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unre9istered
2010-06-17, 02:40 PM
Teleportation is one of the bigger gripes I see regarding spells that ruin things for DM's. I've had a few ideas on how to limit it and thought I'd post them here:

The Astral Tempest
No one's quite sure what caused it. Or if they are they aren't talking. Fluctuation in the Astral Plane began interfering with travel. Not within the Astral Plane, it was only noticeable as a slight iridescence on the horizon there, but any travel that went through the Astral plane. All spells of the teleportation subschool were affected (Note: powerful spells capable of duplicating the effects of teleportation spells, such as Wish and Miracle are unaffected by the Astral Tempest. Divine powers are also unaffected. Gate when used to summon a creature is also unaffected.). Spells that only worked, or were used, for line of sight travel were affected so insignificantly as to be unnoticeable. If a spell was used to reach a place that was out of line of sight and more than 100' away, however, it was always off target (as per the off target mishap of the teleport spell).

Timely Solution
Within hours of the first noted incident of Astral Tempest related mishaps, mage's guilds were being provided a partial solution: Waypoint Stones. Fortunately most of the beings affected by the Astral Tempest were powerful enough to whether their misplacement. Only a few isolated casualties occurred.

Waypoint Stones are the most minimally magical item it is currently possible to make. Even less energy is required to make one than an Arcane Mark. They are supremely useful items that make long range teleportation possible again. A Waypoint Stone acts as an optional material focus for any teleportation spell. If the arrival location of the spell is within 100' of the stone's origin then the spell works as normal, unaffected by the Asteral Tempest.

Crafting a Waypoint Stone requires a DC 15 Knowledge Geography check. If the crafter possesses at least 5 ranks in Knowledge the Planes then they get a +2 synergy bonus to this check. Copying an existing Waypoint Stone is also possible, but takes a -10 penalty to the Knowledge check. It takes 1 hour of uninterrupted work to fashion a Waypoint Stone. A Waypoint Stone treats as its origin the location in which it was created (or the origin of the stone copied). A Waypoint Stone requires the usage of a 25gp gem of any sort. Waypoint Stones to common teleportation locations, such as mage's guilds or cosmopolitan cities, are commonly sold at component shops for 50gp. Identifying the origin of a Waypoint Stone is +10 to the DC to create it.

New Spell:
CRAFT WAYPOINT STONE
Transmutation
Level: Bard 1, Cleric 1, Druid 1, Sorcerer/Wizard 1, (anyone with a spell that needs one) 1
Components: V,S
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: 0'
Target: Non-magical Gem worth at least 25gp
Duration: Instantaneous]

This spell causes a gem to become a Waypoint Stone with an origin of your current location. A 5th level or higher caster can choose to copy and existing stone instead. If they choose to do so, the existing stone becomes a focus for the spell.




Increased Security
The Astral Tempest created an opportunity for greater security for many. To gain the ability to teleport somewhere, you had to have been there, or gotten a Waypoint Stone from someone who had. Enterprising artificers invented new items to enhance the new security possibilities:

Interdiction Stone: A 10" Magnatite (Lodestone) Brick that prevents any Waypoint Stones from being crafted within 150' of its location (Waypoint Stones that already exist for such a location continue to function, but can no longer be copied), creating a 50' radius zone that cannot be safely teleported to without difficulty. These items are popular with royal treasuries, banks, museums, magic item sellers, and anyone else with easily transportable, valuable items to keep secure.
Greater Interdiction Stones exist in the form of 1 ton blocks of Magnetite (sometimes carved into statues or other decorative items) that block all Waypoint Stone creation within 1 mile of their location, often used to protect royal palaces, prisons, and other restricted locations.
Faint abjuration; CL 5th; Craft Wondrous Item, anticipate teleport; Price
1500gp (normal), 75000gp (greater) (The Astral Tempest makes this item far easier to create than it otherwise would have been.).

Tempest Globe: A 5" diameter hollow crystal sphere filled with an irridescent fluid. When the sphere is shattered, the fluid evaporates and all Waypoint Stones whose origins lie within 150' are erased, causing them to become inert gems. Like Interdiction Stones, Tempest Globes are used by security minded individuals. However only the most paranoid or careful individuals use Tempest Globes, given their cost.
Strong abjuration; CL 18th; Craft Wondrous Item, zone of respite; Price 9000gp

Too much? Not enough? Questions? Let me know what you think.

Ranos
2010-06-17, 02:45 PM
Sounds good, provided it's a major part of your campaign. If not, you went to so much detail that you can reasonably expect your players to derail the campaign to try and solve it.

