Teleport Questions


Rules Questions


This hasn't quite come up yet, but it might in the near future.

1) Can you use a something portable/moving such as a ship cabin, carriage, or tent as the very familiar location as the teleport target? Would be fairly easy to make it completely enclosed so everything visible from the target is essentially the same every time.
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2) If you know someone uses a particular teleport location, how much do you have to change/damage/alter it to screw with their odds of a successful teleport?
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3) If you know someone uses a particular teleport location, can you make a whole bunch of identical locations to screw with their odds of teleporting?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

1. No. Teleportation is to a location, not an object.

2. GM's call. You'd have to go to extreme lengths because ultimately it's location that's memorised, not the objects within it.

3. See 2 above. If the caster is using Greater Teleport, it's not going to happen.


The rules of teleport are none too clear and leave room for GMs to allow or disallow things as suits their campaign. The spell says you must have some clear idea of the location and layout of the target.

1 Personally I'd say that a ship cabin is a familiar layout, but you'd have to have some idea of where the ship was for it to work. (I take a fairly restrictive view of teleportation - I don't think most adventurers should be able to go instantly wherever they want.)

2 I'd say that messing up the 'layout' requirement would be fairly easy. Just work out where the caster would want to wind up standing, and fill that area with objects that would get in their way.

3 By my interpretation that you must know both the location and the layout, an identical-looking place wouldn't make a difference, since the caster has to already know the target position well enough to be able to point it out on a map.


Matthew Downie wrote:

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2 I'd say that messing up the 'layout' requirement would be fairly easy. Just work out where the caster would want to wind up standing, and fill that area with objects that would get in their way.
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The particular situation I'm thinking of, it would be desirous to not be obvious to someone that hadn't actively studied the area. So I was thinking of things like:

Moving pictures on the walls.
Switching out the rug for a similar though not identical pattern.
Change the books on the shelves.
Changing the table, chairs, lamps for similar though not identical items.
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LazarX wrote:

1. No. Teleportation is to a location, not an object.

2. GM's call. You'd have to go to extreme lengths because ultimately it's location that's memorised, not the objects within it.

3. See 2 above. If the caster is using Greater Teleport, it's not going to happen.

How do you define a 'known' location? This level of society doesn't appear to have longitude and latitude callouts. Maps are notoriously inaccurate before satellites and 3-D imaging. A cave doesn't have a street address.

Not saying you are wrong, just trying to anticipate how to judge this if it comes up.

Greater Teleport isn't in play yet.


I'll agree that the rules are vague and subject to GM interpretation for how teleportation works in his or her own campaign.

Here's how I rule in my campaign world:

1) Teleportation is to a spatial position on the world, not to an object like a moving vehicle. Teleporting to a specific ship or wagon is possible, but only if the caster knows where the vehicle is at the time of casting. (e.g. anchored at a specific port or in a particular harbor.) If the ship isn't really where the caster thinks it is, the teleportation counts as a "false destination" on the teleportation table.

1a) This is admittedly my own interpretation, but I also rule that the caster has to have a decent idea as to where he currently is at the time of casting, so as to be able to get to the destination. The less sure of the caster's current position relative to the destination, the less safe the teleport: I'll move the destination line down one or more steps depending on how lost the character is.

2) I'd say you have to mess with the destination significantly to lower the chances of a successful teleport. If the "very familiar" destination is the living room of your house, I'd say that...
-Rearranging the furniture or painting the walls different colors has no effect
-Removing all the furniture and gutting the walls to the studs would probably drop it to "studeied carefully"
-Completely remodelling the structure of the house (e.g. turning the living room into a solarium) would drop it to "seen casually"
-Burning down the house would drop it to "viewed once" [You havent' changed the spot in the world where the house used to be, but the visualization no longer matches the destination.]
-Blowing up the house leaving a crater where the house used to be and ashes where the garden was would count as the caster's living room becoming a "false destination."

3) I'd say "no" unless you also messed with the original, as per above. Then, your duplicate would become the likeliest "similar area" arrival point when teleporting to a false destination.

But, honestly, 2 and 3 would be very much a jerk move to pull on a PC. As a GM, I would never pull that stunt on a player, nor would I let the PCs learn enough about an enemy to pull this off.


Haladir wrote:

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But, honestly, 2 and 3 would be very much a jerk move to pull on a PC. As a GM, I would never pull that stunt on a player, nor would I...

I'm the GM. I haven't really looked into the teleport RAW since it hasn't come up before. So I also haven't considered what I might need in terms of house ruled interpretations.

I'm listening to my players spout ideas. They are starting to realize they may end up becoming enemies of a higher level wizard that they know pretty well. I haven't yet given them too many details (since this wasn't the direction I expected the campaign to go), but they do know this guy teleports to keep track of projects around the world.

I tend to like creative ideas, but I also don't want to make it too easy to screw with high level spells. (Meaning it could also be a problem for them when they get to that level.)


Oddly, the rules for Skulls and Shackles actually help shine some light on how teleportation functions in a backwards sort of way.

It establishes that you can teleport to a ship, but that it must be either within sight, or that you must scry on it just before casting teleport if you do not know it's exact location (like being docked at a specific port, slip #5). If you attempt to teleport and do not know it's exact location the teleport fails or has a mishap.

So effectively you need something that is basically the equivalent of the idea of latitude and longitude, which do exist in Golarion because sextants exist, which can establish latitude and longitude.


I always wondered how this would work with an area you cannot scry into because of building materials, ie, if a wizard built a lead lined library or warded space. I have always run it that it was a "bounce" or they breach the ward as if it were activated. Other game systems have fun mishap tables, like Elric of Melnibone where you get "re-assembled" incorrectly.
Somehow the magic of the spell must compensate for world rotation if the teleport is Einsteinian, a fixed point is always a fixed point in space, unless it moves :).
I bet a solution to this would be the wizard casting Arcane Mark on a destination, as long as the mark remains, he can find it.


I the wizard is not familiar with the area, and cannot scry on it, he simply cannot teleport to it. If he tries he will be teleported to a similar area (that he is imagining) or will get a mishap.

Also it's magic, don't try bringing Physic into it.

Besides which, the most likely thing is that the planet is a local frame of reference for the magic, not the solar system, or a fixed point in space.

For something like what you're talking about, we would only be concerned in the case of something like Interplanetary Teleport. Of course, the spell also seems to imply a knowledge about the solar system you're going for it to function. And since it's magic, I think that's enough for trying to reason out how physics applies to something that does not concern itself with be constrained by the normal limitations of the universe.


Note that the Scry spell vs the Divination (Scrying) school(subschool) can not be used to view a location only a creature so the caster would need a target he knows (hopes or believes) is within the area he wishes to travel to. Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, however, will view a known or familiar location provided is on the same plane of existence.

One of the easiest mundane ways to defeat Teleportation magic is to fill the area with objects (tables, chairs and other furniture; hanging chains; statuary etc.) so no open surface exists to teleport onto. How much rearranging of the furniture or how much 'open' space is required tends to fall into GM providence but the same requirement that exists for summoning creatures exists for teleportation.

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