Glyph of Warding

Abjuration (Ward)
Tier: 3
Components: Verbal, Somatic
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Target or Area: Object touched or up to 5 square ft./level
Duration: Permanent until discharged (D)
Saving Throw: See text
X marks the spot. And just to be safe, so do a pile of corpses.

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

You set 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 drawers, each can be separately warded.

When casting the spell, you weave a tracery of faintly glowing lines around the warding sigil. 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. Polymorph and nondetection (and similar magical effects) can fool a glyph, though nonmagical disguises and the like can’t.

Depending on the version selected, a glyph either blasts the intruder or activates a spell.

Blast Glyph
A blast glyph deals 3d8 points of damage to the intruder and to all within 5 feet of them. This damage is acid, cold, fire, electricity, or sonic (caster’s choice, made at time of casting). Each creature affected can attempt a Reflex save to take half damage. Spell resistance applies against this effect.

Spell Glyph
You can store any harmful spell of Tier 3 or lower that you know. All level-dependent features of the spell are based on your caster level at the time of casting the glyph. If the spell has a target, it targets the intruder. If the spell has an area or an amorphous effect the area or effect is centered on the intruder. If the spell summons creatures, they appear as close as possible to the intruder and attack. Saving throws operate as normal, except that the DC is based on the level of the spell stored in the glyph.

Augmentation:
For each extra spell point you invest, you can increase the damage of a blast glyph by 1d8 (up to a maximum total of [½ caster level] d8).

The spell stored in a spell glyph can be augmented normally when it is stored.