Alarm 5e - D&D 5th Edition Spell Book

Alarm 5e spell scroll. Includes the spell's name
Alarm 5e Image

Alarm 5e Spell Effects

1st-level abjuration (ritual)


Casting Time: 1 minute

Range: 30 feet

Components: V, S, M (a tiny bell and a piece of fine silver wire)

Duration: 8 hours


You set an alarm against unwanted intrusion. Choose a door, a window, or an area within range that is no larger than a 20-foot cube. Until the spell ends, an alarm alerts you whenever a Tiny or larger creature touches or enters the warded area. When you cast the spell, you can designate creatures that won't set off the alarm. You also choose whether the alarm is mental or audible.


A mental alarm alerts you with a ping in your mind if you are within 1 mile of the warded area. This ping awakens you if you are sleeping.


An audible alarm produces the sound of a hand bell for 10 seconds within 60 feet.


All information about Alarm 5e comes from the DnD Player's Handbook.

Classes That Can Cast Alarm 5e

The following classes gain access to casting Acid Splash 5e as part of their normal class spell availability:


Alarm Usefulness

Alarm 5e is a very useful spell depending on your party's adventuring style, and chances that you'll be ambushed. Theoretically, alarm should be a top-tier spell almost no matter what adventure your group is undertaking. However, as I can personally attest to, some groups prefer combat encounters over roleplay or exploration-type encounters.


Obviously, alarm is not a combat-based spell, so that's why its effectiveness really depends on how your group plays. It should be noted that ritual-cast spells do not consume spell slots, and they do not need to be prepared first, before they may be used. This means that even if you spend your prepared spell slots on other utility spells or combat-based spells, you may still cast alarm at any time.


Given that alarm, even as a 1st-level spell does not take up a spell slot to cast, it should be a staple for probably every artificer, ranger, and wizard, regardless of how your group plays. You never know when being alerted to someone entering your warded space may provide you with a drastic advantage.



Combine Alarm 5e with the Following Spells

One of the most fun parts of playing D&D is the interaction so many spells have with one another. Since games like DnD allow for near-unlimited player creativity - especially when it comes to roleplaying-based spells like alarm 5e - you can really create some interesting combinations.


One idea you can use is to combine alarm 5e with silence 5e. Any area that you ward with alarm would then also take on a complete lack of sound. Of course, silence requires concentration, and only lasts for 10-minutes, so it would't be practical to use to ward an area while sleeping, or potentially even for taking a short rest.


However, you could cast alarm 5e on an area and silence it, as a trap. Whenever someone walks into the alarm area, they're deafened from silence, and so if your party has eyes on them, you can attack without them having any indication that the attack is coming (perhaps aside from the silence effect itself, if the target's particularly perceptive).


Alarm 5e Counters

There are many ways to deal with alarm 5e, though many of them show up beyond 4th level (such as dispel magic, which is a 3rd-level abjuration spell, attainable by some classes at 5th-level). Other options include scrolls or magic items that may disable the effect.


Short of having expensive resources or powerful dispel magic effects, the best way to deal with an alarm spell is to go around the spell effect's area of coverage. Of course, this approach may not always be effective, such as in a case where you need to pass through an alarm-warded cave, or break into an enemy's alarm-warded camp.


It is worth noting, however, that alarm 5e only alerts its caster to "creatures" who enter the warded space, not - say - arrows or damaging spells such as acid splash 5e. So, if you can find someone to attack in an area affected by alarm, getting in an ambush round for attacks may be a good way to deal with the effect, as well.

Alarm-Type Spells in Eternity TTRPG

In the Eternity TTRPG Game System (my own independently-published TTRPG), every class has its own unique spells and abilities, which all have combat application. Instead of having spells that are broken down into "combat-based" and "roleplay-" or "exploration-based," all spells can be used creatively by players in a way that fits with the spell's intent.


This means that a player casting the sage spell "Blessed Light" (which heals allies) could also cause an effect like brightened light in a dark cave, or something similar. The only restrictions on using spells or abilities in roleplay scenarios is that the creatively-determined effect can't be more powerful than the spell would otherwise be in combat, beyond what its name would imply its capabilities should be, or beyond its originally intended effect.


Below is one spell, as an example, that could be an Eternity TTRPG equivalent for the alarm 5e spell.

Silhouette of figure holding a deer mask with antlers in front of a forest backdrop.

