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I am a player in a campaign vs campaign game (players versus players), and was trying to find a way to defend my evil wizard tower. One idea was to create an unavoidable trap to teleport players out of a building.

If I imbue the spell Teleport into Glyph of Warding using a 7th level spell slot, when it triggers:

  1. will I be teleported to a location set earlier, or

  2. will who / whatever triggers it be teleported to the location set earlier?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Related: Glyph of Warding and Teleportation Circle \$\endgroup\$
    – Rykara
    Commented Dec 6, 2018 at 18:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ Geekdude3, if you meant player versus player, then I am unclear what "campaign vs campaign" was referring to. I edited in player versus player, I think you'll want to edit out "campaign vs campaign" since I think they mean the same thing. Right? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Dec 6, 2018 at 19:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ By “campaign vs campaign” do you mean a DM is running multiple groups and your group is competing with another? I don’t think it’s important to the question, but that wording is going to confuse possible answer-providers, so it’s good to make sure all your readers understand the question. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Dec 6, 2018 at 19:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ Our party is the antagonist in the other parties story \$\endgroup\$
    – Geekdude3
    Commented Dec 6, 2018 at 20:39

4 Answers 4

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Teleport cannot be placed in a Glyph of Warding

In the spell description for Glyph of Warding, the paragraph regarding placing spells inside the Glyph says this, emphasis mine:

Spell Glyph. You can store a prepared spell of 3rd level or lower in the glyph by casting it as part of creating the glyph. The spell must target a single creature or an area. The spell being stored has no immediate effect when cast in this way...

The spell Teleport, as written, targets "you and up to eight willing additional creatures of your choice", meaning that it is not eligible to be placed in the Glyph.

Traps laid by the DM can do whatever you require them to do

If you're a DM, you should be made aware that while a player creating a Glyph with this effect is prohibited, as DM, you're not required to strictly adhere to the rules set by any individual spell. Call it "Sigil of Arcana", a custom spell that doesn't have this specific limitation, and set it down in a room of the dungeon you're building. Or just make a Teleportation Trap that can be disarmed with Dispel Magic at a DC of 17 (or being cast as a 7th level spell), and forget making it a specific spell at all. You can create the effect you're going for without needing to reconfigure two spells that as-written won't quite do what you need them to do.

As a Player, you need a different spell

Teleportation Circle

Teleportation Circle is an obvious candidate, since it only requires a circle drawn onto the ground, and a Permanent Circle set up somewhere else. It has a smaller radius than Teleport though, meaning you'll be able to target fewer creatures with it. There's also considerable debate over whether Teleportation Circle strictly obeys the constraints for Glyph of Warding or not.

Misty Step

You might be able to get clever by using lots of Glyph of Warding's in the same place. Place a window (no glass or other obstructions) that has visibility of an area outside the tower no more than 30 feet away. Cast Glyph of Warding with your chosen trigger condition, casting Misty Step as the spell to activate, targeting that point with the Misty Step spell each time you do so. Then write conditions for these glyphs:

  1. On the First Person to enter this room, trigger when that creature sees that all their allies within 20 feet of the room have entered the room.
  2. On the Second Person to enter this room, trigger when that creature sees that all their allies within 20 feet of the room have entered the room.
  3. On the Third Person....

This method has a few obvious loopholes:

  • Spies, Secret Agents, etc. might be prematurely teleported out
  • Blind Characters won't trigger the glyph on themselves
  • Other possible work-arounds for this trap
  • 30 feet might still be quite close to the room they teleported from

But it should work provided you create enough glyphs to handle an entire enemy party.

Dimension Door/Thunder Step

Same as above, except you need to resolve the debate over whether these spells' abilities to "bring an extra willing creature" interferes with the spell's ability to be put in a Glyph of Warding. I would generally rule it doesn't, but the DM may not feel the same way. If they do rule in your favor, Thunder Step increases the range to 90 feet, Dimension Door increases the range to 500 feet and eliminates the need for line-of-sight.

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You can't create a teleport glyph

The Spell Glyph option from glyph of warding requires...

The spell [to] target a single creature or an area. 

Teleport targets:

You and up to eight willing creatures of your choice that you can see within range.

As such, teleport is not a valid spell for glyph of warding.

There doesn't seem to be many alternatives

Of all of the teleportation spells in the game, only dimension door appears to have a single target.

Dimension door let's you teleport...

 yourself from your current location to any other spot within [500 feet]. 

However, it also lets you...

bring one willing creature of your size or smaller who is carrying gear up to its carrying capacity. 

... and I'm unsure if that counts as targeting an additional creature.

If it can be place in a spell glyph, it would target the glyph-triggering player:

If the spell has a target, it targets the creature that triggered the glyph.

However, it is unclear if you can specify the destination prior to triggering the glyph (probably worth it's own question if you're curious).

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This is not a valid use of Glyph of Warding

Glyph of Warding requires:

Spell Glyph: You can store a prepared spell of 3rd level or lower by casting it as part of creating the glyph. The spell must target a single creature or an area. The spell being stored has no immediate effect.

Per Jeremy Crawford on a related topic (twinning spells as a sorcerer), if a requirement of a spell or ability requires a single target, a spell must be able to target only a single target. Because Teleport can target more than one creature (and does not specify an area), it is not a valid spell to use in conjunction with Glyph of Warding.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ One way your answer might be more helpful would be if you could find a way to solve what appears to be OP's actual problem: " I was considering using it as an unavoidable trap to teleport players out of a building." Up to you of course, this answers the question fine as is. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Dec 6, 2018 at 18:54
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I think that you could use a glyph of warding to store a teleport spell, under specific circumstances

  • Teleport:

    You and up to eight willing creatures of your choice that you can see within range.

  • Glyph of Warding:

    The spell must target a single creature or an area

A Teleport spell can be used to target a "single creature"- you. It doesn't need to target more people than that, even though it can. If cast specifically for the caster, and the caster only at the time of casting, the teleport spell wouldn't invalidate the conditions of the Glyph of Warding, and thus would work.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the tour if you haven't already and see the help center or ask us here in the comments (use @ to ping someone) if you need more guidance. Good Luck and Happy Gaming! \$\endgroup\$
    – Someone_Evil
    Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 11:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ This has been my biggest thing with this kind of ruling. You can set the spell up to target only one creature. RAW it's dubious at best, but that's just how my brain parses it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jason_c_o
    Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 19:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ I STRONGLY disagree. A Teleport spell COULD be placed in a Glyph of warding- BUT it can only teleport YOU. The Teleport spell says it can teleport "You and up to eight people you can see". "Up to eight" is the maximum number, not the minimum, and you aren't REQUIRED to teleport anyone besides yourself. As long as you only used it for YOURSELF, the spell glyph would only target one person, and would thus work. \$\endgroup\$ Commented May 15, 2021 at 21:22

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