D&D 5E Teleport /fly /misty step the bane of cool dungeon design is RAW in 5E

[Coroc]

5E makes it far to easy (for some style of campaigns) to get these superpowers.

Question: Should these not rather be optional?

How do I restrict these without nerfing certain races / classes?

How do I partially restrict these? Is there stuff like a dimensional anchor in 5E?

Would a sorcerer / FS be totally nerfed if he aint getting these wings? What do I give him instead?

Is it politically uncorrect not to allow a monk to shadowstep out of any shackles?

If I want to have realistic Donjons and castles in my game do I have to add iron bars on each window and inside locks and bars to tower top trapdoors to prevent PCs shadowstepping or fly-avoiding every basic medieval obstacle versus unwanted entry into a compound?

Is that waterfall a mere beauty of nature and perfect scenery of the Teleport X-games or a real obstacle for the PCs?

Sir Braveinwood the eladrin paladin fearlessly shadowsteps on the back of the hovering Dragon does he have to roll athletics or acrobatics for this?


Start ranting please

 

[LordEntrails]

...
If I want to have realistic Donjons and castles in my game do I have to add iron bars on each window and inside locks and bars to tower top trapdoors to prevent PCs shadowstepping or fly-avoiding every basic medieval obstacle versus unwanted entry into a compound?

"Realistic"? You mean you want things to behave and act the same way you imagine they worked in medieval Europe where only humans lived and no magic existed?

Then why don't you just restrict everything to humans and ban magic all together?

If that's not what you want, then why can't the guy who builds the jail put magic onit to prevent such? Why wouldn't a castle have a permanent Alarm on the windows? Why wouldn't those who could afford it or arrange it have magical counter-measures?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Private Sanctum can be cast in such a way that its results are permanent, and you could rule that it prevents teleportation within the affected area as well as into the affected area. You could have entire dungeons covered in the effect.

As for flight, I recommend wind. Flying in wind requires some sort of check, with failure causing fall damage - if you're using wings, then it's Athletics; if you're using magic, then it's a concentration check. For flight with wings, enforce a minimum clearance for operation.

 

[Oofta]

5E makes it far to easy (for some style of campaigns) to get these superpowers.

Question: Should these not rather be optional?

How do I restrict these without nerfing certain races / classes?

How do I partially restrict these? Is there stuff like a dimensional anchor in 5E?

Dimensional shackles will stop someone from all types of teleportation.

Would a sorcerer / FS be totally nerfed if he aint getting these wings? What do I give him instead?

Is it politically uncorrect not to allow a monk to shadowstep out of any shackles?

Blindfold them. Or dimensional shackles.

If I want to have realistic Donjons and castles in my game do I have to add iron bars on each window and inside locks and bars to tower top trapdoors to prevent PCs shadowstepping or fly-avoiding every basic medieval obstacle versus unwanted entry into a compound?

Is that waterfall a mere beauty of nature and perfect scenery of the Teleport X-games or a real obstacle for the PCs?

Sir Braveinwood the eladrin paladin fearlessly shadowsteps on the back of the hovering Dragon does he have to roll athletics or acrobatics for this?


Start ranting please

As far as teleporting onto the back of a dragon, the teleportation is not the issue, it's holding on to a pissed off dragon that becomes problematic. I treat it similar to a grapple check or fall off. Of course the question becomes - is the dragon in shadow? How is the paladin teleporting up there? I simply rule that shadows have to be pretty distinct to use shadow step. It happens frequently, but it take something more than a passing cloud.

Something else I do is simply say that there is other magic that is preventing dimensional travel. This can just be some magic not available to PCs. Other options are spells such as Forbiddance or Hallow.

A different trick is to have a "teleportation trap". Go to teleport? You need to make some kind of check (usually Arcana, although I'd allow a wisdom check for monks, etc) or you are sucked into the deepest darkest dungeon.

The spells available to players is not the sum total of magic or magical effects in my campaigns and the players know it. I don't abuse it, but since I want castles (for example) to be powerful fortifications I don't want them to be as easy to circumvent as teleporting into the main keep because you had a spy pick up a piece of straw from the floor.

I also give people warnings when it could be dangerous, either rumors or "something just doesn't feel right" and so on.

I once stole an idea from a movie (X-Men?) that the person that was constantly doing short distance teleports was attracting unwanted attention, and in a particular location it was dangerous to continue to do so. He ignored the warning and had to fight a "grue".

But be careful. You don't want to take away all their toys, so use sparingly.

 

[Caliban]

Yes, these issues are indeed unique to 5e. If only these types of spells had existed in previous editions, we might have been able to draw upon examples from the past to see how to deal with them.

 

[Ketser]

A lot of short range teleportation abilities require the character to see the locations, so its actually really easy to limit them. You can also use some subterfuge to bait the character to use the ability too early or trick him to waste it in some other way.