Druid - Core Class Spell

Wolf Shape (Magic - Shapeshift): you shapeshift into a wolf. You gain +2Initiative and +3Speed, but you have -1Resilience, -1Dodge, and -1Will. You can also see in the dark and you have a heightened sense of hearing and smell. Monsters will not attack you if they only see you in “Wolf Shape” unless you attack them. You can cast Spells while in “Wolf Shape,” but you can only make physical attacks at 1Range. Leaving “Wolf Shape” is an Instant Action.

You can only benefit from one

“Shapeshift” form at a time. You can instead choose to continually maintain this Spell for

3Inspiration.

  • (Nature's Wrath) You shapeshift into a werewolf. Gain either +3Strike Bonus or +3Faith. All other effects are the same. If you leave “Wolf Shape” but then shapeshift back later in the Battle, you still get the benefits of this Critical. You can instead choose to continually maintain this Critical for 6Inspiration (and 0Wisdom).
  • (Nature's Healing) You shapeshift into a werewolf. Every turn, roll d20. If you roll 18-20, heal +1HP. This Critical allows you to heal 1HP above you normal max HP. Every time you heal with this effect, you are also Fatigued, giving -1Resilience, -1Dodge, and -1Will for 1Day Duration (can stack without limit). If you leave “Wolf Shape” but then shapeshift back later in the Battle, you still get the benefits of this Critical. You can instead choose to continually maintain this Critical for 5Inspiration (and 0Wisdom).
  • (Primal) Instant Action. When you use this Critical, you can’t use any more Wisdom this turn. 


It wouldn't be beyond the scope or intention of the "Wolf Shape" spell to say that the character's heightened senses of hearing and smell would provide an alarm effect whenever anyone unknown by the party might enter the area. Since the Wolf Shape spell effect can be maintained indefinitely, it would also be no problem for a party to go to sleep with the "wolf" in their midst, providing continual protection via their perception.


Curious to learn more? Check out the Eternity TTRPG Core Game!

Druid - Core Class Spell

Wolf Shape (Magic - Shapeshift): you shapeshift into a wolf. You gain +2Initiative and +3Speed, but you have -1Resilience, -1Dodge, and -1Will. You can also see in the dark and you have a heightened sense of hearing and smell. Monsters will not attack you if they only see you in “Wolf Shape” unless you attack them. You can cast Spells while in “Wolf Shape,” but you can only make physical attacks at 1Range. Leaving “Wolf Shape” is an Instant Action.

You can only benefit from one “Shapeshift” form at a time. You can instead choose to continually maintain this Spell for

3Inspiration.

  • (Nature's Wrath) You shapeshift into a werewolf. Gain either +3Strike Bonus or +3Faith. All other effects are the same. If you leave “Wolf Shape” but then shapeshift back later in the Battle, you still get the benefits of this Critical. You can instead choose to continually maintain this Critical for 6Inspiration (and 0Wisdom).
  • (Nature's Healing) You shapeshift into a werewolf. Every turn, roll d20. If you roll 18-20, heal +1HP. This Critical allows you to heal 1HP above you normal max HP. Every time you heal with this effect, you are also Fatigued, giving -1Resilience, -1Dodge, and -1Will for 1Day Duration (can stack without limit). If you leave “Wolf Shape” but then shapeshift back later in the Battle, you still get the benefits of this Critical. You can instead choose to continually maintain this Critical for 5Inspiration (and 0Wisdom).
  • (Primal) Instant Action. When you use this Critical, you can’t use any more Wisdom this turn. 


It wouldn't be beyond the scope or intention of the "Wolf Shape" spell to say that the character's heightened senses of hearing and smell would provide an alarm effect whenever anyone unknown by the party might enter the area. Since the Wolf Shape spell effect can be maintained indefinitely, it would also be no problem for a party to go to sleep with the "wolf" in their midst, providing continual protection via their perception.


Curious to learn more? Check out the Eternity TTRPG Core Game!

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Jacob Tegtman Eternity TTRPG Creator

Author - Jacob Tegtman

Dear reader, I hope you enjoyed this article. Tabletop gaming has been a passion of mine since I was 6 years old. I've played just about every game from Dungeons and Dragons to video games like Final Fantasy. These games have inspired me, made me laugh, made me cry, and brought me endless hours of enjoyment.


I started Eternity TTRPG - and the indie tabletop game that goes along with it (Eternity Shop) - to share my love of gaming with others. I believe that in our technology-driven age, tabletop games help bring a sense of magic and community back into our world.


If you love the site, please share it with others! I have lots of gaming-related material for you to peruse and use in your own gaming sessions. If you have any questions about the site or want to contribute, just send me a message using the "Contact" page, which you can find in the site's footer.

