How do you get high-level characters to travel

[maggot]

(First of all, I'm not sure I'm in the right forum. Moderators feel free to move me.)

How can a DM get a party of high-level characters to actually travel instead of using teleport, windwalk, shadowwalk, whatever.

The game I'm running is supposed to be high-adventure on the high-seas, but with teleport the party just does bam! we are there. Or they windwalk/shadowwalk along the coast at something like 500 miles per day. Not really what I envisioned, so I'm looking for ideas.

 

[jgsugden]

(First of all, I'm not sure I'm in the right forum. Moderators feel free to move me.)

How can a DM get a party of high-level characters to actually travel instead of using teleport, windwalk, shadowwalk, whatever.

The game I'm running is supposed to be high-adventure on the high-seas, but with teleport the party just does bam! we are there. Or they windwalk/shadowwalk along the coast at something like 500 miles per day. Not really what I envisioned, so I'm looking for ideas.

To an extent, instantaneous or ultrafast travel is a feature of high level adventuring. Anything you do to prevent them from doing it feels like you're stealing power from the PCs. Most players resent not being able to use the high level powers of their class. As such, I would recommend that you not try to eliminate this type of travel. At most, I'd try to design a few adventures where it is not the best way to go.

Here are a few ideas that you could use to make instantaneous travel less of an option.

1.) The PCs are hired to guard an artifact that is completely immune to magic. The owner is unaware of it having any other special abilities, but the item is completely unaffected by any type of spell. As a result, it must be carried to a new location acros the seas by ship ...

2.) The PCs are searching for something that will be found somewhere along a coastline. The thing they seek is small, so travel will need to be slow so that they do not miss it when they pass by it ...

3.) An enemy has found a way to track the PC magical movement and is hunting them down. If he finds them, he'll steal something that they value. As a result, it will not be practical for the PCs to use thei magical travel method until they have dealt with this foe ... fighting him on their terms instead of on the enemy's terms.

4.) Pockets of antimagic (no magic zones) have been popping up because of some evil plot. As a result, ultrafast travel proves to be dangerous ... wizards that teleport into these zones have not been seen since they disappeared. The PCs will have to hoof it until they solve the mystery or risk being the next victim of an antimagic zone ...

 

[Lord Pendragon]

To an extent, instantaneous or ultrafast travel is a feature of high level adventuring. Anything you do to prevent them from doing it feels like you're stealing power from the PCs. Most players resent not being able to use the high level powers of their class. As such, I would recommend that you not try to eliminate this type of travel.

I agree. D&D shifts as you reach mid- high-levels, so that what were obstacles before are no longer relevent. Stone walls no longer hinder characters that can fly. Great distances no longer slow down characters who can teleport. The game evolves as you gain levels, so that former challenges are replaced by new ones. Trying to artificially make low-level challenges retain their difficulty in a high-level game is difficult and, ultimately, unsatisfying for the players who have worked to gain their abilities.

A campaign based on high adventure on the high seas should start at 1st-level and rise slowly, so that you get the most time in those low-levels where such obstacles remain. Indeed, you might design the campaign to end at 10th-level, so that it finishes at relatively the same time that the theme is played out. If you do decide to continue past mid levels, the challenges are going to change.

All of that said, there are still ways to make travel relevent for short periods of time. Jgsugden mentioned some magical means of limiting the ability of PCs to teleport, by limiting the magic. This can work once or twice before the players start to get tired of it.

Another way to go about it is to present circumstances where teleportation isn't useful. Consider an adventure where the PCs are required to locate a nameless, ancient ghost ship. The ship cannot be scried, and moves about the open sea, meaning that the PCs will have to charter their own ship to seek it out on the high seas.

Or, simply shift the adventure to another plane, where the PCs don't know the lay of the land well-enough to teleport, and must therefore travel overland to progress across the countryside.

 

[Storminator]

Require them to transport something gigantic, weighing several tons. A ship is the only practical way to move a multi ton object.

Of course you have to come up with something that can't be shrunk, or polymorphed, or stuffed into an extradimensional space...


edit: Make the thing to be transported the ship itself! What's the easiest way to get it there?

PS

 

[The Spectrum Rider]

Also, introduce dangers that are attracted to or associated with these modes of travel. An infestation of shadow vermin on the Plane of Shadow that are troublesome to shadow walkers; A new flying monster that attacks gaseous forms, for the wind walkers; and so on.

