Alternatives to teleportation in a plane-locked world

[Jowgen]

Simple scenario: All magic relying on access to other planes -notably including teleport- has stopped working, and you need to get to the other side of the continent in day.

How would you do it?

[Crake]

A 12th level phantom steed moves at 240ft, x4 for running, which is about 110 miles per hour, or 880 miles in an 8 hour day of travel. Up it to 14th level and you can fly at that speed instead, making all terrain completely irrelevant, unless conjuring shadowstuff is out I suppose?

Does dream travel still work?

What about transport via plants?

Guessing planar binding to summon fast creatures is also out.

Worst comes to worst, get a carriage drawn by skeleton horses. No con score means they can travel at full speed all day without rest, so on a good road, you could cover ~655 miles per day (~27 miles per hour, 24 hours a day). Throw on some items to boost their movement speed, say continuous expeditious retreat, and you up that to ~982 over 24 hours, still pretty good.

Edit: Fixed some math rather than using dnd's standard 10ft movement = 1mph

[Kelb_Panthera]

You wouldn't.

It -might- be possible, through some combination of esoteric options, to cross thousands of miles in a day but it's almost certain that it would require sacrificing long-term build resources. Unless the character concept you want to play is The Flash, it's just not a worthwhile trade.

Now doing it in a couple of days to a week or so isn't so bad. Airships are a thing in eberron and they were a thing in ages gone by in Forgotten Realms and could be again.

Worst-case, you try and capture a soarwhale and put it on a forced march.

I hope you can find a way to stop pandorym. :smallwink:

[ben-zayb]

Master Earth doesn't require any extraplanar travel, IIRC.

[Gildedragon]

IHS the plane-lock away
or
Wish to be there already (seeing how it is in the same plane Limited Wish might suffice)
or
Teleport Throgh Time to a point where i have enough time to head out to my destination by conventional means

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Wish, Miracle, Master Earth, Wind Walk, Phantom Steed.

The first three can take you anywhere on the planet instantly. The second and third can move you up to 1200 miles per day, which won't get you across continents.


In theory, a fighter with Distant Shot that was flying high enough to get line of sight could throw you across the continent as well.

[Necroticplague]

Simple scenario: All magic relying on access to other planes -notably including teleport- has stopped working, and you need to get to the other side of the continent in day.

How would you do it?Wish yourself there.

[Inevitability]

1. Cast Sending to a cleric/druid of sufficient power, requesting to be True Resurrected/True Reincarnated starting a minute from now.
2. Arrange for a servant to destroy your body (burning it should work)
3. Kill yourself.
4. Wait ten minutes in whatever afterlife you went to.
5. Appear instantaneously wherever you were resurrected.

[Psyren]

No mention of Commoner Railgun? Playground, I am disappoint :smalltongue:

[Âmesang]

Admittedly my first thought was a really high Jump check. Monk Express?

[Xervous]

Admittedly my first thought was a really high Jump check. Monk Express?

You are still limited by your movement speed. You'll be floating for a good long while with nothing to do beyond spending all your free actions chattering to yourself and passing birds about how much you regret the decision.

[JyP]

Simple scenario: All magic relying on access to other planes -notably including teleport- has stopped working, and you need to get to the other side of the continent in day.

How would you do it?
Finally go see the excentric archmagus who wants to visit the Moon, he needs some test subjects to test the first inhabited rocket powered by enchanted dragon breaths. With a lot of luck, it will not explode during launch and send you to your destination in minutes.

https://what-if.xkcd.com/107/

[Inevitability]

You are still limited by your movement speed. You'll be floating for a good long while with nothing to do beyond spending all your free actions chattering to yourself and passing birds about how much you regret the decision.

How about we add Sudden Leap? All you need is an infinite skill-boosting feedback loop and you can jump continents as a swift action!

[Âmesang]

You're falling …with style! :smallcool:

[ExLibrisMortis]

You can use metamorphosis to become a wyrmling mercury dragon. That will allow you to take 800' run actions, before other speed boosts. Young mercury dragons (9 HD) will up that to 1000', ancient mercury dragons (30 HD, requires breaking the cap on greater metamorphosis) to 1200'. After that, keep using linked hustle/synchronicity to get extra full-round actions.

[Zaq]

Does Transport Via Plants (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/transportViaPlants.htm) rely on planar travel?

There's also silly infinite movement tricks involving Epic skill checks (Sleight of Hand to move yourself 10 ft as a free action, Ride to leapfrog-style mount and dismount a series of horses as a free action).

