Magic and the Weave

The world of Toril is literally a magical place. All
existence is infused with magical power, and potential
energy lies untapped in every rock, every
stream, every living creature, even the air itself. Raw magic is the
frozen stuff of creation, the mute and mindless will of being, suffusing
every bit of matter and present in every manifestation of
energy throughout the world.

Magic permeates the peoples of Faerun as well as the lands. Every
town is home to mighty temples venerating the deities and housing
clerics who call upon divine power to heal injury, ward against evil,
and defend the lives and property of the faithful. Subtle and astute
wizards stand by (and sometimes behind) the throne of every land,
turning their formidable powers to the service of their lords. Aberrations
made by ancient magic seethe and hunger in the dark spaces
beneath the world's surface, awaiting the chance to feed. Even the
most unimaginative fighter or most brazen rogue quickly learns to
respect the power of magic, or sees her career as an adventurer come
to a spectacular and ghastly end.

The Weave

Mortals cannot directly shape raw magic. Instead, most who wield
magic make use of the Weave. The Weave is the manifestation of
raw magic, a kind of interface between the will of a spellcaster and
the stuff of raw magic. Without the Weave, raw magic is locked
away and inaccessible—an archmage can't light a candle in a dead
magic zone. But, surrounded by the Weave, a spellcaster can shape
lightning to blast her foes, transport herself hundreds of miles in
the blink of an eye, even reverse death itself. All spells, magic items,
spell-like abilities, and even supernatural abilities such as a ghost's
ability to walk through walls, depend on the Weave and call upon it
in different ways.
Magic
The exact nature of the Weave is elusive because it is many things
simultaneously. The Weave is the body of Mystra, the goddess of
magic. Mystra has dominion over magic worked throughout Toril,
but she cannot shut off the flow of magic altogether without ceasing
to exist herself. The Weave is the conduit spellcasters use to channel
magical energy for their spells, both arcane and divine. Finally, the
Weave is the fabric of esoteric rules and formulas that comprises the
Art (arcane spcllcasting) and the Power (divine spell casting). Everything
from the texts of arcane spell books to the individual components
of spells is part of the Weave. Magic not only flows from
source to spellcaster through the Weave, the Weave gives spellcasters
the tools they need to shape magic to their purposes.
Whenever a spell, spell-like ability, supernatural ability, or magic
item functions, the threads of the Weave intertwine, knit, warp,
twist, and fold to make the effect possible. When characters use divination
spells such as detect magic, identify, or analyze dweomer,
they glimpse the Weave. A spell such as dispel magic smooths the
Weave, attempting to return it to its natural state. Spells such as
antimagic field rearrange the Weave so that magic flows around,
rather than through, the area affected by the spell.
Areas where magic goes awry, such as wild magic zones and dead
magic zones, represent damage to the Weave.

Wild Magic

In some areas of Toril, the Weave is so warped or frayed that magic does
not function reliably. This damage may be due to some magical disaster,
such as those that were common during the Time of Troubles in 1358
DR, or due to some powerful effect that distorts the Weave, such as a
mythal (see Elven High Magic, below). Most zones of wild magic created
during the Time of Troubles have since disappeared, but small pockets
of wild magic remain, especially underground and in wilderness areas.

DETECTING WILD MAGIC ZONES

Wild magic zones are generally unnoticed until they make some spell
or effect go awry, A character who views a wild magic zone with a
detect magic spell detects the presence of magic on the first round
and the existence of a wild magic zone on the second. If the character
studies the area for 3 rounds, he can attempt a Spellcraft check
(DC 25) to determine the exact borders of the affected area.
Some clever wizards use existing wild magic zones to defend their
towers or strongholds. With careful study, they chart the boundaries
of the wild magic effect and then use this information to best advantage
when fighting on their home ground against enemy spellcasters.

EFFECTS OF WILD MAGIC ZONES

Any spell or spell-like ability whose caster is within a wild magic
zone is vulnerable to the effects of wild magic. (Wild magic does not
affect supernatural, extraordinary, or natural abilities.) The caster
must roll a caster level check (DC 15 + spell level). For a magic item,
use its caster level for the caster level check.
If the caster level check fails, roll on Table 2-1: Wild Magic
Effects to determine if the spell actually goes awry, and if so, how.
Spells or spell-like abilities cast from outside a wild magic zone at
targets inside the zone are not affected by the zone, nor are mobile
effects brought into a wild magic zone. Only magic originating
inside the zone is affected.

