Teleportation range limits and epic teleportation

[Matthias]

An issue with Greater Teleport and Interplanetary Teleport is that no range limit is given. Toying around with what should be possible and what shouldn't, I came up with some rules modifications and a teleportation epic spell to "fill in the gaps", mainly to put a range cap on the lesser spells and also take the teleportation spells to the next level with interstellar teleportation.


TELEPORT
Range: 100 miles per caster level (minimum 900 miles @ caster level 9th)



GREATER TELEPORT
Range: 10,000 miles per caster level (minimum 130,000 miles @ caster level 13th)

Greater Teleport is meant to allow travel between any two locations on a planet's surface (even a large one such as a gas giant), provided we measure the distance _through_ the planet instead of across its surface. This spell is already limited to intra-planetary travel by the following magic.



INTERPLANETARY TELEPORT
Range: 10 million miles per caster level (minimum 170 million miles @ caster level 17th)

Table: Planetary Data
[Planetary masses and years are multiples of Golarian standard]

Aballon (mass: 0.05, year: 0.25, orbit: 35 million miles)

Castrovel (mass 1.00, year: 0.5, orbit: 59 million miles)

Golarion (mass 1, year 1, orbit: 93 million miles)

Akiton (mass: 0.1, year: 2.0, orbit: 150 million miles)

Verces (mass: 1.0, year: 3.0, orbit: 200 million miles)

Nisis[Diaspora] (mass: negligible, year: 4.0?, orbit: 230 million miles?)

Eox (mass: 0.67, year: 5.0, orbit: 270 million miles)

Triaxus (mass: 1.0, natural year unknown)

Liavara (mass: 100.0, year: 12.0, orbit: 480 million miles)

Bretheda (mass: 320.0, year: 30.0, orbit: 900 million miles)

Apostae (mass: 0.01, year: 243.0, orbit: 3,600 million miles)

Aucturn (mass: 2.0, year: 500.0, orbit: 5,900 million miles)

For the sake of simplicity, let's assume negligible orbital eccentricities. Distances between any two terrestrial planets in conjunction--excluding Triaxus--can vary from 24 million miles (Aballon and Castrovel) to 235 million miles (Aballon and Eox). It is a matter of waiting out the days for the planets to properly align, but a caster can use Interplanetary Teleport between almost any two planets in a single "hop" without having to achieve epic level. If allowing for epic levels, a 47th-level caster could cross from Verces to Eox even in opposition. Moreover, interplanetary travelers with a working knowledge of astronomy should be able to navigate their way around the inner solar system more easily, making multiple hops from world to world, than if they attempted to make a straight shot from start to finish.

I left out Triaxus on purpose--we can only guess at the planet's orbital radius since we do not have a conventional planetary year to calculate it from. The planet's weirdness is a useful thing, however. It orbits within a gap of about 210 million miles (at its narrowest) between Eox and the innermost gas giant of Liavara. Because the Triaxan year is so long, it cannot be relied upon as an intermediary stop between the inner and outer system except by the longest-lived races. If one understandably wishes to avoid visiting Eox on their way to the outer planets, the anti-teleportation gap grows even wider, effectively (and perhaps fittingly) confining all non-epic characters and adventuring to the inner worlds. By their descriptions, Apostae and Aucturn would overwhelm lesser heroes.

I didn't want Interplanetary Teleport to be the last word in teleportation. If epic levels and epic rules are to be entertained, then there would have to exist an epic version of teleport.

Here is an an epic teleportation spell using some of the rules from 3.5's Epic Level Handbook, picking up where Interplanetary Teleport leaves off.

INTERSTELLAR TELEPORT (epic spell)
Conjuration [teleportation]
Spellcraft DC: 53
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal and touch
Target: You and touched objects or other touched creatures weighing up to 2,000 lb.
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None and Will negates (object)
Spell Resistance: No and Yes (object)
To Develop: 477,000 gp; 10 days; 19,080 XP. Seed: transport (DC 27). Factors: targets may be unwilling (+4 DC), increase maximum weight by 1,000 lb (+40 DC). Mitigating factors: increase casting time by 9 minutes (-18 DC).


This spell instantly transports you to a designated destination on a world of your choosing, which may be as distant as 1 trillion miles (about one sixth of a light-year) per caster level. You need not have ever seen your destination up close, but you must have the specific world (or moon) in mind that you wish to visit. For example, "the fifth planet of the star in the Stranger's Eye constellation" is specific enough to serve as a valid destination, but "a nice, comfortable planet with a beautiful sandy beach" is not. Interplanar travel is not possible with this spell.

You can bring along objects and other touched creatures (willing or unwilling) as along as your total combined weight doesn’t exceed 2,000 lb. All creatures to be transported must be in contact with one another, and at least one of those creatures must be in contact with you. As with all spells where the range is personal and the target is 'you', you need not make a saving throw, nor is spell resistance applicable to you. Only objects held or in use (attended) by another person receive saving throws and spell resistance.

If you choose a specific location to arrive at on the planet at the time of casting, the spell will deposit you at that exact location (if it exists) or to the nearest immediately-safe location which is visually or thematically similar to your desired destination, if conditions at the original intended destination are immediately life-threatening or have been fundamentally altered as to be unrecognizable. Failing this, the spell will attempt to send you to a random location somewhere on the destination planet whose environment is not immediately hazardous. If no such location exists on the destination planet (such as the planet undergoing some geological natural catastrophe), then the spell simply fails.

