Hex Glyph, Greater

Hex Glyph, Greater

Abjuration
Level: Shaman* 5, Warlock* 5
Components: V, S, M (powdered diamond worth 400 gp)
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: touch
Area: object touched or up to 5 sq. ft./level
Target: object touched or up to 5 sq. ft./level
Duration: permanent until discharged (D)
Saving Throw: see text
Spell Resistance: no (object) and yes, see text

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

You set all of the conditions of the ward. Typically, any creature entering the warded area or opening the warded object without speaking a password (which you set when casting the spell) is subject to the magic it stores. Alternatively or in addition to a password trigger, glyphs can be set according to physical characteristics (such as height or weight) or creature type, subtype, or kind. Glyphs can also be set with respect to good, evil, law, or chaos, or to pass those of your religion. They cannot be set according to class, Hit Dice, or level.

Glyphs respond to Invisible creatures normally but are not triggered by those who travel past them ethereally. Multiple glyphs cannot be cast on the same area. However, if a cabinet has three different drawers, each can be separately warded.

When casting the spell, you weave a tracery of faintly glowing lines around the warding sigil using incense that has been sprinkled with powdered diamond (as indicated in the spell components). A glyph can be placed to conform to any shape up to the limitations of your total square footage. When the spell is completed, the glyph and tracery become nearly Invisible.

Glyphs cannot be affected or bypassed by such means as physical or magical probing, though they can be dispelled. Mislead, Polymorph, and Nondetection (and similar magical effects) can fool a glyph, though nonmagical disguises and the like can't.

Read Magic allows you to identify a greater hex glyph with a DC 16 Spellcraft check. Identifying the glyph does not discharge it and indicates that it stores a hex, but does not indicate the effect of that hex.

Note: Magic traps such as hex glyph are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a glyph, only a character with the trapfinding class feature can use Disable Device to disarm it. The DC in each case is 25 + spell level, or 30 for a greater hex glyph.

You can store any hex or major hex you know (but not a grand hex). If the hex has a target, it targets the intruder. If the hex has an area or an amorphous effect, the area or effect is centered on the intruder. The triggered hex uses this spell's Caster Level and DC.