[Flickerdart]

This one takes some prep work.


Put horses between you and your destination, 5ft apart.
Acquire a +10 modifier to Ride.
Use "fast mount" to get on the first horse and "fast dismount" to get off the horse on the other side as a free action. Take 10.
Repeat until you are wherever you need to be.

[Hecuba]

With a mount selected for such things and only hour/level or better buffs, you should be able to hit around 60mph, allowing you to cover over 1000 miles in 24 hours if you can swap out mounts.

Ex: Hippogriff with Air Heritage, Traveler's Mount, Cloud Wings, Lively Step, & Wind at Back gets you to 57 mph. Tern's Persistence allows you to travel for 12 hours instead of 8 before making checks.
Thus, if you can trade out your mount for a rested one midway (or take care of the downsides of the forced march) you can cover 1368 miles in 24 hours.

Whether that counts as "other side of the continent" depends on the continent: it won't cover LA to Washington DC, but it comes within 50 miles of covering Paris to Istanbul.


With higher level spells (or rather, persisted lower level spells) or say, a dragon as a mount, you can do significantly better.

[Necroticplague]

This one takes some prep work.


Put horses between you and your destination, 5ft apart.
Acquire a +10 modifier to Ride.
Use "fast mount" to get on the first horse and "fast dismount" to get off the horse on the other side as a free action. Take 10.
Repeat until you are wherever you need to be.


If you can manage to get the horses to have +10 to ride, you wouldn't even need much time for the prepwork, since they could use this trick to move over each other, take a 5-foot step to get the spacing right (though ultimately, the spacing is optional), then you use your turn (which you Delayed until after the horse with the lowest initiative) to use your new Pony Express. So a sufficiently big herd of intelligent (or buffed) horsees could daisy-chain there way across a whole continent in a round by mounting and dismounting each other, then anyone with +10 ride could follow the chain. And then the chain can collapse back at the finish line the following round.

[Flickerdart]

If you can manage to get the horses to have +10 to ride, you wouldn't even need much time for the prepwork, since they could use this trick to move over each other, take a 5-foot step to get the spacing right (though ultimately, the spacing is optional), then you use your turn (which you Delayed until after the horse with the lowest initiative) to use your new Pony Express. So a sufficiently big herd of intelligent (or buffed) horsees could daisy-chain there way across a whole continent in a round by mounting and dismounting each other, then anyone with +10 ride could follow the chain. And then the chain can collapse back at the finish line the following round.
Nah, you can only fast mount/dismount on a creature precisely one size larger than yourself (since you cannot ride a mount unless it's one size category larger than you, and then fast mount/dismount has its own requirement). So you would need to employ a source of reduce animal, or use lycanthropes of your favourite Large-sized quadruped instead of horses.

[Hecuba]

Picking up & using a more outlandish creature as a mount:

Let's use a YA Mercury Dragon with Air Heritage, Improved Speed, and the Shadow creature template.

200 (base) *1.5 (shadow creature) = 300
+30 (Air Heritage) =330
+20 (Improved Speed) = 350
+10 (speed of thought) = 360


Than gets us to 36 mph before magic.

Then, let's add:

+20 (Traveler's mount) = 380
+30 (Cloud wings) = 410
+30 (Aerial Alacrity, Persisted) = 440
+50 (Footsteps of the divine, Fharlanghn, persisted) = 490
+10 (lively Step) = 500


That gets is to a base overland of 50 mph. Some of this will be difficult: Footsteps of the Divine and Aerial Alacrity are personal only, so we're going to need some shennanigans to manage them (ex: cleric/Master Alchemist with the sky domain supplying potions).

Then, applying overland boosters, we get

Hustling w/out penalty (Traveler's mount) +100%
Wind at back +100%


That gets up to 150mph, or 3600 miles in 24 hours.
That's enough to manage LA to DC, Moscow to Lisbon, Montevideo to Bogota, Brisbane to Perth, or the longest route across Antarctica.

It will not manage Istanbul to Shanghai or Dakar to Mogadishu. But 5/7 isn't bad.

(if you don't like the cities I chose, keep in mind most of them that it can manage are have at least several hundred miles to spare. If you want an edge case, Anchorage to Miami is ~4000 as the crow/dragon flies).

P.S. - Is there any ground mount that we can get where we can boost the base ground speed above 100? If so, we can use one of the fly = ground * 2 templates to push it higher.

