Stop this cheesy mage tactic.

[nameless]

Other posters have pretty much hit upon the solution. If the enemy Wizard doesn't know where the Fighter is, he can't teleport next to him.

To solve this, the Wizard will either Scry or Discern Location, or possibly Discern Location then Clairvoyance if Discern isn't enough information for a Teleport.

If the fighter is immune to the divinations, or uses protective measures like a Screen or False Vision spell, then the Wizard will simply fail to show up at his door.

In a world like D&D's, the only way to ensure that powerful enemies don't get the drop on you is to A) Be somewhere that is inaccessible by any means (Mord's Mansion, Rod of Security) or B) Not let your enemies know where you are.

 

[green slime]

There is no guarantee that the fighter is in the same place between when the scry took place, and the actual teleport.

An amulet of detect scrying or similar device could be handy to have around.

Is it not possible to seclude areas from Astral travel through the placement of large physical objects on the astral plane?

 

[Force0]

Your thinking about the Ethereal GreenSlime, the astral is the one used by teleport and is not at all simmilar to the material plane.

And for the fighter, I like the way Divert teleport works (psionic power), it basicly gives a will save vs where you want him to be.

 

[James McMurray]

I'll repost my suggestion because I believe it may have gotten lost in the shuffle:

It doesn't matter if the wizard knows where the fighter is or not. It doesn't matter if the fighter readies an action or not. All the fighter has to do is change his name and prevent his new name from being discovered (via Mind Blank or similar protective magics) and he cannot be Imprisoned.

 

[Zhure]

Assuming the fighter is concerned about this tactic happening while he's resting, buy a bunch of netting and string it around the campsite, making a mesh just dense enough to make teleporting into the netting impossible. I.e., force the mage to teleport into an unsafe area and thus be shunted to the nearest 'safe' location.

If you're really clever, make the nearest safe location be over a pit trap....

 

[Wolffenjugend]

I don't have my PH in front of me but I don't think it specifies accuracy of destination within 5 feet. Maybe if the wizard is scrying right before he appears, but as a DM I'd give some kind of dramatic effect that announces the impending arrival of the wizard. If the wizard isn't scrying, how's he know EXACTLY where to teleport? It's sort of like a cruise missile - it's target may be a building and it may have a visual lock on it but quite often the missile still doesn't score a direct hit. As a DM, just have the wizard appear a little off from where he wants to arrive. Don't let your players take things for granted. It may seem like a great tactic, but when the wizard arrives 10 feet away and the fighter wins initiative, carve the fool up and let him learn a lesson. Or have an illusion of the fighter in place (with invisible Pit Fiends waiting in ambush, hehehe).

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Introduce the house rule that imprisonment has a save. Bam! One broken spell less.

 

[AuraSeer]

Originally posted by James McMurray
All the fighter has to do is change his name and prevent his new name from being discovered (via Mind Blank or similar protective magics) and he cannot be Imprisoned.

That depends on the DM's ruling. I wouldn't make it that simple.

What does it mean to "change your name" anyway, in a fantasy world? You don't have a driver's license or a social security card to reprint. There's no such thing as a legal name change, where you fill out forms at a government office. Are you saying that a PC can just decide on some random combination of syllables and have that be his real name, even though no one ever addresses him by it or knows what it is?

If it were that easy, everyone on the planet could be immune to imprisonment. Whenever a powerful wizard is about to cast a spell on you, just say to yourself, "My name is now Johnmike-Steviebob Jinglehoosier." Poof, your name is different and you're immune to the spell. When the wizard goes away, change your name back to what it was before. It's totally trivial, and makes this 9th-level spell completely worthless.

 

[Vaxalon]

I would say that a name change would be complete when more people know you by the new name than knew you by the old one.

 

[Artoomis]

A couple things:

1. Teleport is risky when going to an unfamiliar location. Make sure the fighter stays in very plain locations with few, if any, distiguishing charactertistics. One desert looks pretty much like another, for example.

2. Switch to 3.5 and get rid of the two spell per round thing with Haste.

3. Go on the offensive. Get you own wizard and track down the bad guy - teleport in next to him and kill him. The best defense can be a good offense.