Temple of the Gods: Temples Made Simple

Usable By: Cleric

Spell Level: 7

School: Conjuration

Casting Time: 1 hour

Range: 120 feet

Duration: 24 hours

Components: V, S, M (a holy symbol worth at least 5 gp)

You cause a temple to shimmer into existence on ground you can see within range. The temple must fit within an unoccupied cube of space, up to 120 feet on each side. The temple remains until the spell ends. It is dedicated to whatever god, pantheon, or philosophy is represented by the holy symbol used in the casting.

You make all decisions about the temple’s appearance. The interior is enclosed by a floor, walls, and a roof, with one door granting access to the interior and as many windows as you wish. Only you and any creatures you designate when you cast the spell can open or close the door.

The temple’s interior is an open space with an idol or altar at one end. You decide whether the temple is illuminated and whether that illumination is bright light or dim light. The smell of burning incense fills the air within, and the temperature is mild.

The temple opposes types of creatures you choose when you cast this spell. Choose one or more of the following: celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, or undead. If a creature of the chosen type attempts to enter the temple, that creature must make a Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, it can’t enter the temple for 24 hours. Even if the creature can enter the temple, the magic there hinders it; whenever it makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw inside the temple, it must roll a d4 and subtract the number rolled from the d20 roll.

In addition, the sensors created by divination spells can’t appear inside the temple, and creatures within can’t be targeted by divination spells.

Finally, whenever any creature in the temple regains hit points from a spell of 1st level or higher, the creature regains additional hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1 hit point).

The temple is made from opaque magical force that extends into the Ethereal Plane, thus blocking ethereal travel into the temple’s interior. Nothing can physically pass through the temple’s exterior. It can’t be dispelled by dispel magic, and antimagic field has no effect on it. A disintegrate spell destroys the temple instantly.
Casting this spell on the same spot every day for a year makes this effect permanent.

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

In a world full of rampaging dragons incinerating armies and ghoulish undead crawling from mires to eat your bones, safety can be a tricky thing to find. There are a handful of spells dedicated to offering you sanctuary where you go, enabling long rests with a bit more peace of mind. Temple of the Gods is one such spell; it pairs the goodness of Hallow with its creature type gate with the sanctuary effects of spells like Tiny Hut and Private Sanctum. If you need reprieve from prying divining eyes, extraplanar annoyances, and a place to perform a snooze worthy service, Temple of the Gods will do the trick.

Requiring an hour cast time does limit the spell’s usability down to basically being a long rest prep spell or something you’re planning on casting over downtime to create your own little temple. If you’re out adventuring and need a quick place to retreat into, Temple of the Gods isn’t going to do it. This leaves the extraplanar threat prevention as more of a nice little ribbon feature more than a practical reason you’d really want the spell, but that isn’t the end of the world.

The bonus hit point regeneration is nearly moot; if you need to spend an hour long to cast this anyway, you’re very likely taking a long rest in it, not a short rest. If for some reason you have an odd three to six hour window of time before you know you have to be out adventuring I guess it can help a little, but that’s not going to be a major consideration. If you’re casting this, 90% of the time or more I’d expect you’d be looking to long rest here.

All of these factors combined with the area requirements do make its practical upside over the aforementioned Tiny Hut and Private Sanctum suspect; if your party doesn’t have access to those effects and has ample room to bring a temple into the world, Temple of the Gods can be a great asset. If you know you need to defend a point a temple can fit on from extraplanar baddies at a fairly precise time, Temple of the Gods is basically a bigger and better Hallow. Otherwise, you really just need to love the flavor of having your own temple of rest or want to build your own temple over a year of downtime for this to find a home on your cleric sheets.

5e Spells

Temple of the Gods: Temples Made Simple