Crossing Continents

[ZamielVanWeber]

So I am a 10th level druid. I was wondering what, if any, way I might have/eventually gain to take a party of 5 (including me) plus medium animal companion over an ocean to be able to cross between continents.

[DrMotives]

You might try a zaratan or a soarwhale from Arms & Equipment Guide. They're both magical beasts with a neutral alignment, so wild empathy can sway them. Zaratan is a sea turtle large enough to look like an island, and the whale is living zeppelin.

[Uncle Pine]

A scroll of Stormwalk is really cheap at 1,650 gp.
Create Lantern Archon also works, but beware the sacrifice component (1d2 points of Constitution drain).
A Belt of the Wide Earth (8.000 gp) will let you convert up to 2 5th level spell slot/day into Teleport.

[Emperor Tippy]

Well Master Earth is one of the best transport spells in the game and it's Druid 7. All you need to do is reach level 13 and take it along with a portable hole to stuff the rest of your party in as Master Earth is just you.

Any of the myriad methods of accessing Teleport or Greater Teleport work.

Beyond that it really depends on the specifics you desire. I mean you could just, for example, buy a boat and sail to the continent.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Master Earth is am excellent choice once I hit that point. The problem is that we want speedy movement so chartering a boat is time prohibitive.

[Uncle Pine]

Master Earth is am excellent choice once I hit that point. The problem is that we want speedy movement so chartering a boat is time prohibitive.

How much gp are you willing to invest into this project? And if you don't have money to spare, what's your alignment? If you aren't Evil, Call Lantern Archon is practically free if you already own a portable hole or a bag of holding (remember that archons have Greater Teleport at will on themselves + 50 pounds of objects).

[sleepyphoenixx]

You can Transport via Plants at level 6, and since it targets you you can share it with your animal companion for double capacity. You can use tree feather tokens to plant a travel point wherever you are, so you can build a network of places you visit regularly if you want and set up a quick exit point even in areas that have no plants.

If you need overland travel instead of teleportation (for exploration or whatever) you get Wind Walk at level 13. It has the same targeting requirements as Transport via Plants, so getting the whole party shouldn't be a problem. You'll be hard pressed to find anything faster than the 600ft movement speed the spell grants.

For slightly slower travel there's Feathers (MotW). It's a 4th level spell for druids, lasts 1 hour/level and can target 1 creature/level. It's not as fast as Wind Walk, but it has the benefit of being inconspicuous. Getting everyone 80ft flight at level 7 (eagle) is pretty good, and there may be faster animals if you go looking through the books.

[Fizban]

Define "speedy" and your ability to purchase magic items. Belt of the Wide Earth is pretty much the standard and will be hard to beat with anything except buying a scroll of Greater Teleport for your resident arcanist, or hiring a resident arcanist to cast said spell. Do you know the actual distance involved and thus how many Teleports/Stormwalks would be required? There's also double Plane Shift to get close-ish to anywhere, but that's still a Clr5 spell at best.

You best bet otherwise is gonna be either a ship (max speed 12mph with the fastest ships and wind magic), or the Traveller's Mount spell. Traveller's Mount (Drd 1, Spell Compendum) affects any animal or magical beast "mount," giving it +20' "to it's speed," and the ability to hustle without penalty at the cost of not being able to attack. Get a ruling that the speed bonus applies to fly and swim, find the fastest creature or group of creatures that can carry the party on short notice, maybe cast Awaken on it if neccesary to get some Friendly cooperation, then buff and ride. Max speed depends on the mount, a flock of Pegusai would reach up to 24mph, but that's about it. And not much faster than a CL 10 Bottle of Smoke (druidic Phantom Steed) at 20mph/40mph (can't maintain 40mph for more than a few hours before running out of hp).

Not counting outsider shenanigans of course. Create Lantern Archon+Portable hole should work, or a bigger Bag of Holding/many trips with the small one. If the Lantern Archon is ruled as unable to teleport objects due to lack of hands, you could check up on possession and see if the possessor is able to use their spell-like abilities via the host. If so, try Animate with the Spirit from Champions of Valor, which summons a 6HD or less outsider (such as a Lantern or Hound Archon) which then possesses a corpse and re-animates it. The spell seems meant for use as a sort of super zombie, but if the possessing spirit can activate SLAs it could teleport and carry the hole/bag along. I just don't remember or care to double check if that works at the moment.