Teleportation

[the Jester]

I was just thinking about teleportation through the years and the various ways it has been handled in D&D.

We've seen that some combinations of spells or abilities being available to pcs can lead to the scry-buff-teleport approach, an optimal suite of tactics that a lot of folks find problematic. We've seen that unconstrained teleportation can circumvent entire categories of obstacles (e.g. a chasm with no bridge) and make certain types of adventure obsolete (e.g. trek across the wilderness).

We've seen that the limitations on teleportation have a huge impact on the way pcs use teleportation abilities (e.g. requiring line of sight, chance of teleporting into a wall, must have a circle to teleport into or from). These change the teleportation game greatly; you can have low-level teleport spells or abilities without breaking the game if you put limitations on their utility.

There are also possibilities that we haven't seen in full bloom in D&D before. Perhaps teleporting stuns you for a round (dimension door has always had an effect something like this, but most teleportation has not). Maybe it deals nonlethal damage to you. Maybe it blinds you, is inexact (c.f. plane shift up to 3e), can't take your gear with you, can't take your magic items with you, automatically teleports anyone else within 30' with you, etc. The possibilities are pretty endless- and of course, there is always the option of simply "no limits!!".

How do you think 5e should handle teleportation?

 

[Dausuul]

I think the Golden Rule of Teleportation should be, "You can't take another person to a place of your choice."

You may be able to take yourself to a place of your choice. Or you can take a group of people to a preset location (or a random one!). But no teleport ability, no matter how powerful, should allow the entire party to go wherever it likes*.

If combined with fairly high spell levels for all long-range teleport spells, I think that restriction deals with the vast majority of teleport-related headaches. Sure, you personally may be able to pop all over the place, but if you can't bring the other PCs, you're not going to be able to circumvent whole adventures.

[size=-2]*Unless everyone in the party is a high-level wizard.[/size]

 

[Jester David]

I was always amused by how much 4th edition limited flight but so many races and classes had teleportation abilities.
So, a tiered approach seems like the optimal choice.

* At low levels (the "gritty" tier) teleportation just does not exist.
* At mid levels (the heroic tier) teleportation can happen but only for short distances or very expensively over distances. It is often time intensive and requires a set prepared destination such as a portal or teleportation circle.
* At high levels (the paragon/ super-heroic/ wuxia/ Legendary tier) teleportation is more affordable and can be quickly done to a set location or slower and more expensive to any destination imaginable, and there might be a risk of failure.
* At epic levels you teleport to get the paper every morning before opening a portal to Milliways for breakfast.

The trick is to really accept those limitations and stick to them. And then provide rules and advice for DMs to design and plan around them. I.e. don't plan a lengthy wilderness trek for PCs of 17th level.

 

[RangerWickett]

I want long-distance teleportation to be rare, normally.

I want all teleportation to be optional, because it doesn't fit in some settings.

In my setting, though, I want a character who devotes a lot of character resources to be able to get the ability to teleport short distances at will at a fairly low character level.

 

[john112364]

I would definitely like to see limitations of some sort. Even though I have used those tactics myself in the past, I think the game is more interesting with out those tactics easily available. I like the line of sight and magic circle limitations from 4e, but I wouldn't mind a long range teleport similar to 3e and prior with some severe limits or penalties.
Not the teleporting into the wall severe because that can end a campaign in a hurry without some heavy handed DM intervention at which point you have to wonder how limiting it really is. But maybe some long term disorientation such as penalties to all your rolls until a certain amount of time has passes and/or a con save is made. That would stop the scry/buff/teleport trick though maybe not the circumventing travel problem.

My 2cp. I recognize that some opinions may differ.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Combat is about the action economy. If you want to limit its combat utility, having people lose a couple turns due to disorientation is reasonable. Inaccuracy is also an important feature of teleport.

I don't mind teleport being available as a 5th level spell; just throw a bunch of drawbacks on it and gradually take them off as the levels get higher.

