Why would an adventuring group want a circle in their homebase? Why go through the expense of protecting the thing from all your enemies(the allies of those you slaughter and loot)? It'd be like putting up your house next to an airport in a 3rd world country. It's both more convenient for you and them.
Teleportation Circles
- Thread starter Duelpersonality
- Start date
Saeviomagy
Adventurer
The reason there is no ritual to construct such a thing is that creating a home base is outside the purview of the basic rules.
Specifically - a home base will only have value if the DM makes it have value. If he does not, then investing character resources into a home base is something done purely out of role-playing drives. Furthermore, it hurts the characters who choose to do it.
If you are a DM who intends the players to have a home base, then you must both give that base value AND give the players the resources to account for that value. For the sake of simplicity, it's probably best if the resources are not counted in gold pieces - because if they are, you run the risk of the players taking resources that are supposed to go towards building their keep and maintaining a feifdom on buying a snazzy magic sword and unbalancing the game in unpredictable ways.
In otherwords - the worth of a home base is wholly determined by story. Because of that it behooves the DM to set the price of a home base in terms of story as well.
Specifically - a home base will only have value if the DM makes it have value. If he does not, then investing character resources into a home base is something done purely out of role-playing drives. Furthermore, it hurts the characters who choose to do it.
If you are a DM who intends the players to have a home base, then you must both give that base value AND give the players the resources to account for that value. For the sake of simplicity, it's probably best if the resources are not counted in gold pieces - because if they are, you run the risk of the players taking resources that are supposed to go towards building their keep and maintaining a feifdom on buying a snazzy magic sword and unbalancing the game in unpredictable ways.
In otherwords - the worth of a home base is wholly determined by story. Because of that it behooves the DM to set the price of a home base in terms of story as well.
IceFractal
First Post
Why have a teleport circle near your home base?
Maybe because it makes teleporting less expensive by a large factor? Or maybe because it lets you return there quickly?
Sure, it can be a weak point - if you let it. But nobody says you have to put the circle in a convenient invasion location. Try outside but nearby your base, surrounded by traps that only you have the key for. Or if you want an "exit only" circle, use the new Teleport Catcher ritual and shunt anyone entering the circle to a pit of lava.
And while it may be possible that the circles are common enough for most cities and guilds to have them, and yet are all relics of ancient times that nobody can make anymore ... its rather unlikely, and more importantly, it feels like disempowering the players. "Nyah nyah, NPCs can make teleportation circles but you can't, you better just go where I tell you".
There are few enough ways left for PCs to shape the world in 4E - at least let them pick where they want to travel.
Maybe because it makes teleporting less expensive by a large factor? Or maybe because it lets you return there quickly?
Sure, it can be a weak point - if you let it. But nobody says you have to put the circle in a convenient invasion location. Try outside but nearby your base, surrounded by traps that only you have the key for. Or if you want an "exit only" circle, use the new Teleport Catcher ritual and shunt anyone entering the circle to a pit of lava.
And while it may be possible that the circles are common enough for most cities and guilds to have them, and yet are all relics of ancient times that nobody can make anymore ... its rather unlikely, and more importantly, it feels like disempowering the players. "Nyah nyah, NPCs can make teleportation circles but you can't, you better just go where I tell you".
There are few enough ways left for PCs to shape the world in 4E - at least let them pick where they want to travel.
For me, I'm glad they left it out. My players have no business messing around making teleportation circles exactly like the ones left there for the last 5,000 years.
The PCs can travel anywhere they like. They just can't do so instantaneously and without risk of encounters along the way.
shinobi_guyver
First Post
Major cities could have been built around a previously established circle after they were found, the circle becoming the "Town Square" with shops and homes built around it.
To expand on the "Forgotten Lore" idea for permanent circle, what if they were created from an ancient artifact.
After examining the circles, it could be determined that the only way to create more permanent circles would be to locate a specific artifact and activate it, which would create a new permanent circle where it was activated.
This could be used as an adventure hook for players that want their own permanent teleportation circles.
To expand on the "Forgotten Lore" idea for permanent circle, what if they were created from an ancient artifact.
After examining the circles, it could be determined that the only way to create more permanent circles would be to locate a specific artifact and activate it, which would create a new permanent circle where it was activated.
This could be used as an adventure hook for players that want their own permanent teleportation circles.
Alternately, just make it fairly inconvenient:
Creating a teleportation circle requires taking precise sidereal readings every night at midnight for a year and a day. This involves a specially tuned astrolabe (1000 gp) and lodestone (100 gp). Performing the reading requires a DC 20 Arcana check (or DC 30 if it is overcast and you can't see the stars) each night. At any time after you have compiled the sidereal coordinates, you can perform a 24-hour ritual (requiring 10,000 gp of arcane reagents and a DC 20 Arcana check) to create the circle on that spot.
Thus, only the wealthy have the time and resources to create the circles. PCs who want to create one should probably hire a guy to do the readings (and hire another guy to control the weather for a year).
-- 77IM
Creating a teleportation circle requires taking precise sidereal readings every night at midnight for a year and a day. This involves a specially tuned astrolabe (1000 gp) and lodestone (100 gp). Performing the reading requires a DC 20 Arcana check (or DC 30 if it is overcast and you can't see the stars) each night. At any time after you have compiled the sidereal coordinates, you can perform a 24-hour ritual (requiring 10,000 gp of arcane reagents and a DC 20 Arcana check) to create the circle on that spot.
Thus, only the wealthy have the time and resources to create the circles. PCs who want to create one should probably hire a guy to do the readings (and hire another guy to control the weather for a year).
-- 77IM
If I don't want my players messing around with something. I just tell them this isn't in my game, i do not want to deal with it and its ramifications. It seems to work for us. It is a bit harder to insert something that hasn't been written into my game, since I have to try and balance it with wild guesses and no playtesting.
Seconded. I hope they'll never put rules for this in writing unless they also point out it's only available for npcs.
As it is teleportation circles are a plot device. The pcs will not be able to put a teleportation circle anywhere unless the DM wants them to. This is a good change!
