nonmagical planar travel & teleportation (P.E.A.C.H)

[nonsi]

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Jormengand came up with this brilliant idea of traveling the planes nonmagically for his Veteran class (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?428437).
For that class, which spells out "I can, just because I'm that awesome", no additional details are required.
Nonetheless, I wanted to flesh out the idea for practically any campaign and make it available for any character in a manner that would make sense... and I wish that spamming such option would be tedious.


Navigate Planar Rift
Between any two planes that are connected, there are countless rifts that allow for one simply to pass between them, though to do so would be quite an achievement as they require very specific negotiation.
Requirements: Knowledge (the planes) 13, Spot 8, Concentration 5.
Benefit: A planar rift leads to a specific location on the other plane. The character can take a Knowledge (the planes) check to see whether or not there are any planar rifts between his current general location and a specific other plane.
- Searching for a planar rift requires 15d12 (15-180) minutes of uninterrupted experimentations and measurements to complete and requires a successful Knowledge (the planes) check vs. DC 30. Success reveals the direction to a rift within 1-100 (% dice) miles of the character's location.

One thing that didn't sit well with me as far as the Veteran's talent goes, was that various levels of success could literally "rape" reality to produce closer rifts.
My approach is that you can only home-in onto the rift that's closest to you.

- Once the direction to a planar rift is determined, a Spot check vs. DC 20 is required with each mile passed, until the rift is found. Failing this check means that the character has lost track of the way to the rift and must repeat the initial research (15d12 minutes + Knowledge check) until successful.
- Once the rift is found, a Spot check vs DC 25 is needed for detecting the structure of its energy lines (a 5-minute study). If this is also accomplished, the character can move through it in a pattern specific to that rift. This requires a Concentration check vs. DC 15 and takes one minute to achieve (retries are allowed without penalties). Failure to detect the structure of a rift's energy lines allows retries, but with the DC increasing by 5 with each failure, and rolling a natural 20 is not necessarily a success.
- Note that some rifts (20%) might require flight capabilities, due to their pattern stretching above the reach of non-flyers.
- The character can instruct another creature on how to pass through the rift, but doing so takes five minutes as the character painstakingly instructs the other creature on exactly how to move their body. Both need to pass DC 15 Concentration check for this to be successful.
- Interrupting a creature who is trying to move through a rift disorientates them a little (they must start anew), but has no appreciable negative effects.
- Discovering a rift's location on "this" plane provides no information about where it ends up on the other plane. This can only be determined by passing through the rift – something that might prove lethal if proper means are not taken (vs. environmental elemental damage, falling, being attacked by local denizens etc.). It is best practice to use known rifts that have been recorded by others as being safe for travel, or at least having the surprises on the other end noted and taken into account.
Special: Planar rifts are nonmagical. Even in demiplanes or dead magic zones, there are planar rifts. A planar rift is usually the effect of planar movement, but sometimes due to repeated plane shifting.



And while I'm at it, I decided to address teleportaion as well.


Navigate Teleportation Rift
You have learned how to "hitch a ride" on someone else's teleportation.
Requirements: Knowledge (arcana) 10, Spot 5.
Benefit: When Teleport or Greater Teleport is cast, a rift is formed (by which the caster or his target is being teleported). Some know how to exploit those rifts and travel through them.
Teleportation rifts are short lived, lasting 1d3+2 rounds and are detectable from a relatively short distance (60' for human-grade eyesight) with a successful Spot check vs. DC 20 followed by a successful Knowledge (arcana) check vs. DC 25.
Riding someone else's teleport rift requires a standard action.
You detect only the closer side and have no nonmagical means of detecting what's on the other end.
Special: A spellcaster that casts Teleport or Greater Teleport on someone else and meets the feat's requirements can automatically follow through his own teleportation rift.

[Eldan]

My first question is: does this need a feat? I do similar things with just high Knowledge: the Planes check, which allow the finding of rifts, natural portals, soft spots, etc. Though I play Planescape, where they are an essential part of the setting.

[nonsi]

My first question is: does this need a feat? I do similar things with just high Knowledge: the Planes check, which allow the finding of rifts, natural portals, soft spots, etc. Though I play Planescape, where they are an essential part of the setting.


Ok, I'll try to detail my trail of thought... hope you don't get lost along the way.

(Btw, I'm more of a medieval with a touch of extraplanar type. Planar traveling on a regular basis eventually takes out the sting for me)


Plane Shift is somewhere between 5th and 7th SL (mostly 7th) - that's char-levels 12.5 on average or so.
Having it available to noncasters at 10th seems premature to me without some heavy cost.
OTOH, 13 ranks seem to me like being high enough for attempting just about anything in the world that could be accomplished with skills (never encountered pre-epic prereqs that exceed 13 ranks).
I also didn't want this to be available to any schmo that took Able Learner, so I went with a feat tax.