SUPPRESSING WILD MAGIC
Through hard-earned experience, Faerun's spellcasters have stumbled
across a couple of methods for dealing with a wild magic zone. An
area dispel use of dispel magic cast into a wild magic zone causes
magic in the area covered by the spell to function normally for 1d4
minutes. An area dispel use of greater dispelling causes magic to work
normally for 1d4xl0 minutes. A wish or miracle spell permanently
repairs all wild magic zones in a 30-foot-radius area.

Dead Magic
In some areas of Toril, the Weave is absent altogether. The Weave has a
tear or hole, and the area effectively has no magic at all. Like the rare wild
magic zones, many regions of dead magic were created during the Time
of Troubles and have since failed or retreated. Dead magic zones often
persist in places where extreme concentrations of magical power were
abruptly scattered or destroyed—in the vicinity of a shattered mythal,
at the spot where an artifact was broken, or at the scene of a god's death.

DETECTING DEAD MAGIC

Spellcasters and creatures with spell-like or supernatural abilities
immediately notice when they enter a zone of dead magic. Spellcasters
are attuned to the Weave, and they feel uneasy and uncomfortable
in dead magic zones. A Weave user can take a moveequivalent
action to note the exact boundary of a dead magic zone.
Shadow Weave users are not attuned to the Weave and experience
no such unusual sensations in regions of dead magic.
Any spellcaster, Weave or Shadow Weave, can use a detect magic
spell to delineate the extent of any dead magic within the spell's range.
Naturally, a Weave user must be outside the affected area in order to
employ this tactic.

EFFECTS OF DEAD MAGIC

A dead magic zone functions in most respects as an antimagic field
spell, except that it docs not impede the spells or spell-like abilities
of Shadow Weave users, nor does it interfere with the operation of
Shadow Weave magic items. Divination spells cannot detect subjects
that are within dead magic zones. Finally, it isn't possible to use a
teleportation effect to move into or out of a dead magic zone.
A dead magic area cannot temporarily be returned to normal function.
A wish or miracle spell permanently repairs all dead magic zones in a 30-
foot-radius area (or a 30-foot-radius portion of a larger dead magic zone).

Spellfire
Spellfire is the raw energy of the Weave. It can be manipulated in two
ways, Mystra gives the silver fire ability to her Chosen and certain other
favored servants. The spellfire ability—the wielding of true spellfire—is
by far the more powerful of these rare and precious talents. It is a random
gift bestowed upon only a handful of women and men in a generation.
Spellfire in any form is refined, controlled raw magic. In beneficent
manifestations, it is a font of silver light and healing energy.
In, battle, it is a searing blue-white jet of all-consuming radiance.

SILVER FIRE
This powerful supernatural ability is unique to the Chosen of
Mystra. Manifesting as a beautiful silver-white flame that surrounds
the wielder and fills the area into which it is projected, silver
fire can be used for different effects. It can act as a ring of warmth
or a ring of mind shielding, allow the user to breathe water, or
banish all external magical compulsions upon the user as if a greater
dispelling spell were cast upon her. Only one of the above effects can
be used at any time.

The user can call upon silver fire to revitalize her, allowing her
to function without food or drink for up to seven days. (This function
can only be used once a tenday.) Once every 70 minutes she
may unleash silver fire as a blast of flame. This blast may be in an
area 5 feet wide and up to 70 feet long, breaking through barriers as
a lightning bolt would and overcoming magical barriers and spell
resistance automatically. This blast deals 4d12 points of fire damage
(Reflex half DC 23). Alternately, the silver fire can be unleashed in
a 70-foot cone, dealing no damage but permanently restoring dead
magic zones within the cone to normal and dispelling (as a greater
dispelling spell) any antimagic field effects that contact the cone.
This cone effect is draining on the Weave, and Mystra discourages
its use except for emergencies.

All effects function as if cast by a 20th-level sorcerer

SPELLFIRE

Persons gifted with the spellfire ability can do amazing things,
dependent upon their skill, talent, and the amount of magical
energy they have within them at the time. In general, spellfire can
be used to heal, create blasts of destructive fire, or absorb magical
effects it contacts, although the exact effects vary by circumstance
and user. Talented wielders can release multiple blasts at once or
even fly using the ability,

A spellfire wielder can ready an action to absorb spells targeted
at her as if she were a rod of absorption. She gets one level of spellfire
energy for every spell level absorbed and can store a number
of spcllfirc energy levels equal to her Constitution score.

