D&D 5E If you use thunderstep but teleport less than 10 feet do you take damage?

[James Gasik]

Another thought about instantaneous effects- a fireball is instantaneous, but it does not move so fast that you can't react to it, since everyone in it's blast radius is allowed a Dexterity save to avoid some of the damage. This is even true with Lightning Bolt despite, you know, the fact that it would be moving at 270,000 mph if it was real lightning.

 

[Lyxen]

Another thought about instantaneous effects- a fireball is instantaneous, but it does not move so fast that you can't react to it, since everyone in it's blast radius is allowed a Dexterity save to avoid some of the damage.

Exactly. First, the "bright streak: is fast, but not in 0 time, it's not a laser (which are never properly shown in SciFi anyway) it might even be slower than a blaster bolt (and these can certainly be seen and dodged), and the explosion is not in 0 time either, it just blossoms out. That's why there is a dexterity save and capabilities like evasion.

This is even true with Lightning Bolt despite, you know, it should move at 270,000 mph if it was real lightning.

It can certainly be described as creeping lightning sparks, especially since it's actully way wider than a standard bolt of lightning (While the intensity of a lightning strike can make them appear as thick bolts across the sky, the actual width of a lightning bolt is only about 2-3 cm.).

It's way more cinematic anyway to describe magic as not in 0 time...

 

[Elon Tusk]

Another thought about instantaneous effects- a fireball is instantaneous, but it does not move so fast that you can't react to it, since everyone in it's blast radius is allowed a Dexterity save to avoid some of the damage. This is even true with Lightning Bolt despite, you know, the fact that it would be moving at 270,000 mph if it was real lightning.

In that case, wouldn't the speed of sound boom that happens after the instantly happening teleport both be affected?

 

[Lyxen]

In that case, wouldn't the speed of sound boom that happens after the instantly happening teleport both be affected?

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Is the speed of sound even the same in a D&D world and the real world ? Not sure, for example the speed of light on the Discworld is extremely slow due to its "abnormal magical field", does it affect the speed of sound as well ?

Also, the "boom" is extremely contained, it does full damage in a very small area, and nothing just beyond, so is it a normal "sound" boom originating from a point, or is magic generating a damaging boom just inside the area ? Is it audible beyond ? At what distance ?

The rules provide nothing about this, it's always about the DM inventing explanations in his campaign, if needs be.

 

[dave2008]

And if there were travel time for teleportation, it wouldn't take you to another world instantly. If 10 feet is slower than sound, then it would take a very, very long time to get to another planet with the Teleport spell.

It could be the transit is nearly instant, but the disappearance and appearance take some time. I mean, the can't occupy the same space-time after all.

 

[billd91]

Haven't read what anyone else has said or even if this thread is still talking about the original question, but I just read up on Thunder Step and I'd rule that the caster does not take damage as the thunder damage occurs right after they disappear, not reappear. So it's "Disappear - BOOM! - Reappear"

Yeah, I'm with you on the interpretation. I think too many people are trying too hard to screw the caster.

 

[Irlo]

Yeah, I'm with you on the interpretation. I think too many people are trying too hard to screw the caster.

I'm not sure that's the motive, since the interpretation would apply to enemy casters also. In my games, I think I'm more likely to see this spell used by the DM than by the players.

 

[Maxperson]

No, they are not, sorry. 5e is not PF where everything is tagged. There are for example many examples of interactions in the description of actions that don't take more than an instant, and are not tagged, turning a key in a lock, throwing a lever, etc. Dropping something is not an action, is certainly instantaneous and is not tagged as such. So many counter examples to your invented rule.

Look around. Look where instantaneous is used. It's very specifically a term used in very specific places.

 

[Maxperson]

And here you are caught, once more, by your lack of knowledge of the RAW, which explains to you that they mean the same thing in the RAW, in the very defintion of instantaneous.

View attachment 154544

So instantaneous means "only for an instant", clearly. And you can argue all you want that it's only for spells, as the word "instantaneous" is used only for spells, it means exactly "for an instant" everywhere it applies.

So you honestly think people in combat walk at the speed of teleport when they ready an action? This is how you run your games to make sense?

 

[Maxperson]

I see what you mean, just a few things:

• It's a really powerful cantrip, so I think it's not idiotic to have some sort of limitation to it, it's not like it's that frequent anyway.
• The more I play D&D in general and 5e in particular, the more I realise how well it works with movies and books of the genre, where heroes and villains are frequently "incapacitated" or "hampered" by an effect, for dramatic reasons, and where this goes away in the next few seconds or minutes, because it would also be anti-dramatic to do otherwise (which, for the players ties in to being bored if their character is really unable to act).

I completely agree, even with @Maxperson that this is totally unrealistic and that it makes absolutely no sense in the real world or even low fantasy, blood and mud, etc.

But it's not what D&D was built to simulate anyway, there are other games for this, but throughout the editions, I think D&D has gotten better and better at doing it. Although it's a different genre, just look at the MCU and Marvel, it's exactly what happens in all fights. I'm a bit loathe to bring this comparison because I don't like to mix my SciFi and Superheroes with my Fantasy, and I don't want my D&D characters to play and act like superheroes, but the combat is what I'm looking for. Or just look at Aragorn at Helm's Deep.

Just out of curiosity, if you're okay with the ridiculousness of walking/running faster than a teleport to avoid something happening at the speed of sound, why do you have an issue with the ridiculousness of sequential nature in D&D combat as written?