Faeries teleport?

[Rechan]

(Almost) all powers have to be put together from these building blocks, Lego style. The short-range teleport is such a basic building block. "Illusion", or "Glamour" isn't - if you make an illusion power it has to be built from other blocks. See e.g. the illusionist spells that were published in Dragon. Instead the fact that it is an illusion is put into the cursive flavour text - but it's not part of the game mechanics.

This may be true... except that many monsters have invisibility powers, and hey, there's the gnome arcanist, with "illusion" based powers.

Besides. THere are other things. The Feyborn Template has the "Unnatural Beauty" thing that makes people attack someone else or not attack. There are mind effecting powers in the Fey stuff, they're just few and far between. They are there. Just underused.

Look at it this way...

I understand that. It just doesn't feel fey to me. It still feels like they just picked something at random like "Teleporting faeries! That's the theme!"

I recognize the theme WotC went for, as it has been spelled out here. I just don't think it fits. It's more tacked-on than appropriate.

 

[Pbartender]

I recognize the theme WotC went for, as it has been spelled out here. I just don't think it fits. It's more tacked-on than appropriate.

Fair enough.

 

[Minigiant]

Well fey never seemed like the type who sat still. They are always flying around, climbing on things, or going somewhere in many forms of media that I've seen. Any the fey who weren't hopping and blinking here and there really didn't care about much except for that one thing. They mostly walked right past or through everything else. Add in that many fey have more than a hint of obssession of certain things.

The best way to get where you really want to be without dealing with the messy bits between is to teleport or turn invisible.

 

[Rechan]

Indeed. But... if that is the case, if the notion is 'they're always movin' and shakin' and you can't hold on to them!' then why is it they can only teleport once per encounter?

You'd think that if you want to hammer home that theme, then they would be able to do it more than once.

 

[WhatGravitas]

I think another problem is the use of the word "teleport" itself. In general, it's a word that's associated with sci-fi, Star Trek and science.

In D&D, that fit pretty well with the very formal nature arcane magic had in the previous editions (i.e. Vancian magic) - more a scientific than a wondrous concept.

But it doesn't fit "fey".

Cheers, LT.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I actually don't mind it, oddly. Not a 4e fan, but there's nothing about the Fey Step and such that really bugs me that much.

Is it that common among 4e fey anyway? All I can remember from reading the 4e MM is the Dryad having. . . Treestride(?), which strikes me as fine; good, even. Oh, and the Eladrin of course. Er. . . I guess there probably a bunch in the new Dragon articles then, or I'm just not remembering enough details of the MM.

 

[arscott]

Space and time simply don't work for the fey quite the same way they do for us.

"The trip from the eladrin outpost of Aedonni to the Council Warren takes three days less than the trip from the Council Warren to Aedonni. Absolutely no one who makes the trip can explain why.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Space and time simply don't work for the fey quite the same way they do for us.

Like many things this is just giving an explanation of how it might work, but doesn't really address the issue of why it was done in the first place. I don't remember it being mentioned in 'Races and Classes' or 'Worlds and Monsters' but it might be worth checking up in there.

However, unless a designer decides to chip in I think we are unlikely to deduce where the 'feyport' trope came from.

Cheers

 

[jdrakeh]

However, unless a designer decides to chip in I think we are unlikely to deduce where the 'feyport' trope came from

I know that some contemporary literature (e.g. Dennis L. McKiernan's Mithgar novels), other roleplaying games (e.g., Changeling, Powers & Perils, etc), and even folklore make heavy allusions to the 'otherworld' of fairies being a different realm or world of existence that is not our own Earth.
I think that Pbartender and others are probably dead on in assuming that the mechanical convention of teleporting is simply used to represent supernatural travel to and from this realm or related lands of wonder. Such travel across realms is, after all, a common staple of fairie creatures in other works.

I don't know why that seems so incredulous to some posters.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I don't know why that seems so incredulous to some posters.

I think the difference is seen between "teleport 5 squares" and "shift to a different plane of existence". It might be ignoring that at least since 3E, these both were related effects (Teleportation descriptor). (I don't know if such a thing exist before 3E.)

Teleportation seems to fit Fey just fine - fey do have the habit of appearing in places you don't expect them to.

Just one thing: I think some Vampires need this feature, too. For example, Angel had the habit of doing the "disappear from sight" trick. Guy (or gal) turns around for a moment, turns back, Angel is gone. Unheard and unseen - a quick teleport could explain that, too - possibly better then merely invisibility or a good stealth check.