November 2, 2026
Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLpxQkh_SVI Transcription DM Pet Peeves === [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Eternity TT RPG YouTube channel, where I go over different things in the tabletop role playing universe from the game my husband and I created to D&D to different tabletops in between. So this go around, I'm gonna talk about something that I think happens in almost every tabletop role playing game. Um, of course, D&D is the biggest in the tabletop role playing genre, so they're gonna be mentioned a bit, right? Um, with any tabletop role playing game, you always have a game master, dungeon master, GM, DM, whichever, you know, you wanna call it and use it, right? And the dungeon master takes so much time creating this beautiful story. This beautiful story with all these encounters, all these puzzles, the strategy, the bosses, and all these backstories, all these NPCs. It's just... It's like you're writing a book without writing a book, right? [00:01:00] So what can get kind of frustrating when you're a DM is that your party starts making decisions that you never expect, y- and you have to think on the fly. So here's some things that your parties do that you just, you kind of look at them and you go like, "Please don't make that decision," or, "Can we get through this?" Right? So one of the things that comes up immediately in my mind is that you spend 20 minutes, 30 minutes, a hour going over, is this an ordinary door or is this a trap? And you're, you're just sitting there like, "Just turn the doorknob. Please turn the doorknob." But you can't say that because, you know, you're trying to create this cool environment for [00:02:00] your players, right? So if you are a player, keep in mind your dungeon masters are not always doing something devious. They're just, you know, they just needed to put a door there 'cause it's going into a building. Please just grab the doorknob. Go in. Okay? Um, other thing that we end up seeing is that every NPC can get treated like a final boss, right? So one thing that's really fun with being a dungeon master is that you do a lot of foreshadowing, right? So this random person that you met in session one could end up coming back in, like, session 10, session 20, and end up being your final boss of the whole campaign. You don't know. So if you don't know as a player, of course, you're gonna be like, "Well, we'll see you again, I bet." Um, so there's a lot of suspicion around every person you encounter when they could just be a normal shopkeep, [00:03:00] right? So the thing about having a high suspicion is that your players, of course, could be really smart, and that's a really good survival strategy. But it's also just another, like, "Hey, guys, come on, it's literally just a shopkeeper that wants to give you this. Like, don't l- don't look too far into it. Please just let me keep going." Eternity TTRPG has released a card game battler which emulates combat from the tabletop role-playing genre. Sparks of Eternity: Emanation is fast-paced, easy to learn, and features six classes from your favorite TTRPGs. Each class deck comes with its own set of unique abilities, which everyone plays at the same time, so there's never any downtime at your table. Each turn, everyone's characters levels up, giving players access to even more options. If you're interested in taking a look, we have our sales page live now, packed with details. Um Other thing I'm gonna wrap back around for a [00:04:00] minute to, you know, is the door cursed or is it a normal door? When you encounter things like that, or even when you encounter an actual fight, the your players can spend, like, an hour planning how to attack this thing, planning how to attack this, like, goblin foe or whatever, and then it lasts barely two minutes because they spend all that time planning, and then they get to actually, like, encountering and you're just like, "Oh yeah, he's here to lead you here. He's helpful." Like, ugh, it shouldn't take you, as a player, hours to come up with a way to get through something, right? When it is just going to end up being two minutes of the game. Right? So one thing that I tend to talk about a lot, um, in my personal life is how we as a [00:05:00] society, like, we have gone to shorter entertainment. Like, movies are shorter, books are shorter, music is shorter. Like, I remember four or five minute songs, and now we're down to, like, two and a half minutes, right? So that's where I think, like, role playing games are headed a little bit, okay? 'Cause you can spend an hour planning it, your DM can create this masterful campaign, but sometimes we just wanna skip the boring parts. Is that so hard to ask? So moving on, now that I'm off my little soapbox. Um, another thing that we tend to do as players, and I am definitely guilty of this one, is we adopt creatures that the dungeon master isn't expecting, right? You just see this random thing in the woods and decide, "Oh, it's mine," and now the DM has to, like, weave it into the story because you decided to have it, right? So now you just, you just gotta deal with it and roll with [00:06:00] it, and dungeon masters, I'm actually supportive of, of this one, so think on your feet for it. Um, last thing that I wanna cover is that when you're dungeon master, you are thinking of, like, everything from A, B, to Z, right? Going over all the possible outcomes and you think you have them all. You think you