Darklord Xavez
2010-06-17, 02:50 PM
Barely enough. It lets playeres teleport to major cities/mage guilds, but otherwise, teleportation is pretty useless. I like how dimension door/dimension slide still work though. What about Shadow Walk? And shouldn't Astral Projection fail automatically? (It can be used for transport, after all)

Though I noticed one hole in this: Dream Travel. Psionic power, same level as teleport, lets you travel through (but not change) the world of dreams and thus doesn't use the astral plane. Also, would it affect things such as Astral Construct (psionics again)? They use material from the astral plane, after all. Or is it just travel?

So, questions consolidated:

Does Shadow Walk still function?
Does Astral Projection fail?
What about Dream Travel?
Do Astral Construct powers (and similar) still function?

My 2 cents,
Xavez

unre9istered
2010-06-17, 02:51 PM
Sounds good, provided it's a major part of your campaign. If not, you went to so much detail that you can reasonably expect your players to derail the campaign to try and solve it.

True, you'd have to either let them beat their heads against an unbreakable wall for a while until they give up, or tell your players that this isn't the plot, just a new part of the setting.



So, questions consolidated:

Does Shadow Walk still function?
Does Astral Projection fail?
What about Dream Travel?
Do Astral Construct powers (and similar) still function?



It only affects spells of the Teleportation subschool but affects all of those spells equally (as written). Not sure about Dream Travel off hand, but the rest don't fit that criteria.

Snake-Aes
2010-06-17, 02:54 PM
Since you listed a lot of exceptions, it's probably easier to just say "long-range teleport subtypes of arcane conjuration are all messed up".
It might be a good idea to also remove altogether the "personal familiarity lets you do it without error" bit, demanding the precision McGuffins to port unerringly.

You're bound to make it a major part of the campaign, even if it isn't solvable by the players. For a new campaign you might as well define such things as a basic part of the game mechanics.

Keld Denar
2010-06-17, 03:04 PM
Is Interdiction Stone ment to be 10 feet? (as notated by 10')? Or 10 inches? Cause 10' of magnetite would be bother rediculously expensive (way more than any enchantment placed on it) and rediculously heavy.

Magnatite (Fe3O4) has a specific gravity of 5.18, meaning 1 meter cubed is 5180 kg. Multiply that by .0624 to get ~323 lbs per ft cubed. Assuming a 10' cube is 10' x 10' x 10', you have a volume of 1000 ft cubed resulting in a weight of 323,000, or almost 162 US Tons.

If you ment 10 inches, or 10", it would weight significantly less, 186.5 lbs. Still difficult to transport by hand, but not oppressively so.

Just curious. I do like it though!

Dragosai
2010-06-17, 03:06 PM
Easy fix, play 4th ED, teleport problem solved. Or just change teleport to function more like 4th ED and make it a ritual that takes hours so it's not an instant ah ha the PC's can use at a moment’s notice. Of course there always is the fact that if they use teleport to bypass encounters to get at the big bad, said big bad might be several levels above the PC's and just wipe the floor with them. Expressing that in game terms can be somewhat tough, but a simple line of "you know you are not yet powerful enough to face (big bad) just yet, sometimes works. 3.X teleport is one of several dozen reasons people who like 4th over 3.X play it, and vice versa. High level play in 3.X with any kind of caster just makes no sense, unless the DM just does the "hey I am the DM and that just does not work cause I say so" any problem can be solved by the caster giving a list of spells they cast to th DM. I call it shopping list D&D.

Darklord Xavez
2010-06-17, 03:15 PM
Easy fix, play 4th ED, teleport problem solved. Or just change teleport to function more like 4th ED and make it a ritual that takes hours so it's not an instant ah ha the PC's can use at a moment’s notice. Of course there always is the fact that if they use teleport to bypass encounters to get at the big bad, said big bad might be several levels above the PC's and just wipe the floor with them. Expressing that in game terms can be somewhat tough, but a simple line of "you know you are not yet powerful enough to face (big bad) just yet, sometimes works. 3.X teleport is one of several dozen reasons people who like 4th over 3.X play it, and vice versa. High level play in 3.X with any kind of caster just makes no sense, unless the DM just does the "hey I am the DM and that just does not work cause I say so" any problem can be solved by the caster giving a list of spells they cast to th DM. I call it shopping list D&D.

And if he doesn't have any of the 4th edition books...

Also, he isn't using "hey I am the DM and that just does not work cause I say so" because he has a good reason, which could be worked into the story.
-Xavez

subject42
2010-06-17, 03:23 PM
One caveat that my gaming group has put into our games is that unless you are a member of a race that normally navigates in a 3d environment (eg Dwarves, Kobolds, some flying creatures), you can only control your teleportation in two of the three dimensions.