Once, a long time ago, a character IMC was abusing a clothes-changing magic item (it shifted ordinary clothing, armor, equipment, etc., into and out of small pocket dimensions as needed by the wearer). This was entirely my fault; I created it and gave it to the character. Rather than just taking it away from him, I introduced "ether snails" that tended to get into stuff in pocket dimensions. They were just powerful enough to be inconvenient, which cut down on his use of the item, without completely eliminating it - it was still useful enough in some circumstances.

But here's the trick: I made sure that sages they talked to were slowly learning about ether snails, made it clear that they afflicted NPCs as well, and so on. They became part of the campaign, which cut down a little on the player's feeling that I was picking on him.

The Spectrum Rider

 

[maddman75]

One way to pull this off is to make a feature of the campaign that the characters are responsible for the safety of the ship's cargo. This should be very valuable, but too bulky for magical transportation. Thus they'll have to do it the old fashioned way, unless they are exceptionally clever, such as crafting an Ioun Stone with a Sending spell on it and telling the captain to call if there's trouble. Then scry his location and teleport.

Other than that, you're looking at magic dead areas, items immune to magic, etc., which as noted will get old fast. Best solution is to do high adventure on the high seas with lower level characters. The higher level you get to the less mundane the adventures will be.

 

[dcollins]

I'll chime in and reiterate that keeping high-level PCs from using the best magical travel available is basically a lost cause under normal circumstances. There are a few things that a DM really has to adjust their thinking on with regard to high levels in D&D, and those include:
(1) powerful divinations and scrying,
(2) magical travel by teleport and wind walk,
(3) the fact that leaders of towns, cities, and countries look up to the PCs in terms of power and not the other way around,
(4) the fact that PCs will carve through any number of 1st-level goons, regardless of how many there are or the circumstances.

For example, when I'm DM'ing I have to make sure to get in my licks with challenges like climbing cliffs, frigid mountain treks, and winding forest or jungle trails prior to 10th level, because they will be bypassed by the normal PC mode of travel afterwards.

But, if you're already in a situation where you simply have to make use of existing campaign materials for high-level PCs, then the other posters' suggestions above are truly excellent ones (better than I would have come up with).

 

[Nifft]

IMC:

1) Teleport is limited to a 100-mile radius, and even then, the target must be well-known and unobstructed (a 100-foot square of empty space, or so). The world is big, and civilization is rare and highly concentrated -- there are vast expanses that they'll need to travel through to get anywhere. Getting back is easier, of course, but that's as should be.

2) Air travel is made inconvenient by the fact that Air and Storm are ruled by Chaotic gods, while Earth and Water (including land & sea travel) are ruled by much more consistant NG and LN godesses, respectively. The region in which the current campaign is taking place has a Season of Storms, which is not a good time to travel AT ALL. Storms often force travelers to ground... or under it.

3) You can only 'port to a place you know well, or to a place where someone has set up a "teleport beacon" to which you have a key.

4) Teleportation magic in fact involves transit through the Plane of Shadow -- IMC, there is no Astral. So, there are dangers in Teleport-travel, just as there are dangers in any form of Shadow-travel. Using the Ethereal plane for travel has its own issues.

-- N

 

[dvvega]

The way I've always handled teleport is that it is controlled like a transporters guild in my campaign world. Of course for you right now this is not valid.

The other thing is that long-distance travel via magic requires travelling along a "subway-like" ley line network. What this means is that the party can certainly travel by teleportation, however they will have to make a journey part of the way by mundane means.

Only recently has the party been rewarded with a Teleportation scroll for the Wizard to scribe - and their average party level is 13.

With the other forms of travel there are other side-effects. For example, although Shadow walks etc are pretty safe, it doesn't mean you don't attract the attention of a creature from those realms who decides to use the party's form of exit to get onto the Prime Material Plane themselves. Imagine an ancient Shadow Dragon who sneaks out of the Shadow Plane via a hole left by the party. They get the blame and are effectlively outlawed in many places until they "fix" their error.

Another thing is of course that high level parties have high level targets. These targets would protect themselves from teleportation etc with dimensional anchors etc. Imagine not protecting the king and an assasin just popping and knifing him.

 

[Pax]

Here's a novel idea: ask the players not to use those powers. Explain that you have some great encounter and story ideas, that their insta-travelling is bypassing entirely. Ask them for suggestions as to why they could not (or would not) teleport around, or whatever.

IOW ... enlist the assistance of your players.