====== Guards and Wards ======

**School:** Abjuration

**Tier:** 6

===== Casting =====

**Casting Time:** 1 hour

**Range:** See text

===== Effect =====

**Target:** Up to 200 sq. ft./CL

**Duration:** 2 days/CL

**Saving Throw:** See text

**Spell Resistance:** See text

===== Description =====

This powerful spell is primarily used to defend a stronghold or fortress by creating a number of magical wards and effects. The ward protects 200 square feet per caster level. The warded area can be as much as 20 feet per [[priority:magic#caster_level|Caster Level]] high, and shaped as you desire. You can ward several stories of a stronghold by dividing the area among them; you must be somewhere within the area to be warded to cast the spell. The spell creates the following magical effects within the warded area.

  * **Fog:** Fog fills all corridors, obscuring all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature within 5 feet has concealment (attacks have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker cannot use sight to locate the target). Saving Throw: none. Spell Resistance: no.

  * **Arcane Locks:** All doors in the warded area are arcane locked (though the locks may be bypassed with a password of your choosing). Saving Throw: none. Spell Resistance: no.

  * **Webs:** Webs fill all stairs from top to bottom. These strands are identical with those created by the [[priority:magic:spells:tier2:web|Web]] spell, except that they regrow in 10 minutes if they are burned or torn away while the guards and wards spell lasts. Saving Throw: Reflex negates; see text for web. Spell Resistance: no.

  * **Confusion:** Where there are choices in direction - such as a corridor intersection or side passage - a minor confusion-type effect functions so as to make it 50% probable that intruders believe they are going in the opposite direction from the one they actually chose. This is a mind-affecting effect. Saving Throw: none. Spell Resistance: yes.

  * **Lost Doors:** One door per [[priority:magic#caster_level|Caster Level]] is covered by a [[priority:magic:spells:tier1:silent_image|Silent Image]] to appear as if it were a plain wall. Saving Throw: Will disbelief (if interacted with). Spell Resistance: no.

**In addition, you can place your choice of the following five magical effects, up to one placement of each.**

  * **[[priority:magic:spells:tier0:dancing_lights|Dancing lights]] in four corridors.** You can designate a simple program that causes the lights to repeat as long as the guards and wards spell lasts. Saving Throw: none. Spell Resistance: no.

  * **A [[priority:magic:spells:tier2:magic_mouth|magic mouth]] in two places.** Saving Throw: none. Spell Resistance: no.

  * **A [[priority:magic:spells:tier3:stinking_cloud|stinking cloud]] in two places.** The vapors appear in the places you designate; they return within 10 minutes if dispersed by wind while the guards and wards spell lasts. Saving Throw: Fortitude negates; see text for stinking cloud. Spell Resistance: no.

  * **A [[priority:magic:spells:tier2:gust_of_wind|gust of wind]] in one corridor or room.** Saving Throw: Fortitude negates. Spell Resistance: yes.

  * **A [[priority:magic:spells:tier3:suggestion|suggestion]] in one place.** You select an area of up to 5 feet square, and any creature who enters or passes through the area receives the suggestion mentally. Saving Throw: Will negates. Spell Resistance: yes.

The whole warded area radiates strong magic of the abjuration school. A [[priority:magic:spells:tier3:dispel_magic|dispel magic]] cast on a specific effect, if successful, removes only that effect. A successful mage’s disjunction destroys the entire guards and wards effect.