lutecius said:
That doesn't explain why you can't just leave your opponent on the other side when the portal closes. Or why you can't stay in the feywild. Sometimes being trapped there may be a better option than teleporting a few squares.
My thoughts are:
Reality in the world of D&D wants to stay pretty much constant. Maybe it's a function of the gods vrs pimordials? The primordials were all about constant change and chaos, gods instilled a level of "this is what is" and stability to the world.
Magic has the power to bend reality, and even break it, and reshape it. But it's not really that easy. Just like in physics an object in motion and all that? Again because reality wants to stay constant, a magician is working against that basic nature.
Thats why most of the magic "spells" are flashy bang quick effects. The magician is just basically grabbing a bunch of "raw" magic power and pumping it into some quick effect...
Like stopping a train in full motion. We could just stick a giant iron wall in front of it, and it would stop.... but we'd also have a huge explosion, of derailed cars, smashed metal, screaming children, and general havoc.
To avoid this we need a more controlled system. Brakes. Brakes stop the train without the bad parts, but they require more time/energy to function.
In magic this takes the form of a ritual.
Rituals require much more effort on the magicians part, but they ahve the power to more fully effect transformation of reality. Effects that can last longer, or permanently, and effects that aren't always as "explosive."
Sooooo getting back to the warlock:
The reality of the situation is "This guy is located in the prime material plane." The warlock can use a quick manipulation to alter reality to say "This guy is in hell." But reality wants to stay constant, so eventually, reality reaserts itself to say "This guy is on the prime material plane."