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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8311763" data-attributes="member: 42582">I did have this in mind, yes - it's the Dark Wanderer in Martial Power, an Epic Destiny for rangers and rogues:Dark Road (24th level): You can walk to any destination you desire in a single, uninterrupted 24-hour period of walking. No matter how distant the location, or how many planes separate you from it, you reach the destination 24 hours after you begin, finding shortcuts, portals, or other modes of transport previously unknown to you. You do not require any rest, food, or water during this travel, except to recharge powers and regain healing surges. During your journey, you are safe from hazards, attacks, and other dangers. When choosing a destination, you must be specific. If your destination is within a structure, such as a particular room within a castle, the long walk leads you to the structure’s main entrance, not inside the structure. You can choose to be accompanied by a number of characters equal to 5 + your Wisdom modifier, all of whom share the benefit of this class feature.I frequently read posts saying that 4e limited PC options by spelling things out as abilities like this. The flip side of that has to be that this sort of thing can be done using the ability/skill system in 5e.This is why I prefer skill challenge-style resolution, where the system imposes a finite number of steps to be achieved, and the particular means adopted to pursue those steps tend to shape the fiction rather than the probabilities. (Though spells/rituals, or abilities like Dark Road, might allow automatic success on certain checks.)I've got no objection to any of that. In my 4e campaign the PCs travelled to the land of the winter fey, where they found an icy cliff that they were able to fly down (in their Thundercloud Tower) to enter (via the Obelisk of Ice) the Elemental Chaos.I think the point still stands, that in principal these sorts of ways from place to place might be, and arguably ought to be, knowable to, and traversable by, those who are not mages.To me, this seems to shift the discussion from what, in the fiction, martial PCs are able to do to how, at the table, do we resolve declared actions? Of course, in the fiction traversing a portal, or abseiling to the bottom of a bottomless crevasse, is probably more arduous than casting a spell. But at the table, should it be the more arduous declared action? What is the benefit - if any - to the players of having access to the easier (spell-based) method of travel? The impression I get from the Dark Road ability text is that, for the Dark Walker, this an arduous journey that only they can accomplish - but at the table it seems a pretty straightforward ability to use.Perhaps in the fiction there is a reason why getting there quickly might be helpful. But that won't always be the case.Again, this is why I like the skill challenge or similar-structured approach to resolving these out-of-combat challenges. The fiction can be what it needs to be, but the process at the table is rendered manageable, and spell/ritual-based solutions don't present themselves as the only options.</blockquote>

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