So, how do you keep'em from just 'porting away?

[I'm A Banana]

See, this is the sort of advice I'm expecting from Heroes of Horror. I have something I want to do that has only one or two hard-n'-fast requirements. The advice, to use the term loosely, is "well, you can't do that with D&D--it's too over-the-top, which according to our demographics is how everyone but you likes it--but you can do something else that we think is pretty cool..."

Your hard-and-fast requirement, however, is basically railroading. "I want them to fall for my nefarious trap and be trapped because that's totally cool." And banning teleport is attractive because it, in many ways, thwarts that railroading.

If you're looking for paranoia and claustrophobia, I and others have given you ways to inspire a feeling of paranoia and claustrophobia with or without Teleport (Third Wizard, as usual, has some really golden advice). If you're looking specifically just to trap your PC's without them having methods of thwarting that, the advice is stickier (basically relating to giving the NPC's more firepower, the unhallow/dimensional achor combo, antimagic fields, or whatever), because that removes some choices and powers from the usual choices and powers that PC's have, and taking away PC choice is not something the game in general is interested in.

If you want to ban or introduce mundane methods of thwarting Teleport, go for it and have fun. But if you're asking how to make PC's fear for their lives and feel trapped, even when they can Teleport, without nerfing them, your answers are all over this thread.

Do you want to inspire an emotion, or execute a particular plot device that will inspire that emotion? In the first case, I'd say love the bomb and work withuot nerfing. In the latter case, nerf away if your players won't care.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Areas of strong magical of physical energies may make teleportation hazardous or even impossible. Set the adventure in a volcano or something like that.

Or, you can have enemy spellcasters counterspell the teleports. Against wizards this is pretty good since they usually won't have more than one or two teleports prepared. Sorcerers with teleport are trickier.

This is acceptable to me--the spell doesn't give an example of anything and it is subject to interpretation.

Is it just me or does no one ever think to use SCRIBE SCROLL? Personally, I would never go anywhere without an [extra] scroll of Teleport (if I had it).

"Whoever scrys, buffs and teleports first, Wins!.

Scrying blows. Seriously.

Me? I learned how to stop worrying and love the bomb. I write adventures that require teleport to advance through it.

Good DM! However--could you give an example?

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

You know, I don't really ses this happen that often, myself. Wizards who memorize two teleports a day to get in and out of danger at a moment's whim are sacrificing their best offensive or defensive spells... I'm in one very high level game, and if we teleported around more than we already do, we might be leaving a sailing ship full of hirelings, or leaving a battle that is currently taking place, etc.

Which actually brings up one good way to counteract the value of teleportation - make sure the "adventure" continues without the PC's. Maybe if they bug out, the bad guys will sweep on into a village that they're not there to defend, or something along those lines. The monsters don't just wait for the PCs to come back and play.

At least eat their horses. They can't teleport those out.

 

[Harmon]

Presently our group is going through Nightfang Spire. Our Sorcerer TPed most of the party out the first night while the Ranger, Fighter and a couple others remained behind (not enough 5th lvl slots to get us all out). Its day three and we are one level three, getting our buts handed to us in nearly every fight.

THe GM is against TP out and back the next morning, but how he is handling it is that the second floor was about half way repopulated, so we had to fight through that again, then on to the next level. Its tough but we (the Players) feel that we can't survive a night in there and regain our spells.

Dispite having the aility to TP out in one other camapign we have done it very seldom.

Something I did in my campaign was the Sorcerer had a nightmare that she believes is real about being sent to the future where Demons had taken over. Each time she starts to utter the words to cast TP or DimDoor she hears the main demon's voice- "oh, come to me. Come back to me," it has a freight in the Player and the character.

At some point in your GMing your PCs will either want to or have to TP- let them, its part of their fun. You could always have monsters chase after them to find their HQ and take it out the day that the adventurers are ransacking the dungeon.

 

[Menexenus]

Adjudicate Teleport strictly. Most parties are large enough that one Teleport won't handle everyone, also, they all have to be together to cast the spell.

I thought this was excellent advice. So I was surprised to see the OP's response:

D&D is structured around a four-player party. A wizard of 9th level can teleport himself and three others.

