Teleportation

[Black Knight Irios]

One of the major problems was scry > teleport > X.

I would require for a longrange teleport to work that, the caster has to either personally (*1) visit the site he wants to teleport to or know the code phrase for a teleportation circle/portal at the target location.

Casting times for long range teleportation are another matter but for me really not that important (ritual vs. 1 action). I would'n mind if both would be an option and the ritual is fail-safe.

Short range teleportation doesn't matter that much even if it is w/o LoS requirements as long only the caster can use it. He might get behind the door but he is on his own until he opens the door.




(*1): This requirement should by no means be bypasseable by any means of scrying. Maybe if 'Wish' exists and is costly that would be an option.

 

[Lanefan]

I don't mind teleport provided there's some limits and-or drawbacks. In a campaign where you want to have different settings (far north, desert, jungle, temperate, etc.) and don't feel like spending ages of in-game time in travel, teleport or similar is the answer.

First and most important limit to prevent scry-teleport-X is to make it that the caster can only teleport herself and what she is actually carrying, to a hard weight limit that increases (a bit) with each caster level. In other words, you can't teleport a horse unless you can find a way to somehow make it weigh a lot less and then pick it up and carry it; but you can teleport another person along with you provided they're riding piggy-back.

Second is to keep the risk of failure, with a smaller but still possible risk of catastrophic failure e.g. arrive in solid rock.

Third, there need to be some items in the game that can defend a lair/home/temple/etc. against anyone arriving by non-physical means.

The first two above can be beaten by use of a permanent teleport gate, circle, or device - but these can't be built by field adventuring parties. Having these available for city-to-city travel (at significant cost, of course) really helps at mid-high level: the players can get on with it, and the DM doesn't have to run weeks of overland or sea travel - again.

Lan-"using two planeshifts as a Clerical teleport is a whole other breed of rules-messy"-efan

 

[TwoSix]

Teleportation can only be made to locations adorned with a specially prepared rune, about 1 ft. square, with the carving of the rune inlaid with alchemically treated quicksilver (the symbolic metal for swiftness).

Additionally, a wizard can only teleport to a specific rune if the rune has had a small portion of the wizard's blood poured into the rune carving.

That's the flavor of magic I like for D&D.

 

[Stormonu]

For avoiding the Scry-Teleport-Kill strategy, why not institute the Vampire Rule: you cannot teleport across a threshold that you have not been given permission to cross.

Any enemies in their home/lair would be safe, though it would still allow a "stealth approach" to get close (unless it also causes a small "sonic boom" from the sudden air displacement by the arriving/leaving characters).

I like this idea; its kind of like Star Trek's beaming technology not being able to work through shields. If you do want to get through, you've got to do some preliminary work to knock down or otherwise render the shields inoperative.

Inhabited locatations might create some sort of interferance or the superstions/mores of house and hearth may create some sort of natural barrier. This need not be some elaborate ritual; perhaps the simple claim of homeownership might produce a natural block or it might be a boon of the god(ess) of house and hearth. At the least, it makes a great optional rule.

Overall, I think teleportation needs to be in the game based on the fiction it is derived from. As a baseline, I think it should be something you don't want to use unless your very familiar with the destination, but the cost of failure to be the consumption of the spell with no effect or being lost/displaced with a few HP lost in the shuffle. Save the "imbedded in walls" for NPCs or special teleport traps and whatnot.

I'd like to see it be next to impossible to pull a scry-n-die; it should be on the level of effort of breaking in directly and facing the opponent; it just might require a different skill set (scry skill instead of stealth, a personal item taken from the target, possible hp damage getting through any protective barriers/wards/measures, etc.)

 

[CleverNickName]

How do you think 5e should handle teleportation?

Teleport is a messy, messy spell that needs a lot of work.

First of all, let me say that I think the teleport spell belongs in the game. Many scenarios need it, many fantasy novels use it, and some character concepts depend on it. But the 3.X versions are broken on so many levels, it put a bad taste in my mouth. So with that in mind, I suggest 4 things:

1. Make it harder to cast. I think it should be a ritual that requires at least 5 minutes to cast, and it should require very specific material components (some soil from the area you wish to travel to, for example.) Simply scrying the area with magic should not be enough.

2. Stop the buffing. Traveling through the temporal distortion, or time-space continuum, or wormhole, whatever, should end the duration of ongoing magical effects. All buff spells should end when a creature is teleported...that's just one consequence of messing with space-time.