 

[tlantl]

In my AD&D days the threat of losing your character from a bad roll when teleporting was usually enough to keep players from not only abusing the scry and fly method but it kept them from even attempting something so dangerous. I never had a player die from a bad teleport since they never used it to go to places they weren't familiar with.

It might seem a harsh punishment on paper but if the rule keeps players from ruining years of character building by failing a die roll then it becomes an effective deterrent that never actually occurs. No one is going to risk that eight or ten percent chance that they might miss teleporting to a place they have only scryed once or twice.

Alternately the player could find that missing wasn't deadly but by using those same miss chances to cause the spell to fail upon casting and deliver some small amount damage or stunning effect that persists for hours the same result could be had.

 

[Minigiant]

I think the Golden Rule of Teleportation should be, "You can't take another person to a place of your choice."

You may be able to take yourself to a place of your choice. Or you can take a group of people to a preset location (or a random one!). But no teleport ability, no matter how powerful, should allow the entire party to go wherever it likes*.

If combined with fairly high spell levels for all long-range teleport spells, I think that restriction deals with the vast majority of teleport-related headaches. Sure, you personally may be able to pop all over the place, but if you can't bring the other PCs, you're not going to be able to circumvent whole adventures.

[SIZE=-2]*Unless everyone in the party is a high-level wizard.[/SIZE]

I prefer a 2 of 3 method.

Multiple persons
Chosen Location
Casting time

You can teleport 1 person to a location of your choice in one action.

You can teleport multiple persons to a general location in one action.

You can teleport multiple person to a location of your choice after a hour casting per person.

I think the "2 of 3 rule" can and should be applied to many iconic spells.

 

[sheadunne]

I enjoy teleportation/dimension door effects in D&D and hope they remain. The primary issue I've had with teleport is that it decreases time. If you only have a day down time and the DM says you can't buy or sell items in the town you're in. Bam. You just teleport to the nearest big city and do a little buying and selling. I think that they should be scaled. For instance

Hoping - Short distance no greater than your standard movement. Requires line of sight. No delay. This form of movement is useful to bypass terrain difficulties but only for the caster.

Dimension Door - Longer distance. Requires line of sight. Stuns you for a round (and anyone who goes with you). Another option would be to stun the caster for a number of rounds equal to the number of people going with her. This type of moment is good for getting across chasms and the like, but leaves you and others vulnerable for a round or more.

Teleport - Unlimited earthly distance. Does not require line of sight, but does require knowledge of location. Takes an amount of time to reach the location equal to 1 quarter the distance traveled. (time to reach destination increases based on number of people going with you). This type of movement is great for traveling vast distances in shorter periods of time, but it still takes time.

Plane Shifting - Unlimited planer travel. Does not require line of sight, but does require knowledge of the plane. Random location on plane. (randomness of location increases based on number of people going with you). Great for getting you to the abyss, but unless you've got a teleport and good knowledge handy, you're going to probably be somewhere you weren't expecting.

Places like teleportation circles and planer circles could allow less time to travel and no randomness. Or something to that effect.

I'd hate to not be able to make my teleporting swashbuckler because the rules don't support it.

 

[pemerton]

I think the Golden Rule of Teleportation should be, "You can't take another person to a place of your choice."

You may be able to take yourself to a place of your choice. Or you can take a group of people to a preset location (or a random one!). But no teleport ability, no matter how powerful, should allow the entire party to go wherever it likes

Sounds reasonable.

In my AD&D days the threat of losing your character from a bad roll when teleporting was usually enough to keep players from not only abusing the scry and fly method but it kept them from even attempting something so dangerous. I never had a player die from a bad teleport since they never used it to go to places they weren't familiar with.

If the rationale for the failure chance is to stop PCs teleporting to unfamiliar places, then why not just follow Dausuul's approach and impose a hard limit: no teleporting to unfamiliar places.