Stopping teleportation

[Amador]

My party has begun to find the joys of teleportation smash-and-grab. This is probably my fault for making the building plans available throughout the campaign, but is really annoying. Their favorite tactic is to teleport into a room that is probably valuable, steal everything in it and then leave. Now I don't mind this too much but the upcoming boss fight needs to be truly dangerous, so the players teleporting into the middle of the fortress without any depletion of resources is just not going to work (the entire party is capable of going nova).

So, are there any mundane methods of keeping teleporters out of an underground fortress? Any cheap magical methods?

[AmberVael]

Well, even Greater Teleport requires an adequate description of the place you're teleporting into. And you can't teleport to an area that has been significantly changed from how you picture it- so maybe the boss in question has a strange obsession with moving all of his furniture around constantly. :smalltongue:

Not being entirely serious there, but I think you get the idea. Just change up the scene enough that even if they know of the place, it won't be the same as how they picture it, so they can't show up there. Simple, yet effective. Just requires some easy manual labor from some lowly servants or undead or something.

Just make sure said boss/room can't have divination on them as well.

[lianightdemon]

Hook the monster room with this trap.

Teleport Diversion Trap: Cr 8; psionic; proximity trigger (divert teleport) automatic reset;psionic effect (divert teleport), 13th level psion, redirects teleportation effect, Will DC 20 negates); Search DC 32; Disable Device DC 32. Cost 48750gp, 3900xp.

Now one of these into the monster room, and the other into a sealed room that has no entrances or exits. (also not on the map), Have both traps direct the teleports to the sealed room, and load it up with other traps. So now when the party teleports and fail their saves they shunted into the sealed room and get to set off many more traps. And if they try teleporting out they only get shunted back in. They have to use non teleportation ways or have good will saves.

oh damn you said cheap, but this one still will work nice. Can always have a bunch of false rooms that all look identical. Who says the map is correct.

[Tancred]

Who says the map is correct.

I like this one.

You've given your party a great lead up, such that they feel they can trust the maps they're given.

What happens next time when there's a wizard waiting for them in the target room, and he's got Anticipate Teleportation cast and Dimensional Anchor prepared?

[erikun]

Dimension Lock (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/dimensionalLock.htm) prevents teleportation into or out of the desired area.

Hallucinary Terrain (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/hallucinatoryTerrain.htm) can make the area around your fortress look like a forest, or even a mountainside. For a particular room, something as simple as using Silent Image to change the scenery would throw the standard Teleport spell into a completely different room, unless the party teleported immediately after scrying.

Note that Teleport (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/teleport.htm) does not allow you to visit a place you have never seen, regardless of how well you study the floor plans. Teleporting off-target would not be inappropriate. Dimension Door (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/dimensionDoor.htm) can be quite dangerous if something is off on the map - such as the castle shifting or it not being properly to scale. The party could easily end up one floor up or down, with no clue where they are!

Mundane counters also work quite well. Simply having the guards on high alert, with the strongest guard either with the BBEG or guarding his chamber means that "skipping" the dungeon results in a very high CR encounter all at once. If the boss is familiar with the party, he could just have a secret passage behind his throne, with a switch that collapses the throneroom ceiling.

[Hecuba]

I swear to gosh I remember an item-- it was a large anvil sized thingy that came with a cover, and blocked teleport and other dimensional effects (in and out) when uncovered. But I've been looking for it on and off for months and can't find it.

[olentu]

Forbiddance important rooms or every room whatever you want.

[ericgrau]

mage's/mordenkain's private sanctum
dimensional lock
dimensional anchor after they arrive
nondetection
etc.

Things like this should be standard at high levels, even by DMG recommendation. Especially anything that lasts 24 hours. The PCs shouldn't be the first that thought of this, so leaving a treasure that can be scryed on and teleported to is like leaving a treasure room without a lock on it. It shouldn't happen. Ditto for other things that need security. Feel free to use such things liberally. Permanent effects especially are reasonable even when the BBEG doesn't work with a caster, b/c he could have hired one at some point.

[navar100]

If they've never been in a place before, how are they teleporting in?

Another idea is to use teleport as part of the adventure. Wherever the actual adventure is to take place, the party can only get there by teleportation because if they take the mundane route, by the time they get there the Evil Plot would have happened already.

[ILM]

Let it slip in advance that the big bad has Greater Anticipate Teleport ready and that he's going to use those 3 rounds to the fullest. Might make them think twice?

[mint]

From the teleport spell:

"Areas of strong physical or magical energy may make teleportation more hazardous or even impossible."

Call it cheap or whatever but it's right there in the text. This is 3.5 telling you that you have its blessing to make some areas inaccessible by teleport without having to spend dumb amounts of money and resources on traps and casting.

[Seharvepernfan]

"...strong physical"

?

like a sandstorm?

an area inside a volcano with lots of spewing lava?

what are your interpretations of this?

Also, Im not sure exactly how teleport works, but would lead block it? Either way, a room lined with lead blocks divination, so they wont be able to scry it.

[Yuki Akuma]

Lead doesn't block teleportation. Teleportation is dimensional travel.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Lead doesn't block teleportation. Teleportation is dimensional travel.

It *WOULD*, however, block most forms of scrying or divination, making it impossible to get a good enough 'read' on it to port in.

[Seharvepernfan]

Lead doesn't block teleportation. Teleportation is dimensional travel.

and explicity *not* ethereal, correct?

[Amador]

Thank you everyone.

I think that a couple of forbiddance effects will cover everything but one non-scryable room. This seems like the best method aside from unstable tectonic activity.

[Kyouhen]

Use Forbiddance if you want to stop your players from doing it. Give the BBEG Greater Anticipate Teleport if you want your players to stop doing it. :smalltongue:

[NichG]

Cheap though mildly annoying (for the inhabitants) solution: hang strings from the ceiling everywhere, with no gap big enough for a person anywhere in the lair except the place you want to trap casters. Anyone teleporting in gets to experience massive shunting or at best ends up in the trap spot or outside if their teleport method is a non-shunting one.