Arcane Gate 5e: Portal Placement, Facing, and Travel

I like Arcane Gate because it turns a difficult crossing into a route the whole party can use. It is more than a personal escape: companions, supplies, and pursuers can all make the portals relevant. The important choices are where the rings stand, which way they face, and whether keeping the route open is worth your concentration.

This guide uses the 2014 spell. The revised version’s placement requirements are covered separately below.

Arcane Gate 5e — Quick Spell Reference

Where Can You Place Arcane Gate?

Choose two visible points on the ground: one within 10 feet of you and another within 500 feet of you. A 10-foot-diameter ring appears above each point, standing upright rather than lying flat. The rings hover just above the ground. If either would open in a creature’s occupied space, the 2014 casting fails and is lost.

Both placement distances are measured from the caster. Visibility is also checked when choosing the points: knowing what lies beyond a closed door does not let you place the far portal in an unseen room. A visible clearing across a ravine is a much better candidate.

Check these details before committing the slot:

Placement question	Practical consequence
Can you see both ground points?	Darkness, intervening walls, and other visual barriers can prevent placement
Is the near point within 10 feet?	You cannot put both portals far away
Is the far point within 500 feet?	The spell is a local route, not unlimited travel
Would a ring occupy a creature’s space?	The 2014 spell explicitly makes that casting fail
Is there space to approach and leave the active side?	A legal destination can still create a bad exit route

The grounded, upright arrangement does not let you casually place a horizontal portal beneath a creature or hang one in empty air. Unusual surfaces, cramped spaces, or moving platforms need a DM ruling; the spell supplies no general portal-engineering system.

How the Portals Connect and Which Side Works

Each ring has one active face. Creatures and objects that enter that face come out of the other ring’s active face, treating the two openings as adjacent. Approaching a ring from its inactive side does not teleport you. This is a connection usable from either end, not a one-way trip from the near ring to the far one. The 2014 ring itself is visible only from its active side; that does not make travelers invisible after they emerge.

On your turn, a bonus action can rotate the rings to change their facing. That changes their orientation, not their location. The spell does not give you a way to drag a ring down a corridor or move the destination after casting.

Traversing the route is movement, not a second casting. The spell does not impose a separate action, a once-per-round passenger limit, or a requirement that each traveler be your ally. Actual crowding, available movement, and passage through the opening still matter.

Can You See or Cast Spells Through Arcane Gate?

The mist inside the rings blocks vision. You cannot use the portal as a transparent window to inspect the destination. See vision and obscurement for the difference between seeing a location and merely knowing where it is.

This matters for spells requiring a target you can see: the gate does not satisfy that requirement. Physical objects can travel through, but the spell does not say every magical effect, cone, or line is an object that can be redirected through it. Resolve those interactions from the actual spell and the DM’s ruling rather than assuming every attack gains a new range origin.

Likewise, blocking vision is not the same as being a solid wall. The ring is a transport route, and an enemy that can enter its active face can follow you. Do not treat the opaque mist as guaranteed protection from pursuit or as automatic advantage on every attack.

Moving a Party, Supplies, and Pursuers

Arcane Gate is useful when several creatures or objects need the same route. A lone caster might solve a smaller problem with a cheaper teleportation option; moving the group and its equipment can justify a 6th-level slot.

Example: a courtyard overlooks a broken crossing, and the far bank is visible 300 feet away. You place the near ring 5 feet from you and the far ring on clear ground across the gap. Allies walk their supplies through while you protect concentration. Before you follow, consider who could reach the near ring next and whether the group has cleared the far opening.

You do not select a fixed list of passengers. A friendly creature needs no special permission, and a hostile creature needs no invitation. The spell also gives no automatic save for pushing someone through a ring: any shove, grapple, or forced-movement effect must first work under its own rules, and the resulting movement must actually enter the active face. It is not a guaranteed removal effect.

Concentration, Range, and Ending the Route

The gates remain for up to ten minutes while you maintain concentration. Damage may force a Constitution save; becoming incapacitated or starting another concentration spell ends the connection. You can voluntarily stop concentrating at any time without spending an action.

Moving after casting does not automatically make the portals disappear just because a ring is now farther from you than the initial placement range. The spell gives no ongoing distance condition. Their positions remain fixed, however, so leaving the area can leave a usable route behind until the spell ends.

Dismissing the gates can stop later pursuit, but coordinate with companions still approaching the exit. The text does not provide damage, severing, or an automatic-kill procedure for ending the spell while something is partway through. Treat that edge case as adjudication, not an exploit promised by the rules.

Arcane Gate: 2014 vs. 2024 Rules

The 2024 spell in the licensed Roll20 compendium asks for two Large, unoccupied spaces on the ground. The 2014 version instead specifies ground points, 10-foot-diameter rings, and an explicit failed-casting consequence for overlapping a creature.

Use the revised space requirement when playing 2024; do not combine it with a hand-picked part of the old placement rule. The revised text also no longer includes the 2014 statement that a ring is visible only from one side. Do not assume that extra visibility restriction carries over. The main transport functions remain: 500-foot range with the other opening close to you, sight-blocking mist, one open face per portal, bonus-action facing changes, and concentration up to ten minutes.

Arcane Gate FAQ

Does Arcane Gate work between planes?

No. It connects the two nearby locations you choose. It is not the separate 9th-level Gate spell and grants no power to name or summon an extraplanar creature.

Can you cast it through a closed door?

Not to a destination you cannot see. The spell requires visible ground points when you cast it.

Can enemies use the portals?

Yes. Passage is not restricted to allies. Placement, facing, and deciding when to end concentration are your practical controls.

Does a higher-level slot improve Arcane Gate?

The spell lists no higher-slot improvement. A larger slot does not increase the range, duration, or number of rings. See how upcasting works.

Rules sources: Player’s Handbook (2014), p. 214; 2014 spell reference, cross-checked against the spell’s additional transcription; the licensed 2024 text is linked above. The official legacy listing requires book access. Portal edge cases identified as adjudication are not additional spell features.

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.