[Gildedragon]

Picking up & using a more outlandish creature as a mount:

Let's use a YA Mercury Dragon with Air Heritage, Improved Speed, and the Shadow creature template.

200 (base) *1.5 (shadow creature) = 300
+30 (Air Heritage) =330
+20 (Improved Speed) = 350
+10 (speed of thought) = 360


Than gets us to 36 mph before magic.

Then, let's add:

+20 (Traveler's mount) = 380
+30 (Cloud wings) = 410
+30 (Aerial Alacrity, Persisted) = 440
+50 (Footsteps of the divine, Fharlanghn, persisted) = 490
+10 (lively Step) = 500


That gets is to a base overland of 50 mph.

Then, applying overland boosters, we get

Hustling w/out penalty (Traveler's mount) +100%
Wind at back +100%


That gets up to 150mph, or 3600 miles in 24 hours.
That's enough to manage LA to DC, Moscow to Lisbon, Montevideo to Bogota, Brisbane to Perth, or the longest route across Antarctica.

It will not manage Istanbul to Shanghai or Dakar to Mogadishu. But 5/7 isn't bad.

(if you don't like the cities I chose, keep in mind most of them that it can manage are have at least several hundred miles to spare. If you want an edge case, Anchorage to Miami is ~4000 as the crow/dragon flies).

Add the Quick trait to add an extra 10'
+30 for a persisted Haste
x2 for a spear of rapid wrath...

[Balthanon]

A 12th level phantom steed moves at 240ft, x4 for running, which is about 110 miles per hour, or 880 miles in an 8 hour day of travel. Up it to 14th level and you can fly at that speed instead, making all terrain completely irrelevant, unless conjuring shadowstuff is out I suppose?


Phantom Stag caps out at 300 ft movement speed instead, so that's a small bump if you have a druid on hand.

[Hecuba]

Add the Quick trait to add an extra 10'
+30 for a persisted Haste
x2 for a spear of rapid wrath...

Quick only applies to flight speed if the character has no ground speed (and no other speed higher than fly).
Haste is enhancement, and would override traveler's mount - it would still get +10, but probably isn't worth persisting a 3rd. (You could have a Artificer make an item with a different bonus type, but if we're going down that rabbit hole I'd start with footsteps instead).

For some reason, I though the spear was land speed only too, but from what I can tell (I don't have Ghostwalk handy ATM) it isn't. That would push it up to 200 mph/4800 miles per day (just short of Istanbul to Shanghai).

[Morcleon]

This one takes some prep work.


Put horses between you and your destination, 5ft apart.
Acquire a +10 modifier to Ride.
Use "fast mount" to get on the first horse and "fast dismount" to get off the horse on the other side as a free action. Take 10.
Repeat until you are wherever you need to be.


Now I have an idea for a world where the ground layer of the continent is covered by skeletal horses and all cities are built on stilts. :smallbiggrin::smalltongue:

[Hecuba]

A 12th level phantom steed moves at 240ft, x4 for running

Running is not allowed for overland, unless there is some exemption I'm not aware of for Phantom Steed. You can, however, hustle for x2.

[Flickerdart]

Running is not allowed for overland, unless there is some exemption I'm not aware of for Phantom Steed. You can, however, hustle for x2.

If you use a mount that can't get tired, why not always run?

[Hecuba]

If you use a mount that can't get tired, why not always run?

Perfectly sensible, but the overland travel rules still prohibit running (and the problem becomes trivial i you can run).

[Belial_the_Leveler]

I wonder if any wizards in that world ever tried to build a magical railway.

You know, a line of autoresetting Telekinesis traps built at rings or archways that violent-thrust you to the next trap in line. It would enable people and loads of 375 pounds or less to travel from one end of the line to the other almost instantaneously.

[Morcleon]

I wonder if any wizards in that world ever tried to build a magical railway.

You know, a line of autoresetting Telekinesis traps built at rings or archways that violent-thrust you to the next trap in line. It would enable people and loads of 375 pounds or less to travel from one end of the line to the other almost instantaneously.

You'd probably also need a trap of close wounds to negate the damage you get from the last one, especially because most people who would travel in this way would only have 1 HD. :smalltongue:

[Flickerdart]

I wonder if any wizards in that world ever tried to build a magical railway.

You know, a line of autoresetting Telekinesis traps built at rings or archways that violent-thrust you to the next trap in line. It would enable people and loads of 375 pounds or less to travel from one end of the line to the other almost instantaneously.
You could always brutally murder a bunch of conductors and have them rise as ghosts, then have those ghosts use their racial telekinesis to pass passengers from one to the other.

