Can you teleport onto a ship?

[WaterRabbit]

If you can teleport onto a ship, since that is a destination, why not the back of a flying dragon ?

[Nobody had gone up the slippery slope yet ]

 

[Nik_the_Pig]

Or a house??

If I build a ship out of wood (an object right?) surely the house I also build out of wood is also an object. The land the house was built on is the location, but then if that dirt is dug up and moved...

This is just getting silly...

 

[Gromm]

Or a house??

If I build a ship out of wood (an object right?) surely the house I also build out of wood is also an object. The land the house was built on is the location, but then if that dirt is dug up and moved...

This is just getting silly...

Then the location is still there, dirt is not a location.
The house is a location (its not sailing around or getting up and walking). If it moves that becomes a matter of interpretation (ie the archetypical flying castle in the clouds).

A location is a point in space (as I used it anyway). Any building would probably be considered a location (even the flying castle). Magic doesn't really follow strict laws so teleporting to "locations" doesn't have to follow a strict set of rules. I just presented one case. I lean towards not being able to teleport to a ship because its a vehicle and I don't like the idea of characters being able to use teleport without error as a free scry spell. Teleporting to say wagons and the like.

Who knows what a good answer is (you could email the sage, but he rarely gets back to people about anything he hasn't already answered 8 times IMHO). Just pick a set of rules for your campaign and go with it, you wont do too bad in either case.

 

[Artoomis]

Let's not forget that 99% of ships have a unique, one of a kind name, crest, ram, banner, colors, flags, emblem...need I say more? Kind makes one ship really unique from another.

True - but the location you have memorized is, for example, just off the stern where you can see the ship's name. Not too efficient, that one.

What you really want is the captain's cabin, which will change the least of any other location on the ship. If it's your own ship, no problem. If not, possible problem, unless they are so kind as to keep a "teleport room" for you.

 

[Psifon]

The real question here is not "can you teleport onto an object", but "can you reliably teleport onto an object that is not within your line of sight."

I would say the answer is no, not reliably. If the object is within line of sight, then fine, you can teleport onto the uppermost surface of the object (even if it were, say the head of that guy over there...).

On the other hand, if you teleported onto an object that is not within line of sight, you would actually be teleporting into the space just above where you thought the object was. In this case, if conditions had not changed, and the object was where you last saw it, then you would land on target. If it had moved, you would be subject to whatever conditions exist at the location you teleprot to. This may mean falling, or it may mean being displaced through solid matter into a space large enough to occupy you (and taking damage).

This is MUCH simpler than the way things used to work in 2E, because back then you had to teleport onto a surface. Now you can teleport into any point in space that is not occupied by a solid, so questions like this have become easier to answer.

 

[kreynolds]

True - but the location you have memorized is, for example, just off the stern where you can see the ship's name. Not too efficient, that one.

What you really want is the captain's cabin, which will change the least of any other location on the ship. If it's your own ship, no problem. If not, possible problem, unless they are so kind as to keep a "teleport room" for you.

Either way, in the case of Teleport without Error, all you need is a reliable description of the ship, and if you've been there before, that's reliable enough for me.

Now in the case of the ship moving? I think I'm starting to see everyone's arguement on this, and I'm starting to like it. It seems appropriate that you teleport to a point in space as opposed to just "where you wanna go". Also, in regards to teleporting onto the back of a flying dragon (Psifon made a good point with the line of sight bit), if you can see the dragon, then sure, I'll let you do it without a problem. But if you can't see the dragon or the ship, it makes sense that a Scry would be in order. Once you scry, I think you would have plenty enough information to teleport to the ship or dragon. However, teleport without error specifically states that if your description of the location is not reliable, you don't actually teleport anywhere, as you simply disappear and reappear in the same location. So, if you try to teleport to a ship that you remember being docked, but it is now out to sea sailing around, the teleport attempt will simply fail, as opposed to send you into mid-air above the docks and falling into the water.

It's my opinion that if the location moves, your description is automatically unrealiable, thus you don't go anywhere. So, no popping up in mid-air in the middle of the ocean.

 

[Henry]

Yes, Ladies and Gentleman, as this post gets longer and longer, I more and more fully agree with Hong's Third Law.

Forget relative spatial locations, rotating planets, axial tilts, object revolving around the sun, etc. etc. etc. etc.

What does the teleportation spell require you to do? What does it use as an indicator of success and failure?

This is magic, and you thus likely follow various "rules" of magic that are already in place in the spells section of the PHB. This is a case of sympathetic magic or "like attracts like." You must be able to accurately picture the place in your head, or you are thrown off. Remember the whole " you wind up in a different place that looks similar? If you can visualize the surroundings you are trying to reach (Deck of a ship, inside of a closet, on the back of Porphyrius the Red Dragon), then that is the target, no matter WHERE the target is at that time. The definition of a "location" is irrelevant - anyplace or object can be considered a location. If you can picture it, you can go there (unless magic-blocked).

Why make it any harder than that? God forbid it should be scientific or even realistic. The wizard does not need to be an Astrophysicist to make it work; the magic takes care of the rest. And in the meantime, the players and DM get on with their game.

 

[IceBear]

I know this amount to a hill of beans, but in one of the last Drizzit novels the ship wizard on the Sea Sprite used teleport quite often while the ship was at sea hunting pirates to bring aid to Wulgar and then return a day or so later.

So, at least in Salvatore's mind and that of the WotC editors, it was intended to allow wizards to teleport to a moving ship.

IceBear

 

[kreynolds]

I know this amount to a hill of beans, but in one of the last Drizzit novels the ship wizard on the Sea Sprite used teleport quite often while the ship was at sea hunting pirates to bring aid to Wulgar and then return a day or so later.

So, at least in Salvatore's mind and that of the WotC editors, it was intended to allow wizards to teleport to a moving ship.

IceBear

That was my original thought too. Great, now I'm wavering. Oh well. I've got plenty of time to think about it today. I got the day off! No work! Woohoo!

 

[IceBear]

I don't really have an opinion on it. I think in a past edition I did have someone teleport from a dungeon back to their ship that had moved out to sea a small distance. Since it was a place with which the caster was intimately familiar I didn't have an issue with the teleport working since the ship was relatively close to the original position. Now, if the ship had moved a significant distance first, I'd probably force the wizard to scry the location of the ship first to provide a magical "fix" on the spot.

IceBear