An end to scry-buff-teleport?

[RangerWickett]

First of all, I again suggest the term 'scrysassinate.'

Second, in the War of the Burning Sky campaign saga, teleporting deals fire damage due to setting stuff. Basically the Astral Plane is temporarily suffused with fire energy. This keeps teleportation from really screwing up the more traditional style of epic medieval warfare we were going for.

Teleportation is safer at night, particularly at midnight.

 

[Stoat]

Teleportation Sickness:

Upon arrival at their destination, all subjects of a teleport effect are dazed, fatigued, nauseated, or stunned (pick one) for 2d4 rounds (or longer if you wish). With this rule, teleport remains a viable method of long-term travel and permits for ready escapes, but popping into a guarded area is a dangerous gambit.

 

[zoroaster100]

I hope the get rid of or vastly push up in levels abilities that circumvent traditional fantasy adventure. Sure, the archmage might zip around the world (by himself) at very high level, but I want the base line rules of the game to require parties at least through 15th level to use mundane means of transportation like walking, with the possibility of flight only for characters that specialize and focus their resources to get that ability. Teleport should only factor in for epic levels.

 

[Gundark]

I have read lots of people that have stated something along the lines of "prevent spell/buff x by have the NPC do y". The problem wiith this line of thinking is: Why have the spell to begin with if you're just going to block it anyways?

why have scry and teleport if the BBEG is going to have stuff in place to cancel it anyways?
As a player I find it annoying to have really cool spell X, but I can't use it when it counts because the crafty DM has put all these defenses for the BBEG in place.

 

[Rechan]

I've never DMed/Played in a game past 9th level, and so this has never been an issue for me. But...

Couldn't this whole thing be circumvented by the DM simply looking at the players and saying "Guys, look. I know you can do this by the RAW, but that is seriously cheesy. If you want to "Win" at D&D, go ahead. But I just think that jumping the BBEG in his toilet isn't very exciting for anyone. It isn't heroic and it isn't climactic."

Much like the Spiked-chain wielding swashbuckler/fighter/rogue, it's legal, but it totally breaks the game on another level. As a DM, I think it's completely legit to simply ask your players to not do something. You don't tell them not to do it, but being up front about your dislike of said tactic and being polite about requesting doing something else is a fair course of action to me.

 

[A'koss]

On the downside, it cuts out a wealth of adventure opportunities by doing so, and means that adventures will follow a similar format all the time, as you said the players will be reactive all the time instead of proactive.

How so? However you glean the information on a threat (through divination or spies), adventurers are almost always reacting to a threat. I'm not sure how it would keep from being more proactive other than limiting the ease with which you can engage threats - and that's a very, very good thing for the campaign IMO.

Take away the powerful divinations and you really help with taking away one the easy shortcuts through an adventure. Further, it keeps those "detective" skills valuable at high levels and makes it easier to design adventures. It's also easier to keep the PCs thinking and on their toes.

From a campaign perspective, I find that taking those two abilities away actually very liberating. You can have (relatively) numerous high level beings in the campaign and not worry that the setting is going to break under their weight. They can't glean what is going on in the world on a whim and they can't get to trouble spots across the country with a 6 second spell. That keeps them focused on dealing with (primarily) with the big problems because that's all they'll have time to deal with. Many will be rooted to a city/domiain under their protection because should they leave it for an extended period, it could become a target to their enemies.

As a DM, you can handwave overland travel time if you want to avoid having to play it out, and you can use that portal the legion of Orcus worshippers were opening to springboard adventures into the Abyss or what-have-you. Personally, I see it as a win-win for the game.

To me, it's like saying that you can only conduct a war with rifles instead of missiles and bombs, or only using fire-and-forgets when you have smart missiles at your disposal. (By "disposal", I mean that the game used to have them, and now no longer does, effectively trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube.)

One of the largest complaints we see is the all-seeing, all-knowing plot device wizards who can just pop in to save the day any time they choose. Yeah, it's taking away toys they had in the past but I think it's well worth it - whether you simply retcon it as always being this way or have some FR-style event to alter how magic works.

 

[Gundark]

Teleportation Sickness:

Upon arrival at their destination, all subjects of a teleport effect are dazed, fatigued, nauseated, or stunned (pick one) for 2d4 rounds (or longer if you wish). With this rule, teleport remains a viable method of long-term travel and permits for ready escapes, but popping into a guarded area is a dangerous gambit.

I like this idea...good fix

 

[XCorvis]

I don't think they should remove the option, but I do think Scry needs to be reworked a little bit.

Me too. I think divinations in general need to be removed from the spell lists. It's OK to still have them, but they need to be special and have more DM control over their use and access. I don't want my players to have access to the Scry spell, but if my 25th level party picks up a Crystal Ball that allows scrying, I think that'd be reasonable. (Especially because they wouldn't get the ball unless I wanted them to.)

If they leave in "scrysassinate," I hope there's a section in the DMG about dealing with it.

Here's a simple fix I saw on the WotC boards a while ago: 40' of earth blocks teleportation and scrying spells. It's really just an extension of the 1" of lead/2' of wood blocking rules. This gives a natural block to those spells, and explains the existence of dungeons, all in one shot.

 

[lukelightning]

Scry, buff, teleport? Is this the D&D version of "Marry, 'fornicate', Kill?"

 

[Kahuna Burger]

The Astral Caravan power for psions is interesting in this context. It's like Plane Shift, but a journey. While at some level it might take TOO long (continued enhancement to eventually take it down to a day with a dedicated Nomad would be nice) but it gives a much nicer (imo) feel to plane hopping. A similar feel to long distance teleporting, where you entered an intermediate plane and walked to your destination would be nice.

I also like the idea of both teleportation sickness and a sense of incoming teleports - not both at once, but one or the other, or a possible tradeoff (a rushed teleport leaves you sick, a normal one has a gradual exit and entrance.)