[Âmesang]

Now I'm reminded of a silly adventure where a player's character was an animated trébuchet.

…don't forget your helmet! :smallbiggrin:

[Coidzor]

Doesn't lesser restoration take care of the pesky need for rest?


If you use a mount that can't get tired, why not always run?

If it can run, aye.

Anyway. If it's about earth sized, then the circumference is about 25,000 miles, so to get halfway is about 12,500 miles that need to be traversed.

You need to average about 521 miles per hour over 24 hours.

For metric types, that's around 40K kilometers at the equator, which gives 833 & 1/3 kilometers per hour to travel 20K km in 24 hours.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Anyway. If it's about earth sized, then the circumference is about 25,000 miles, so to get halfway is about 12,500 miles that need to be traversed.

You need to average about 521 miles per hour over 24 hours.

For metric types, that's around 40K kilometers at the equator, which gives 833 & 1/3 kilometers per hour to travel 20K km in 24 hours.
To add to this, there are 14400 rounds in a day (86400 seconds). That means you need to travel some 9170 feet per round to make it in time.

Travel Devotion/hustle + full-round action to run + Run feat allows you to move 6x your speed in a round. That would require a base speed of 1530. A binder with Tenebrous and the Green Lady can use two turn attempts per five rounds, which is a decent way to keep up Travel Devotion, but going the psionic way opens up metamorphosis and such.

[Hecuba]

Humm. It looks like we'll get better bang for our buck on fly speed by boosting base swim speed then taking tacking on half-fey or half-celestial to get fly= 2x highest movement.

Does anyone have any water mounts with higher base session that 80 (Porpoise)?

A warbeast Porpoise with Expert Swimmer, rapid swimming, Water Heritage, and quick has a base swim speed of 150. That gives a half-fey version of the same a base fly speed of 300 and a shadow creature, half-fey super-porpoise a fly of 450 before we start casting buffs. If we can swing air heritage as well, we're at 480 (and given the dubious pedigree of this creature, we are probably going to be supplanting the creator of the bugbear on the to of the list of crimes against responsible animal husbandry). We could week out another 20 poor so, but we're likely out of feats.

Spear of rapid wrath doubles that to 960.

Now let's add the magic:
Traveler's mount, Cloud wings, Aerial Alacrity (Persisted), Footsteps of the divine (Fharlanghn, persisted), & lively Step add 140.

That gets or flying fairy dolphin to 1100 tactical fly speed, or 110 mph overland. Hustling gets 220, wind at back gets 330. That's 7920 miles per day.

[Eisfalken]

Um... did everyone seriously just forget that shadow walk is a thing? That really kind of makes me sad. I mean, it's sitting right there, poor, neglected, forgotten travel spell. It isn't instantaneous, but it's hours/level, 50 mph, and it's basically "safe" (barring very deliberate intervention). There's not even any chance of falling or other damage; if the "shunt" out of material fails, you are only fatigued. Christ, you can even technically use it for low-key interplanar transportation based on text.

FYI, you better tell your DM to start explaining some of the nature of the teleport-ban if he plans to block shadow walk as well, since it absolutely is not a teleportation effect by any mechanical means. If he's closing off the Astral, he can't block shadow walk other than it can't get to the Astral Plane, only Ethereal (and certain others). If this is an inter-dimensional ban/barrier, it also destroys conjuration to a large degree, since it should effectively block summoning and calling spells as well (the others are questionable, depending on the "source" of the conjuration).

[Necroticplague]

Um... did everyone seriously just forget that shadow walk is a thing? That really kind of makes me sad. I mean, it's sitting right there, poor, neglected, forgotten travel spell. It isn't instantaneous, but it's hours/level, 50 mph, and it's basically "safe" (barring very deliberate intervention). There's not even any chance of falling or other damage; if the "shunt" out of material fails, you are only fatigued. Christ, you can even technically use it for low-key interplanar transportation based on text.

Well, the OP specifically says that all magic "relying on access to other planes" was out. Presumably, this would include outright shifting to another plane for a little bit. Shadow Walk is similar to Teleport, in that both work by taking a shortcut through a nearby plane.

[Coidzor]

50 miles per hour is also probably too slow.

Unless the planet is such that 50*24 = 200+1000 = 1200 miles will get to the other side of the planet.