Now, let me preface this by saying that I play 3.0. So if there were significant changes to the spell in 3.5, then what I'm about to say will be moot. However, in 3.0, you only get to take 50 lbs. per level with you when you teleport. Since Felon is assuming a "standard" 4 person D&D party, let's assume we have a Wizard, Fighter, Cleric, and Rogue (all 9th level). Most beefy fighters are going to weight about 175-200 lbs naked. Slap on some plate mail, some basic equipment, and 3 or 4 weapons, and we're already approaching 250 lbs, and that's just for one person! So the 9th level wizard you are talking about will probably only be able to get 2 un-reduced medium-sized characters out, if you follow the RAW.

Now maybe your fighter is a little on the scrawny side. And maybe your Rogue is a halfling. Is it possible to fit the Fighter, Cleric, and Rogue in at a total weight of under 450 lbs? Sure. But let's think of all the other things that will add to this weight. Many characters (e.g. druids, rangers, wizards, sorcerers, paladins) travel with some sort of animal companion. Depending on the type of animal, this could add a significant chunk to the weight total. (Or are they just going to teleport away without their animal buddies?) By ninth level, many PCs have taken the Leadership feat and may have a cohort and some followers in tow. Sure, you can replace followers pretty easily, but most PCs feel partial to their cohorts. Don't the PCs want to teleport their cohort out, too? What about the treasure that the PCs have looted so far? Some treasure is very light, but some treasure isn't. Don't forget this when you add up the weight total!

Now, from your response above, I get the impression that you have just established by DM fiat that the PCs are always able to teleport themselves away (without a weight calculation). This is surely understandable since few of us want to take the time to add up the weight of everything/everyone being teleported every time a Teleport spell is cast. However, you must acknowledge that by making this adjustment, you are making teleportation easier for the PCs. And it should be no surprise, then, that it is much easier for the PCs to exploit your relaxed interpretation of the Teleport spell to avoid dangerous situations.

So, in conclusion, I thought Kid Charlemagne's advice was actually quite good, despite your quick dismissal. It's fine to say that you as a DM want to reduce the book-keeping hassles associated with Teleport. But when you make this short-cut for the PCs, you shouldn't be surprised when they exploit it.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

There are a few other tricks available too. One of the things about teleporting away is that, even if you have the capacity to take everyone with you, you aren't always able to do it. If the party is separated, it may not be possible to grab everyone and teleport away. Simple physical distance or intervening foes can accomplish this. An ankheg, for instance, burrowing up between the wizard and the fighter will force a few contortions before the whole party is able to teleport away. Battlefield control magic can also have a similar effect. Cut the rogue off behind a wall of force and the party has to either stick it out, disintegrate the wall of force, or abandon the rogue. Otiluke's resilient sphere, and wall of ice work just as well. For non-magic using foes, a bead of force will have the same effect on anyone who fails the save. Once the PCs have used teleport to bail once, dimensional anchor is also a good trick. You don't need to dimensional anchor the whole party--getting one of them will suffice. The party will either be forced to abandon that member or to stick it out and win the fight. If you dimensionally anchor the wizard, you've almost assured that there will be no teleporting escapes, but dimensional anchor the cleric and, if the party ditches him, the bad guys can probably wipe the floor with him and the party won't be doing any healing on their own. (To be really nasty against a party with a rep for teleportation retreats, you could ready a dimensional anchor or two so that the party will try to teleport away but will end up leaving some of their members behind to be chewed up. (And, since they will already be teleporting away when they find out about the dimensional anchor, it will be too late to do anything to help the comrades they leave behind).

After a teleportation retreat, the party will typically try to teleport back on the next day and pick up where they left off. There are several tactics that can make this tactic less effective. The anticipate teleportation spells as well as forbiddance and Monte Cook's teleport redirect spells could all be used by bad guys who might logically anticipate that PCs who retreated through magic would try to return through magic. It is also possible for even non-magical foes to trap or watch expected entry points. That, and the inherent risk in teleporting to not-really familiar locations may induce the PCs to teleport to the entrance of the dungeon or some other safe zone rather than to the area they left.