Now, regarding the process of discovery and exploitation – it goes like this:

A planar rift is not something that's supposed to be detectable just via normal (or even above normal) senses, otherwise people would eventually stumble upon them from time to time, and you don't here that very often (or ever).
It's also not supposed to be a short, simple or easy process, otherwise every party would eventually have it and use it on a regular basis. Mid-high levels present many situations where teleportation and plane-shifting scenarios are presented, and the means that the rules of the game usually provide for such scenarios are magical. If one really wishes to attack the nonmagical angle, it should be possible, but this shouldn't be the default option (that's why the magical option exists).
That's why I went for a research that requires up to 3 hours with a relatively high DC.
Along with the required Spot checks and not knowing what's on the other end, this means that players would "indulge" themselves in such activity only if it is truly essential for the campaign (it could also provide sidetracking opportunities for the DM if things don’t go smoothly for the characters engaged in rift hunting).

It's also not reasonable to me that just knowing such phenomena exist would be enough for finding them and actually using them.

Now, even once such rift is found, you can't just pass through it, otherwise people would vanish into thin air from time to time, and nobody wants to live in a world where such things happen, hence the need to follow the pattern precisely (Jormengand's idea, not mine… but a good one).

Also, the process seems to make sense to me - as far as "make sense" goes in a reality where willpower can literally rewrite reality.
My aim is for things that are not manipulated magically to make sense.



Finally, if a DM doesn't want to be bothered with the details in such case or another s/he always has the options to fast-forward things, or conjure an NPC that guides them to their target (and we'll worry about getting back home when we get there.)



That's the "why" part. I'd be more interested to get some feedback regarding the execution.

[nonsi]

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Anybody?....... Something?........

[The Mentalist]

First and foremost... Ohmyyes!


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PLANAR RIFT STUFF


This is a good mechanical system. I like it and my addendum to it will be attached to the bottom as it applies to both. Only thought, maybe not a Concentration requirement? Thinking in terms of a lot of the Core classes most of the people who would need this (non-casters) are either skill starved or missing one or two of them any way. I think almost everyone is missing the knowledge checks but I feel that's either handwaveable or just for gits and shiggles

Studious Nature
Pre-Requisite: Intelligence 13+
Benefit: Choose any two Knowledge skills, you gain access to them as class skills as well as a +2 bonus to each.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, its effects stack.

BAM! No more handwaving Knowledge checks for fighters.


Navigate Teleportation Rift
You have learned how to "hitch a ride" on someone else's teleportation.
Requirements: Knowledge (arcana) 10, Spot 5.
Benefit: When Teleport or Greater Teleport is cast, a rift is formed (by which the caster or his target is being teleported). Some know how to exploit those rifts and travel through them.
Teleportation rifts are short lived, lasting 1d3+2 rounds and are detectable from a relatively short distance (60' for human-grade eyesight) with a successful Spot check vs. DC 20 followed by a successful Knowledge (arcana) check vs. DC 25.
Riding someone else's teleport rift requires a standard action.
You detect only the closer side and have no nonmagical means of detecting what's on the other end.
Special: A spellcaster that casts Teleport or Greater Teleport on someone else and meets the feat's requirements can automatically follow through his own teleportation rift.

HELLS TO THE YEAH! I want this in my game so bad. I think that I would give it a caveat that "If the caster is casting defensively the spot check is opposed by their concentration check, or the arcana check is. Just so it's a little harder to follow the BBEG through the escape hatch.


I'm not sure if you have Complete Scoundrel or not but they introduced something called Skill Tricks, in which you pay 2 skill points to gain an ability that could be used 1/encounter. The only pre-reqs tend to be skill minimums and you can have up to one each level if I recall correctly. I've seen them expanded to non-combat daily powers by other people around here and I think that they'd be a very good way to do these for people who have the book but this is a good "Core Only" Option.

[nonsi]

First and foremost... Ohmyyes!



I'm not sure if you have Complete Scoundrel or not but they introduced something called Skill Tricks, in which you pay 2 skill points to gain an ability that could be used 1/encounter. The only pre-reqs tend to be skill minimums and you can have up to one each level if I recall correctly. I've seen them expanded to non-combat daily powers by other people around here and I think that they'd be a very good way to do these for people who have the book but this is a good "Core Only" Option.

