| Spell | |
|---|---|
|
Arcane lock | |
| School | Abjuration |
| Descriptor | |
| Level | Sor/Wiz 2 |
| components | |
| casting time | |
| range | |
| target | |
| effect | |
| area | |
| duration | |
| saving throw | |
| spell resistance | |
An arcane lock spell cast upon a door, chest, or portal magically locks it. You can freely pass your own arcane lock without affecting it; otherwise, a door or object secured with this spell adds a magical lock to it with an Open Lock DC equal to 10 + caster level. You can freely pass your own arcane lock without affecting it. Add 10 to the normal DC to break open a door or portal affected by this spell. (A knock spell does not remove an arcane lock; it only suppresses the effect for 10 minutes.)
If arcane lock is cast on a door that already has a conventional lock, add +5 to the Open Lock DC of the existing lock or use the arcane lock Difficulty Class, whichever is higher.
Material Component[]
Gold dust worth 25 gp.
Notes[]
Arcane lock is close to the ultimate in privacy protection - sealing a door, chest or other object so that nobody but the caster can open it. Though often overlooked as a utility spell by adventurers, its permanent duration and low level mean that it may see more use outside the dungeon than in it. So what's it capable of?
First, the downside: Arcane Lock can only be opened by the original caster of the spell, which limits its utility fairly severely. No third party who wants to be able to access a locked-up location themselves is going to request this spell be cast on their behalf, and it's not very suitable for any location that more than one person needs to be able to access. In addition, Arcane Lock can be bypassed either by use of magic such as Knock or Dispel Magic, or by the brute-force approach of simply breaking the locked item open. Arcane Lock, unlike more mundane locking methods, does make this last method somewhat harder, but a stubborn and unsubtle soul could certainly manage a breach given time.
That said, there are a few instances in which Arcane Lock could be successfully applied. The first would be a fantasy equivalent of safety-deposit boxes or high-security storage lockers - the casting mage, and only the casting mage, is able to access the items at the owners' request, and has a professional bond and reputation to insure that nothing walks away without the owner's consent. Similar possibilities exist with a specially-secured vault held by a temple, guildmaster or king.
More possibilities emerge when the possibility of distilling Arcane Lock into a potion or oil form is allowed. Such an oil could be applied by a non-spellcaster to a door or object, sealing the portal to anyone else and allowing for widespread privacy. This isn't for the masses - such an oil costs 325 gp, about twice the price of even the highest-quality mundane lock, and can only ever be used once (unlike a mundane lock, which can be removed from one door and placed on another if desired). But it does allow the well-off to secure their most valued and private possessions without asking for a wizard to intervene on their behalf.
Of course, Knock remains the bane of any attempt to lock something down - able to trump Arcane Lock along with any mundane lock, just as common as Arcane Lock, and only needing to be used once to cpompromise security. However, redundant security may be able to reduce the scope of this problem. Placing several Arcane Locks on an area to be secured (on several doors that need to be opened one after another, for instance, or on several chests placed one inside the other) improves security imesurably - the caster can open them all trivially, but an intruder will need several Knock spells to open them all at once. The original Arcane Locks can be placed over a reasonably long period (casting only one spell per day, for instance), but the Knocks must be cast in quick succession. This can reduce the chance of unauthorized break-ins, though not eliminating it completely.
Like many other spells, Arcane Lock doesn't pose a complete solution to common problems all on its own. It doesn't even supplant cheaper, more mundane solutions to a the problem. But it does offer an improved way of handling an issue, in a world of high fantasy and comparatively easy access to magic.