Is there an issue with tagging questions about portals?

Question

I occasionally add fitting but missing tags to posts, for example if the question is about a monster and is missing the tag, I add monsters, or if it is about the action economy, but has no such tag, I might add action-economy. I typically do this when not all five slots on the question have been taken yet, and there is "white space" to add something without needing to boot something else out that the author (or other community members) added.

Since I'm curious about portals, in the sense of "connections between times, places and worlds" I sometimes browse questions about portals if there is nothing else new or interesting going on. This is actually not that easy, because there are a lot of false positives:

• Tales from the Yawning Portal is a collection of adventures for 5e, and often pops up

• Adventures that involve the eponymous Yawning Portal, such as Waterdeep: Dragon Heist also come up

• A website called "Obsidian Portal" also tends to feature in the results

These one can exclude by query language such as "-obsidian", which is a bit laborious, but feasible.

• In 4th, there is a number of teleportation spells that function by means of creating a portal to step through. Sometimes the qeustions are about the actual portal, but a lot of the time, these are just questions about teleportation that the portal aspect is not important for.

• There are of course also mundane portals, doorways, that show up

These latter cases are not so easy to exclude, because they do not share a common element.

Because of all of this, I find the portals tag especially useful, because it can help to find questions that are not primarily about teleportation, or any of these other things, but about the concept of a gateway to a different reality or place. And if I find a question that would benefit from it and has open space, or if I answer such a question, I tag it.

When I was new to the site, I used to tag a lot of questions in one day for another tag (glyph of warding, which was later decided to be replaced with spelltrap, because individual spells normally do not have their own tags) flooding the "front page" with questions related to that. I was told that was bad practice and one should not do it.

I'm not doing that here. This typically is pretty low volume, I might create one or two such tags in a week, and certainly less than one a week on average. Is this a problem?

Answer 1

There is something to be said about how you've framed the inquiry here. I'm sure the strike has something to do with the lack of engagement on your question, but the way you've framed it is doing you no favors for encouraging constructive engagement. In particular, your question is focused on a particular behavior you have been engaging in, and asks very pointedly:

You got a problem with me? (paraphrased)

This is a decidedly poor way to start a meta discussion (believe me, I've tried), and in my experience, solution focused inquiries lead to better discussions.

That said, "is Groody's behavior a problem" is not a question I am interested in answering, but the motive here is clear enough: you think portals is a useful tag and that something should be done about it.

You've made a good case for why it is a helpful tag. I had originally thought teleportation would be sufficient, but in many games, there are mechanics unique to portals that make them quite different from other forms of teleportation. So I am generally in favor of a retagging project. I've come up with this search as a decent starting place:

portal is:question -[portals] closed:0 -[tales-from-the-yawning-portal] -[published-adventures]

At time of writing this gives 120 questions that are probably about portals, that haven't been tagged yet, and are not about the Yawning Portal tavern. I am not sure of the best way to approach this as a retagging project. 120 questions is a lot of questions- five questions per day for three and half weeks is a long time to read about portals. Given the volume, I would probably prefer to see a list of candidate questions compiled first, then executed all at once, or in a couple batches spaced out by a week or more each. I think one to three large disruptions of the front page spread out over several weeks is favorable to consistent minor disruptions over several weeks. But that's just my opinion, and is obviously subject to change.

Answer 2

Working answer to review questions for tagging

It might be useful to tag some of the untagged "Yawning Portal" and "Obsidian Portal" questions too; I did not alter tags during this survey (neither for the questions that I think are a good match to add the portal tag), to keep the list of 120 questions stable for the preparation period.

From going over the long list, some general observations and suggestions:

• The spell gate is literally about creating a portal and calling a powerful creature through it. It might be an idea to tag questions about gate with spellportals, similar to gyph of warding's spelltrap
• It might be useful to tag some of the questions that lack Yawning portal tags, at least those that are about the published compilation. Likewise for Obsidian Portal.

I'm not sure what common procedure is. I will let this hang around here for a week or two for feedback (site is pretty slow right now due to the strike).

Update July 28: I had no further feedback. If there are no objections, I will move ahead and tag all the ones in good matches in one single batch and leave the others alone. Feedback on tagging all the gate ones (another batch), or tagging all the missing tales-from-the-yawning-portal ones (to differentiate those about the book from those that just deal with the inn) in another batch welcome.

Update, July 30: Exectued the good matches tag. Will do the yawning portal one, too, which seems obvious, but not tag everything gate with portal for now.

Update September 26. Tagged the good ones from the maybe list. I think this wraps this up.