 

[Salthorae]

I like the scaling of ability with the higher level teleports. I never liked that a 7th level spell was able to get to other planets so I was excited to see the 9th level spell Interplanetary Teleport from Second Darkness.

I'm not sure that an Epic version or limiting the 9th level spell is really necessary though. The challenges of Apostae and Aucturn's challenges can easily be represented by things that challenge a group of 20th level characters without getting into Epics, though if you want to you can do so... but a 9th level spell is capable of altering reality to suite your wishes, I think one should be able to get you to the farthest planet in a system.

Getting beyond a single solar system would I think require an Epic spell and I like the flavor of the one you've developed... 0.6 Light years/CL is an awesome # to think about I think in the same that the text of Interplanetary Teleport states that Greater Teleport is really limited to a single planet, if you want to add similar language to the text of Interstellar Teleport that states interplanetary teleport is limited to the solar system at a time (with appropriate knowledge & specific named places) it would fit the pattern and be an awesome feat of magic!

Given that you can easily have challenges for Epic characters on or near your own planet, if you want to get Epic go to the planets, if you want to get Uber go to the stars.

 

[Lwaxy]

I don't really want range limits on the same world. I much rather see limits on how often you can teleport. Since abandoning vancian magic for mana points we just have the spell cost more the further away your destination is.

 

[Matthias]

Thanks for your comments, they are much appreciated.

Additional thoughts to the foregoing...the epic spell rules from ELH had built-in limitations for the "spell seeds" used in crafting epic spells, including the one I used for Interstellar Teleport. The Transport seed and its normal weight limit of 1,000 lb excludes the possibility of star-hopping skyships and the like (except maybe for ultralights) and it took a +20 DC just to double the limit to 2,000 lb. Interstellar travel, colonization, and war using interstellar teleport would basically consist of sending a small team of capable magic-users packed with magic items to a new planet and then having them build the colony or war machine from scratch (somewhat like a 4X wargame such as Supreme Commander).

 

[Lwaxy]

In worlds going so far as colonization of other worlds done via space, we usually had a Star Trek like tech level additional to magic With one exception but they were helped by angels so they didn't really overuse the magic.

I don't think I'd allow for transport of any ship though.

One would think some sort of gateways would be the better way to travel than teleports anyway.

 

[Matthias]

It should be possible to create an Epic Teleportation Circle that could be made permanent. I guess you would end up with a fantasy(er) version of Stargate SG-1.

 

[jefgorbach]

Interesting, but seems unneccessary??

RAW already limits teleport (5th) to 100 miles per caster's level, which Greater Teleport (7th) increases to anywhere on the SAME plane; allowing interplanetary/galactic travel provided the caster had some familiarity to base his landing-zone upon ... so the obvious progression would be an unnamed 9th level Plane Shift variant allowing the caster to reach any previously known location within one planar jump (11th level for 2 planes away, etc).

[plane shift's description implies you shift to the equivalent of your current location on the other plane, give/or take 5-500 miles. Increasing the level provides increasing accuracy ala Teleport]

 

[jefgorbach]

Interesting, but seems unneccessary??

RAW already limits teleport (5th) to 100 miles per caster's level, which Greater Teleport (7th) increases to anywhere on the SAME plane; allowing interplanetary/galactic travel provided the caster had some familiarity to base his landing-zone upon ... so the obvious progression would be an unnamed 9th level Plane Shift variant allowing the caster to reach any previously known location within one planar jump (11th level for 2 planes away, etc).

[plane shift's description implies you shift to the equivalent of your current location on the other plane, give/or take 5-500 miles. Increasing the level provides increasing accuracy ala Teleport]

 

[paradox42]

I reached similar, though different, conclusions on what the range limits should be. Greater Teleport effectively has no range limit, for people who stick to their own worlds; this is obvious. What's less obvious is what the range limit should be, for those who go beyond one world. Consider the moon: should Greater Teleport be able to get you there and back? If not, why not? It's not like the moon is very far in cosmic terms, after all.

My own world features time travel magic, based mainly around a spell at 8th level called Time Shift, that allows travel up to 1 day/level into the future or past. So I took that as a benchmark: figuring that time and space are equivalent, that would mean that an 8th-level Teleport spell should be able to get you 1 light-day per level of distance. It'd be reasonable to suggest that a 7th-level effect should be able to get you something like 1 light-second per level, so yes, Greater Teleport can take you to the moon- but not very far beyond it.

Interplanetary Teleport I didn't assign a range limit to, figuring that a 9th-level spell should probably be able to cover an entire universe, but if you want to impose one- 1 light-year per level (or perhaps as high as 10 LY/level or even 100 LY/level) sounds good to me. That'd confine its use to a single galaxy pretty effectively, and force rather slow travel around that territory in fact, while still allowing truly immense vistas to open up.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Thanks for your comments, they are much appreciated.

Additional thoughts to the foregoing...the epic spell rules from ELH had built-in limitations for the "spell seeds" used in crafting epic spells, including the one I used for Interstellar Teleport. The Transport seed and its normal weight limit of 1,000 lb excludes the possibility of star-hopping skyships and the like (except maybe for ultralights) and it took a +20 DC just to double the limit to 2,000 lb. Interstellar travel, colonization, and war using interstellar teleport would basically consist of sending a small team of capable magic-users packed with magic items to a new planet and then having them build the colony or war machine from scratch (somewhat like a 4X wargame such as Supreme Commander).

Or forget doing it by teleportation.

The advance party ports in and builds a gate.