A "bit of a problem"? My current Pathfinder PC has 3 EX abilities; she can turn the surrounding air into an invisible barrier that protects her as well as plate armor, see and hear at a distance, including around corners, as per the clairvoyance and clairaudinece spells, via air currents, and, 2/day, create a terrifically damaging burst of thunder --13d6-- in an area, at range, presumably by clapping her dainty hands together.
None of these abilities are magical. They don't detect as magic, function perfectly well in an anti-magic field, etc. They're as mundane as a rogue jumping out of the way of danger...
Except that they shouldn't be mundane.
Just because someone one day farted in the elevator and suddenly shouted "Eureka. We can give supernatural abilities to normal PCs and consider them typical and status quo." doesn't mean that this is what should happen.
The definition of the word supernatural is "outside of natural".
Anything natural should be considered normal. It should be the ruler by which outside of normal abilities should be measured.
There's nothing wrong with having extraordinary abilities, but those abilites should be limited to extraordinary sources of power.
D&D shouldn't be GURPS where there is a smorgasborg of abilities. I'll take a little teleport, an invisible magical protective force field, maybe a hop over to the Feywild for a while, ooh a greatsword would be nice.
Why is teleporting roughly as far as someone can long jump troubling, other than D&D traditionally reserves this ability for 7th-level and above casters, who can then teleport much farther than a person can jump, and then continental/planar distances, respectively.
It's a totally arbitrary approach to scaling.
Not arbitrary at all. Teleporting means that one can move without traveling through intervening spaces where effects and creatures can interfer.
That's a lot more potent than even shifting and this is totally obvious. Even shifting is a fairly potent ability. Try to move 15 feet past a foe in a real fight without him getting a chance to clock you along the way. It doesn't happen, hence, it is implausible. Just because some game designer thought it would be cool to have half of the PCs teleporting by level 4 doesn't mean it's a good idea from a game balance and power perspective.
Crawl before you walk, walk before you run, run before you leap.
Move before you shift, shift before you fly, fly before you teleport.
Movement powers should be scaled. Teleporting, even 25 feet is a huge advantage for a player. Do I need Athletics? Nope. I'll just teleport up. Do I need shift? Nope. I'll just teleport past. Do I need a rope to get across that ravine. Nope.
Just because people bought into the 4E "teleport is no big deal" line doesn't make it any less useful or potent.
AD&D handed invisibility out to 3rd level M-U's, and it lasted all day, so long as the caster didn't attack anything.
And now, there's very little magic that will last more than 5 minutes shy of a lengthy ritual.
Everyone is a low level hedge wizard, regardless of power source.
Magic doesn't exist anymore because everything is magic.
"Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super, [laughs maniacally] no-one will be."
There is more difference between roles these days in many cases then there is between power sources.
No, it isn't. But it seems to me much closer to mythology and folklore... and farther away from the more science fiction-influenced, post D&D-era fantasy fiction whose "fantastic bits" often read like mythology written by, and for, engineers and systems architects.
You mean like the invisible barrier that you mentioned for your Pathfinder PC where invisible barriers are more of a science fiction / comic book force field concept than it is anything out of mythology and folklore.
You appear to want your cake and eat it too. Course, a lot of people are that way. Heaven forbid that the game have a power source that is just the muscles and sinews of the PC and not wierd esoteric supernatural abilities.
Everyone wants to be a fricking mutant.