A warbeast Porpoise with Expert Swimmer, rapid swimming, Water Heritage, and quick has a base swim speed of 150. That gives a half-fey version of the same a base fly speed of 300 and a shadow creature, half-fey super-porpoise a fly of 450 before we start casting buffs. If we can swing air heritage as well, we're at 480 (and given the dubious pedigree of this creature, we are probably going to be supplanting the creator of the bugbear on the to of the list of crimes against responsible animal husbandry). We could week out another 20 poor so, but we're likely out of feats.

I think Magebred might increase move speed as well?

[ATHATH]

Cast a Persisted Footsteps of the Divine, and use its activated ability. That should get you a movement speed of 109.11 miles per ROUND when running (assuming that you're a human Spellcaster, that you have a clear route, and that you don't get the normal speed bonus when you activate the ability), which can then be extended by some conveniently placed Heartfire Fanners that are along your route.

[ben-zayb]

Cast a Persisted Footsteps of the Divine, and use its activated ability. That should get you a movement speed of 109.11 miles per ROUND when running (assuming that you're a human Spellcaster, that you have a clear route, and that you don't get the normal speed bonus when you activate the ability), which can then be extended by some conveniently placed Heartfire Fanners that are along your route.
Errata-d to not work, unfortunately

[Zanos]

There's a spell called Fly Like an Arrow in an issue of dragon magazine. IIRC you have to be a dragon or have a special feat to cast it, but that's easily done with essence of the dragon or polymorph.

If you spend a round travelling in a straight line, you can multiply your fly speed by 10.

[Hecuba]

There's a spell called Fly Like an Arrow in an issue of dragon magazine. IIRC you have to be a dragon or have a special feat to cast it, but that's easily done with essence of the dragon or polymorph.

If you spend a round travelling in a straight line, you can multiply your fly speed by 10.
That is a...bracingly direct solution. It would essentially set up Dragons as the ideal supersonic airliners.

Do you happen to know the issue number?

[Inevitability]

That is a...bracingly direct solution. It would essentially set up Dragons as the ideal supersonic airliners.

Do you happen to know the issue number?

It's from Dragon 308.

[ExLibrisMortis]

There's a spell called Fly Like an Arrow in an issue of dragon magazine. IIRC you have to be a dragon or have a special feat to cast it, but that's easily done with essence of the dragon or polymorph.

If you spend a round travelling in a straight line, you can multiply your fly speed by 10.
That works really rather well. You do need to have the feat, which is a nuisance, but with fly like an arrow, a base fly speed of 920' will allow you to fly to the other side of Earth within 24 hours.

[Coidzor]

What sort of duration does it have?

And is there really no way to gain the ability to run indefinitely?

[ExLibrisMortis]

What sort of duration does it have?
One hour per level, for a fourth-level spell. If you have polymorph, you can have fly like an arrow.

[Coidzor]

One hour per level, for a fourth-level spell. If you have polymorph, you can have fly like an arrow.

Nifty!

Any way to be able to fly through earth, stone, magma, and the like? Maybe combining earthglide property with flight? (Admittedly, not sure how you'd manage that without Pun Pun levels of Sarrukh abuse)

Because traveling the diameter of the planet instead of half its circumference is about 2/3 the distance very, very roughly. I think. (D vs. 3.14*D÷2) Unless π=3 on DnD worlds, of course.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

How do you plan to navigate the interior of the planet without getting lost? It doesn't have landmarks and it's very dark.


Also, be sure that you and your items ate immune to fire damage otherwise the magma will eat all your items. As it doesn't allow a saving throw, the rules of items and saving throws don't apply; it damages everything at 20d6 fire damage/round.

[Hecuba]

And is there really no way to gain the ability to run indefinitely?
That depends. Technically, the prohibition appears in the rules on overland movement: if you can convince the DM that you should use the local or tactical rules instead, immunity to fatigue might work (though, if I recall, they never explicitly cover how running and gauge works - they just say you can only run for one minute at a time, and only if you have Con of 9 poor greater).

[Inevitability]

How do you plan to navigate the interior of the planet without getting lost? It doesn't have landmarks and it's very dark.

I imagine simple mathematical equations would let you determine the exact angle you need in order to arrive at your destination (a wizard ought to be smart enough for this), and all you need then are some divinations to make sure you aren't diverting from the planned course.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I imagine simple mathematical equations would let you determine the exact angle you need in order to arrive at your destination (a wizard ought to be smart enough for this), and all you need then are some divinations to make sure you aren't diverting from the planned course.
I think it's even easier than that: fly like an arrow only works if you move in a straight line. As long as your speed multiplier is active, your course is correct.

