Forbiddance Puns

So I came across an interesting thought of spells mixing together: Banishment being cast on a creature in a place that is under the effects of the Forbiddance spell.

Banishment says that “If the target is native to the plane of existence you're on, you banish the target to a harmless demiplane.”

After doing a some lore diving, it turns out that demiplanes are located on the Ethereal Plane. Which brings me to my next point

Forbiddance states that it “…proofs the area against planar Travel, and therefore prevents Creatures from accessing the area by way of the Astral Plane, Ethereal Plane, Feywild, Shadowfell, or the Plane Shift spell.”

With all of that, would a creature be zapped into oblivion until Forbiddance is dispelled even beyond Banishment’s duration, assuming they’re native to the original plane?

Hey all. So, my players are high enough level to have access to Teleport. I want to set up an encounter where it isn’t an option to teleport out if things get hairy. My plan is to have the room where the big battle will occur by enchanted with a Forbiddance spell. My question is, once they take damage from the spell they will know something is up- what would allow them to determine it is Forbiddance? Is it as simple as a Knowledge: Arcana check? Spellcraft? I kind of want them discovering the situation once they try to Teleport, but I want to be fair, too.

I don’t understand how Strahd would be able to enter the church while he hasn’t been invited by the priest.

The statblock of Strahd and the development block (saying he will enter and kill the priest) are contradicting each other.

What am I missing?

I’m seeing all the information that student loan forbearance has been extended through January 2022, however when I check my Ed Financial account my payment due date is still October 2021. I have contacted them to clarify but have not received anything back yet

So, technically Strahd is the land, so all of Barovia is his and he can enter any place he wants? But if so, why hasn't he just taken Ireena yet? Am I mixing something up/skipped something? I'm prepping to run CoS and want to get the feature right.

As title says, the cleric in my campaign has been hoarding rubies for a few levels because he's been planning to use them to cast Forbiddance to mess with Strahd. He's got the group on it. They have have found the location of Strahd's parents crypt and are planning (once they find and destroy the heart) to desecrate it in order to lure him there while the cleric casts Forbiddance. They've planned for this so long that it became their main strategy to deal with Strahd. I want to make sure it feels very rewarding but, at the same time, for it to feel consequential. For example, the bard's brother is in the castle and has been turned by Strahd. I'm planning to have Vampyr spawn after Strahd's defeat and, if the party deals with him too, for his defeat to mean the end of the Curse, hence the bard's brother gets restored (probably with another side quest needed. Maybe bring him to the Krezk pool or something). HOWEVER, if the brother is in Forbiddance's range and they forget to think about it, he might die.

Basically, I want them to feel like their plan was sound and rewarded for executing it, but I also want to prevent it from trivializing the fight with Strahd and for them to think really hard about how to use it.

Ideas? Things I'm not considering?

Joining first war ever. Anyone know if the Astral Forbiddance Spell is worth the 1000 individual kills?

Edit: Thanks for the reply, very helpful. You get it from "The War Between Shadows Part III - Shadowfall I".

Ok so without getting into another discussion about the casting of Forbiddance, AoE, etc., I have a question about the effect. Specifically the effect on teleportation and similar effects:

You enter an area covered by Forbiddance, cast by an evil cleric. Combat ensues. You cast blink... do you blink out, but not blink back (or blink back to the closest area not covered)? The spell specifically states several times you cannot enter the area, but not that you can’t exit.

Similarly, what about spells that conjure bits of another plane (shadowfell, feywild, etc.)? There’s a lot of wording that implies you can get out but can’t get back in.

I noticed that forbiddance has a duration of 1 day, but other spells with the same duration are formatted as 24 hours.

See for example Guards and Wards with a duration of 24 hours: https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/guards-and-wards
And just for another one, Hallucinatory Terrain: https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/hallucinatory-terrain
And now Forbiddance has a duration of 1 day: https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/forbiddance

Weird. (This is not just dndbeyond this is also listed this way in the srd/ogl)

DM: after your several day journey into the jungle, you come across the entrance to the lost city of the undead. You can hear the muffled screaming of tortured souls up ahead.

Cleric: I use Detect Good and Evil.

DM: you sense a hell of a ton of undead.

Cleric: is the ground hallowed or desecrated?