As a standard action, she may expend these spellfire energy levels
as a ranged touch attack (maximum range 400 feet), dealing 1d6
points of spellfire damage per level expended (Reflex half DC 20).
Spellfire damage is half fire damage and half raw magical power,
just like the damage of a flame strike spell is half fire and half
divine energy. Creatures with immunity, resistance, or protection
against fire apply these effects to half the damage.

A spellfire wielder can also heal a target by touch, restoring 2 hit
points per spellfire energy level expended for this purpose.
Unlike most supernatural abilities, spellfire is affected by spells
and magic items that affect spell-like abilities, such as a rod of
absorption or a rod of negation (if pointed at the manifestation
rather than the wielder). It can be thwarted or counterspelled by
dispel magic, and theoretically a spellfire wielder could counterspell
another's spellfire. However, spellfire is a supernatural ability and
does not provoke an attack of opportunity when used, nor is it subject
to spell resistance.

The Shadow Weave

During the course of her eternal war with the goddess Selune, the
goddess Shar created the Shadow Weave in response to Selune's creation
of Mystra and the birth of the Weave. If the Weave is a loose
mesh permeating reality, the Shadow Weave is the pattern formed
by the negative space between the Weave's strands. It provides an
alternative conduit and methodology for casting spells.
Shar, being the goddess of secrets, has mostly kept the secret of
the Shadow Weave to herself. Over the millennia some mortals,
mainly her servants, have been allowed to discover the Shadow
Weave or have stumbled across it in their researches.
Shadow Weave users enjoy several advantages. First, they ignore
disruptions in the Weave. A Shadow Weave effect works normally
in a dead magic or wild magic zone. (An antimagic field, which
blocks the flow of magic, remains effective against Shadow Weave
magic, as does spell resistance.) Skilled Shadow Weave users are able
to cast spells that are extraordinarily difficult for Weave users to
perceive, counter, or dispel.

Shadow Weave users also suffer some disadvantages. First, Shar
has full control over the Shadow Weave and can isolate any creature
from it or silence it entirely without any harm to herself. Second,
the secrets of the Shadow Weave are disquieting and injurious to the
mortal mind. Withdut assistance from Shar, a Shadow Weave user
loses a bit of his or her mind. Third, while the Weave serves equally
well for any kind of spell, the Shadow Weave is best for spells that
sap life or muddle the mind and senses, and is unsuited to spells that
manipulate energy or matter—and cannot support any spell that
produces light. (See the Shadow Weave Magic feat in Chapter 1:
Characters for details.)

Finally, the more familiar a mortal becomes with the secrets of the
Shadow Weave, the more divorced she becomes from the Weave. An
accomplished Shadow Weave user can work spells that Weave users find
difficult to detect, dispel, or counter, but the Shadow Weave user also
becomes similarly unable to affect spells worked through the Weave.

SHADOW WEAVE MAGIC ITEMS
Magic items created by those who use the Shadow Weave are rare
and dangerous. Only the clergy of Shar and Shar's few arcane devotees
create any number of Shadow Weave items. Shadow adepts unallied to
Shar's church are rare and reclusive enough that only a handful
of magic items are manufactured as Shadow Weave items.
Shadow Weave items are nearly identical to items created by
Weave users, but the differences are profound.

Spell-like effects generated from Shadow Weave items have the
same benefits and limitations that a Shadow Weave spell caster has:
Effects from the schools of Enchantment, Illusion, and Necromancy
gain a +1 bonus on their save DCs and a +1 bonus on caster level
checks to overcome spell resistance. The same benefits apply to
effects with the darkness designator. Effects from the schools of
Evocation and Transmutation have their caster levels reduced by
one (though their costs are based on the original caster level). The
reduced caster level affects the spell's range, duration, damage, and
any other level-dependent variables the effect might have. The
effect's save DC is reduced by -1 and caster level checks to overcome
spell resistance suffer a -1 penalty. The DC to dispel Evocation or
Transmutation effects from a Shadow Weave item is 11 + the
reduced caster level. In general, Shadow Weave users do not bother
to create items that include Evocation or Transmutation effects.

