Need some ideas for low level characters to instantaneously travel long distances...

[RigaMortus2]

If your session is taken up exclusively by only half of the group in combat, thats just bad DM'ing.

No, that is called story-telling in staying in character. Suggesting that it is bad DMing is just plain out offensive. Again, I'd appreciate no comments like this in the future. I asked a VERY simple question and I did not ask for anyone's 2 cents about how my DM runs his campaign. You don't understand the situation we are in or how we got there. The question was "how can a character of 6th level transport himself and others instantly, within a couple rounds at the most." The question was not "Please rate my DM based on our current situation. If you do not have anything helpful to add to the question at hand, please refrain from responding.

No one wants to sit around doing nothing, especially for a whole session.

Which is my point. But sometimes, because of background reasons or story-reasons, this can happen. I had a friend that played a character who was afraid of water. We had to enter an underwater temple to retrieve an item of power. Are you suggesting the DM was a "bad DM" because he placed an item in the game we needed in a place a character could not go because of background reasons? Or perhaps you are suggesting the player wasa "bad player" for having such a background? Sometimes s**t happens and we have to either deal with it, or think of a way around it. Since a character died last session, we have an opportunity to come up with a character who can "work their way around" the time constraints of one half of the party meeting the other.

And anyway, what kind of combat takes that long! maybe the part of the group in combat should just retreat to the half of the group that Isnt in combat. The character you're making just sounds like a one-trick pony.

Well, funny you should say that. The problem is they ARE retreating but are being followed by a fighter/mage (who thankfully is out of spells), an Ogre Magi, and an entire army who is only a few rounds behind them. The player definately doesn't want to be a one-trick pony, but someone that will stick around for awhile and be an enjoyable character. If they are able to teleport one side of the group to the other, even better.

I know you think we are trying to squeeze some cheeseyness out of this, and to a point, you are right. But I think we are picking the lesser of two evils. Either the DM can be cheesy and have us run across some means of teleporting "Oh look, you find a portal in the middle of the woods that will teleport you to your friends" or we can have a player create a character that has similiar means and will be enjoyable to play and hopefully stick around for awhile...

 

[RigaMortus2]

Honestly, I think you're blowing the problem way out of proportion. Do you really want to make major modifications to a character you'll have to play for the rest of the campaign just to avoid a half hour of real time boredom? Tell the DM you're going to show up to D&D a half hour late, since you won't be able to do anything in the first combat. I mean, really, it's not going to be "all night" right? It's one combat you have to miss, and then you say "we arrive in an hour" and move on.

Oh, and if you *need* to get to the combat in order to save your friends who are fighting... I say, let them die, and teach the DM that level 6 characters can't teleport

-The Souljourner

Trust me, our combats can last all night

Sure, I can let them die. Hell, 2 of them died already. It seems like that is what is going to happen anyway, and we are alright with that. But if I can find a way to save them (as cheesey as it might seem), well why not?

And yes, I can show up a half hour late, and I might just do that. But I look forward to gaming, as I only do so twice a month because of everyones schedules. So I cherish the time we get to play. "Play" being the objective word

Last session I wasn't with the party the entire time. So he threw some misc. encounters my way just so I wasn't sitting there bored. Which is fine, but... Eh... I don't know... Random encounters are all well and good, but I'd like to help advance the actual story line some

 

[RigaMortus2]

You must have some clear idea of the location and layout of the destination. The clearer your mental image, the more likely the teleportation works. Areas of strong physical or magical energy may make teleportation more hazardous or even impossible.

Any DM would probalby say that, No, your brand new never met the group before character, probably A) doesnt know where the rest of the group is to teleport to Anyway, and B) unless you're RP'ing a total ninny or extremely trusting and gullible character, would not use his 1,125 gp scroll for some random people he just met. "you seem trusting, yes, let's use my scroll."

If the DM wants you there , he should magic in some higher lvl "gandalf" wizard to help you all out.

Well I am playing a Psion Telepath, I know the road the party is on (been there before) and I am Mindlinked w/ some of the party so they can describe where they are. Of course, this is my knowledge I am talking about and not the new character that will be introduced.

 

[Artoomis]

Why not have the DM place your character closer? Say, close enouigh to hear the noise of the combat and come check it out. Now why he would assist the PCs and not the other way around need to be though out, too.

Is it too late for that?

 

[RigaMortus2]

Why not have the DM place your character closer? Say, close enouigh to hear the noise of the combat and come check it out. Now why he would assist the PCs and not the other way around need to be though out, too.

Is it too late for that?

Unfortunately it is... We already mapped out how far each group is, and how long it would take to get back to one another

If we were out of combat, it would take me an hour to get back to the original meeting spot. Of course, the party has moved about 2 miles farther down on the same road. So they are even farther away from the original spot we split up from.

Anyway, we calculated how long it would take for each group to get from point A to point B, and now that we are going by rounds, we can't "speed things up". It's a continuity thing

 

[darthkilmor]

Well I am playing a Psion Telepath, I know the road the party is on (been there before) and I am Mindlinked w/ some of the party so they can describe where they are. Of course, this is my knowledge I am talking about and not the new character that will be introduced.

Wait, you mean your last character was a psion telepath? Or your new one?

I dont understand how a new character will be able to know where the other half of the party is to satisfy teleport's requirements. Also, Has your Dm already said that your new char will insta-showup with the other half of the group? So while a scroll of teleport would techincally work if you knew where they were, well, how do you know where they are? As a DM that would be the first thing I'd ask.