DM: uh, yeah it’s desecrated.

Cleric: I will use Detect Magic to discover the spell, am I familiar with it?

DM: You can tel it’s a Hallow spell.

Cleric: a hallow spell you say?

Dm: yes, but you get a sense that it is far too powerful to dispel.

Cleric: oh, I’m not gonna try to dispel it. Guys, I have a plan. Do you think you could watch my back for a little under half an hour?

Party: yeah sure

DM: what are you trying to do? You’re outside the dungeon gates so you have time to cast something in preparation without attracting any attention.

The cleric, smiling, takes out a vial of very expensive powered ruby he bought at the last major town.

Cleric: I’m going to cast Forbiddance.

DM: could you please post it in the chat?

The Cleric posts the spell and the DM realizes he’s made a terrible mistake.

DM: well, it can’t be that bad. You used your only 6th level spell slot for the day.

Cleric: it’s a ritual, my dude.

The DM realizes it’s too late to renege and the cleric finishes casting.

Suddenly, every single undead in that dungeon starts to get seared with radiant magic every 6 seconds, completely oblivious to the intruders outside.

The smarter creatures teleport out before being completely torn apart, in an attempt to summon reinforcements, unaware that they can’t return to the dungeon after leaving for the next 24 hours, and by that time, the adventurers are far gone.

The party then proceeds to go through the dungeon to the McGuffin, avoiding any encounters as bodies of undead litter the ground. The DM strongly regrets making all the dungeon’s inhabitants undead.

Obviously, this scenario is probably never going to happen the way this played out, but the point stands that with it’s huge area, it can completely obliterate every Fiend/Elemental/Undead/Fey that’s already inside of the area before they have a chance to react. Heck, even Celestials would be affected, they’d just die slower. There is only one creature in the official sources that is downright immune to radiant damage, and that’s the Skulk which is a CR 1/2 humanoid, which wouldn’t be affected by the spell regardless.

Flying creatures can escape it as it only effects up to 30 feet i

We're in a campaign where a couple of the PCs got turned to vampires. The forbiddance mechanic came up in a way that I haven't seen discussed much of anywhere.

>Forbiddance: A Vampire can't enter a residence without an invitation from one of the occupants. MM p295 & 297

When it comes to typical settings, like in a town or dealing with people, there's no real issue, the question is how to apply this rule in all situations, specifically what boils down to occupant type of the residence; eg entering an orc cave.

As written, the rule doesn't specify this is limited in any way by type of residence, or occupant. Examples and discussions are plentiful on other edges of forbiddance, (ie: tents, inn rooms, public spaces, caves) and how it pertains to people, but nothing on how it might apply in the case of a monster scenario (a liches tower, giants in a fort, dragons lair, orcs cave).

It's pretty counter intuitive at first, but with nothing but that sentence to go on for official guidance and avoiding vague subjective arguments about "what they really meant", or speculation on the nature of what is causing the effect and when it applies, we're stuck with a pretty literal interpretation that seems relatively fair.

We ended up concluding that "if an occupant is capable of giving an invitation, then an invitation is required".

I'd be pretty interested in other discussions, D&D lore, thoughts, theories, and other mechanics figured out.

Me again, wondering how experienced DMs make a Vampire's Forbiddance weakness work.

-When does a residence stop qualifying as one? and when does it start again? If the inhabitants of a mountain home are all long dead, that would likely qualify as it not being a residence anymore, right? If a band of adventurers were to find that home, does it classify as a 'residence' again when they entire, or only if they cook/eat/spend a night in that place?

Additionally, concerning an npc I plan to make. Have you ever had a moment in a campaign where someone died and became a ghost, and their body was turned into a zombie, resulting in sort of having 2 of the same npc/character?

So I’m thinking about having the vampires able to “enter” a building. But if they do without an invitation they suffer the effects of the forbiddance 6th lvl abjuration spell. Which would be 5d10 Radiant damage a turn while they are in the building.

I want to do this for a couple reasons: 1 - it stops the logical issue of pushing vampires into open doors/windows or something else that “forces movement”

2- I am running vampire spawn that are deprived of blood as being in a Blood rage. No change to status just reckless as all heck. This allows buildings to become crazy interesting as these vampire spawn come in recklessly and burn out in a 2 or 3 rounds.

