Arcane Gate: Clunky, Limited Teleportation

Usable By: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

Spell Level: 6

School: Conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 500 feet

Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes

Components: V, S

You create linked teleportation portals that remain open for the duration. Choose two points on the ground that you can see, one point within 10 feet of you and one point within 500 feet of you. A circular portal, 10 feet in diameter, opens over each point. If the portal would open in the space occupied by a creature, the spell fails, and the casting is lost.

The portals are two-dimensional glowing rings filled with mist, hovering inches from the ground and perpendicular to it at the points you choose. A ring is visible only from one side (your choice), which is the side that functions as a portal.

Any creature or object entering the portal exits from the other portal as if the two were adjacent to each other; passing through a portal from the nonportal side has no effect. The mist that fills each portal is opaque and blocks vision through it. On your turn, you can rotate the rings as a bonus action so that the active side faces in a different direction.

Review by Samuel West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

On the surface, one might suspect I adore Arcane Gate. It's a high utility spell that encourages cooperation and interesting problem solving, as creating a two-way teleportation gate is cool as hell and able to flip the world and physics on its head. Unfortunately, Arcane Gate has severe limitations that gut the spell’s utility, making it a glorified “team dash” in most cases.

These limitations are that A) you must see the point you’re creating both gates at and B) the gate has to be on the ground. Dimension Door, as a comparable example, teleports you and a buddy anywhere you tell it to within range; no need to see where you’re going, nor do you need to restrict yourself to ground based travel.

When I think of creative ways to use Arcane Gate, I’m envisioning sneaky traps that only affect enemies that pass through the gate, not allies, but chances are if you can see where both portals go, so can your enemies. Using this to try to break into a fortress is complicated, as you can’t hide away the entrance all that easily if you want to break in unnoticed. Most battlemaps and settings won’t allow for the gate to get you where you want to go, and for a 6th level slot, that’s kind of what I’d need to have happen here for this to be awesome. Being able to rotate the entrance is super cool, and brings to mind images of wizards sticking it on the edge of cliffs to choose who can and can’t come through without plummeting to their death. This is a sweet fantasy that likely will never occur.

Arcane Gate can be a blast to use, but the strict limitations make most problems you’d look to solve with it outclassed by lower level options. Crossing large gaps can be remedied with a Conjure Animals, Fly up-cast, Wall of Stone, or any other assortment of tools. This can allow vertical ascension if you can see a space your DM categorizes as “ground” up there, but a climbing kit and rope can be about as noticeable as a ten foot area magical portal making it feel like a wasted slot that just adds a slight convenience.

Normally I’m all for spell limitations, especially with higher level options. I do like Arcane Gate, and I wish desperately that it was limited by only either sight or being stuck to ground, but as is with both limitations, the cases I’d want to use this spell are too niche and unlikely to pop up especially with the huge suite of available options full casters have access to. If your group lacks a great tool for navigating circumstances where Arcane Gate is good, go for it. I have a hunch most groups have a wide array of better tools by level 11, though.

5e Spells

Arcane Gate: Clunky, Limited Teleportation