In general every classic obstacle becomes less and less of a matter as the levels get higher, already level 5 being the point where most obstacles become relatively irrevelant, requiring a DM to adapt and become creative. 1st level teleportation can feel a bit unfitting, but has no real impact in the long run.

And lets be honest characters with PC classes are meant to be rare. So most castles and dungeons stay relatively the same. Smarter rules probably take some precautions, perhaps a room or part of caste might have some wards or supernatural guardians. Other locations might have more extensive protections...

Also the relative rarity of PC-s and progression of levels should be always considered. A 6th level way of shadows monk shouldn't be treated like a random thug. if the captor knows his capacities, then the monk will be kept in a room filled with so many light sources that there are no shadows in the room and/or bound with special crystal chains that basically bind the monk to his location in a way that teleportation would be hampered.

Also about teleporting to a dragons back... in my book, its f'''ng awesome, i would let the character to make his attack and then ask for a acrobatics check.

 

[Coroc]

Yes, these issues are indeed unique to 5e. If only these types of spells had existed in previous editions, we might have been able to draw upon examples from the past to see how to deal with them.

Hm, a smiley eventually next time pls to mark sarcasm

Yes, these powers have been around in earlier editions, but in 1e /2e they were hard to aquire and easy to cancel e.g. the whole undermountain dungeon stated: teleportation not possible, eat it players.

It was not assumed that any mage could learn any spell he wanted to.

Dead magic zones cancel out anything, and teleportation was risky.

Flying PC races / classes did not exist on a big scale until 3e splatbooks.

In 4e afaik, I never played it, it was considered part of the movement or so but if that is the case it was nothing so special.

 

[Tony Vargas]

In 4e afaik, I never played it, it was considered part of the movement or so but if that is the case it was nothing so special.

It did consider flight and short-distance teleportation to be forms of movement. Flight was pushed to higher levels and given shorter durations, short-distance teleport movement required line of sight, had to teleport you to a surface, etc... Long-distance teleport was a ritual requiring a 'circle' with a known 'sigil sequence' (a horizontal stargate, really) at both ends.

In both cases, there were odd exceptions for racial powers: Eladrin could teleport 5, 1/encounter and pixies could fly 24/7 - well, hover, they had an altitude limit.

5E makes it far to easy (for some style of campaigns) to get these superpowers.

You could push them to higher level.

Question: Should these not rather be optional?

Prettymuch everything is optional, in that, as the DM, you can go ahead and ban it. Spells, in particular, it's as simple as change the class lists.

How do I restrict these without nerfing certain classes?

There are plenty of other spells to go 'round. Don't worry about it.

How do I partially restrict these? Is there stuff like a dimensional anchor in 5E?

Even if there isn't, you can always tack it onto a monster's attack or a trap or an area.

Would a sorcerer / FS be totally nerfed if he aint getting these wings? What do I give him instead?

You can take pity on the sorcerer.

Is it politically uncorrect not to allow a monk to shadowstep out of any shackles?

No, it is incorrect. In general, Orientalism demands you give the Monk a free pass.

If I want to have realistic Donjons and castles in my game do I have to add iron bars on each window and inside locks and bars to tower top trapdoors to prevent PCs shadowstepping or fly-avoiding every basic medieval obstacle versus unwanted entry into a compound?

Yes. Among other things. Lots of other things.

Sir Braveinwood the eladrin paladin fearlessly

Points for RP.

shadowsteps on the back of the hovering Dragon does he have to roll athletics or acrobatics for this?

If you call for the check, he better roll it. It'd behoove him to hit the DC you call for, too. Remember, 35 is 'virtually impossible.'

 

[Scott Steven Bell]

Anti magic zones FTW!

 

[Caliban]

Hm, a smiley eventually next time pls to mark sarcasm

Yes, these powers have been around in earlier editions, but in 1e /2e they were hard to aquire and easy to cancel e.g. the whole undermountain dungeon stated: teleportation not possible, eat it players.

It was not assumed that any mage could learn any spell he wanted to.

Dead magic zones cancel out anything, and teleportation was risky.

There you go, several ways of handling it. I kind of disagree with your comments about 1e/2e. I think it really depends on the DM - I don't remember flight being that hard to achieve in 2e, at any rate.

3rd edition was the bulk of my playing and DM experience. It never seemed to be that big of an issue to me.

The main thing to remember is: the bad guys know about these abilities too, and will plan accordingly. Too many campaigns seem to assume that only the PC's have access to these abilities or that NPC's and intelligent monsters who don't have them are completely unaware of the fact that other creatures can fly or teleport.

In my 5e home campaign, rune magic is frequently used to create prison cells or shackles that nullify magic. It's mainly the province of NPC's, since it requires the runes to be carved into stone or metal before they can be activated. Not something you can do in combat. (It's not just used for anti-magic cells - castles walls and city walls are also reinforced with rune magic.)