Gate

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Conjuration (Creation or Calling)
Level Cleric 9, Sorcerer/Wizard 9 Glory 9
Components V, S, XP; see text
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect See text
Duration Instantaneous or Concentration (up to 1 round/level); see text
Saving Throw None
Spell Resistance No

Casting a gate spell has two effects. First, it creates an interdimensional connection between your plane of existence and a plane you specify, allowing travel between those two planes in either direction.

Second, you may then call a particular individual or kind of being through the gate.

The gate itself is a circular hoop or disk from 5 to 20 feet in diameter (caster’s choice), oriented in the direction you desire when it comes into existence (typically vertical and facing you). It is a two-dimensional window looking into the plane you specified when casting the spell, and anyone or anything that moves through is shunted instantly to the other side.

A gate has a front and a back. Creatures moving through the gate from the front are transported to the other plane; creatures moving through it from the back are not.

Planar Travel As a mode of planar travel, a gate spell functions much like a plane shift spell, except that the gate opens precisely at the point you desire (a creation effect). Deities and other beings who rule a planar realm can prevent a gate from opening in their presence or personal demesnes if they so desire. Travelers need not join hands with you-anyone who chooses to step through the portal is transported. A gate cannot be opened to another point on the same plane; the spell works only for interplanar travel.

You may hold the gate open only for a brief time (no more than 1 round per caster level), and you must concentrate on doing so, or else the interplanar connection is severed.

Calling Creatures The second effect of the gate spell is to call an extraplanar creature to your aid (a calling effect). By naming a particular being or kind of being as you cast the spell, you cause the gate to open in the immediate vicinity of the desired creature and pull the subject through, willing or unwilling. Deities and unique beings are under no compulsion to come through the gate, although they may choose to do so of their own accord. This use of the spell creates a gate that remains open just long enough to transport the called creatures. This use of the spell has an XP cost (see below).

If you choose to call a kind of creature instead of a known individual you may call either a single creature (of any HD) or several creatures. You can call and control several creatures as long as their HD total does not exceed your caster level. In the case of a single creature, you can control it if its HD do not exceed twice your caster level. A single creature with more HD than twice your caster level can’t be controlled. Deities and unique beings cannot be controlled in any event. An uncontrolled being acts as it pleases, making the calling of such creatures rather dangerous. An uncontrolled being may return to its home plane at any time.

A controlled creature can be commanded to perform a service for you. Such services fall into two categories: immediate tasks and contractual service. Fighting for you in a single battle or taking any other actions that can be accomplished within 1 round per caster level counts as an immediate task; you need not make any agreement or pay any reward for the creature’s help. The creature departs at the end of the spell.

If you choose to exact a longer or more involved form of service from a called creature, you must offer some fair trade in return for that service. The service exacted must be reasonable with respect to the promised favor or reward; see the lesser planar ally spell for appropriate rewards. (Some creatures may want their payment in “livestock” rather than in coin, which could involve complications.) Immediately upon completion of the service, the being is transported to your vicinity, and you must then and there turn over the promised reward. After this is done, the creature is instantly freed to return to its own plane.

Failure to fulfill the promise to the letter results in your being subjected to service by the creature or by its liege and master, at the very least. At worst, the creature or its kin may attack you.

Note When you use a calling spell such as gate to call an air, chaotic, earth, evil, fire, good, lawful, or water creature, it becomes a spell of that type.

XP Cost 1,000 XP (only for the calling creatures function).

Gate

9th-Level Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (a diamond worth at least 5,000 gp)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Available To: Cleric, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

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Effect

You conjure a portal linking an unoccupied space you can see within range to a precise location on a different plane of existence. The portal is a circular opening 5 to 20 feet in diameter, oriented as you choose, and its destination is visible through it.

The portal is two-way, and travel is possible by passing through its front. A creature that enters the portal is instantly transported to the other plane, appearing in the nearest unoccupied space to the linked location. Deities and other planar rulers can prevent portals created by this spell from opening in their presence or within their domains.

Alternatively, when you cast the spell, you can speak the name of a specific creature. If that creature is on a different plane, the portal opens in its immediate vicinity and draws it through to the nearest unoccupied space on your side.

You gain no control over the creature. It is free to act as it chooses and may leave, attack, or assist you according to its nature and disposition. A title, pseudonym, or vague description is insufficient—you must name the creature specifically.

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Why This Spell Is Dangerous in the World

Gate destroys the safety of being elsewhere.

No realm remains beyond reach. No exile is secure. No prison is absolute. The idea that distance protects you ceases to be true the moment this spell is spoken.

Worse, it allows mortals to force proximity with powers that were never meant to be approached directly. Angels can be summoned into courts. Fiends can be dragged into sanctuaries. Patrons can be confronted. Enemies can be brought into carefully prepared ground—or into catastrophic mistakes.

And because the spell does not grant control, it creates situations that cannot be contained once they begin. It does not simply bring power closer. It brings independent will into immediate consequence.

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Best Uses

Planar Passage:
Create a stable, visible route between planes for allies, expeditions, or retreat.

Calling a Specific Being:
Force a meeting with a named creature across planes—one of the spell’s most powerful and dangerous uses.

Strategic Bypass:
Ignore walls, distance, terrain, and even planar separation.

Immediate Reinforcement or Extraction:
Reshape a battlefield or crisis instantly by altering who is present.

Mythic Confrontation:
When something refuses to come, Gate removes that refusal.

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Tactics

Use Gate deliberately.

For travel, the critical question is not whether you can open the portal, but whether you understand the destination. Precision without knowledge is one of the most dangerous combinations in high-level magic.

For calling, the question is not “Can I bring it here?” but “What happens one second after it arrives?” If the answer is uncertain, the spell is already risky.

The spell is strongest when supported by preparation: wards, positioning, allies, and purpose.

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DM Notes

Gate changes campaign scale.

Once it exists, no plane is distant in a meaningful way. Any realm can become reachable. Any being can become relevant. Any boundary can be challenged.

Run the spell honestly. Let it work. But ensure that what lies beyond it is real, reactive, and consequential. A called creature should not feel like a summoned tool. It should feel like a being that has been brought somewhere it did not choose to be.

The spell becomes memorable when its consequences are not contained.

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Good Combinations

• Magic Circle: Preparation for dangerous arrivals.
• Forbiddance: Defines who may cross even when a Gate is open.
• Plane Shift: Open the road, then escape it if needed.
• Banishment: A clean opposite—one brings near, the other sends away.
• Wish: The only spell that rivals its scale.

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Final Precision Note

The core rule that defines Gate:

It compels presence, not obedience.