Mage’s Faithful Hound Spell
An invisible magical watchdog warns of intruders and punishes anyone who comes too close.
Mage’s Faithful Hound creates a phantom guardian, but the guardian has changed substantially between editions. In D&D 5.5e / 2024 the hound can be moved after casting, uses Truesight, and harms nearby enemies through a Dexterity saving throw. The 2014 spell is stationary and uses an attack roll. Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e use the older fixed watchdog with caster-level duration and a much smaller bite.
The spell is strongest when danger is expected but has not yet arrived: guarding a camp, watching a sanctum door, controlling a passage, protecting a ritual, or creating an alarm that can also hurt an intruder.
Quick Rules Reference
- Modern D&D: 4th-level Conjuration, 30-foot casting range, 8-hour duration.
- 2024: 300-foot caster-to-hound limit, 30-foot Truesight, Dexterity save for 4d8 Force, and the caster can move the hound 30 feet with a Magic action on later turns.
- 2014: 100-foot caster-to-hound limit; the hound is stationary, detects invisible/Ethereal creatures, ignores illusions, and bites for 4d8 piercing with a spell attack.
- Pathfinder 1e / 3.5e: 5th-level spell; stationary hound, +10 bite for 2d6+3 piercing, 1 hour/level until triggered, then 1 round/level.
- Core role: alarm, area security and punishment of nearby intruders.
Rules
Mage’s Faithful Hound by Edition
Mordenkainen’s Faithful Hound — 5.5e / 2024
| Level | 4th-level Conjuration |
|---|---|
| Class | Wizard |
| Casting Time | Action |
| Range | 30 feet |
| Components | V, S, M (a silver whistle) |
| Duration | 8 hours |
You conjure a phantom watchdog in an unoccupied space you can see within range. It remains until the duration ends or until you and the hound are more than 300 feet apart.
No one but you can see it; it is intangible and invulnerable. A Small or larger creature that comes within 30 feet without speaking the password causes the hound to bark loudly. The hound has Truesight 30 feet.
At the start of each of your turns, the hound attempts to bite one enemy within 5 feet. That enemy makes a Dexterity saving throw; on a failure it takes 4d8 Force damage.
On later turns, you can take a Magic action to move the hound up to 30 feet.
Faithful Hound — 5e / 2014
| Level | 4th-level Conjuration |
|---|---|
| Class | Wizard |
| Casting Time | 1 action |
| Range | 30 feet |
| Components | V, S, M (a tiny silver whistle, a piece of bone, and a thread) |
| Duration | 8 hours |
You conjure an invisible phantom watchdog in an unoccupied space you can see. It is stationary and remains for the duration, until you dismiss it as an action, or until you move more than 100 feet away.
A Small or larger creature entering within 30 feet without speaking the password makes the hound bark. It sees invisible creatures and into the Ethereal Plane and ignores illusions.
At the start of each of your turns, the hound tries to bite one hostile creature within 5 feet. Its attack bonus equals your spellcasting ability modifier + proficiency bonus. On a hit it deals 4d8 piercing damage.
Mage’s Faithful Hound — Pathfinder 1e
| School | Conjuration (Creation) |
|---|---|
| Level | Sorcerer/Wizard 5 |
| Casting Time | 1 standard action |
| Components | V, S, M |
| Range | Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels) |
| Effect | Phantom watchdog |
| Duration | 1 hour/level or until discharged, then 1 round/level |
| Saving Throw | None |
| Spell Resistance | No |
The stationary hound is invisible to everyone but you. It barks when a Small or larger creature approaches within 30 feet, sees invisible and ethereal creatures, ignores figments, and reacts to shadow illusions.
An intruder within 5 feet is bitten once per round at +10 attack for 2d6+3 piercing damage. The bite counts as magical for overcoming damage reduction. The hound cannot be attacked but can be dispelled.
Once it starts barking, only the shorter 1-round-per-level duration remains. The spell also ends if you move more than 100 feet from the hound.
Material: a tiny silver whistle, a piece of bone, and a thread.
Mage’s Faithful Hound — D&D 3.5e
| School | Conjuration (Creation) |
|---|---|
| Level | Sorcerer/Wizard 5 |
| Casting Time | 1 standard action |
| Components | V, S, M |
| Range | Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels) |
| Effect | Phantom watchdog |
| Duration | 1 hour/caster level or until discharged, then 1 round/caster level |
| Saving Throw | None |
| Spell Resistance | No |
The hound stays where it is conjured. It barks when a Small or larger creature approaches within 30 feet, sees invisible and ethereal creatures, ignores figments, and reacts to shadow illusions.
Within 5 feet it bites once per round at +10 attack for 2d6+3 piercing damage, with the benefits of invisibility. Its bite counts as a magic weapon for damage reduction. The hound cannot be attacked but can be dispelled.
The spell ends if you move more than 100 feet away. Once barking begins, the remaining duration becomes 1 round per caster level.
Material: a tiny silver whistle, a piece of bone, and a thread.
What Changed?
- 2024 makes the hound mobile: on later turns the caster can use a Magic action to move it up to 30 feet. Earlier versions are stationary.
- 2024 extends the tether from 100 feet to 300 feet and replaces the older invisibility/Ethereal/illusion wording with Truesight 30 feet.
- 2024 changes the bite from an attack roll to a Dexterity save and changes the damage to 4d8 Force.
- 2014 uses a spell attack for 4d8 piercing damage and keeps the 8-hour fixed duration.
- Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e are 5th-level spells with caster-level duration, a +10 bite for 2d6+3 piercing, and a short triggered duration after barking begins.
