Shieldhaven said:Specifically, the D&D designers haven't gone quite that far down the road of materials and conditions that block teleportation because it's not cool to take away abilities that PCs have earned over the course of many levels.
Well, I have an ability to swing a sword, so why does the DM "take that away" by making me have to hit a certain armorclass? Darn shields. Why does see invisibility take away my invisibility? Why does Resist Fire thwart my fireball? What about Dispel Magic?
How about my ability to not get assassinated by someone with teleport? Isn't a lack of a teleport ward nerfing that?
I know my language is somewhat silly here, but the main point is just that the line you draw with Teleport doesn't really exist in principle in other areas. I get turned to stone, someone can turn me back. I get killed, someone raises me from the dead. Extra planar creatures are held at bay by magic circles. Vampires are held at bay by crosses. Rock beats scissors beats paper. I could go on and on but I have a strong objection to what I think you're trying to say here. It doesn't make sense to me in terms of realism, the game, folklore, human nature, ... practically any perspective that I can think of.
Shieldhaven said:If, once he gets to that high level, he's told that teleport isn't actually useful when he needs it to be, he wonders why he bothered with this class. Though I'm not inclined to dig it up at the moment, Monte Cook wrote a brilliant article on this topic in the early years of 3.0.
I think I might have read it. IIRC it talks about the DM using fiat to nerf abilities because of plot issues. "Your scry just doesn't work, there's no reason why" - in order to protect an adventure's plot. I definitely don't support that technique, and I think it's a consequence in part of a poor set of choices that NPCs have to defend themselves against magic in DnD. I think it's a misinterpretation of Monte's philosophy to think that counter-measures are somehow inappropriate to the game.
Or consider this analogy - my ability to walk is nerfed by castle walls. Now clearly walking is not useless. And nor is teleport useless in a world with teleport wards. After all, a teleport ward can't be everywhere at all times, and maybe there would be a spell that "teleports" into an area and triggers/dismisses such wards.
There's no reason this thing can't be an arms race, but it's not. It's like the NPC wizards of the world have just sat around and gotten teleport-assassinated for generation after generation and never considered researching a spell to mitigate the situation.
Shieldhaven said:The answer, then, is to design the class along different lines in the first place, and to design the teleport spell so that it is less open to abuse. Ideally this design will take place at the start of a new edition, rather than in its midst (when complaints of nerfing go from grumbling to a deafening uproar).
I don't see how this is fundementally different than what I'm suggesting. In any case I'm not clear why player complaints about nerfing are an issue here. All that needs to be done is have enemy casters do the same thing to the PCs that they do to them. No one in my campaign complains about the existence of teleport wards because the PCs are the main users!

IMO anyone with issues about people developing technologies for protecting themselves has just been surviving off of DM fiat and soft-heartedness for too long.