The PHB is very clear that the caster of Dimension Door's turn ends when the spell Dimension Door is used. However, what happens to the initiative for people that the caster has brought through the dimension door? Does their initiative remain unchanged, do they lose their next turn, or is their initiative shifted to just behind the caster. Please help!
Dimension Door and Initiative
- Thread starter pmcginnis
- Start date
StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
Their initiative is unchanged.
frankthedm
First Post
RAW nothing, But I recommend forcing all those all those who go with to auto delay to just before the caster's next round. IMO It is a transport spell not a taxi combatants to melee to bombdrop multiple full attacks.
Empirate
First Post
Actually, I think DDing into the enemies' back rank is great tactics: your caster (arguably your most versatile party resource) sacrifices his turn to bring two or three beatsticks right where they need to be to lay the smack down NOW. Why shouldn't that be the spell's intention?
The spell description contains nothing about your allies' initiative, their losing an action, or whatever. They only have to be "in contact with each other", which is easily satisfied by grabbing your neighbours' sleeves - a free action in my book. The designers could easily have extended the "turn ends" mechanic to all transported creatures, but they didn't do so. This means you can - and should - use DD to instigate several well timed full attacks on the BBEG ad once.
Dimension Door is, regardless of the "long" range entry, essentially short range teleportation (a few hundred meters on the outside). It is intended at least as much for tactical usage as for general-purpose transportation, and IMO, it is much, much more a tactical than a utility spell.
The spell description contains nothing about your allies' initiative, their losing an action, or whatever. They only have to be "in contact with each other", which is easily satisfied by grabbing your neighbours' sleeves - a free action in my book. The designers could easily have extended the "turn ends" mechanic to all transported creatures, but they didn't do so. This means you can - and should - use DD to instigate several well timed full attacks on the BBEG ad once.
Dimension Door is, regardless of the "long" range entry, essentially short range teleportation (a few hundred meters on the outside). It is intended at least as much for tactical usage as for general-purpose transportation, and IMO, it is much, much more a tactical than a utility spell.
green slime
First Post
I'm with FranktheDM. Any form of teleportation causes the teleportee to end their turn, they get to act again in the same initiative count, next turn.
Allowing teams of NPCs to zoom in and wail on a single PC without warning is not appreciated by the players at all...
Allowing teams of NPCs to zoom in and wail on a single PC without warning is not appreciated by the players at all...
Ogrork the Mighty
Explorer
We just had this happen in our game and we did the same thing. The caster dimension doored the party to where they wanted to be and then they were all momentarily disoriented from the spell but could act on their next turn in the normal initiative order.
Empirate
First Post
It's really not like Dimension Door is broken because it benefits teamwork. If you see it as a short-term heavy buff that takes quite some setup (whole team needs to hold their action and stay close together), and that allows a single round of full attacks on a chosen target, I see nothing wrong with that.
Of course you're free to establish house rules (like "teleportation effects end all teleported creatures' turns"), but you should be positive that this is what you want. It's a house rule, and nothing in the PHB supports it. IMO, it's an unnecessary house rule at least until the higher levels (when scry'n'die can become an issue).
Of course you're free to establish house rules (like "teleportation effects end all teleported creatures' turns"), but you should be positive that this is what you want. It's a house rule, and nothing in the PHB supports it. IMO, it's an unnecessary house rule at least until the higher levels (when scry'n'die can become an issue).
StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
Agree with Empirate. I can do the same thing as DM by having a whole squad of archers hold their turns and fire simultaneously at the same target, and I can do that at level 1. That's a kink of the initiative system, it's not Dimension Door's fault. It's also one of those things I'd rather handle with a gentleman's agreement rather than come up with some convoluted, inconsistent houserules.
green slime
First Post
Convoluted? Inconsistent? I'm not seeing that here. Care to bandy about any more careless insults?
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