Shadow Weave items cannot generate effects with the light descriptor.
Shadow Weave items can pose a serious danger to users who are
not familiar with the mysteries of the Shadow Weave. Activating a
Shadow Weave item through spell completion, spell trigger, or command
word deals 1d4 points of temporary Wisdom damage to the
user unless the user has the Shadow Weave Magic feat. A use-activated
Shadow Weave item deals 1 point of temporary Wisdom
damage the first time it is used each day unless the user has the
Shadow Weave Magic feat. If the item functions continuously, the
temporary Wisdom damage occurs at dusk each day or when the
user takes off or puts aside the item, whichever comes first.

Elven High Magic
In ancient times, before the Weave took on its present form, the rules
of magic were different. Many beings experimented with powerful
dweomers that produced larger and much more potent effects than are
possible today. Many minor and major artifacts date back to these times.
Just as one can find ancient artifacts scattered across Faerun, one also
can find ancient and powerful magical effects still( lingering (and usually
functioning erratically) today. The most famous of these is the
mythal of Myth Drannor (see the section on the forest of Cormanthor
in Chapter 4: Geography). A mythal is an ancient form of elven magic
created by a group of spellcasters working together to create a lasting
magical effect over a large area. Mythals that remain today usually are
beginning to fail but resist attempts to dispel them. They can produce
any number of bizarre effects, including wild magic (see the Wild Magic
section above). The exact nature of such effects varies with each mythal.

Rune Magic
In the snowbound mountains of the North, dwarves and giants have
dwelled for uncounted years as rivals and enemies, and their deeds
are only rumored in human lands. In the lore of the shield dwarves,
runes—carefully inscribed symbols from the secret characters of the
dwarven alphabet—can be carved to hold spells of great potency.

LEARNING THE RUNES
In order to use rune magic, a character must learn the Inscribe Rune
feat (see Chapter 1: Characters). Rune magic is strongly tied to the
dwarven and giant deities and is thus the province of divine spellcasters.
Some students of rune magic choose to virtually abandon
the normal practice of magic in order to concentrate on their
chosen medium, becoming runecasters of great power.

CREATING RUNES
If you know Inscribe Rune, any divine spell you currently have
prepared can instead be cast as a rune. A rune is a temporary magical
writing similar to a scroll. It can be triggered once before it
loses its magical power, but it lasts indefinitely until triggered. A
rune written or painted on a surface fades away when expended,
erased, or dispelled. A rune carved into a surface remains behind
as a bit of nonmagical writing even after its magic is expended.
Inscribing a rune takes 10 minutes plus the casting time of the spell
to be included. When you create a rune, you can set the caster level at
anywhere from the minimum caster level necessary to cast the spell
in question to your own level. When you create a rune, you make any
choices that you would normally make when casting the spell.
You must provide any material components or focuses the spell requires.
If casting the spell would reduce your XP total, you pay this cost upon
beginning the rune in addition to the XP cost for making the rune itself.
Inscribing a rune requires a Craft check against a DC of 20 + the
level of the spell used. The Craft skill you use is anything appropriate
to the task of creating a written symbol on a surface (metalworking,
calligraphy, gemcutting, stonecarving, woodcarving, and so
on). You paint, draw, or engrave the rune onto a surface and make
the check. (Dwarves usually engrave their runes in stone or metal in
order to take advantage of their racial affinity for these items.)
If the check fails, the rune is imperfect and cannot hold the spell.
The act of writing triggers the prepared spell, whether or not the
Craft check is successful, making the spell unavailable for casting
until you rest and regain spells. That is, the spell is expended from
your currently prepared spells, just as if it had been cast.
A single Medium-size or smaller object can hold only one rune.
Larger objects can hold one rune per 25 square feet (an area 5 feet
square) of surface area. Runes cannot be placed on creatures. The
rune has a base price of the spell level x caster level x 100 gp (a 0-
level spell counts as 1/2 level). You must spend 1/25 of its base price
in XP and use up raw materials costing half this base price. A rune's
market value equals its base price.

TRIGGERING RUNES
Whoever touches the rune triggers the rune and becomes the target
of the spell placed in it. The rune's creator may touch the rune safely
without triggering it, or deliberately trigger it if he so desires. (Runemakers
often carry healing or restorative runes for just this purpose.)
The rune itself must be touched in order to trigger it, so an object with
a rune may be handled safely as long as care is taken to avoid contacting
the rune. If the spell only affects objects, then an object must
trigger the rune. Triggering a rune deliberately is a standard action.
As with a symbol spell, a rune cannot be placed upon a weapon with
the intent of having the rune triggered when the weapon strikes a foe.
Unlike the spell glyph of warding, the rune spell is not concealed
in any way and is obvious to anyone inspecting the object holding the
rune. A read magic spell allows the caster to identify the spell held
in a rune with a successful Spellcraft check (DC 15 + the spell's level).

