason that would not be a valid take?
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Posted Oct 25, 2023I don't think all of these mental gymnastics are necessary; glyph of warding states "by casting [the spell] as part of creating the glyph", so the casting is already happening, there's no need for a reaction trigger. While ordinarily counterspell is only capable of targeting the creature that triggered the reaction, glyph of warding specifically overrides this to instead target whoever activates the glyph.
I would say detect magic would show both auras since there are two spells rather than just one. However without noticing the glyph itself you wouldn't know that one is part of the other, you'd just see two spells on the same object/surface/whatever. Nothing in the glyph description suggests it would hide this information, if you were to need to do that, I guess you could slap down a nondetection spell or something?
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Posted Dec 27, 2023Now I'd like to have some clarification on the allowance of the teleport spell with Glyph of warding. The article above states that you may use this combination. What are the limitations to the uses of this combination, specifically, do I have to pre set the destination of the teleport spell or is there a way to follow my characters current location. Example, my wizard know he will be captured and put on trial, it's unavoidable so he sets up a teleport spell to teleport my part to him when he is in need.
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Posted Dec 27, 2023Teleport would only work on the creature triggering the glyph, you couldn't use it to teleport in a group from elsewhere. I'd say you would need to set the destination in advance, since you're still casting the spell (which needs a destination), it just isn't taking effect yet.
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Posted Mar 1, 2024Could you not cast Glyph of Warding on a Glyph of Warding, so that when the glyph triggers it casts another glyph? In theory this would let you have an infinitely recycling glyph that does nothing, or a glyph that recycles a few times before casting a different spell (or exploding). I think it would be cool if you could determine what new spell would be stored and the new condition for the second glyph of warding, allowing you to instantly cast another glyph on something using a pre-existing glyph (so you could say instantly put a glyph on someone that explodes if they move more than 9 feet from the point where it was cast without having to wait an hour). Could this be theoretically possible?
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Posted Apr 23, 2024New players at my table are exploring the limits of what wacky combos they can pull off and came up with this: Glyph of warding on a projectile stored in extradimesnional space (story homebrew item, but for sake of rules, we'll argue similar to bag of holding).
Now, without getting into "do items in said extradimensional space count as moving outside the 10 ft space" rule, here's their question:
"Can I put a glyph on a projectile, and make the trigger effect 'reaching 9.75 ft away from origin point'?", potentially triggering the glyph mid-flight and potentially having a projectile (bullet/arrow) hit several targets in one attack: one with the projectile and potentially several with glyph?
These players seem dedicated to the bit no matter how this plan may be a terrible action economy plan, and while I'm hesitant to allow it, I also don't see an immediate reason why this wouldn't work (again, ignoring the extradimensional weirdness). Any feedback would be nice, as I don't wish to limit player creativity but also don't want to throw off balance.
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Posted May 24, 2024Your distinction between Counterspell's sight requirement in casting versus Haste's sight requirement in effect is accurate.
Your example about Detect Magic, however, is not. The specific spell being cast is unknown until it's already been cast, therefore, you wouldn't be able to set a trigger with Glyph of Warding specifying a specific spell being cast. It would have to specify a spell that has already been cast, at which point, it's too late to cast Counterspell. This is all moot considering you can't store Counterspell in a Glyph of Warding because the casting requirements can't be met but thought I'd point it out in case anyone else was wondering.
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Posted May 24, 2024If Glyph of Warding, Ring of Spell Storing, and any other similar things that store spells simply stated that the spell effect occurs instead of being cast by the glyph/object/etc. that would really clear up a lot of confusion and remove any misinterpretation about why Counterspell, which requires being able to see a target as part of the spell description requirements, can't be stored but Haste, which requires sight of the target as part of the spell description's effect, can be stored. Please include this in the D&D Next/One/5.5 version of Glyph of Warding and Ring of Spell Storing please.