So, what can you do about PCs teleporting to the start and walking back to where they ran into trouble. One thing you can do is restock the dungeon. Enemies could regenerate as they did in Heart of Nightfang Spire. Vampires and ghosts are very good at this. Alternately, enemy reinforcements could arrive. (At a minimum, an evil priest or wizard could turn all of his fallen minions into undead). Planar bindings and allies are also good ways for villains to get reinforcements. Another thing you could do is change the area. A few illusionary wall spells and disintegrate spells will create new pit traps very quickly. Alarm spells and mordenkeinen's faithful hound can also go a ways toward changing the area.

And, of course, having observed the PCs tactics in action and possibly gained more information about them through Speak with Dead, etc, the villains can be prepared for the PCs. Does the PC sorcerer like ray of enfeeblement, magic missile, scorching ray, fireball, and enervation? The BBEG uses resist energy fire and spell immunity for ray of enfeeblement, magic missile, and enervation. Etc.

Or maybe the bad guys just leave. If they figure they've lost 3/4 of their force and just managed to beat the heroes off but the heroes will be back at full strength tomorrow and there's no way that 25% of what managed to just barely hold them off will beat 100% of what nearly won yesterday, the villains can leave a nasty trap behind them and run away to do villainy somewhere else. That won't always be an option but it often will be.

If you keep these things in mind, teleportation retreats will still be an option in the PCs' arsenel but they won't be one that is used constantly.

 

[BSF]

Now, let me preface this by saying that I play 3.0. So if there were significant changes to the spell in 3.5, then what I'm about to say will be moot.

In 3.5 they changed Teleport to accomodate 1 additional person (with load) per 3 caster levels. So your point is valid in a 3.0 game, but not in 3.5. It seems that WotC accomodated the folks looking to change Teleport to be a viable mass transit spell.

That is a useful point though Felon. You could semi-nerf Teleport back to the 3.0 standard.

 

[Staffan]

Now, let me preface this by saying that I play 3.0. So if there were significant changes to the spell in 3.5, then what I'm about to say will be moot. However, in 3.0, you only get to take 50 lbs. per level with you when you teleport.

It changed in 3.5e. Now, you can carry your own maximum load, plus one medium-size creature per three levels, plus their maximum loads. Each size category above Medium doubles how many creatures someone counts as, so a Large creature counts as two, a Huge as four, and so on.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

In 3.5 they changed Teleport to accomodate 1 additional person (with load) per 3 caster levels. So your point is valid in a 3.0 game, but not in 3.5. It seems that WotC accomodated the folks looking to change Teleport to be a viable mass transit spell.

Actually, I think the changes made it less of a mass transit spell. We used to have a good half-hour of discussions about how we could reduce the size/weight of the party to allow 8-9 people to fit into the weight limit. It simplified the spell, and reduced abuse.

 

[Orius]

I rip up the railroad tracks. That usually does the trick.

Seriously, I agree with all the posts here that say to anticipate teleport and work around it. I think DM dislike of the spell comes from two types of DMs: the old guard, and inexperienced DMs. With inexperienced DMs,they're simply not used to all the things PCs can and will do in an adventure. Many will learn.

With the old guard, it's trickier. Many of these guys go back to 2e, 1e or earlier, where campaigns really didn't advance much past 10th level. In the old days, it was all about hitting name level, establishing a stronghold, and getting your boatload of followers, and then retiring a few adventures later. One of the reasons for this was that only clerics and wizards had any reason to advance into the higher levels since they continued to get more spells per day. Fighters and thieves however, tended to max out their abilities around name level, and once that happened players of such characters would often get bored with the characters. When 3e came along, it retooled a lot of high-level play to give characters things to look forward to once 10 level is reached and passed.

High level play has never worked the same way as low level play in D&D, which is something that needs to be kept in mind. Nerfing spells or completely preventing their use does sort of come off as punishing players for being successful and resourcefull, and I agree that it is the easy way out. It's better to design adventures that require use of the abilities if the PC are to have any successs, because after all, they may be among the only people in the campaign world who can do it.