The end result is that most large population centers contain a raised teleportation platform that is exactly level with every other raised teleportation platforms on the continent. If the elevation difference is too intense, there may be two platforms and a ladder.

The best side effect of this is that we introduced a character once by having him perform an emergency teleport. He fell through a portal that was about 20 feet off of the ground and broke his fall on an Ogre Mage.

Snake-Aes
2010-06-17, 03:28 PM
And if he doesn't have any of the 4th edition books...

Also, he isn't using "hey I am the DM and that just does not work cause I say so" because he has a good reason, which could be worked into the story.
-Xavez

Strictly speaking, he's putting some plot behind "damn, stop doing scry-die!".

As said before, I believe the lacking consistency can be helped with this:

Arcane teleportation effects (teleportation subschool of conjuration, which are all actual teleports) are flunking for long-range movement, unless you have a beacon (henceforth called "Teleport McGuffin") that was created at the spot you want to teleport to. Familiarity or past visits to the place do not help you.

Most spells that are "sort of" teleports, like Gate and summons are safe, given they are summoning/calling effects instead of teleportation effects.
Outbound teleports are not precise, and Inbound teleports (is this possible?) have a chance to fail (not "grabbing" the target to port it to you).

The Teleport McGuffin can have multiple shapes, like a spell that binds the person to the target area, or item that is bound to that area(the OP's example serves this). Said McGuffin doesn't have to follow you with the teleport, or can be consumed after the teleport.

Darklord Xavez
2010-06-17, 03:34 PM
Strictly speaking, he's putting some plot behind "damn, stop doing scry-die!".

As said before, I believe the lacking consistency can be helped with this:

Arcane teleportation effects (teleportation subschool of conjuration, which are all actual teleports) are flunking for long-range movement, unless you have a beacon (henceforth called "Teleport McGuffin") that was created at the spot you want to teleport to. Familiarity or past visits to the place do not help you.

Most spells that are "sort of" teleports, like Gate and summons are safe, given they are summoning/calling effects instead of teleportation effects.
Outbound teleports are not precise, and Inbound teleports (is this possible?) have a chance to fail (not "grabbing" the target to port it to you).

The Teleport McGuffin can have multiple shapes, like a spell that binds the person to the target area, or item that is bound to that area(the OP's example serves this). Said McGuffin doesn't have to follow you with the teleport, or can be consumed after the teleport.

What is UP with people and McGuffin? Why not GcMuffin?
-Xavez

Snake-Aes
2010-06-17, 03:38 PM
What is UP with people and McGuffin? Why not GcMuffin?
-Xavez

McGuffin (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGuffin) is just a name that has been put to more or less formal use.

jiriku
2010-06-17, 04:13 PM
I've never had any gripes with teleport, as a player or DM. For those who do, however, I like this solution. It's more colorful and interesting than "your spell fails because I said so". It provides a means of circumventing the restriction (waystones). And it encourages interesting plot hooks and adventures centered around around locating and obtaining waystones to specific places.

unre9istered
2010-06-17, 04:13 PM
Yeah, the Interdiction Stone should have been 10" not 10'. It's not meant to be portable either way, so weighing more than 100 lbs works fine.

Stopping scry and die was the idea, yes. I didn't want to go with a 4th ed style because I'm not that familiar with 4th and wanted a way to teleport back to a dungeon midway through (if you have time to make a Waypoint Stone and it's not Interdicted). Basically I'm aiming for a Morrowind style of teleportation, but with a D&D flavor.

Snake-Aes
2010-06-17, 05:28 PM
Yeah, the Interdiction Stone should have been 10" not 10'. It's not meant to be portable either way, so weighing more than 100 lbs works fine.

Stopping scry and die was the idea, yes. I didn't want to go with a 4th ed style because I'm not that familiar with 4th and wanted a way to teleport back to a dungeon midway through (if you have time to make a Waypoint Stone and it's not Interdicted). Basically I'm aiming for a Morrowind style of teleportation, but with a D&D flavor.
It's a good idea, and as long as only totally non-portable McGuffins are the ones that point to themselves, you should be fine.

Grommen
2010-06-17, 08:35 PM
Is your issue that it allows your players too much freedom of movement, or that they tend to zip around the planet and you can't build traveling encounters anymore?

My simple house rule; cause I believe that adventures are not just about the beginning and end boss, but the travel in between. Is that they can't simply teleport to a place they have never been. Ergo they have to travel their at least once in their adventuring carrier. After that if they need to zip back to "The Bizarre of Alaka'zam's" you don't really need to role play it out every time.

Teleport is a 5th level spell meaning that they have to be 9th level or better to cast it. By then they have walked the earth quite a lot, and they might deserve a brake.