Good matches to add the tag

1. How many creatures can step through a Teleportation Circle before it closes? Is about how many people can use a portal before closing, so specific about a portal's effect
2. Permanently hiding items/objects Interaction of portals and dead magic zones (Note from Thomas: this is not a question about portals. Solutions may include portals, but this is not asking about portals.)
3. Can a Bag of Holding destroy a Sphere of Annihilation? About the portal of bag of holding, and its interaction with rules about portals in Sphere of Annihilation (Note from Thomas: This question is not about portals, it is about a bag of holding. A question needs to do more than mention a bag of holding to be about portals.)
4. Can Bag of Holding + Portable Hole Turn Enemies Inside-Out? About the effect of large creatures being pulled through a portal from their insides -- probably portals would be a better match here to tag than teleportation
5. Does the interior of a portable hole rotate to adhere to the hole's orientation? Question about positioning of the portal of a portable hole, and its effects
6. How invulnerable can you make a gate door? All about how to secure an actual planar portal

Questionable, could possibly add tag.

Additional takes on if they should should not be tagged especially welcome.

1. How do I prepare a permanent magic circle for the Linked Portal ritual? Asks about setting up a permanent circle for Portal-type teleportation spells
2. What happens when a Scrying target teleports away, or moves through a portal? Asks if there is a difference between teleporting and using a portal (but already has 5 tags)
3. Order of Combat Operations (Warlock's Curse) Is about pushing someone through a magical portal, but main focus is on action economy and if you can retry that
4. When was the Hither-Thither Staff introduced in D&D? Could consider tagging as the staff is a portal magic item, like a glyph of warding is a spell trap, but the question itself is not about the portals. Already discussed with Thomas and decided to not tag to avoid needless controversy.
5. Would a constrained portable door magic item be game-breaking? Is about an item using portals (pretty cool idea actually), but gist is more about the balance effect of affording teleportation, not about the portal itself
6. What options are available to a Portable Hole owner? About when the portal of a portable hole opens. I think would be OK to tag, done.
7. How to increase the chance of a spell's success against a foe that can save vs spells most of the time Using a portal to get rid of an otherwise impervious opponent (as one of the options)
8. Permanently hiding items/objects I'm unsure -- primarily about Numenera (which I have no experience with), but mentions something that effectively works as a portal
9. Are there any other ways to travel between the layers of the Nine Hells besides the River Styx? Is about access to the hells, but portals are one of the options
10. How to introduce a new setting to existing characters? Is about narration, not portals specifically, although most of the options listed are portals
11. How do we transition from D&D 4e's world to D&D 5e's world? Similar, about how to transition narratively between settings (here of different editions), portals being one way
12. Is the negative energy plane underneath Golarion? About digging a physical hole that somehow acts as a portal between planes, tagged.
13. Can a teleportation circle be made in the air? Probably not, but maybe -- about Planar Portal spell, and if Teleportation Circle as the target of a portal can be in mid-air
14. What defenses are there against being summoned by the Gate spell? Text of Gate mentioning portal.
15. How exploitable/balanced is this homebrew spell: Spell Permanency? Does have explicit rules text about portals, but already has 5 tags, and is not centrally about portals, so probably not good to replace exsiting tags
16. Is there any way to follow a banished creature to the demiplane? Only mentions portal as part of the gate spell, but the question is about placement, not the portal
17. How do nested planes/pockets work? Outpockets in a way are like portals, so might be useful to tag, done.
18. Managing a Medieval Low Orbit Ion Cannon It is about a portal-powered cannon, but the portal is not central to it. I think this is likely a no, too. There might be other useful tags, like magic-item or balance to be better adds instead.
19. Do you die on another plane if you reached that plane via Astral Projection? Core is behavior of the spell, and that is directly tied to using a portal, or not to reach another plane. I think this would be a fit, but it already has 5 perfectly reasonable tags, so I'd leave it alone.
20. By RAW, does Astral Projection allow you to keep your astral body when you leave the Astral Plane? Very similar, but this one does have free tag space, so I would add it. Done.
21. Can an army of psionic characters create a crystal sphere in the astral plane? Portals feature as one of several alternatives in a question that is mostly about psionics - I think likely not tag, but am not quite sure.
22. After I finish casting Teleportation Circle, can I prevent the portal from immediately opening? Might be fit but has already 5 well-considered tags

Togehter found 27 that maybe could be considered out of the 120. I think it likely will turn out to be more around a dozen to a score when we are done reviewing here.

No action

These are all questions that mention the Yawning Portal, Obsidian Portal, are about mundane doorways, or have portals feature either in rules text of a spell like teleportation circle or gate, but not being the gist of the question, or in some backstory or exposition.

