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In the movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, one of the magic items the characters come across over the course of the film is a Hither-Thither Staff. This wasn't invented for the film; it exists in D&D 5e online resources, but the thing that immediately caught my attention was the way it was portrayed in the film: to put it simply, the movie version is basically a Portal Gun reskinned as a magic staff.

This makes me wonder. How long has this item been a part of D&D? Was it introduced before or after October 2007, when Portal was released, and if before, did the item's description or abilities change significantly after Portal came out?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ One of my friends(also my DM) and his sister(who is a party character) were a little mad at this, because the way the Hither-Thither staff works is like the Portal game(and my DM has played Portal). I assume it is, as said in the answers, a 'legendary item'. However, Wizards of the Coast can get around the copyright by having it 'as long as you hold the staff and apply two visible start and end points(spawned by Verbal components), you can cast teleport without expending a spell slot'. \$\endgroup\$
    – TieflingDragon84
    Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 20:27
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    \$\begingroup\$ @TieflingDragon84: You don't need to do that. The general notion of wormholes and portals is far older than Portal. Nobody owns it in the first place. \$\endgroup\$
    – Kevin
    Commented Apr 9, 2023 at 20:16
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    \$\begingroup\$ @TieflingDragon84 They could have the mechanics of the staff exactly match the mechanics of the portal gun, and not have any problems with copyright. If Hasbro created a video game in which a protagonist used this staff to solve puzzles in which to escape room after room in a dungeon, it still wouldn't be a sure bet to try to sue them over it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Michael Richardson
    Commented Apr 10, 2023 at 16:52
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    \$\begingroup\$ The effect of the staff is very similar to the spell Arcane Gate, which first appeared in the 4e PHB in June 2008 \$\endgroup\$
    – Caleth
    Commented Apr 12, 2023 at 9:36
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    \$\begingroup\$ @NobodytheHobgoblin I’ll be honest, I don’t really know what to do with the history of gaming tag. About portals though, yes, the item in question makes portals, but the question itself has nothing to do with the mechanics, presentation, narrative, or anything about the portals made by the staff. Adding portals here would be like adding [attack] to a question about a sword, since swords can make attacks, even though the question had nothing to do with the mechanics or narrative of attacks. \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Jun 21, 2023 at 13:59

1 Answer 1

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The Hither-Thither Staff was created for the movie.

The Hither-Thither Staff was published on D&D Beyond as part of the marketing hype for the movie in the article Honor Among Thieves Legendary Items, which states:

The items in this collection were created for the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Each one can tilt the balance of power in any D&D game, so use these items with caution.

[...]

Hither-Thither Staff

Staff, Legendary

This walking stick has a brilliant gemstone fitted at the top...

So it was created after October 2007, with the article being published and movie being released both on March 31, 2023.

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