DISARMING RUNES
Runes can be disarmed or deactivated in several ways, A successful
erase spell deactivates a rune (DC 15 + your caster level). Touching
the rune to erase it does not trigger the rune unless the erase spell
fails to deactivate the rune.
A dispel magic spell targeted on an untriggered rune can dispel its
magic if successful (DC 11 + your caster level). Untriggered runes are
not subject to area dispels. Finally, a rogue can use her Disable Device
skill to disable runes (DC 25 + the spell's level), like any magic trap.

Circle Magic
Some of the most powerful and spectacular spells worked across
Faerun are cast in the form of circle magic. Circle magic is a type of
cooperative spellcasting that allows the spellcaster leading the circle
to increase her caster level significantly and achieve results otherwise
unavailable to the spellcasters composing the circle. The Red Wizards
of Thay and the Witches of Rashemen make frequent use of circle
magic. Stories of other forms of circle magic abound in Faerun.

PARTICIPATION
The ability to participate in circle magic requires the selection of a
character feat—Tattoo Focus for a Red Wizard or Ethran for a
Witch of Rashemen.
One spellcaster, usually the most powerful or experienced character
present, stands at the center of the circle. This character is the
circle leader. A hathran must be at least 4th level in the hathran
prestige class to be a circle leader. A Red Wizard cannot be a circle
leader unless he is at least a 5th-level Red Wizard. ,
A circle requires a minimum of two participants plus the circle
leader. Up to five participants can aid a circle leader in a standard
circle, but a Red Wizard of 10th level can lead a great circle containing
up to nine participants.
All participants in a circle must stand within 10 feet of the circle
leader, who stands in the center.

CIRCLE POWERS

The first use of circle magic is to empower the circle leader with the
strength of all the participants. This requires 1 full hour of uninterrupted
concentration on the part of all participants and the circle
leader. Each participant casts any single prepared spell, which is consumed
by the circle and has no effect other than expending the prepared
spell. The spell levels expended by the circle participants are
totaled as circle bonus levels. Each bonus level may be used to
accomplish the following effects:
• Increase the circle leader's caster level by one for every bonus
level expended (maximum caster levsl 40th).
• Add Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, or Heighten Spell metamagic
feats to spells currently prepared by the circle leader. Each
bonus level counts as one additional spell level required by the
application of a metamagic feat to a spell. The circle leader may
add the feats listed to a spell even if he does not know the feat or
if the addition of the feat would raise the spell level past the circle
leader's normal maximum spell level (maximum spell level
20th).
• Increase the circle leader's level by one for level checks (dispel
checks, caster level checks, and so on) for every bonus level
expended (maximum level 40th).

These effects last for-24 hours or until expended. Circle bonus levels
may be divided up as the circle leader sees fit. For example, the Red
Wizard Hauth Var leads a circle in which four participants each cast
2nd-level spells. Hauth Var chooses to use three circle bonus levels
to maximize his cone of cold spell, three to increase his caster level
from 10th to 13th level for all level-based variables in his spells, and
two to add a +2 bonus to any level checks he needs to make. The
maximized spell is used up whenever he casts his cone of cold, and the
other two effects remain for the next 14 hours. Many high-level
Red Wizards lead circles on a daily basis to exact magical power
from their apprentices.

Portals

Magic portals link many places across Toril. A portal is simply a permanent
teleportation effect that safely whisks its user to a predetermined
place. Most portals lead from one place on Toril to
another, but a few lead to other planes or other celestial bodies in
the skies of Toril.

Qualities of Portals
Hundreds of archmages, high priests, secret circles, monstrous races,
and dark cabals had a hand in creating the multitude of hidden doorways
riddling Faerun. Magic of this sort is unusually durable, and
often survives for centuries—or millennia—after its creators have
vanished, into history or lost any use for their handiwork. Accordingly,
the workings of portals are mysterious and unpredictable.
Each one is built for a reason, but all too often these reasons are lost
when the creator passes into history or obscurity,
Portals share some common features and qualities. All portals are
two-dimensional areas, usually a circle with a radius of up to 15 feet,
but sometimes square, rectangular, or another shape. The portal
itself is intangible and invisible.