3- It sets more rules around the effect that help it make more physical sense

4- Creates a new possible strategy of forcing a vampire into a building somehow. EA domination spell would be very strong.

5- A smart vampire could taunt someone close to a door or window (or wall with enough strength)and grab them and pull them out quickly enough to not take damage. Forbiddance is at the beginning of your turn so likewise. A vampire could jump in through a window and do one action and then get out. Again this offers interesting strategies, tricking vamps into taking a chance or the sun sword or something then trapping them for instance.

Obviously a non blood rage vampire would never go inside without an invitation or a really good reason. 5d10 radiant is a crazy amount of damage. Also, remember strahd owns everything he just pretends to follow this rule. If he is forced into a building somehow he wouldn’t take the damage, I’d argue nor would his brides. Through marriage they also are “owners” of Barovia.

Thoughts? Pros/cons. Ideas. Problems. I’m trying to run a game that’s VERY by the boom for the baddies. They are strong and smart as hell but they follow the rules. I’m much more lenient on the PCs they are the hero’s.

So I’m running CoS for my group, and i needed some clarification. Due to forbiddance, can Strahd Charm a PC/NPC if they are within a residence, and then force them to allow entry? At the moment ruled it as a no, in order to give the players a decent chance of keeping Strahd away from Ireena. Any advice to confirm or to the contrary would be really appreciated.

"In the name of Mungu, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

O Messenger ! why forbiddest thou what Mungu has made lawful to thee, seeking the good pleasure of thy wives? Verily, Mungu is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.

Mungu has ordained for you the absolution of your oaths. Mungu is your Protector, and He is the All-knowing, the All-wise.

And when the Messenger confided to one of his wives a certain matter; and then, when she told of it, and Mungu disclosed that to him, he made known part of it, and turned aside from part; then, when he told her of it, she said, 'Who told thee this?' He said, 'I was told of it by the All-knowing, the All-aware.'

If you two repent to Mungu, yet your hearts certainly inclined; but if you support one another against him, Mungu is his Protector, and the Prophets, and the righteous among the believers; and, after that, the angels are his supporters.

It is possible that, if he divorces you, his Lord will give him in exchange wives better than you, women who have surrendered, believing, obedient, penitent, devout, given to fasting, widows and virgins too.

Mungu the Almighty has spoken the truth."

I was thinking about this for a while since one interaction in one of my campaigns.

Are vampires unable to enter the castle of other vampire without proper invitation? Are they unable to enter the crypt with the coffin or the resting place of the vampire?

Many people say that Strahd for example can enter any residence in Barovia because he is the owner of the land. Would that mean that another vampire would be unable to even enter Barovia without an invitation? If there is a vampire lord of the land, would another vampire be unable to even walk into the land or would he just be unable to enter any ocupied residence there?

And what about undead, if you are a ghost and haunting a house, could that prevent a vampire from taking it over? Do you have to be the owner of that house in life for it to work or would any house haunted by a ghost be enough? And what about crypts? Are the last resting place of a person under the residence clause if they are haunting it?

Don't know if there is an answer to all those questions or if as a DM I can just rule as deem neccesary, but a little feedback would be cool.

Thanks in advance!

An 11th level cleric player of mine is fanatically focused on the idea of casting the spell “Forbiddance” in the tomb to completely wipe out all the undead on a particular level (pretty sure he wants to use it on the cradle, which would completely ruin the final fights). I was surprised to see that Forbiddance isn’t in the list of spells that the tomb modifies, so in our game yesterday I home ruled that it wasn’t going to work in the tomb and told him as much so he’d stop derailing the party trying to find rubies to cast it.

Does anyone else have experience with this? I get that level 11 is kinda high for the tomb (the rest of the party is level 9... this particular cleric got reeeaaallllyy lucky with a deck of many things and pulled the sun card) but since the book includes rules about very high level spells and how they work differently in the tomb, I was very surprised to see this one not on the list since it seems like it completely breaks the tomb.

So more or less, both of these spells have some effect that states this:

> Nothing can teleport into or out of the warded area. / Planar travel is blocked within the warded area.

And:

> For the duration, creatures can't teleport into the area or use portals, such as those created by the gate spell, to enter the area. The spell proofs the area against planar travel, and therefore prevents creatures from accessing the area by way of the Astral Plane, Ethereal Plane, Feywild, Shadowfell, or the plane shift spell.