Also, does anyone have horses or is this a foot face? Maybe simply showing up with 4 extra horses and full running on those would cover the distance quickly.

Oh, Also, aside from teleport, there's http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/treeStride.htm
with
Type of Tree Transport Range
Oak, ash, yew 3,000 feet

So *if* this is a wooded area, 5th lvl druid spell on scroll = CL 10, 10 hops, 3000 ft x 10 = 30,000 ft = ~6 miles = about what you could cover in an hour. Stick your mates in a bag of holding and off you go! probably couldn't fit any horses in there though w/ the weight limit. maybe a portable hole...

And, I wasn't trying to bash your DM, but in most dm-helping stuff I've read, it points out to have stuff for all of the party to do so you don;t have players that dont get to do anything. Like if you have 3 buff bash'em up warriors and a diplomacy-geared bard, try to balance out the probably lot of combat with some stuff where the bard can shine too. And in that regard, spending the entire time concentrating on only half of the group is what I was saying is "bad DM'ing".

 

[RigaMortus2]

Wait, you mean your last character was a psion telepath? Or your new one?

No, no, no... I am still playing my character, the Psion Telepath... My friend's character died and needs a new character (preferably one that can "teleport"). We'll have the option of my character running into this character if it will help us. Otherwise it can be introduced another way. I was just saying my knowledge may or may not help the player's new character that I may come across.

 

[Gaiden]

If you are going for spells you have teleport and shadow walk as viable options (with shadow walk not being quite instantaneous. I kind of like the idea of two rope tricks. Make a sage like character focused on planar knowledge and that is really smart so he can find the right curtain/pool quickly.

However, the spells require quite an investment at your level with no real return other than getting to your friends and as much as you might take offense to everyone's criticisms of your motivation - skepticism at the idea that a stranger would make such a sacrifice is warranted.

What about something that's not instantaneous but would certainly be quicker than an hour? By 1 hour I presume you mean according to normal overland movements on foot. What if you were able to come up with a way to increase your base speed such that you could get there extremely quickly...

IDHMBWM so am just going off the cuff - how about phantam(phantasmal - I forget which) steed. IIRC, that has a base speed of 20'/level, so that's 120 base at 6th level. you have just cut your hour down to 15 minutes and that's just normal overland movement. You could cast expiditious retreat on your steed increasing its speed to 150'. That's 12.5 minutes. Your phantom steed is a spell so probably won't get tired meaning you can probably have it run the entire time. That means your speed goes up to 600' cutting your time down to a little over 3 minutes.

What about your companions - you could cast levitate on each of them and just attach a rope to yourself. The steed can only carry so much weight - but this would be dragging and technically all the steed would need was to get them going - then inertia would do most of the work since the only drag would be wind resistance (not their weight). I don't remember the calculcations for that in the adventuring chapter but I am sure you could figure out a way to have them join on.

So, you can get there in ~3 minutes with the following spells:

phantom steed
expeditious retreat
levitate x2 or 3 (however many extra people there are)

This seems pretty feasable for both a sorcerer and a wizard. If you choose sorcerer you can always have scrolls for levitate/expeditious retreat if you don't want them as spells. If you are a wizard, you don't even need the scrolls. Moreover, you are not doing anything crazy for your level and you haven't really built your character around this one event, just slightly tweaked spell choice. Granted, it does change the instantaneous to 3 minutes but given that a new character probably wouldn't have a perfect mental image of where he/she is teleporting to anyway, this is a more sure-fire way of getting there already. Also if you can swing any items or abilities that can increase your caster level (which are good to have all times anyway for a caster) you can get there in even a shorter amount of time. Oh, and if you go sorcerer and happen to take levitate you should still have enough castings to also cast the spell on your fleeing comrades so that they too can grab the rope.

No WAIT - this is such a freakin cool mental image - you have a sorcerer that is riding some phantasmal horse that is moving as fast as neo in M.Reloaded to catch Morpheus and the key maker with SEVERAL ropes attached to the steed so that your levitating compatriots are basically waterskiing but on AIR. Give them boards of a type so that they literally can surf the air currents and spread themselves out. How cool is that?!?

So, can your fellow gamers last for a few minutes of running?

 

[RigaMortus2]

And, I wasn't trying to bash your DM, but in most dm-helping stuff I've read, it points out to have stuff for all of the party to do so you don;t have players that dont get to do anything. Like if you have 3 buff bash'em up warriors and a diplomacy-geared bard, try to balance out the probably lot of combat with some stuff where the bard can shine too. And in that regard, spending the entire time concentrating on only half of the group is what I was saying is "bad DM'ing".

No, the DM has thrown encounters my way, but they feel arbitrary if you know what I mean. No matter what, chances are, I will surive. That I am not worried about. I was just hoping to show up to save my friends for their sake

I have a Phantom Steed on, however, I am escorting about 4 NPCs and they are all on foot, so that pretty much makes my PS useless at this point. FWIW, I am traveling with "the baron" (who I rescued, which is the reason why we seperated), 2 slaves whom I freed from kobolds along the way (one of the slaves could potentially be the player's new character) and an Ettin that I psionically "charmed" along the way

 

[Klaster Flaster]

transportation....low levels

could just do a little niffty trick I found that tends to work. Get em into a sticky situation and make em go through a door and bam some random new place. or they turn around and face certain death. It's simple enough and keeps them going..