Legacy 3.0e Mage’s Faithful Hound
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Sorcerer/Wizard 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect: Phantom watchdog
Duration: 1 hour/caster level or until discharged, then 1 round/caster level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
The stationary invisible hound guards its chosen area, barks at approaching Small or larger creatures, detects invisible and ethereal creatures, and bites close intruders at +10 for 2d6+3 piercing damage. It can be dispelled but not attacked, and it ends if the caster goes more than 100 feet away.
Why This Spell Is Dangerous in the World
Mage’s Faithful Hound turns a private threshold into an active magical defence. A lock can be picked and a mortal guard can be distracted, but the phantom hound does not sleep, accept bribes, or lose nerve when an unseen intruder approaches.
The spell matters in courts, towers, guild vaults, shrines, plague houses, embassies, laboratories, prison rooms, and war camps. It creates a temporary line of consequence: crossing the guarded area can produce a loud alarm and, at close range, a damaging magical bite.
The exact security envelope depends on edition. In D&D 5.5e / 2024 the caster can remain up to 300 feet from the hound and can reposition it after casting. In D&D 5e / 2014, Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e the hound is stationary and the spell ends when the caster goes more than 100 feet away.
Rules Clarifications and Edge Cases
- Does the hound move? In 2024, yes: on later turns the caster can take a Magic action to move it up to 30 feet. The 2014, Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e hounds are stationary.
- Can enemies see the hound? No. The hound is visible only to its caster under the spell’s normal rules.
- Can the hound be killed? Damage does not remove it. The 2024 hound is invulnerable and intangible; 2014 says it cannot be harmed; PF1e/3.5e say it cannot be attacked but can be dispelled. Applicable dispelling rules can still end an ongoing spell.
- Does it detect invisible creatures? Yes. The 2024 hound uses Truesight; 2014 and the legacy editions explicitly perceive invisible creatures.
- What about ethereal creatures and illusions? Use the edition’s perception wording. 2024 relies on Truesight. 2014 explicitly sees into the Ethereal Plane and ignores illusions. PF1e/3.5e see ethereal creatures, ignore figments, and react to shadow illusions.
- Can allies pass safely? In 2024 and 2014, a creature can avoid the alarm by speaking the password chosen when the spell is cast. PF1e/3.5e have no password exemption in the core spell.
- Can Tiny creatures bypass it? The alarm trigger is written for Small or larger creatures.
- Does Silence end the spell? No. Silence can stop creatures hearing the barking, but it does not by itself dismiss the hound or remove its bite.
- Does the hound block a doorway? No. It is a magical guardian rather than a physical creature occupying and blocking the passage.
- Where is it best placed? Doors, stair mouths, camp edges, ritual spaces, vault approaches and other routes an intruder is likely to cross.
Good Combinations
- Mage’s Private Sanctum: Keeps the protected chamber private while the hound guards the approach.
- Alarm: Creates layered warning, with one alarm at the boundary and the hound closer to the protected point.
- Arcane Lock: Forces intruders to spend more time near a guarded door.
- Glyph of Warding: Punishes intruders who push deeper after the hound has revealed them.
- Nondetection: Helps conceal the guarded creature, object, or chamber from divination while the hound handles physical, invisible, and ethereal intrusion.
Adventure Hooks
The Dog Behind the Wall
A noble’s sealed room barks every night, though no living dog has been kept there for years. Servants believe the tower is haunted, but the truth is a renewed ward cast by someone remaining within the spell’s tether—300 feet in 2024, or 100 feet in the older versions.
The Invisible Intruder
A wizard’s hound begins barking during a treaty feast. No one can see the intruder, and every guest claims innocence. The creature is invisible, ethereal, or moving through partly real shadow magic. If the room is mishandled, the accusation could start a war.
The Whistle of Bone and Thread
A murdered mage is found with a silver whistle clenched in one hand and a thread tied around a piece of bone. The hound he conjured has not yet ended. It still guards the place where the killer must return.
Historical and Mythic Context
Mage’s Faithful Hound belongs to an old magical idea: the watched threshold. Doors, gates, crossroads, tomb-mouths, camp edges, and chamber entrances are not neutral places. They are points of passage, and passage invites danger. The spell gives that danger a voice.
The alternative name Hecate’s Faithful Hound draws the spell toward the Greek goddess Hecate, whose power gathers around magic, night, ghosts, doorways, and crossroads. Ancient boundary markers called Hecataea stood at crossroads and doorways, where they could serve as protection against evil spirits. Britannica: Hecate
This matters because the spell is not simply “a magical dog.” It is a boundary spell. The hound does not act as an independent animal that hunts, tracks, or fetches: older versions wait at a fixed threshold, while the 2024 hound moves only when its caster deliberately repositions it. The Hecate connection remains useful because the magic defines and punishes the wrong crossing.
Dogs sit naturally inside this image. In Greek and later classical imagination, they are linked with night, death, warning, and unseen presences. Hecate herself is strongly associated with dogs, ghosts, witchcraft, and nocturnal rites. Theoi: Hekate
At the gaming table, this mythic background helps define the spell’s tone. A Mage’s Faithful Hound placed beside a wizard’s bed is practical. Hecate’s Faithful Hound placed at a crossroads shrine, plague-house door, tomb stair, witch’s chamber, or forbidden sanctuary feels older and more sacred. The same rules become threshold magic: an unseen watcher that barks when the living, the dead, the invisible, or the half-real cross into a place where they have no right to be.
The material component also changed with the spell. The 2024 version requires only a silver whistle. The 2014, Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e versions use a tiny silver whistle, a piece of bone, and a thread—older imagery that reinforces the idea of binding a watchdog to a guarded place.
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