D&D 5E Teleport Houserule: Remove the Off-Target %distance

[Lakesidefantasy]

We need to nip this in the bud right now. The distance for being 'off-target' is not 1d10 x 10 miles. It is instead, 1d10 x 1d10 percent of the distance that was to be teleported. Therefore, if we tried to teleport 1 mile, then 1 mile is the maximum distance we can be off target. there is no 100-mile cap. If we tried to teleport 1,000 miles, then we could be off-target by 1,000 miles.

 

[LordEntrails]

The spell already says a similar location (or something like that) so if the players are using a circle and don't get it right, the DM already can consider any unknown circle the DM wants to be the similar location. The inspiration is already there

 

[Fanaelialae]

Something to consider is that, assuming that the players suspect there's a teleportation circle in a certain vicinity that they want to go to (say the fortress of the BBEG, or the lost library of McGuffin) then rather than trying to discover the sigils for the circle, they could attempt a brute force "hack" of the circle using teleport. This interaction might not be desirable, depending on the DM.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

"1d10 x 1d10 percent of the distance that was to be teleported" is not rocket science, and is well within the mathematical skills of most tables.

The main reason why D&D had to be simplified (imho) was for the flow of the game. At my table, teleportation mishaps and off-targets happen once per year. So I really don't care for the few minutes it takes to look up the rules (90% of the effort) and the rolls and calculation (10% of the effort).

A much larger challenge to the DM is where the heck the party ends up. No simplification of the math will help with that. I agree wholy with @Fanaelialae above here that making a party teleport into a circle will be abused quickly. And while any specification of where the party ends up will make it easier to the DM, it will also increase abuse. And that is why it is specified at least twice that the DM does the rolls (and can therefore fudge them to keep the game flowing or make the party pop into a location that does not disrupt the story too much).

 

[Oofta]

People should do what they think is most fun and if teleporting into a nearby circle is more fun, go for it.

I just don't see what it buys. If the party is teleporting into Castle McGuffin with this rule, I have to figure out where the nearest teleportation circle is. Maybe I thought of it ahead of time, maybe I didn't. If I didn't this new rule doesn't buy me anything, I still have to come up with a new location and decide how far away it is which is no different. It would actually be more work for me because teleportation circles are fairly rare and almost always kept secret. Unless abandoned, they are always guarded.

It also limits potential future narratives that could happen in Castle McGuffin. Maybe I have the people transported to a temple a few miles away but later on I want the advisor to the king to be a secret agent who has been using a secret teleportation circle in the basement. I can't do that now.

It's just as easy to roll the dice. If I want a special location then the BBEG has set up a teleportation trap that pulls people in, or perhaps the trap is in some old ruin that's been long forgotten. The latter is actually the easier because then I can sketch out a generic location that I may never use ahead of time. Make it a location that's going to take a bit of effort to escape and it gives me time to think about where it really is. Since teleportation is already a higher level spell, I can create a small dungeon and have a few options of populating it.

 

[Rabulias]

We need to nip this in the bud right now. The distance for being 'off-target' is not 1d10 x 10 miles. It is instead, 1d10 x 1d10 percent of the distance that was to be teleported. Therefore, if we tried to teleport 1 mile, then 1 mile is the maximum distance we can be off target. there is no 100-mile cap. If we tried to teleport 1,000 miles, then we could be off-target by 1,000 miles.

That is the standard teleport rules, yes. Much of this discussion has been about a house rule suggestion that has a 100-mile off target cap. @dave2008 then suggested a house rule option to use 1d10x10 miles off target. I don't think anyone here is confused about the standard rule.

 

[dave2008]

We need to nip this in the bud right now. The distance for being 'off-target' is not 1d10 x 10 miles. It is instead, 1d10 x 1d10 percent of the distance that was to be teleported. Therefore, if we tried to teleport 1 mile, then 1 mile is the maximum distance we can be off target. there is no 100-mile cap. If we tried to teleport 1,000 miles, then we could be off-target by 1,000 miles.

I want to nip this in the bud right now. No one was suggesting the rule is 1d10 x 10 miles. The suggestion was that it could be 1d10 x 10 miles.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Very well, carry on. But I'm watching you guys. No more funny business.

 

[Lanefan]

The only sad thing about missing in "any direction" on a blown teleport is that those directions don't involve any elements of "up" or "down".

I mean, particularly if you're teleporting to the other side of the world, it should be possible to overshoot or undershoot by a few miles...

 

[jgsugden]

Another option that may not appeal to most DMs, but might appeal to some - Have a Deity/Power in your game that has a connection to wild magic or misuse of magic, If the spell is off target, that being decides where it wil redirect within a 100 mile range of the target location.

 

[Lojaan]

1d10x10 is very easy, yes, but unfairly scales, IMO.

RAW, if you teleport 80 miles to the neighboring duchy, the most you can be off target is 80 miles (and that is not likely; more likely to be less than 40 miles off target). 1d10x10 miles would make a flat distribution of equally likely outcomes that could send you 10, 20, 30, etc., up to 100 miles off. Also, if someone wants to burn a teleport spell to travel just one mile, I don't see any value in a mishap taking them more than a mile off target.

RAW, if you teleport to the other side of the planet (assuming an Earth-sized world, that would be either 7900 miles or 12500 miles, depending on if you see teleport taking a straight line to the destination or not), you could end up 7900 miles or 12500 miles off, and even a small error of 1% would be 79 miles or 125 miles off target. Using 1d10x10 would generate error distances between 10 and 100 miles, same as above. I like large distance teleports to be risky, and using 1d10x10 miles negates much of this risk.

Magic be dangerous and fickle. If you burn a teleport spell to travel something as trivial as one mile you absolutely should risk ending up somewhere 100 miles away on a mishap.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]