I thought it might be useful to group these, to highlight some of the themes:

Yawning Portal

• Does the spell Feather Fall prevent damage from falling down stairs? Reference to the Yawning Portal
• Were some of the NPCs in 'Waterdeep: Dragon Heist' player characters at some point? Reference to the Yawning Portal
• Does difficult terrain stack? Yawning Portal mention
• Calculating dungeon length mentions Yawning Portal
• Can a Large creature move past a Small and a Medium creature simultaneously? Yawning Portal mention
• Does the Pack Tactics monster special trait really only apply to one attack roll? Yawning Portal mention
• When can a Ranger get a component pouch (or material components) outside of starting equipment? Yawning Portal mention
• Where is my best source of Information on the Red Wizards of Thay? Yawning Portal mention
• What's the point of long, empty hallways in dungeons? A fantastic question and answer, but not really about portals, just mentioning Yawning Portal once again
• What is the total bonus from a stone of ill luck? Yawning Portal mention
• Is using an Eagle Whistle considered as wearing/carrying it for the purpose of Telekinesis? Yawning Portal mention
• How to handle varying party size/players? Yawning Portal mention
• How do you properly calculate the flying speed given by the Eagle Whistle when you have speed bonuses? Yawning Portal mention
• How should I handle TPK's and retrying in a dungeon crawl? Yawning Portal mention
• What is a Gloomblade (the magic item) in D&D lore? Yawning Portal mention
• How can I discourage/prevent PCs from using door choke-points? About mundane doors/portals, plus Yawning Portal mention
• How to retain a player who resents another player? Yawning Portal mention
• When is Passive Investigation used? Yawning portal

Obsidian Portal

• What changes are there to Kingdom Management in Ultimate Campaign? About Obsidian Portal
• How is it possible for this NPC to be alive during the Curse of Strahd adventure? Obsidian Portal, again
• Encouraging use of online roleplaying aids Obisidian Portal
• How can I encourage player engagement between sessions in a West Marches style game? Obsidian portal mention
• How can I manage my campaign digitally, without using a screen at the table? About Obsidian Portal
• Am I designing my campaign setting to be too specific? Obsidian Portal mention
• When do monsters not have average hp? Reference to Yawning Portal

Mundane Portals

• Open a portal secured with Arcane Lock - What options are available? About mundane portals
• How to handle prepared actions when you are expecting to see an enemy but you haven't yet? Is about initiative ambushing someone coming thorugh a portal; issue might be same if you enter trough a door
• Does a +2 weapon affect spell damage? Reference to the Yawning Portal
• A player takes half a standard action, what am I supposed to do? About hold portal, a spell dealing with mundane portals
• Do incorporeal creatures trigger symbol spells normally? about normal portals (warded with a symbol spell)
• Can you search for hidden doors multiple times in a row? Mentions concealed mundane portals
• Can I spam caltrops by dropping a basket full of them from altitude? Mundane portal
• Break DC too low? refrence to hold portal spell

Ravenlofts powers to block exit

• How can I escape Ravenloft in spite of the dark powers? Not about portals but about overcoming Ravenlofts prison aspect
• Can one be Summoned Away from Ravenloft? Yet another one about how to escape Ravenloft
• What happens if you put a Bag of Holding inside another Bag of Holding in Barovia? A third one on testing the limits of Ravenloft

The nine hells and devils

• How would a steel devil act on its own? About devils, only mentions portal in side commment
• Can you Plane Shift to a specific layer of the Nine Hells? is about plane shift, not portals (those are just mentioned as there are none that go to deeper layers in the hells)

Spell rules text (e.g. gate, teleportation circle, astral projection) without focus on portals

• Can a creature travel from the destination of the Teleportation Circle spell back to the source circle? About Teleportation Circle spells, but question is not about portal but about if the spell is two-way
• Do these spells require access to the material components for the spell even when cast from a Ring of Spell Storing? Mentions portal in rule text of Teleportation circle, but is really about material component treatment, not the portal
• Does duplicating a spell with Wish count as casting that spell? only mentions portal as part of teleportation circle spell
• Is a permanent teleportation circle only a destination, and not a point of departure? Yet another question about if teleportation circle is two-way
• Can any creature be summoned with the Gate spell? About what you can summon
• What other ways are there to summon a specific, named devil (besides Planar Ally and Gate)? Again about gate and what can be summoned
• Does a person under the effect of Astral Projection count as on a different plane for another caster on the same plane as their physical body? Again, about planes (and the gate spell), not portals
• Does surprise arrest existing movement? About surprise timing (again, mentioning gate, like the one above)
• Exactly what mechanical actions drop the layers of a Prismatic Wall? About prismatic wall (where rules text mentions a spell that can open a portal)

