5E makes it far to easy (for some style of campaigns) to get these superpowers.
Question: Should these not rather be optional?
How do I restrict these without nerfing certain races / classes?
How do I partially restrict these? Is there stuff like a dimensional anchor in 5E?
Would a sorcerer / FS be totally nerfed if he aint getting these wings? What do I give him instead?
Is it politically uncorrect not to allow a monk to shadowstep out of any shackles?
If I want to have realistic Donjons and castles in my game do I have to add iron bars on each window and inside locks and bars to tower top trapdoors to prevent PCs shadowstepping or fly-avoiding every basic medieval obstacle versus unwanted entry into a compound?
Is that waterfall a mere beauty of nature and perfect scenery of the Teleport X-games or a real obstacle for the PCs?
Sir Braveinwood the eladrin paladin fearlessly shadowsteps on the back of the hovering Dragon does he have to roll athletics or acrobatics for this?
Start ranting please
Some of my pet peeves as well.
Obviously, in a world where magic exists, imprisonment requires different approaches. This part isn't new, bind and gag anybody who might be a spellcaster, don't let them sleep to regain spells, etc. Gagging them while hanging them by their wrists, an occasionally beating, raising and dropping them, dumping buckets of filth and such onto them seem like appropriate medieval ways to deal with them.
I've always gone with the idea that too much metal, particularly iron/steel, interferes with a druid's ability to shape change. Part of the reason why they don't wear metal armor.
Nobody gets wings in my campaign. At least not from a race or class standpoint. I get that the sprouting wings idea is supposed to be "cool." Not so much for me.
My biggest complaint is things like the 30-foot teleports, or the leaps made by storm sorcerers. Again, I get that the teleport thing is cool. And from a mechanical standpoint, it's mostly the same as moving 30 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. But that's kind of the issue for me. It was seemingly designed with RPG miniatures game design in mind, and not world building or the impact on the world at all.
It's not even a question of imprisoning somebody. Think about everyday life. Look out the window and teleport. Then teleport another 30 feet. And so on. People don't walk, they teleport. So yes, that's all gone too.
In most cases I don't worry about replacing them. Sometimes I do, but the classes have been so reworked anyway I can't say that I have something specific I've replaced them with. In a public campaign using RAW I just don't worry about the world impact. But anything that would drastically change the nature of my home campaign is just out.
And that's really my issue with them. They dramatically alter the nature of existing game worlds for them to be dropped into the campaign. Adding them as either optional, or for a world-specific purpose (such as adding psionic for Athas), is a better approach in my opinion. But then, they aren't designing games for me, they're designing games for what they see as the primary style of gamer now. I'm content to take the system they provide and tweak it.
About imprisonment, though, one thing to note is that in medieval times they didn't really have much in the way of imprisonment. If you were an outlaw (literally outside the law), then the protections of the law didn't apply to you. So killing you, for example, isn't murder. Severe punishments and death were the most common sentences, and they generally didn't lock somebody up and wait for a trial either, unless you were somebody very important.
So casting spells illegally? Cutting out the tongue and cutting off your hands on the spot wouldn't be out of line for a dark and gritty campaign. The threat of the law, such as it is, can be a very strong deterrent. Trial by combat actually was a thing, but so was trial by burning at the stake. If you died, then obviously you were guilty. The gods would protect somebody innocent.
If you do have things such as the teleportation abilities, then the laws and methods for dealing with those would be a thing too. While others have mentioned blindfolding, just plain gouging out your eyes is probably just as likely. Have fun with that if you don't have access to a regeneration spell.
Right now, when approaching Llorkh in my campaign, you're greeted by the bodies and half-dead criminals subjected to coffin torture - hanging from those narrow cages too small to let them sit, many with their eyes, tongue, and hands gone, left to die in their filth and the elements, and being eaten alive by ravens. It's no secret that suspected spell casters are treated with extra special "care" and it's also no secret that the Lord readily funds bounty hunters to find any who escape justice for crimes committed there.