(presumably, the universe/your DM will give you warning if a move would disable the multiplier)

[Alex12]

And is there really no way to gain the ability to run indefinitely?

Sure there is. It's called Not Having a Constitution Score.
"A creature with no Constitution cannot tire and thus can run indefinitely without tiring (unless the creature’s description says it cannot run). (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm)" Since it's a more specific case of creatures/characters (recall that those are used interchangeably in the rules) without Con scores, as opposed to creatures in general, it overrides the general rule of "A character can’t run for an extended period of time. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/movement.htm)"

[Coidzor]

So we need a really fast dragon with no con score and the ability to earth glide and fly at the same time and survive magma, and then we'll have cornered the market on rapidly traveling from point A to point B on other sides of a planet that doesn't have teleportation.

[Inevitability]

So we need a really fast dragon with no con score and the ability to earth glide and fly at the same time and survive magma, and then we'll have cornered the market on rapidly traveling from point A to point B on other sides of a planet that doesn't have teleportation.

Mercury Dracolich with an item of continuous Earthglide.

[Hecuba]

Sure there is. It's called Not Having a Constitution Score.
"A creature with no Constitution cannot tire and thus can run indefinitely without tiring (unless the creature’s description says it cannot run). (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm)"

Huh. Well, I eat crow: didn't know that was a listed effect of Con --.


Mercury Dracolich with an item of continuous Earthglide.

It's probably not even worth the inconvenience of bothering with the earthglide effect at that point: pain to navigate, no scenery, need to provide the same effect for any passengers.

With mercury dragon as a base, you should be able to get to 300' as an easy starting point. Dump on shadow creature for 450, the spear for 900. Then fly like an arrow for a tactical fly speed of 9000.

That gets you to a base overland of 900 mph, doubled to 1800 with wind at back. Running for quadruple gets that up to 7200 mph. That will let you circumnavigate the globe every 4 hours, and we can probably get it down to 3 buy pushing the base speed up a bit more.

Cutting through the planet would cut it down to one hour, but at that point we're really just arguing ng over frosting colors on the cake.

[Alex12]

With mercury dragon as a base, you should be able to get to 300' as an easy starting point. Dump on shadow creature for 450, the spear for 900. Then fly like an arrow for a tactical fly speed of 9000.

That gets you to a base overland of 900 mph, doubled to 1800 with wind at back. Running for quadruple gets that up to 7200 mph. That will let you circumnavigate the globe every 4 hours, and we can probably get it down to 3 buy pushing the base speed up a bit more.

Cutting through the planet would cut it down to one hour, but at that point we're really just arguing ng over frosting colors on the cake.

I'm not sure we can assume that anything moving at 900 miles per hour (aka faster than sound) has the wind at it's back, or, for that matter, that the phrase "wind at it's back" has any meaning at all.

I'll also note that technically, if you're on a spherical planet, you won't be getting Fly Like an Arrow all the time because following the curvature of the planet means you're not flying in a straight line.

[Coidzor]

So even more reason to use hoard gullet + shrink item + flesh to stone or similar for one's passengers and just cut through the planet.

[Hecuba]

I'm not sure we can assume that anything moving at 900 miles per hour (aka faster than sound) has the wind at it's back, or, for that matter, that the phrase "wind at it's back" has any meaning at all.

I'll also note that technically, if you're on a spherical planet, you won't be getting Fly Like an Arrow all the time because following the curvature of the planet means you're not flying in a straight line.

Wind at back isn't a generic weather bonus, is a spell (druid 4 IIRC) that doubles overland speed. Interestingly, it does not have the Air tag and the flavor text does not indicate that it has anything to do with the wind: the affected creatures merely go faster and glow green as long as they all go in the same direction.

And if we're on an earthlike spherical world, the proper framework for determining what kind of lines are straight is Spherical geometry instead of that Euclidean nonsense.

[Coidzor]

And if we're on an earthlike spherical world, the proper framework for determining what kind of lines are straight is Spherical geometry instead of that Euclidean nonsense.

Does that mean we have to break out sanity rules?

[frogglesmash]

I vaguely remember a thread a while back where someone wanted a method to get from the moon to earth in a very short period of time without teleportation and someone pointed out the existence of a unique creature who had an ability that let it move so fast (outside of combat) that it was essentially teleportation. I can't remember much about this creature, but I'm pretty sure it was cat like, or possibly dog like, and probably from a forgotten realms book, though it might have been associated with an elder evil of some sort.