Time dilation

• Is a spell's duration tied to its effect, or the time experienced by its caster? Not about portals, but about the effect of different flows of time
• What planar traits prevail in extradimensional spaces? About time dilation and planes, not portals
• How exactly does the Feywild time warp work? Not about the portal, but about how differnt speed of time flow works ... there are multiple questions on this, and there is already a time tag and a planes tag, which we might want to add to them (or more specific plane tags, like the feywild here)

Explicitly excludes portals

• Is it possible to permanently create/transmute metal through magic without 9th-level spells? Just states a portal is not applicable as a solution
• How long does it take to travel between Oerth and Toril by spaceship? Only mentions portals as in not having to wait for one
• Does thaumaturgy at "Evocation's Methods and Speed" inflict stress like Evocation does? mentions not using portals
• Does this Sack of Looting work as a simple replacement for Bag of Holding? Evaluation for a non-portal version of bag-of-holding
• Does this Sack of Carrying work as simpler replacement for Bag of Holding? Again, question is about item without the portal

Faking portals

• Can Minor Illusion/Silent Image be used to make it look like you're about to cast other spells, to waste enemy Counterspells or Dispels? is about faking effects, one of them being a portal, not centrally about portals
• How do spell effects stack when determining the DC to disbelieve an illusion? Another one about in how far illusions can credibly mimic other spell effects, portals only one example

Side mentions in backstory or exposition

Need help making a Headquarters via Equipment Advantage as portable pocket dimension? Question is not about the portal, a side mention in an ability

• How do Ethereal objects/creatures work on the Outer planes? About planes, just mentioning portals as a means of travel
• Are there any low-level means to exit the Ethereal Plane to a plane of my choosing? Only mentions not having found a portal
• Player refuses to show up regularly, and when he does, never wants to roleplay Question is about a problem player, portal is not central to the question
• Can the Locate Object spell be used to determine if an NPC has a heart? Portal is only part of the backstory, actual question is about locate object
• How can I introduce twists to a heist when the dice always succeed? Only mentions a portal in passing
• How do I design a net throwing device for my gnomish character? Portal only mentioned as way BBEG appears
• How can I do an interesting and engaging siege scenario in Werewolf: The Forsaken? Portal only mentioned in passing
• How do I get my players' LARP characters to not be a bunch of murderous cretins? Only mentions portals as a tactic in a side comment
• How can we deal with being frightened? Only mentions using a portal as part of the introductory backdrop
• How do I make quests rewarding for my player? Portal is only backstory element, not central to the question
• Which feats fit this concept? Only mentions the word portal as part of backstory

Other

• How to travel to Skullport from Waterdeep Question is not about portal per se, they just happen to be one of the ways to get to Skullport
• Does the Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion spell's mansion exist on a separate plane of existence? Is about planes, one where a portal is
• Is Erelhei-Cinlu in Faerûn? question about planar location
• What demons are related to the demon lord Dagon? About Dagon, just mentions a portal to his plane
• Would an Antimagic Field set off a Sphere of Annihilation? About antimagic vs sphere, portal just being mentioned in sphere's description
• Can a cleric select an alignment domain that is not offered by his deity? Tangentially about the cleric "Portal" domain, not actual portals
• How can an earth elemental get back to the Plane of Earth Only mentions a portal
• If someone influenced by the Gray Wastes leaves do they return to normal? Just mentions portal as a happenstance
• Can variant familiar imps and quasits reform their bodies? Asks about gate or other "portal type spells" to summon imps or quasits, but question is about identifiying an individual creature, not the portals
• Is there any way to fake/conceal your identity when casting Sending? About sending, portals only mentioned in passing
• If a dragon becomes a shadow dragon, would it still be subject to a previously cast True Polymorph's reversal? Portal only mentioned as a way to travel to Shadowfell, question is about creature identity and polymorph effects
• What happens to your physical belongings in Twilight and Shadow Realms About the twilight realm, not about the portal to get there
• Can Word of Recall teleport through planes of existence? About limitations to teleport
• How can my party determine if a particular creature has a heart? Similar
• What would happen if you cast Etherealness while on a demiplane? only quotes some rules text mentioning portals
• How does a shadow monk teleport into magical darkness if they don't have line of sight to a square inside of it? Uses portal losely for teleportation exit location, question is about vision
• Do Dimensional Shackles share any of the properties of Manacles? Rule text mentions portals, but question is about manacle aspect
• How do dimensional shackles work in an antimagic field Again, just the rules text mentioning a portal
• How do I respond when a player trivially kills my boss monster? just mentions portal as an environmental threat
• How is the balance on my homebrew Sorcerer Origin (Wild Magic, alternate)? Homebrew review, only mentions portal in background flavor text
• How can I manage my campaign digitally, without using a screen at the table? Subclass review that somewhat randomly uses the word in one of the feature flavor texts