Teleporting to a moving (air)ship

[Umbranar]

In our last session last sunday we met a rich merchant in the Sea of Dust who has a massive airship. He dropped us off at our destination in the Sea of Dust but here is the question we asked the DM: Can we teleport to the ship even if it does not stay in one place.

The DM did not know and would look into it. I figured I just ask you fellow playgrounders if there are any rules about this or what you think, rather have official rulings though?

[only1doug]

If you know its precise location and have teleport without error then yes, missing by just 5' would be bad though.

Scrying tactics should be sufficient for you to know its location at any given time.

[Umbranar]

Good point on the scrying although I expect the rich merchant to have protection against those, bute we can give it a shot.

[only1doug]

The merchant may well have multiple defenses against more than just scrying, there are spells that block teleportation, delay teleportation etc..

Best suggestion: get flight (faster than the airship) for everyone and teleport to the area then fly the rest of the way in.

[Roguenewb]

As far as I can tell, RAW, the deck of an airship counts as an area. However, as DM, I would never allow the target to be Familiar. No matter how much time you spent on the airship, not knowing it's locale would keep you limited at max to Studied Carefully, and any arrangement on the deck would lower you to Seen Casually. And because of the situation, any result but on-target is gonna be a problem

[kitcik]

On a tangent, I was also on an airship in our last session, was knocked over the side during my opponent's turn, and tried to teleport back on via Boots of Swift Passage.

The ship was travelling at a rate of 95 per round, but neither the ship nor the pilot had rolled initiative (the pilot was a non-combatant).

All sorts of RAW discussion ensued.

[Spuddles]

You could always use some method of discerning its location (like a telescope), teleporting near that location while flying, then either fly the rest of the way, or dimesnion door in.

[Venger]

I've had the same problem in my game. the dm says to pretend that the "space" that the ship is in is the target rather than the actual ship itself, so we're not able to teleport there w/o error.

I would say that if your character believably had some way of doing the necessary math involved (speed of ship, trajectory, wind speed, and current location) through being say an astronomer, member of house lyrander, had a family member in the air force, is a mathemetician, geometer, etc. and you had the time to do the calculations (a few minutes/hours depending on how many of the above variables you had in-character) then I'd let you know where the location was (5000 feet over the oldest redwood in xen'drik for example) but would have your roll be modified accordingly (have you been there before? studied it? etc.)

but as the explorer's handbook taught us, sometimes it's just more fun not to teleport. the DM may have campaign hooks or other fun things at your present location, and his removal of the airship (you can't teleport to him) may be his way of ensuring that you complete whatever he has planned for you on the island.

I just finished playing through an arc in this precise scenario (regular ship instead of airship but same basic deal: island was cursed with anti-teleport magic so we could hop around on land but not leave) and I'm glad we weren't able to teleport, it was a lot of fun.

like with many things, it's worth asking your DM "hey, is the ship being unavailable important to the story, or was that just a coincidence? I don't want to peek at your notes, but i wouldn't want to skip over encounters/story you had planned for the island" if he says no, then you can try to do the math (int check in all likelihood unless you have ranks in profession astronomer for that one prc or something) if he says yes, enjoy whatever's in store for you.

[The Redwolf]

I actually read something about this yesterday. A ship or similar vehicle is moving, so unless you have a line of sight you have to scry on it, and if you delay at all before you scry you'll miss the target. If you scry and teleport immediately though then you make it fine as long as nothing interferes.

[Kelb_Panthera]

If psionic items are available, you could just get a tattoo of anchored navigation. It's a 4th level seer power that lasts hrs/level and once manifest, you know exactly how to get to that spot until the duration expires. See if your merchant buddy has this or some similar device available for purchase.

[Wonton]

Funnily enough, we had this come up frequently in an airship campaign. IIRC, the DM ruled that teleporting to a ship was possible, but that once started, the teleport would target that specific x,y,z coordinate. This made Anticipate Teleportation from SpC rather interesting, as enemies attempting to ambush you would appear in mid-air about 200 ft behind your ship. :smallamused:

Although, enemies capable of casting Teleport were usually also capable of casting Fly, so it didn't really matter much in the end...

[DrDeth]

Look, if Tporting to a moving target is impossible, then you cant TPort anywhere and the earth is moving under you- at extremely high speeds, too.

It's MAGIC.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Look, if Tporting to a moving target is impossible, then you cant TPort anywhere and the earth is moving under you- at extremely high speeds, too.

It's MAGIC.

In a D&D campaign, this isn't necessarily true.

[RagnaroksChosen]

So via raw, I as a GM would not allow some one to teleport to the deck of a ship, air or water, assuming it has moved since the caster last stood on the deck. I would however allow them to teleport to the Hold of a ship, as long as there where not windows to the outside, as effectively the location has not changed. Its inside X ship. That's my interpretation anyway.

[The Redwolf]

I actually read something about this yesterday. A ship or similar vehicle is moving, so unless you have a line of sight you have to scry on it, and if you delay at all before you scry you'll miss the target. If you scry and teleport immediately though then you make it fine as long as nothing interferes.

I can find where I read this most likely, it was on the srd. This was the official thing. Although it may have been Pathfinder...