[Crake]

Running is not allowed for overland, unless there is some exemption I'm not aware of for Phantom Steed. You can, however, hustle for x2.

As per the section on non-abilities, a creature without a con score can run indefinitely, even overland. I don't see anything saying that a phantom steed, being a quasi real, and made of shadowstuff, has a con score anywhere, and realistically, it's not really "alive" so i'd say it's safe to assume it lacks a con score. Same goes for the skeleton mounts.

[Hecuba]

Does that mean we have to break out sanity rules?

I know, right?! It would be almost as freaky as a world without skill points. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0669.html)

[shaikujin]

And now, for a silly solution -

Boost 2 characters until they can make DC100 Sleight of Hand checks. The boost just need to last for 1 round.

A DC80 check allows you to displace an adjacent and willing creature/object up to 10 feet.

Adding an additional 20 to the DC, will make the Sleight of Hand a free action.

Have the 2 characters displace/leapfrog each other 10 feet at a time until they reach the target continent. Since it's a free action, this happens instantly.

Bring any other companions in a portable hole. They just need to stay in there for an instant. You can also bring an entire army, as long as you have enough portable holes/enveloping pit to fit them all,

If the destination continent is across an ocean, having levitation or flying effects would allow them to stay dry. But as long as the characters can remain afloat, and don't mind getting wet, this is not required.

[Jowgen]

I vaguely remember a thread a while back where someone wanted a method to get from the moon to earth in a very short period of time without teleportation and someone pointed out the existence of a unique creature who had an ability that let it move so fast (outside of combat) that it was essentially teleportation. I can't remember much about this creature, but I'm pretty sure it was cat like, or possibly dog like, and probably from a forgotten realms book, though it might have been associated with an elder evil of some sort.

Oh yeah, I recall that vaguely also. Doesn't it turn into light or something? Please tell me someone knows that we're talking about?

[frogglesmash]

Oh yeah, I recall that vaguely also. Doesn't it turn into light or something? Please tell me someone knows that we're talking about?

Found it (the creature, not the thread). It's called "Kezef the Chaos Hound," and is found in Champions of Ruin. It get's Teleport without error as a spell-like, however an annotation clarifies that he doesn't actually teleport, but instead becomes insubstantial and travels at "near limitless speed," this allows him to move through any substance and renders him immune to effects that would otherwise inhibit teleportation.

[ben-zayb]

And now, for a silly solution -

Boost 2 characters until they can make DC100 Sleight of Hand checks. The boost just need to last for 1 round.

A DC80 check allows you to displace an adjacent and willing creature/object up to 10 feet.

Adding an additional 20 to the DC, will make the Sleight of Hand a free action.

Have the 2 characters displace/leapfrog each other 10 feet at a time until they reach the target continent. Since it's a free action, this happens instantly.

Bring any other companions in a portable hole. They just need to stay in there for an instant. You can also bring an entire army, as long as you have enough portable holes/enveloping pit to fit them all,

If the destination continent is across an ocean, having levitation or flying effects would allow them to stay dry. But as long as the characters can remain afloat, and don't mind getting wet, this is not required.
I think you don't even need a portable hole since you can make anty amount of SoH checks, so you can always displace both target X and your SoH partner.

I suppose the easiest way to accomplish this involves planar binding two Imp who have the Mark of Cania feat (or get via psychic reformation on them). Then give each a Ring of Diamond Mind (Moment of Perfect Mind). Have each cast a resisted invisibility on itself, then initiate MoPM to succeed on the save, then repeat ad nauseam to get +100 or so to skill checks.

[shaikujin]

I think you don't even need a portable hole since you can make anty amount of SoH checks, so you can always displace both target X and your SoH partner.

I suppose the easiest way to accomplish this involves planar binding two Imp who have the Mark of Cania feat (or get via psychic reformation on them). Then give each a Ring of Diamond Mind (Moment of Perfect Mind). Have each cast a resisted invisibility on itself, then initiate MoPM to succeed on the save, then repeat ad nauseam to get +100 or so to skill checks.

Ah, I forgot to explain the reason for portable holes - assuming the 2 characters doing SoH are medium sized and do not have flight, each can only have 8 other medium sized creatures adjacent.

You need the front 3 squares empty so that you can move your companions there.

You need to reserve 1 square for the SoH partner. That leaves only 4 more adjacent squares for your companions.

