Doctor Despair
2021-02-07, 01:56 AM
Hello, friends. I've been puzzling over a way to involuntarily teleport folks into a dungeon at a reasonably low level. Teleportation Circle obviously works, but as a ninth level spell, it comes online too late for most gameplay. Repeating spell-traps of Lookingglass are similarly limited in that respect. The only other useful one I can find is Trobriand's Baleful Teleport. Daisy-chaining repeating spell traps of Trobriand's Baleful Teleport could work as well (creating way-stations underground in lead-lined chambers with multiple duplicated of the traps), but doesn't work for inter-planar travel and, at level-six, is still only online in the mid-game (and is also pretty pricy at 33,000gp/2,640xp). I'm hopeful we can do just a little better than that.
As such, I've been thinking about the Constant Guardian feat, and I feel like I'm adjacent to something workable, but I wanted to share my thoughts thusfar and reach out for some thoughts, opinions, and insight from folks here.
Be an artificer and use scrolls to emulate spells from other classes
Create a dungeon that is more or less cut off from the rest of the world, either deep underground or in extraplanar space
Plant a living oak tree in the room where you'd like folks to begin adventuring in the dungeon; magically age it if need be
Have a crystal ball mounted in the tree-room
Use the Acorn of Far Travel spell a bunch (perhaps with a repeating spell trap)
Immerse the acorns in quintessence (purchased, generated via some spell-effect, or produced via Dorje) such that they won't expire; those willing to take a small amount of damage can seize the acorn from the pool and count as standing under the oak tree for other effects
Create various chambers throughout the world from which you hope folks will enter the dungeon (hereafter referred to as "designated locations"
Deposit these quintessence-acorn-pods in the designated locations in reasonable quantities such that you need not return there for a while; maybe entice adventurers with a riddle of some sort
Create resetting traps in the designated locations that roll an attack roll upon someone taking an acorn from the pool of quintessence
Get some sort of native access to creatures with Dutiful Guardian and Constant Guardian
Minions use the crystal ball to scry on the various designated locations for would-be adventurers
When the minions see adventurers enter the designated locations, they immediately ready an action to select the adventurers as the targets of their Constant Guardian feat when they pick up a acorn
When the adventurer grabs an acorn, they are counted as standing under the canopy of the entry tree (near the minions), and thus count as a valid target for Constant Guardian
When they are attacked by the physical trap as a result of taking the acorn, a minion swaps places with them using Dutiful Guardian, teleporting them an inordinate distance away
Upon arriving, the minion runs away and hides if able to wait to be collected later somehow (tbd, if at all, depending on the mechanism we use to acquire minions)
Obviously a work in-progress; the main idea is to allow a character to act as a dungeon-builder that travels while retaining the benefits of easy access to their dungeon (and means to draw adventurers back to the dungeon). This is the only involuntary long-range teleport I've seen accessible at low levels (albeit with cheese).
Getting the minions seems to be the fuzziest part. Mirror Mephit/Simalacrum isn't ideal, as that's a can of worms most campaigns aren't ready to open. Animal Companions can learn feats, but getting access to multiple intelligent animal companions is a taller order than one would think. Awaken Construct would work, but is level 9; Awaken doesn't allow the animals/trees to advance and select feats, as they aren't human-shaped as the MM 290 requires. I'm thinking Awaken Undead might be the easiest way to get access to minions to set this up? Of course, that's a level 6 spell, so that prompts the question: is it more cost effective to animate and awaken a bunch of undead, purchase the scrying tool, do all this excessive legwork... or just spam repeating spell traps of Trobriand's Baleful Teleport? With the latter, we could dispense with the superfluous intelligent minions, dispense with the tree/acorns/quintessence shenanigans, and dispense with the scrying...
So at this point I'm wondering:
Is there a cheaper way to get permanent minions with the intelligence to select two feats?
Is there a cheaper way to allow folks to scry on a designated location permanently (as I'm not 100% convinced we won't need to get a crystal ball for every. Single. Minion...)
If we are relegated to using Awaken Undead, do you think it would be more cost-effective to just use repeating spell traps of the aforementioned baleful teleport?
What do you folks think?
________________________________
Edit: You know, it occurs to me that the undead creatures might be able to ferry an adventurer into the dungeon.
Place an awakened undead in the designated location with an acorn.
Place an awakened undead in the dungeon with an acorn
Each counts as standing under the bough (in range of each other), so Dungeon Undead always designates the other undead as its Constant Guardian target, as it is aware that it is a valid target without scrying. It constantly tries to use Dutiful Guardian.