Amen to Studious Nature. This one so goes into my 3.5e overhaul codex :smallcool:


Now, about skill tricks - I know of them quite well. Just not sure what you had in mind about them.
How would you use skill tricks (not necessarily those presented in Complete Scoundrel) to make things easier to noncasters?
And what would you substitute Concentration checks with?

[The Mentalist]

I'm going to assume that Studious Nature is in play.

Jump the Rift
[Movement Skill Trick]
Pre-Requisites: Knowledge [Arcana] 13; Tumble or Swim 9 (reason for this being Tumble is the more useful skill but not everyone has it and I find a swimming through a planar rift image somehow satisfying]
As a move action you may move up to half your movement speed, if this takes you into the square of a creature that has teleported within 1 round for each five ranks you possess in Knowledge [Arcana] you may teleport to the same location they did by making a Swim or Tumble check with a DC equal to their Caster level * 2

I'd write a similar one for the Planar version. There's probably some stuff you need to add about out of combat usage and limiting it (I'm either too caffeinated or not caffeinated enough to figure out at the moment.


As for the concentration thing, I'd say just leave it out, it makes good fluff sense as you've got it written but at best it's just a 5 skillpoint tax. The DC is easily manageable without dumping points into it as it's not a scaling DC but there's also no reason to make it a sliding DC.

[nonsi]

I'm going to assume that Studious Nature is in play.


Absolutely.




Jump the Rift
[Movement Skill Trick]
Pre-Requisites: Knowledge [Arcana] 13; Tumble or Swim 9 (reason for this being Tumble is the more useful skill but not everyone has it and I find a swimming through a planar rift image somehow satisfying]
As a move action you may move up to half your movement speed, if this takes you into the square of a creature that has teleported within 1 round for each five ranks you possess in Knowledge [Arcana] you may teleport to the same location they did by making a Swim or Tumble check with a DC equal to their Caster level * 2


1. I'm not sure jumping a teleportation rift should require such high skill ranks.
2. Tumbling or swimming a rift seems more appropriate thematically to me where natural planar rifts are involved. I think that entering a teleportation rift in a specific angle should suffice, so maybe: Knowledge (arcana) 10; Balance 5




I'd write a similar one for the Planar version.


Please do. Sometimes the differences provide a lot of inspiration.





There's probably some stuff you need to add about out of combat usage and limiting it (I'm either too caffeinated or not caffeinated enough to figure out at the moment.


Then when you're caffeinated to just the right degree, do share your thoughts.
I believe that in case of a naturally occurring planar rift, the process should be long enough to make an in-combat usage nonviable.





As for the concentration thing, I'd say just leave it out, it makes good fluff sense as you've got it written but at best it's just a 5 skillpoint tax. The DC is easily manageable without dumping points into it as it's not a scaling DC but there's also no reason to make it a sliding DC.


Ok, the skill-points toll is out, but some Concentration check should be relevant when guiding another to enter a planar rift.

[nonsi]

First and foremost... Ohmyyes!



I'm not sure if you have Complete Scoundrel or not but they introduced something called Skill Tricks, in which you pay 2 skill points to gain an ability that could be used 1/encounter. The only pre-reqs tend to be skill minimums and you can have up to one each level if I recall correctly. I've seen them expanded to non-combat daily powers by other people around here and I think that they'd be a very good way to do these for people who have the book but this is a good "Core Only" Option.

Btw, regarding Studious Nature...
what did you mean by "Special: You may take this feat multiple times, its effects stack"?

[Jormengand]

his

I'm still not a he. :smalltongue:

But anyway, I love what I have spawned. :smallbiggrin:

[nonsi]

I'm still not a he. :smalltongue:


Got it (..."still"? :smalltongue:)




But anyway, I love what I have spawned. :smallbiggrin:


So do I. I'm curious to see how this ends up.
I'm not 100% sure how to apply The Mentalist's good ideas regarding "Jump the Rift" to "Navigate Planar Rift" and what the appropriate differences should be.

[nonsi]

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Ok, this is what I have so far:



Navigate Planar Rift
Between any two planes that are connected, there are countless rifts that allow for one simply to pass between them, though to do so would be quite an achievement as they require very specific negotiation.
Requirements: Knowledge (the planes) 13, Spot 8, Balance 5.
Benefit: A planar rift leads to a specific location on the other plane. The character can take a Knowledge (the planes) check to see whether or not there are any planar rifts between his current general location and a specific other plane.
- Searching for a planar rift requires 15d12 (15-180) minutes of uninterrupted experimentations and measurements to complete and requires a successful Knowledge (the planes) check vs. DC 30. Success reveals the direction to a rift within 1-100 (% dice) miles of the character's location.
- Once the direction to a planar rift is determined, a Spot check vs. DC 20 is required with each mile passed, until the rift is found. Failing this check means that the character has lost track of the way to the rift and must repeat the initial research (15d12 minutes + Knowledge check) until successful, but vs. DC 25.
- Once the rift is found, a Spot check vs DC 25 is needed for detecting the structure of its energy lines (a 5-minute study). If this is also accomplished, the character can move through it in a pattern specific to that rift. This requires a Balance check (or Swim check, if underwater) vs. DC 15 and takes one minute to achieve (retries are allowed without penalties). Failure to detect the structure of a rift's energy lines allows retries, but with the DC increasing by 5 with each failure.
- Note that some rifts (15%) might require flight capabilities, due to their pattern stretching above the reach of non-flyers.
- The character can instruct another creature on how to pass through the rift, but doing so takes five minutes as the character painstakingly instructs the other creature on exactly how to move their body. Both need to pass DC 15 Concentration check (and the normal Balance/Swim check) for this to be successful.
- Interrupting a creature who is trying to move through a planar rift disorientates them a little (they must start anew), but has no appreciable negative effects.
- Discovering a rift's location on "this" plane provides no information about where it ends up on the other plane. This can only be determined by passing through the rift – something that might prove lethal if proper means are not taken (vs. environmental elemental damage, falling, being attacked by local denizens etc.). It is best practice to use known rifts that have been recorded by others as being safe for travel, or at least having the surprises on the other end noted and taken into account.
Special: Planar rifts are nonmagical. Even in demiplanes or dead magic zones, there are planar rifts. A planar rift is usually the effect of planar movement, but sometimes due to repeated plane shifting.
Special: For an unknown reason, unattended nonliving objects and substances don't pass through planar rifts. It takes a conscious mind to trigger passage.


Ride Teleportation Rift
You have learned how to "hitch a ride" on someone else's teleportation.
Requirements: Knowledge (arcana) 10, Spot 5.
Benefit: When Teleport , Greater Teleport or Teleportation Circle is cast, a rift is formed (by which the caster or his target is being teleported). Some know how to exploit those rifts and travel through them.
Teleportation rifts are short lived, lasting 1d3+3 rounds and are detectable from a short distance (60' for human-grade eyesight) with a successful Spot check vs. DC 15 followed by a successful Knowledge (arcana) check vs. DC 20.
Riding someone else's teleport rift requires a standard action.
You detect only the closer side and have no nonmagical means of detecting what's on the other end.
Special: A spellcaster that casts teleport or greater teleport on someone else and meets the feat's requirements can automatically follow through his own teleportation rift.


Studious Nature
Requirements: Int 13+
Benefit: Choose any two branches of the Knowledge skill – they count as class skills for all your classes and you gain a +2 bonus to all checks associated with the chosen branches. You also count as trained on those skills, even if you don't have ranks invested into them.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times, choosing different Knowledge branches each time.

[The Mentalist]

Btw, regarding Studious Nature...
what did you mean by "Special: You may take this feat multiple times, its effects stack"?

I should have further clarified that, if you apply it to the same skill more than once the bonuses to the check stack.

As for Jump the Rift I think that a class of out of combat skill tricks could be started. I was thinking through one at work for Blacksmithing that allows you to make a single type of weapon you create automatically masterwork or have an increased level of masterwork bonus but I'm not sure how feasible that is yet. Other things may be ones for autohypnosis or survival that give you resistance to temperature extremes or allow you to maintain a forced march longer.

[nonsi]

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I should have further clarified that, if you apply it to the same skill more than once the bonuses to the check stack.


Ok, Got it. Not a bad idea at all.





As for Jump the Rift I think that a class of out of combat skill tricks could be started.


I actually managed to forget that you specified "Jump the Rift" to be a skill trick.
I definitely agree with that angle. I just don't see any reason to restrict it to out of combat only.
I was thinking of a more appropriate name though: Teleportation Stowaway.

As for Navigate Planar Rift - it seems way to elaborate for a skill trick to me.
The only dilemma I have about it is if I should include Teleportation Stowaway as prereq or not, because it feels to me like a mandatory background.
OTOH, I don't know of any official feat (or homebrew for that matter) that has a skill trick as prereq.





I was thinking through one at work for Blacksmithing that allows you to make a single type of weapon you create automatically masterwork or have an increased level of masterwork bonus but I'm not sure how feasible that is yet. Other things may be ones for autohypnosis or survival that give you resistance to temperature extremes or allow you to maintain a forced march longer.


Those could all be practical notions and I'd be happy to exchange ideas on that in another thread, but I'd rather avoid sidetracking right now.