Crude representation:

Starting position (O=empty space, A=Character A with SoH, B=Character B with SoH, X=Extra folks you want to bring).
OOO
OOO
XAX
XBX
OOO

After A moves everyone
OOO
XBX
XAX
OOO
OOO

Then B moves the next line
XAX
XBX
OOO
OOO
OOO


Of course, that's if we want to do only a single trip.
Since we're using free actions, A and B can always make multiple trips back and forth to bring an entire army, 4 creatures at a time.

So yes, you are correct.

Maybe use portable holes that you can pimp up with first class amenities, and start a transportation business!

[Gildedragon]

And now, for a silly solution -

Boost 2 characters until they can make DC100 Sleight of Hand checks. The boost just need to last for 1 round.

A DC80 check allows you to displace an adjacent and willing creature/object up to 10 feet.

Adding an additional 20 to the DC, will make the Sleight of Hand a free action.

Have the 2 characters displace/leapfrog each other 10 feet at a time until they reach the target continent. Since it's a free action, this happens instantly.

Bring any other companions in a portable hole. They just need to stay in there for an instant. You can also bring an entire army, as long as you have enough portable holes/enveloping pit to fit them all,

If the destination continent is across an ocean, having levitation or flying effects would allow them to stay dry. But as long as the characters can remain afloat, and don't mind getting wet, this is not required.

Doesn't this need one to end one's turn for one's partner to move one and vice versa

[shaikujin]

Doesn't this need one to end one's turn for one's partner to move one and vice versa

Something like that, but without using up any actions, and without needing to start a new turn.

For simplicity, let's say character A has an initiative of 10, and character B has an initiative of 9.

On character A's turn, he uses a free action Sleight of Hand to move character B. He then uses the Delay action (a non-action), to lower his initiative order to 8. Neither of these uses up any actions.

Now Character B gets to act. He uses a free action to move Character A using SoH. Then delays his initiative order to 7.

Character A gets to act again. Repeat from step 1, then reduce initiative order to 6. Both characters' initiatives will go into the negatives after 5 or 6 iterations, but there's no limit to how low initiative scores can go.



Caveat: Depends on how limited Free actions are in a DM's game. The number of free actions a character can take is supposed to be "within reason". Hence, why I said this is a silly solution :) But someone brought up the commoner railgun earlier...

Additionally, by RAW, free actions have to taken as *part* of another action. Though this isn't enforced in most games I've played.

[Hecuba]

Huh. Well, I eat crow: didn't know that was a listed effect of Con --.



It's probably not even worth the inconvenience of bothering with the earthglide effect at that point: pain to navigate, no scenery, need to provide the same effect for any passengers.

With mercury dragon as a base, you should be able to get to 300' as an easy starting point. Dump on shadow creature for 450, the spear for 900. Then fly like an arrow for a tactical fly speed of 9000.

That gets you to a base overland of 900 mph, doubled to 1800 with wind at back. Running for quadruple gets that up to 7200 mph. That will let you circumnavigate the globe every 4 hours, and we can probably get it down to 3 buy pushing the base speed up a bit more.

Cutting through the planet would cut it down to one hour, but at that point we're really just arguing ng over frosting colors on the cake.

I wonder if we can get this AirBus of a dragon into Orbit...
Orbit is about 17,600 MPH. If we assume run x5, Wind at Back, Fly Like an Arrow

Some back of napkin math:
If we push the Mercury Dragon we're starting with up to a Wyrm, the racial movement speed starts at 250 instead of 200. Shadow Creature makes that 375.

With that, we can hit 625 with the following bonuses

Footsteps of the divine (Fla., Persist.)
Cloud Wings
Air Heritage
Haste (Persist.)
Aerial Alacrity (Persist.)
Improved Speed
Dash
Speed of thought
Minor Shapeshift
Lively Step
Haste (Persist., Artificer mod)


We can get higher through repeated abuse of the Artificer's ability to change the bonus type on Haste, but let's see if we need to first.

From there, the Spear of Rapid Wrath gets us to 1250. Fly like an arrow will boost that to 12,500. At that point, I'm not seeing anything else straightforward for Tactical Speed increases.

Moving then to the Overland realm, that starts us at 1250 MPH. Wind at Back should bump that to 2500, and run x5 gets us to 12,000. Still 5600 MPH short. Sadness.

It looks like we need to get the Tactical speed up by another 280 before the Spear of Rapid Wrath. Any ideas?