3. Bring back the risk. I think it should always carry at least a 5% chance for failure, no matter what your level. "Failure" should be inconvenient, even dire...but it shouldn't be lethal. I don't remember which edition of the game it was in, but back in the day there was a rule that if your teleport failed, you arrived safely, but you were d% miles away from your desired location in a random direction.

4. But don't go crazy with risk. I never cared for instant death consequences, such as "oops, you teleported into rock" or "oops, you arrive 2,000 feet above the ground." I'd much rather the party arrive in an unknown location, or without half their gear, or both...I think that would be far more interesting than "ha ha, you suck."

Any one of these things would be a step in the right direction, but to truly "fix" the teleport spell, I think all of them should be implemented in the new edition. My two coppers, anyway.

 

[ferratus]

A teleport spell removes Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Conan and any other campaign where distances and wandering matter. If all you are doing is exploring Undermountain or Castle Greyhawk and just want to port to the surface when you want to go home, then teleport is fine. All other campaigns suffer for its inclusion.

If it must be in the game at all, I prefer linked portals or gates. You have fixed places linked to other fixed places, so that players can link their strongholds to their city or a DM can move players from one place to another by placing a gate or portal in the adventure. Linked portals facilitate everything you want to use teleport for, with none of the problems. If you want to move quickly, get a Chariot of Sunstarre, a griffon, or Shadowfax.

I don't particularly like low-level short ranged teleportation either for a few reasons. The most important one is that it really screws up battlefield and siege tactics in a way that few of us can comprehend because we have no real examples of how it changes things. We can understand how flight changes things (no more castles, just bunkers (dungeons)), we can understand how area effect spells change things (by looking at artillery) but there is no analogue to teleportation. I know it pretty much allows you to ignore terrain though, so if you are a person who prefers "Combat as War" over "Combat as Sport" you should have a problem with short range teleportation.

 

[KidSnide]

For avoiding the Scry-Teleport-Kill strategy, why not institute the Vampire Rule: you cannot teleport across a threshold that you have not been given permission to cross.

Any enemies in their home/lair would be safe, though it would still allow a "stealth approach" to get close (unless it also causes a small "sonic boom" from the sudden air displacement by the arriving/leaving characters).

There are lots of ways to get this effect, but - as a general matter - I think the key is to make it difficult to teleport into the middle of an adventure. IMG, we handle this by making teleportation wards relatively easy. They aren't impenetrable, but a heroic level ward will keep out most paragon teleportations. Similarly, I don't have a sonic boom, but even moderately powerful wizards can set up a divination that detects teleportation in the immediate area.

I'm strongly in favor of 4e's teleportation.

• Teleportion of short distances is common, as in a lot of fantasy, sci-fi, and superhero settings. Generally it always requires line of sight.

• 
  
  I don't think short distance teleportation is unbalanced, but I don't find it appropriate to the fantasy genre. Except for "ethereal" style creatures, short distance teleportation always felt much more like a supers ability than a fantasy ability. I don't think it should necessarily be excluded for D&D (as it is appropriate for certain styles of game), but I would have preferred a lot less of it than we see in 4e.
  
  -KS

 

[Dausuul]

You can teleport 1 person to a location of your choice in one action.

You can teleport multiple persons to a general location in one action.

You can teleport multiple person to a location of your choice after a hour casting per person.

I think the "2 of 3 rule" can and should be applied to many iconic spells.

High casting time does nothing to discourage the abusive uses of whole-party teleport. Six hours' casting time still lets you bypass days or weeks of travel, get into any fortress that isn't specifically teleport-warded, and perform scry-'n'-die attacks. The only thing it prevents is using teleportation as an escape hatch to avert TPK; and that, to me, is a desirable use of teleport.

 

[Minigiant]

High casting time does nothing to discourage the abusive uses of whole-party teleport. Six hours' casting time still lets you bypass days or weeks of travel, get into any fortress that isn't specifically teleport-warded, and perform scry-'n'-die attacks. The only thing it prevents is using teleportation as an escape hatch to avert TPK; and that, to me, is a desirable use of teleport.

True. But it would be dependent on the tier of play when it comes to precise multiple person teleportation. Party porting eevery 6-8 hours at level 20 is fine for me.

Though anti-TPK teleport is the second case (multiple persons, general location) where you telport to some nearby location or a predetermined spot or circle.

 

[Dausuul]

True. But it would be dependent on the tier of play when it comes to precise multiple person teleportation. Party porting eevery 6-8 hours at level 20 is fine for me.

I've seldom seen a party want to teleport more often than that, even at level 20+. All the problems I've had with teleporting have involved teleports no more than 1-2 times in a day.