So say you wanted to Teleport from one side of the room to the other, is that possible? You just can't teleport into the room from somewhere else, or out of that room into another one?

Would the Blue Water Inn be considered a residence for the purposes of vampire forbiddance? I keep mulling it over in my head and I can't seem to land on a definitive answer one way or the other. Here are some of my thoughts, I'd like to see yours as well.

I think RAW, yes, it is a residence. Jeremy Crawford has said that rules use common language, and common definitions. Merriam-Webster defines a residence as; the place where one actually lives as distinguished from one's domicile, or a building used as a home. At face value, the Blue Water Inn counts as these things.

Now, when it comes to the story, the lore, and flavor the rule is meant to represent, I think the Blue Water Inn kind of fails to be considered a residence. I think this mostly because it is also an open place of business, with regular patrons coming in and out. If anyone is familiar with the modern fantasy book series the Dresden Files, they have detailed rules for how magic like this works. A supernatural barrier, or threshold, forms around a 'home' as it is lived in. This is what keeps supernatural beings out. The love and closeness of family, the safe feelings of being home, the memories experienced there, all that creates the threshold. Bachelors would have a weaker threshold than a large family, and so would a public building, which would likely have none. The Blue Water Inn acts as both a family home and a public gathering place, making me think there would only be a weak threshold, if any.

Just some stuff to consider to make a party's interaction with vampires a little more interesting, or uncertain. Let me know what you think.

I was thinking about how inevitables and namely Maruts are meant to prevent mortals from living forever and wondered how they'd deal with a clone or phylactery on a demiplane that's protected by the forbiddance spell, as far as I can tell nobody would be able to get in to destroy your backup and when you die you can just leave since it only prevents plane shifting to a place, not from it.

Looking at the 5e stats for the Marut and saw it can plane shift at will but that's exactly what forbiddance prevents

Also wondering if they had some way to kill someone such that they couldn't come back?

The PHB entry for Forbiddance says a being can use the password to prevent the damage from the spell, but does the password allow a being to planar travel/teleport/portal into and out of the area of the spell?

I guess I should also ask if the caster is blocked from using the travel effects from his own Forbiddance spell?

Am I Reading this wrong or is this a super powerful spell that could literally beat every monster in an area super easy? Does anyone have experience with this being used in their games?

5d10 damage per turn is great for a spell that is more about trapping people in than doing damage.

I understand that it’s only for specific types of monsters and costs a lot of powdered ruby which can be hard to get but still seems fun.

I mean it doesn’t say the ruby is consumed so once you get it, you can spam multiple times.

Edit. I messed up the calculations. 40,000 square feet is still massive but not as far as I had thought.

Come winter the woods will forget my boots,

Expunge my passage, deny me familiar,

As if I never traveled there, climbed there

The oaks, as low birches lurch among

The poisons – ivy and sumac.

And how is it that the sun finds blockage

There, but not the muting snow, unbroken

Over the bones of child summer,

Not the muting snow gathering stones

Of light, shattered there and shadowless?

It is not my place, the woods come winter.

It is not lush and ticked. The common trails

Are gone then, and only hare paths remain,

Run as panic not bliss, among the creaked

Groans, and white forbiddance.

If the vampire is deafened and doesn't hear the invitation from a resident, may it enter the home in question?

If the vampire misunderstands someone and thinks they're invited, can they enter a given residence?

Does the vampire need to know they've been invited? Is it on them, or is there a sort of cosmic police in play?

Historically, I think that homes were often considered sacred or blessed places in terms of mythology, which is why a vampire needs an invitation to enter. You know, the whole idea that true evil can only enter your home if you invite it in. I think a god of home and hearth was involved somewhere as well.

Translating this to a D&D setting, though, it seems like the enforcement of 'Forbiddance' seems to be very specific. How do you all manage it in your campaigns?

So I’m running CoS for my group, and i needed some clarification. Due to forbiddance, can Strahd Charm a PC/NPC if they are within a residence, and then force them to allow entry? At the moment ruled it as a no, in order to give the players a decent chance of keeping Strahd away from Ireena. Any advice to confirm or to the contrary would be really appreciated.