Portals often come in pairs or networks, A single portal is a oneway
trip. There must be a matching portal at the destination to
return. Some portals are attuned to several potential destinations,
each equipped with a matching portal, but most are simply two-way
doors between one point and another far distant. Once created, a
portal cannot be moved.

DETECTING PORTALS
An archway or frame of some kind usually marks a portal location so it
can be found when needed and so that creatures don't blunder into it accidentally.
Detect magic can reveal a portal's magical aura. If the portal is
currently functioning (ready to transport creatures), it has a strong aura.
If the portal is not currently able to transport creatures (usually because
it has a limited number of uses, and they are currently exhausted), it has
a weak aura. Strong or weak, a portal radiates transmutation magic.
The analyse portal spell can reveal even more about a portal.

PORTAL OPERATION
Creatures who touch or pass through the area of the portal are
instantly teleported to the locale the portal's builder has specified.
(The teleportation effect is similar to teleport without error cast by
a 17th-level caster, except that interplanar travel is possible.) It is
not possible to poke one's head through a portal to see what's on the
other side. A portal can only transport creatures that can fit through
the portal's physical dimensions.

If a solid object blocks the destination, the portal does not function.
Creatures, however, do not block portals. If a creature already
occupies the area where a portal leads, the user is instead transported
to a suitable location as close as possible to the original destination.
A suitable location has a surface strong enough to support the
user and enough space to hold the user.

Unattended objects cannot pass though a portal. For example, a
character can carry any number or arrows through a portal, but he
cannot fire an arrow through a portal. An unattended object that
hits a portal simply bounces off.

Unless the builder has preset some limit, any number of creatures
can pass through a portal each round, A creature using a portal can
take along up to 850 pounds of gear. In this case, gear is anything a
creature carries or touches. If two or more creatures touch the same
piece of equipment, it counts against both creatures' weight limits.

KEYED PORTALS
Portal builders often restrict access to their creations by setting conditions
for their use. Special conditions for triggering a portal can be based
on the possession of a portal key, the creature's name, identity, or alignment,
but otherwise must be based on observable actions or qualities.
Intangibles such as level, class, Hit Dice, or hit points don't qualify.
A keyed portal remains active for 1 f u l l round. Any creature who
touches the activated portal in the same round also can use the
portal, even if such creatures don't have a key themselves.
Many portal keys are rare and unusual objects that the creature
using the portal must carry. Some portals are keyed to work only at
a particular time, such as sunrise, sunset, the full moon, or midnight.
Spells can serve as portal keys, as can the channeling of positive or
negative energy. When the portal is the target of the specified spell
or within the spell's area or touched by its effect, the spell is
absorbed and the portal is activated. Any form of the spell works to
activate the portal, including spell-like efiects of creatures or magic
items and spells from scrolls.

SEALING PORTALS
A portal cannot be destroyed by physical means or by spell effects that
destroy objects (such as disintegrate), A successful targeted dispel magic
(DC 27) causes a portal to become nonfunctional for 1d4 rounds. Mordenkainen's
disjunction destroys a portal unless it makes a Will save (a
portal's Will save bonus is +10). The spell gate seal (described later in
this chapter) locks a portal and prevents its operation.
Unusual Portals
Things are never certain in the many lands of Faerun, and portals are
not always entirely reliable. Portal-makers have created through design
or mischance portals with many insidious and dangerous characteristics.

RANDOM PORTALS
These portals can only be activated at random times. They may or
may not require a key for activation when they are working. A fairly
common random pattern is a portal that works until 1d6+6 creatures
use it, then shuts down for 1d6 days. Other patterns are possible.

VARIABLE PORTALS
These portals are hazardous in the extreme for those who are unfamiliar
with their quirks. Creatures using these portals are transported
to any one of several preset locations. The destination sequence
may follow a set pattern or may be random.
Some variable portals have keys that allow users to choose a specific
destination served by the portal. Others function by transporting
users to a default location—an inescapable dungeon, the innards
of a volcano, or some particularly hostile outer plane—unless the
user presents the proper key.

CREATURE-ONLY PORTALS
These portals transport only the creatures that use them, not the
creatures' clothing and equipment. Such portals are often used defensively
to render intruders vulnerable after they use the portals. A
rare and more difficult variation on this type of portal transports
creatures to one area and their equipment to another.

