Campaign Design - Spells: Minor Ward

Minor Ward (from the Book of Eldritch Might)
Abjuration

Level: Sorcerer/Wizard 0
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Target, Effect, or Area: Object touched or up to 20 square feet

Duration: 1 day per caster level

Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: Yes (object)

This inscription harms those who enter, pass, or open the warded area or object. A minor ward can guard a bridge or passage, ward a portal, trap a chest or box, and so on.

You set the conditions of the ward. Typically, any creature of a specific type or alignment violating the warded area is subject to the magic it stores. Wards can be set according to creature type, subtype, or species. Wards can also be set with respect to chaos, evil, good, or law, or to pass those of your religion or faith. They cannot be set according to appearance, class, Hit Dice, or level. Wards respond to invisible creatures normally, but are not triggered by those who travel past them ethereally. Multiple minor wards cannot function within 30 feet of one another.

When casting the spell, you mark a clear design in paint, chalk, blood, scratch marks, or some other means. The ward can conform to any shape up to the limitations of the spell's total square footage. When the spell is completed, the ward remains quite obvious.

Wards cannot be affected or bypassed by such means as physical or magical probing, though they can be dispelled. Mislead and nondetection can fool a minor ward.

Read magic allows you to identify a minor ward with a successful DC 13 Spellcraft check. Identifying the minor ward does not discharge it, and it allows you to know the basic nature of the glyph, type of damage caused or what spell is stored.

Note: Magic traps such as minor wards are hard to disable. A character with trapfinding can use a DC 25 Disable Device check to thwart it.

Depending on the version selected, a minor ward can either blast the intruder or activate a spell.

• Blast Ward: A blast deals 1d4 points of damage to one target. This damage is acid, cold, fire, electricity, or sonic damage (your choice, made at the time of casting). Those affected can make a Reflex save to take half damage.


• Spell Ward: You can store any harmful spell of 0^th level that you know. All level-dependent features of the spell are based on your level at the time of casting. if the spell has targets, it targets the intruder. If the spell has an area or an amorphous effect (such as a cloud), the area or effect is centered on the intruder. All saving throws operate as normal except that the save DC is based on the level of the minor ward.

Material component: You trace the ward with paint, chalk, or some other appropriate substance.

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