Blocking scrying and teleport without magic

[FireLance]

I wonder if hanging drapes, ropes or chains would work to prevent teleportation, if they were hung thickly enough. A creature just walking through the room could simply push them aside, but would teleport do the same? Would the spell fail if there was no way for the creature to appear in the room without overlapping some pre-existing object?

 

[VirgilCaine]

The spell mentions no such restrictions or anything one might extrapolate that from, although that would allow for some visually dramatic scenery.

 

[Huw]

I believe another anti ethereal/teleport/scrying measure was a building covered in vines, on the grounds that you couldn't magically get inside or through another creature.

Similarly, you could have a larger building protected by a banyan tree or an aspen stand, or an underground chamber protected by mold.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

Sleep in a room that isn't big enough to hold anyone else who tries to teleport in, and make it in an area that they get shunted several times before they stop teleporting. Then, spread around pictures of what your bedroom should look like, but doesn't. They'll end up a half mile away and in sorry shape.

Borrowing from Shadowrun's grenade blast pattern description, this is the Chunky Salsa Effect.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Here's a simple way to prevent people from teleporting into your character's demesne.

Rearrange the furniture.

Teleport requires familiarity with the destination — not just its location, but the physical features (landmarks, if you will). If those landmarks are changed, then the caster's familiarity with that site drops down to the next worse level, possibly more. If you make the place completely different (say, by replacing all the furnishings), then the caster no longer has any familiarity, and runs the risk of winding up someplace else. It's not a perfect safeguard, but it can help.

Or, in most campaigns I think, the bad guy pops in, goes 'Oh, you moved the couch. How nice' and then continues with killing you.... He is familiar with the place - there is no need to be familiar with the place as it is currently, otherwise you would be unfamiliar with a place if the window was ope or closed,a book was put on the table rather than the shelf, someone crushed a cockroach and left it on the wall, etc..

The Auld Grump

 

[hong]

Very simple, very important precaution:

Don't sleep alone.

Wizard: "I never sleep alone if I can help it."

Fighter: "Yeah, me neither."

 

[LonePaladin]

Or, in most campaigns I think, the bad guy pops in, goes 'Oh, you moved the couch. How nice' and then continues with killing you.... He is familiar with the place - there is no need to be familiar with the place as it is currently, otherwise you would be unfamiliar with a place if the window was ope or closed,a book was put on the table rather than the shelf, someone crushed a cockroach and left it on the wall, etc..

Minor details don't matter when it comes to familiarity, so little things like that don't factor in. A good guideline is to ask the teleporter to verbally describe the destination — if they can tell you what color the upholstery is, and where the paintings are on the wall, then they're probably pretty familiar with it.

But if what they've described no longer matches in the broad sense, then they're no longer going to a place that's familiar. They still run a good chance of arriving safely, but it's not as certain as they expect. This sort of trick requires broad changes to the area; essentially, pull out everything that can be removed from the room and replace it with different objects, in a new orientation.

It would be like trying to navigate your living room in the dark; if you've been in it a while, you can do so easily, until someone rearranges everything.

I've used the reverse of this in games, by having a wizard carefully memorize the pattern of a uniquely-tailored rug. When this rug is moved to a different spot, it doesn't matter as long as it's laid flat: the wizard is teleporting to the rug, not to the room it's in.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I've used the reverse of this in games, by having a wizard carefully memorize the pattern of a uniquely-tailored rug. When this rug is moved to a different spot, it doesn't matter as long as it's laid flat: the wizard is teleporting to the rug, not to the room it's in.

This is blatantly impossible with Teleport. Of course he's teleporting to the room the rug is in, you have to know the location of the destination. Without knowing where the rug is, it's impossible.

I have no idea how you could possibly draw the conclusion that this is possible from the spell description.

However, as a possible way to target an Arcane Eye spell to gather more information, perhaps it might work, but it's pretty difficult to gather enough information for a decent teleport spell.

 

[Jesus_marley]

to prevent scrying.... wear a tinfoil hat.

 

[tensen]

Well, the way we used to play it (do not know if this is in any way supported by 'official' rules in any edition) was that lead sheeting would block both TP and scry type magic. Furthermore, we had Orichalcum as an alchemic material, in our campaigns a mix of dragon's blood, diamond dust and gold, which could be mixed into mortar and this would block magic in general in a relatively wide range of the building, i.e. doors and windows could be built into the edifice and these magics would still be blocked.

Could it be that someone's DM played a lot of Shadowrun at some point? That used to be the way to block out astral projections in that game.