MALFUNCTIONING PORTALS
The other types of unusual portals are generally created through
careful effort by their makers. Malfunctioning portals, on the other
hand, are almost always unintended.
Over the centuries, prodigious forces have swept over Toril, profoundly
affecting magic. Because of decades (or centuries or millennia) of magical
wear and tear or the strength of the cataclysmic forces to which they have
been exposed many ancient dweomers
have gone slowly awry. Portals are no exception.

A malfunctioning portal is usually at least one hundred years old,
but many are far older. Using one can have many different results.
Roll once on Table 2-2: Portal Malfunction each time a malfunctioning
portal is activated. If such a portal functions continuously,
the effect indicated lasts 1d10 rounds, and anyone using the portal
during that time is subject to that effect.

Building a Portal
Any character can build a portal if she knows the Create Portal feat
and either the teleport, teleport without error, teleportation circle, or
gate spell. The portal can lead to any locale the builder has personally
visited at least once. The portal fails if the builder chooses a destination
that cannot safely hold her (such as inside a solid object or
into thin air). The portal also fails if the destination is a locale where
astral travel is blocked (see the teleport spell description).

Base Cost: The builder must spend 50,000 gp on raw materials to
create a single, continuously active one-way portal covering an area
up to 10 feet in radius (about 500 square feet). The market value of
a portal is twice its cost in raw materials. Crafting a portal requires
one day for each 1,000 gp in its market price, and 1/25 of the market
price in XP (one hundred days and 4,000 XP for the base portal.
The builder can create a second portal at the destination point, making
a two-way portal, for half price (25,000 gp, fifty days, 2,000 XP).

Larger and Smaller Portals: A portal can be crafted as small as 1
square foot (about a 6-inch radius), but this does not reduce the cost.
The smallest portal usable by a Medium-size creature is 12 square feet
(roughly a 2-foot radius). Small creatures can use portals as small as 7
square feet (an 18-inch radius), and Tiny creatures can pass through
portals of 2 square feet (a 10-inch radius), Diminutive and Fine creatures
are the only beings who can pass through portals of 1 square foot.
Larger portals add 100% to the base cost for each extra 300
square feet of area or fraction of 300 square feet. Large and Huge
creatures can pass through a standard portal, but Gargantuan and
Colossal creatures generally need double- or triple-sized portals.

Special Properties: Some special properties, add significantly to the
cost of creating a portal.

Keyed Portals: Keyed portal; may be created at no extra cost. The
key must be designated during the creation of the device and cannot
be changed after that.

Random Portals: Random portals may be created at no extra cost.
The conditions must be designated during the creation of the portal
and cannot be later changed.

Variable Portals: Variable portals add 25% to the base price per
extra destination after the first included in the device. For example,
a continuously active portal with two variable destinations costs
62,500 gp to make. A continuously active portal with three variable
destinations costs 75,000 gp to make.

Creature-Only Portals: Creature-only portals cost twice as much
to make as standard portals. If the portal sends intruders' belongings
to some place different from the users' destination, it is considered
a variable portal with one extra destination.

Limited Use: The prices and construction times noted above are
for portals that operate constantly, transporting anyone who passes
through them at any time. If the portal can be used only four times
per day or less, the base costs are reduced.

The materials and XF cost of a limited-use portal are based on the
number of uses available. The materials cost is 10,000 gp x a portal's
uses per day, and the experience point cost is 800 XP x a portal's uses
per day. (The second portal in a two-way pair costs half this amount.)

The market value is twice the materials cost. The construction time
is one day per 1,000 gp of market value.

A portal usable five times per day or more is just as expensive as
a continuously active portal. Portals usable less than once per day
can be created by using the appropriate fraction. For example, a
portal usable once per four days effectively has 1/4 a use per day,
costs 2,500 gp in materials, and 200 XP. The minimum cost of a
limited-use portal is 1,000 gp and 80 XP for a portal usable once per
ten days. (The portal builder can choose to have a portal operate even
less often—once a year, for instance—but this does not reduce the
cost or XP expenditure any further.)

Each activation of a limited-use portal lasts 1 round. Once activated,
a limited-use portal can transport as many creatures as can
touch it that round.

note that the rules presented here are the original 3.0 versions, before they hit the table they's be DM modified