have every idea that your players can come up with. And then you don't. Um, perfect example of this, my husband and I were doing a session of, uh, the game that he created, right? And he was DM'ing for me, and this, like, NPC went and kidnapped another NPC using her Nether Night magic, and I was trying to think, "Well, how can I track them down? What can I do?" Because we're in a paved city, obviously no tracks, like, what's gonna work? And one of the abilities that I had, [00:07:00] I inquired if it could detect any magical essence, because I knew that this NPC Nether Night was using magic to disguise themselves and get away faster. And my husband looked at me, and he was like, "That might be the smartest thing you've ever done." And I'm just like, "Okay, cool. I'm glad I figured something out." Um, but that's just a perfect example of how, um, people and your players can figure out something that, like, just works differently, right? Um, so with all of that being said, you know, DMs don't take it to heart, players don't take it to heart, but, you know, somehow we gotta keep meeting in the middle, and that's what makes a good, uh, gaming group. So let me know, as a DM, what's your pet peeve? What's the thing that has just bugged you to no end? Players, what do you think a DM should change, right? And then just [00:08:00] drop any, you know, stories, questions, anything in the comments. Like, comment, subscribe. Let us know how we're doing, and we'll catch y'all next time.
October 30, 2026
Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TicIZUlQV08 Transcription IMG_7957 === [00:00:00] Welcome back to Eternity TTRPG YouTube channel, where I go over different happenings in the tabletop role-playing universe, from D&D to the game my husband and I are creating. Um, as we all know, it is going on Halloween weekend, which is usually when we all get together with our tabletop role-playing groups and try to do a one-shot adventure. So for all of the last-minute DMs trying to throw something together for their friends, I've got a couple of ideas for you that I am just gonna rapid fire, okay? So first one, you have a haunted house that does not want you to leave. So your party is invited to investigate an abandoned mansion manor where a family mysteriously disappeared. Um, the twist in this is that the house itself changes its layout depending on the party's actions. So the rooms move, doors disappear, and the house seems to, [00:01:00] like, know the party's secrets somehow, right? Um, different encounter ideas in here is gonna be, like, animated f- um, furniture, possessed portraits, um, secret locations, and the, like, finale can be the house itself is a monster, so you have to, you know, figure out how the monster stays alive and how you can get out. Um, second one, we have the village that celebrates Halloween every night. So your, uh, tabletop role-playing party arrives at a village where everyone is celebrating a strange festival. However, nobody remembers the previous night, and the festival repeats it every single night. So you get Halloween every night. So you have different, like, strange villagers going on. You can start incorporating other, um, you know, Halloween things like scarecrows and werewolves and, [00:02:00] um, jack-o-lan-lanterns. Um, so then also finale with this one, your party discovers that the village is trapped in a curse, and you have to break the ritual before midnight of any given night that you're there. Cool. Um, third one, something is hunting in the woods. This is where we get our werewolves, our spiders, you know, all of our creepies. So travelers have gone missing near a forest, and the party's hired to investigate. So something can be following your party into there, but they never get a clear look at what is following them. So you start dealing with, like, false tracks and abandoned campsites, strange noises, and different things like that. You can even throw in environmental hazards in there, like a river, a bog, um, quicksand, that corn-- sort of stuff. Um, finale of this, a terrifying creature corners the party, and you have to choose how [00:03:00] to get past it. Um, moving on, the Last Night at the Graveyard. So local graveyard keeper hires the party to protect the cemetery during a night when the dead are supposed to rise. Um, twist with this, the undead aren't attacking randomly. They're all trying to, like, reach a certain spot, so you're trying to figure out how do you get to that spot, right? Um, you can have your skeletons, restless spirits, zombies, different kind of puzzles around the crypts and around the grave sites. Um, finale with this, the party uncovers the secret about the person buried there and why the dead are so desperate to get to them. Final one that I'm gonna try and finish this rapid fire off with is a Carnival of Curses. So a mysterious traveling carnival arrives outside of the town that you're at, and the visitors enter smiling, but nobody leaves quite the same. So the twist with this is, like, every [00:04:00] attraction is a magical challenge, and the carnival owner is collecting something from every visitor, so it could be, like, collecting their soul, their spirit, um, or you could go a bit more morbid with it and collecting, like, different parts maybe. Um, so encounter ideas with this is gonna be, like, cursed mirror maze, a rigged fortune teller, enchanted games, creepy performers like Cirque du Soleil style. Um, finale with this, the party has to defeat the carnival owner or escape the carnival itself. So that was super quick. There was five ideas for you to try and make a one-shot, hopefully before your, uh, one-shot this weekend. If not, you can always revisit this and do it anytime. I mean, why not have a fun one-shot to, like, break up what you're doing with your D&D group? So as always, like, comment, subscribe, drop different ideas down below, and we will catch y'all next time. See ya.