When adventurers enter the dungeon, Designated Location Undead grabs an acorn out of quintessence and runs up to pick up an adventurer. This probably involves a grapple check, I'd imagine.
If successful, the creature picks up the adventurer and rushes into the trap.
Upon being attacked by the trap, the two undead creatures swap positions, carrying the adventurer with them
The new undead in the cave rushes over to repeat the process with a second adventurer
As such, I've been thinking about the Constant Guardian feat, and I feel like I'm adjacent to something workable, but I wanted to share my thoughts thusfar and reach out for some thoughts, opinions, and insight from folks here.
Be an artificer and use scrolls to emulate spells from other classes
Create a dungeon that is more or less cut off from the rest of the world, either deep underground or in extraplanar space
Plant a living oak tree in the room where you'd like folks to begin adventuring in the dungeon; magically age it if need be
Have a crystal ball mounted in the tree-room
Use the Acorn of Far Travel spell a bunch (perhaps with a repeating spell trap)
Immerse the acorns in quintessence (purchased, generated via some spell-effect, or produced via Dorje) such that they won't expire; those willing to take a small amount of damage can seize the acorn from the pool and count as standing under the oak tree for other effects
Create various chambers throughout the world from which you hope folks will enter the dungeon (hereafter referred to as "designated locations"
Deposit these quintessence-acorn-pods in the designated locations in reasonable quantities such that you need not return there for a while; maybe entice adventurers with a riddle of some sort
Create resetting traps in the designated locations that roll an attack roll upon someone taking an acorn from the pool of quintessence
Get some sort of native access to creatures with Dutiful Guardian and Constant Guardian
Minions use the crystal ball to scry on the various designated locations for would-be adventurers
When the minions see adventurers enter the designated locations, they immediately ready an action to select the adventurers as the targets of their Constant Guardian feat when they pick up a acorn
When the adventurer grabs an acorn, they are counted as standing under the canopy of the entry tree (near the minions), and thus count as a valid target for Constant Guardian
When they are attacked by the physical trap as a result of taking the acorn, a minion swaps places with them using Dutiful Guardian, teleporting them an inordinate distance away
Upon arriving, the minion runs away and hides if able to wait to be collected later somehow (tbd, if at all, depending on the mechanism we use to acquire minions)
Obviously a work in-progress; the main idea is to allow a character to act as a dungeon-builder that travels while retaining the benefits of easy access to their dungeon (and means to draw adventurers back to the dungeon). This is the only involuntary long-range teleport I've seen accessible at low levels (albeit with cheese).
Getting the minions seems to be the fuzziest part. Mirror Mephit/Simalacrum isn't ideal, as that's a can of worms most campaigns aren't ready to open. Animal Companions can learn feats, but getting access to multiple intelligent animal companions is a taller order than one would think. Awaken Construct would work, but is level 9; Awaken doesn't allow the animals/trees to advance and select feats, as they aren't human-shaped as the MM 290 requires. I'm thinking Awaken Undead might be the easiest way to get access to minions to set this up? Of course, that's a level 6 spell, so that prompts the question: is it more cost effective to animate and awaken a bunch of undead, purchase the scrying tool, do all this excessive legwork... or just spam repeating spell traps of Trobriand's Baleful Teleport? With the latter, we could dispense with the superfluous intelligent minions, dispense with the tree/acorns/quintessence shenanigans, and dispense with the scrying...
So at this point I'm wondering:
Is there a cheaper way to get permanent minions with the intelligence to select two feats?
Is there a cheaper way to allow folks to scry on a designated location permanently (as I'm not 100% convinced we won't need to get a crystal ball for every. Single. Minion...)
If we are relegated to using Awaken Undead, do you think it would be more cost-effective to just use repeating spell traps of the aforementioned baleful teleport?
What do you folks think?
________________________________
Edit: You know, it occurs to me that the undead creatures might be able to ferry an adventurer into the dungeon.
Place an awakened undead in the designated location with an acorn.
Place an awakened undead in the dungeon with an acorn
Each counts as standing under the bough (in range of each other), so Dungeon Undead always designates the other undead as its Constant Guardian target, as it is aware that it is a valid target without scrying. It constantly tries to use Dutiful Guardian.
When adventurers enter the dungeon, Designated Location Undead grabs an acorn out of quintessence and runs up to pick up an adventurer. This probably involves a grapple check, I'd imagine.
If successful, the creature picks up the adventurer and rushes into the trap.
Upon being attacked by the trap, the two undead creatures swap positions, carrying the adventurer with them
The new undead in the cave rushes over to repeat the process with a second adventurer