AD&D Vanish Spell: The Ultimate Exit Spell?
Phase Door gets all the love. Teleport gets all the attention. But Vanish?
That one slips right past people. Which is fitting.
Vanish is a 7th level spell from the Player’s Handbook. It lets a magic-user instantly remove themselves, another creature, or even part of a wall from the Prime Material Plane... and shove it into the ethereal. Not teleport. Not illusion. It is gone. Still exists, just not here anymore.
You can use it on an object, a person, or even a chunk of stone. No blood, no sound, no light show. One moment it is there... the next it is somewhere else, and nobody knows where that is unless they know planar tricks.
That is power.
Used well, Vanish is the perfect escape spell. The party corners a villain... and boom... gone. The hallway is sealed behind stone again. No portal left open. No glowing gate. Just smooth wall and silence.
But it can also be a setup for puzzles. A missing vault door. A sealed dungeon room with no exit. A treasure that was hidden ethereally and now no one knows where it went.
You can even tie it into long-term story threads. An old wizard left behind clues to a vault that does not exist anymore. Except it does. It is just not on this plane.
Most players will not even think of using this spell. Which is a mistake. Because once you know what it does... you start to see all the places it fits.
So thank you, DM Pyro, for the reminder. This spell belongs on the list of every high-level wizard who wants to survive... and disappear.
