Stop this cheesy mage tactic.

[Vaxalon]

Teleport is risky when going to an unfamiliar location.

I made a fortress for a high-level game at one point (never ran it) that had hundreds of identical, magical rooms scattered through it. The fortress was enchanted to be able to dimension-door things out of the storage vault in the basement when they were requested by a resident.

"Chair, please." would summon a chair.

Basically, a room took on whatever function was necessary for the moment.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I suggest Atonement for a Name Change. No XP or Quest requirement.

This would symbolize that the gods themselves make the change official

 

[Plane Sailing]

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.

I believe this has changed.

It is now "Will Negates" in 3.5e, and " If you know the target’s name and some facts about its life, the target takes a –4 penalty on its save."

So in 3.5e this tactic is less of a problem.

Cheers

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Give the fighter a weapon with the spellblade ability (+1) tuned against imprisonment. Now laugh as he imprisons the Mage.

Does the fighter know that the wizard will cast Imprisonment?

The fighter needs general defenses. Anti-scrying defenses are pretty good ... anti-Imprisonment defenses aren't as good.

 

[Azul]

Psychic poison (from the BoVD) is a handy anti-scrying tool. Anyone casting divinations (like scrying) at the poison-bearing creature/object/location has to save or take mental ability score damage. Nothing like crippling the wiz/sorc's mental stats to limit his spellcasting. You can't cast imprisonment if you are too dumb/uncharismatic to cast 9th level spells.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Well one way to deal with this is to keep the initiative rules in mind.

Characters are not in initiative order until two conditions are met: at least one side is aware of the other and is able to interact with the other side.

So the wizard scries the fighter. The wizard buffs. The wizard teleports (quickened or otherwise).

Then you roll for initiative. (Depending upon how obvious you view teleport to be, you might make the fighter make a spot/listen check to avoid the wizard getting a surprise round). If the fighter notices the wizard and wins initiative, he has a chance to either flee (helm of teleportation, on foot, or by whatever means he has available to him) or quickdraw his sword and lay the smack down. (Giving the fighter a ring of spell storing with quickened true strike, an energy burst scythe (or heavy pick or mercurial greatsword), power attack, and Power Critical would enable him to (probably) lay down enough smack to kill the wizard in round 1).

Scry+teleport doesn't mean automatically gaining initiative.

Other than that, the fighter can move around. If the wizard scries him sitting in his chamber then spends a minute buffing, it's possible he could have moved by the time the wizard teleports in--maybe he just moved to the liquor closet to have a glass of brandy, maybe he moved to the chair that's in/out of the sun, and maybe he left for dinner, an rezendvous, a council, or the toilet.

The fighter can also get a good amulet against location and detection made. (No character with powerful enemies should be without something like that unless they have allies who can cast detect scrying and/or mind blank).

The fighter could also pay to have his chambers protected by a forbiddance spell.

You could also institute house rules about mundane materials blocking scrying and/or teleportation. Perhaps mixing gorgon's blood in the mortar protects against teleportation and gilding the room (or putting a thin sheet of lead behind the wallpaper) prevents scrying. Such rules were in 1e and 2e.

 

[reapersaurus]

All of these solutions (with the possible exception of the Spellblade enchantment) seem problematic to me.

I think it's much simpler, and in line with heroic gaming, to just nerf Teleport to be a transportational spell only. That's powerful enough for a 5th level spell, to completely change the rules of movement.

To allow it to be used strategically, placing the wizard within surprise-melee range opportunity, seems at odds with my impression of magic in a heroic fantasy world.

But I've posted about this for years, and most people don't view the 'heroic fairness' of 3E magic as I do, but there are some who have problems with 3E magic used in this fashion...

 

[reapersaurus]

Caliban said:
Kill the mage while he is preparing his spells for the day.

that's a good one.

 

[James McMurray]

Well one way to deal with this is to keep the initiative rules in mind.

Characters are not in initiative order until two conditions are met: at least one side is aware of the other and is able to interact with the other side.

So the wizard scries the fighter. The wizard buffs. The wizard teleports (quickened or otherwise).

Then you roll for initiative. (Depending upon how obvious you view teleport to be, you might make the fighter make a spot/listen check to avoid the wizard getting a surprise round). If the fighter notices the wizard and wins initiative, he has a chance to either flee (helm of teleportation, on foot, or by whatever means he has available to him) or quickdraw his sword and lay the smack down. (Giving the fighter a ring of spell storing with quickened true strike, an energy burst scythe (or heavy pick or mercurial greatsword), power attack, and Power Critical would enable him to (probably) lay down enough smack to kill the wizard in round 1).

Scry+teleport doesn't mean automatically gaining initiative.

Other than that, the fighter can move around. If the wizard scries him sitting in his chamber then spends a minute buffing, it's possible he could have moved by the time the wizard teleports in--maybe he just moved to the liquor closet to have a glass of brandy, maybe he moved to the chair that's in/out of the sun, and maybe he left for dinner, an rezendvous, a council, or the toilet.

The fighter can also get a good amulet against location and detection made. (No character with powerful enemies should be without something like that unless they have allies who can cast detect scrying and/or mind blank).

The fighter could also pay to have his chambers protected by a forbiddance spell.

You could also institute house rules about mundane materials blocking scrying and/or teleportation. Perhaps mixing gorgon's blood in the mortar protects against teleportation and gilding the room (or putting a thin sheet of lead behind the wallpaper) prevents scrying. Such rules were in 1e and 2e.

Heck, it might even be good to consider the teleport itself to be the surprise round, thus all the fighter (or a friend) has to do is win initiative.

I like the idea of Atonement for name changing. I didn't mean that they could just think a new name to themselves. I was viewing names as a "true name source of power" type of thing. It would require magic to change one's true name, but could be done.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Heck, it might even be good to consider the teleport itself to be the surprise round, thus all the fighter (or a friend) has to do is win initiative.

Yes, but that's why the wizard is Hasted (3.0) or Shapechanged into a Choker (3.5) before he teleports...

-Hyp.