Woman in blue shirt speaking in a room with shelves of books, figurines, and a plush toy behind her.
By Jacob Tegtman • October 27, 2026
Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTjh_PsRn3o Transcription Welcome back to Eternity TTRPG YouTube channel, where we talk about the world of Eternity as well as other tabletop role-playing games, D&D, and all the stuff in the genre that we can find. So this go around, ~I know it's been a little while since we posted, but ~I wanted to go ahead and just do something that I think everyone can get behind, which is talking about monsters that you find in tabletop role-playing games. ~Um, ~you're obviously gonna have your classic monsters that you see in D&D, and then we can just branch out from there, right? So reason this is coming up is that with the Sparks of Eternity Emanation, ~um, ~which is going really well, it's where you have your different classes, ~um, ~fighting each other to a duel to the end, right? ~And that's been great. It's been going great. ~We have a lot more classes in the works, but we were wondering, well, what could be next? And that's when you start looking at, like, armor, races, monsters, ~um, ~and, like, items and stuff, right? Because that's what makes a campaign happen is when you add all [00:01:00] of these things in. ~Um, ~so with that in mind, we started thinking monsters. ~Instead of having this PVP experience, we're talking, we're looking at more of a cooperative experience ~So now we're thinking classic monsters, and that has got to be the most classic of them are all is gonna be dragons, right? ' Cause you have anywhere from your dragon with the wings, fiery breath, always guarding something, guarding their pile of gold, or holding someone captive, or something like that. You're always gonna find that in any kind of mythology, lore, D&D campaign. Like, it's just... It's your classic thing. So how can we take this classic thing and switch it up a little bit? And this is where we started to wonder with our game design where to go, and we're still fleshing that out. ~Um, but I see great things in the works with it, right?~ Taking a classic thing and going a different direction. ~Um, ~other classic thing when you think of D&D monsters has got to be the mimic. ~Um, ~so that is, of course, [00:02:00] gonna be your shape-changing predator, right? You're going through a dungeon, you find a treasure chest, you think it's a normal chest, and turns out it's a mimic and it's trying to bite your face off. ~Total classic thing. Um, ~so how can we change this up? Is there a way to change up this D&D thing? ~Um, ~with that, my mind goes to what other inanimate objects can it become. Is it always gonna be your treasure chest, or could it be a table in the room? Or perhaps a weapon next to a, ~um, ~next to a skeleton, right? Because then you get this idea of, well, what if this, ~uh, ~sword just starts wielding on its own. ~Anyway, cool thought. But, you know, I just... ~It's fun to take things that you think are one way and just shift them completely, and I think that what... That is what makes the entire genre of tabletop role-playing so great is that we do take these different ideas, expand them, change them, and create something new. Eternity TTRPG has released a card game battler [00:03:00] which emulates combat from the tabletop role-playing genre. Sparks of Eternity Emanation is fast-paced, easy to learn, and features six classes from your favorite TTRPGs. Each class deck comes with its own set of unique abilities which everyone plays at the same time so there's never any downtime at your table. Each turn, everyone's characters levels up, giving players access to even more options. If you're interested in taking a look, we have our sales page live now, packed with details. ~Um, ~other D&D classic things has got to be the beholder. ~Um, you know, ~your floating eye with random tentacles coming off of it, right? That's what I think of when I think of a beholder. And I feel like that is used so much to depict what D&D is, and when I see that, all I think is D&D. I never go to anything else. So with those thoughts in mind, we have been trying to decide does [00:04:00] the world of Eternity, Sparks of Eternity, have a monster that just defines Eternity Or do we have, you know, an art style that defines it or, you know, ~just, ~just something that makes it different. And, you know, as always, I'm behind the scenes 'cause I get to be with the game maker and see all of his, ~uh, ~gears rotating, right? ~So I see things coming. I'm very excited to share those eventually. I do see that coming down the line. Um, ~but in the meantime, drop any ideas for monsters that you have below that you want to see, that you have seen, any ideas, just something. You know, use it as a giant brainstorming session. ~Um, ~as always, like, comment, subscribe. Let us know how we're doing. Give me any ideas you wanna see for upcoming news and we'll catch y'all next time.
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