banning teleportation magic

[its_all_ogre]

i am writing up a homebrew world with a radically different approach to magic and the gods et al
i was wondering if people think there would be any huge problems with removing teleportation spells for this world?
i know certain classes would lose some powerful abilities wizard/psion/cleric etc but other than that?
what do people think. dimension door and fly spells will be left in, just the miles of miles of teleportation will not be.

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

I do not think there will be any huge problems or necessarily any problems at all. :-)

[illyrus]

If you're trying to remove all spells that allow you to go from point A to distant point B very quickly, don't forget to consider phantom steed etc.

[Yakk]

It works.

How about cross-dimensional magic? In many cases, you can pick where you end up. (you can fix this by adding blather about nodes that correspond -- you can't cross the dimensional barriers just anywhere, and at places where you can you end up at a particular place in the other dimension. The location of such nodes is highly guarded -- because the quick way to find a node is to cast the spell on yourself, and if there is a node, you survive and end up in another dimension. If you fail, you are annihilated...)

What about Gate-ing monsters?
Summoning spells?

[Morty]

I can't see any problems with that, teleportation magic is too powerful anyway. It'll make things a little harder though, as players will be no longer able to pop into place 1,000 miles away via one standard action.

[Lapak]

I've strictly limited teleportation spells and effects in my own world, and haven't had any problems. It's made dealing with the expected economic effects much more reasonable, as well.

In my case, I didn't ban them, but every long-range transport spell is two levels higher, making the only consistently available and reliable version an extremely expensive variant of Teleportation Circles. It made my life much simpler, both in terms of world-building and in terms of plotting out adventures.

[greenknight]

It can work, but don't forget that teleportation is just as useful to a DM to allow the BBEG to escape. If you have other methods to achieve that (or you want your BBEG to die), then it's a good idea.

[jlousivy]

I wouldn't say REMOVE teleport, but make it an 8th or 9th level spell. That way it's POSSIBLE but...... not very likely. That way you can use it in case you need it without the PC's getting mad.

^^^ assuming they aren't going to get 8th or 9th level spells for a long time

edit: and put like a 10 minute cast time on it.

[Emperor Tippy]

I wouldn't say REMOVE teleport, but make it an 8th or 9th level spell. That way it's POSSIBLE but...... not very likely. That way you can use it in case you need it without the PC's getting mad.

^^^ assuming they aren't going to get 8th or 9th level spells for a long time

edit: and put like a 10 minute cast time on it.

Incorrect. At the levels where teleport is actually gamebreaking you should not have a level 15+ wizard BBEG.

He woudl slaughter the party almost instantly.

And adding the cast time stops the BBEG from using it to escape.

[kamikasei]

I'm curious as to what players are doing with teleport that is so damaging to the game, and what level they're doing it at.

[Lapak]

I'm curious as to what players are doing with teleport that is so damaging to the game, and what level they're doing it at.

For my part, I wasn't worried about what the players would do; I wondered what the effect on the world would be. Level 10 is just about the top tier of significant NPCs in the area that the campaign is set in, and I'm happy with that power level being the 'toughest guys readily available to national governments' otherwise; pushing teleport farther away helped avoid a lot of political, social, economic and military complications.

(For the record, there are a few higher-level folks about, but most of them specifically avoid being involved in politics for various reasons; the near-demigods that are around have their own agendas to pursue.)

[Ramza00]

Another option instead of just banning them is significantly increasing the spell level. For example all teleportation spells are now 2 levels higher, dimension door is 6th lvl, teleport is 7th lvl, teleport greater 9th lvl, there is no gate spell. By moving these spells up higher you make them rarer for if they are with magic items they cost more, or only a few high level spellcasters can use them.

Might have to just axe some of the short range teleportation spells in the spell compedium though (which have levels from 1 to 3)

It is up to you as DM.

[Ramza00]

I'm curious as to what players are doing with teleport that is so damaging to the game, and what level they're doing it at.

Don't like the dungeon. Teleport out. Finish with the Dungeon Teleport out. Always return to your home base allowing your party to treat dungeons/areas like they are skirmish encounters. If the dungeon gets too scary or you are running out of items thus increasing the chance of death teleport out.

Or there is this nation you as a DM want you to cross before you get to the lands beyond that nation. Well as soon as you are 9th lvl you skip that leg of the journey by teleporting 900 miles past it.

[jlousivy]

as for dungeons.... well aren't there anti-teleportation spells that you can say are made... permanent

[its_all_ogre]

its largely because the back-story for the world becomes much more threatening if teleportation magic is not available.
plus the god of magic was killed and his killer usurped his domains and was not fond of 'porting magic(that is actually a part of the world background)
its not what players can do with it, its what npcs could do with it.

[MobiusKlein]

Other ideas

1) Expensive Material Component
2) Reduced Weight Limit (Wizard + 1 other)
3) Higher risk of missing target
4) Weakens Dimensional Barriers. (ie roll random astral encounter each use)
5) Stat damage!

[marjan]

as for dungeons.... well aren't there anti-teleportation spells that you can say are made... permanent

That would be one way to do it.
@Ramza: That can be the problem if your palyers don't like traveling. But still Teleportation out of dungeon to prevent TPK makes things easier for DM (he doesn't have to find the way to save his PCs which most of DMs try to do).
At the end I think that while Teleport might be game-breaking it still has uses that you'll miss if you ban it.

[marjan]

its largely because the back-story for the world becomes much more threatening if teleportation magic is not available.
plus the god of magic was killed and his killer usurped his domains and was not fond of 'porting magic(that is actually a part of the world background)
its not what players can do with it, its what npcs could do with it.

If that is the case then there shouldn't be the problem. After all PCs get access to Teleport at lvl9, until then they just have to live without it. It would work fine if you don't expect them to cross 100 miles in 5 minutes.

On the NPC note: Just don't relly on Teleport. I mean it is advantage but you can live without it. If enemy Teleports out of trouble PCs get the XP anyway. If you are worried about losing chance to escape remember that you can allways get the BBEG resurected (not quite the same but he still "survived").