What official ways are there to prevent someone from teleporting into a location? Already know it doesn't do planar travel so if a location is a pocket dimension it's a no go. I remember in some of the 3.5 books there were spells to make a location a no teleport zone, but can't find them in my books, plus I would like a RAW pathfinder way.
Yes DM fiat can make a place so, just like you can say this magic door can't be destroyed or opened without X, but that's lame as hell. I hate saying things don't work because I said so.
used to be that gorgon's blood worked into the walls would make an anti teleportation area don't know about in PF though.
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You can effectively do this with Hallow(or Unhallow) though those are 5th level Cleric spells. One of the options it allows for is to tie a spell effect to an area and one of the spell effects is dimensional anchor, effectively keeping any sort of extradimensional travel from working.
I am quite sure there is an arcane way to do it as well(I was thinking guards and wards, but looking at the description I was wrong). Dimensional Lock would work, but thats an 8th level spell and needs to be recast every so often, so I don't know if it would suit your needs.
From the Core Book, page 210:
Teleportation is instantaneous travel through the Astral Plane. Anything that blocks astral travel also blocks teleportation.
So find something that blocks Astral travel and you will be good to go.
Forbiddance, a 6th level Cleric spell, is permanent and blocks all extradimensional travel, so you only need a 9th level cleric to cast it.
Creative Director
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The methods that immediately come into mind are:
Dimensional Lock
Forbiddance
Teleport trap (a spell from "Seekers of Secrets").
Putting the location in a demiplane also works, since teleport generally has trouble going across planar boundaries.
All that said... it's best to limit anti-teleportation stuff as much as possible in the game if you allow player characters to learn the spell. If teleportation is a huge turn-off for a GM, it's easy enough to remove it entirely from the game... but before you do, let the players know!
Recap of what i have known:
Dimensional Anchor: 1 round / level. But can be combined with Hallow/Unhallow.
Hallow: 1 Year, can be renewed at any time to extended it for 1 year.
Forbiddance: Permanent == This is your best bet by RAW.
Dimension Lock: 1 day/level. (((See your individual GM, if they will let you cast permanency on this for a for a Wizard only version of permanent protection, not sure if you can call that RAW or Not since it say in permanency to ask you home GM about allowing other spells)))
Old version (have not seen mentioned in Pathfinder):
Gorgons Blood: Not listed in Pathfinder Bestiary, so guessing this would no longer work. :(
Living Matter: Living mold, slimes, a living wall of flesh. Have heard of this being used in the past. Lots of trouble to maintain or very dangerousness to wizards on health to have around.
Deep Underground: Ah the old Star-trek Transporter limitations. Some Deep Dungeon campaign setting use this to limit travel. To be honest this never made since to me, as i alway felt it was just a rip off on preventing travel spells. But to each GM his own.
LAST = mundane versions (have not seen mentioned in Pathfinder)
LEAD = One inch of lead lining floor, celling, walls, all doors, and all windows. The poor mans protection from Teleportation, Divination, Scarying. Only works tho if the room is sealed,.... picky DM might require airtight, but i would not.
GOLD = See Lead. Ok, why did the Incas, Mayans, Egyptians have rooms lined with gold. Who knows, but this would make since in a magic world :)
.... and i see James beat me to the punch
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Bah, post eaten.
I've often thought about the "false destination" effect of teleport, especially since teleporting to a false destination most likely takes the teleporter to the nearest similar area.
- Build large windowless room
- Cast permanent illusion of small windowless room
- Build underground replica of small room
- Light fire in centre of fake room, brick up entrance
For extra amusement:
- Kill workmen who built real and fake rooms, create undead from remains
Note, scrying targets a creature, not a location, so a scryer sees the place's owner in the illusory room.
Owner - D20 Hobbies
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it's best to limit anti-teleportation stuff as much as possible in the game if you allow player characters to learn the spell. If teleportation is a huge turn-off for a GM, it's easy enough to remove it entirely from the game... but before you do, let the players know!
I agree. You should limit yourself from making adventures that block teleport.
Teleport has to be onto an unoccupied area of a solid surface. Eliminate all such -- for example, fill the area with water and have you and your guests on small barges or floating disks.
An Anti-Magic Field would probably do it. Or a Dead Magic Area if those still exist.
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it's best to limit anti-teleportation stuff as much as possible in the game if you allow player characters to learn the spell. If teleportation is a huge turn-off for a GM, it's easy enough to remove it entirely from the game... but before you do, let the players know!I agree. You should limit yourself from making adventures that block teleport.
I see these steps a necessary to prevent a scry-and-die on the BBEG. All other places would be free game, but you need to put some sort of plot armor on your campaign.
it's best to limit anti-teleportation stuff as much as possible in the game if you allow player characters to learn the spell. If teleportation is a huge turn-off for a GM, it's easy enough to remove it entirely from the game... but before you do, let the players know!I agree. You should limit yourself from making adventures that block teleport.
The OP has been asking for RAW tricks to block Teleport but has not shown any hatred for the spell, nor shown any intentions to make Teleport obsolete.
In all fairness, in a society where Teleportation is a reality, counter-Teleportation jinks should be just as frequent. If I was a wizard, or an official, or anyone with enough public notoriety to expect potential retribution from anyone with the means (or the funds) to use teleportation, I'd be sure to protect my house against direct magical intrusions.
Teleport would be good spell option even if every house or dungeon were protected against it. The fact that you can bypass overland travel, explore dungeons and be back for supper is already quite extraordinary IMO.
'findel
In all fairness, in a society where Teleportation is a reality, counter-Teleportation jinks should be just as frequent. If I was a wizard, or an official, or anyone with enough public notoriety to expect potential retribution from anyone with the means (or the funds) to use teleportation, I'd be sure to protect my house against direct magical intrusions.
Actually, what I think would happen is that these individuals would have protections against scrying, and be very selective about who they allow in their homes (allowing no one in their private chambers, for instance). It seems unlikely that most spellcasters would be willing to risk teleporting blind, so all you really have to do is protect your area from spellcaster familiarity.
In all fairness, in a society where Teleportation is a reality, counter-Teleportation jinks should be just as frequent. If I was a wizard, or an official, or anyone with enough public notoriety to expect potential retribution from anyone with the means (or the funds) to use teleportation, I'd be sure to protect my house against direct magical intrusions.Actually, what I think would happen is that these individuals would have protections against scrying, and be very selective about who they allow in their homes (...)
Absolutely. Such a "careful" person would have several layers of protections. Being spied-on can have consequences just as catastrophic as being robed or attacked in your bedroom and as you said, teleportation requires spying in the first place. Besides, wards against scrying are much "cheaper" than Dimension Anchor and Forbiddance.
But that's what I mean by "magical intrusion", by which I also mean Shadow Walk and Ethereal Jaunt larceny as well. Besides, seclusive wizards are not the only logical targets: public temples, royal audience chambers, national treasuries, "high-security" prisons are also at great risk of magical intrusion as well.
Again, I'm not arguing that every peasant cottage should logically be protected by a battery of magical wards, but I'm really think that countermeasures should be relatively frequent.
Whether Teleport was designed to break into the villain's lair or not is another question altogether. If teleport is left without serious countermeasures on purpose for the sake of gameplay, I might still disagree, but I'd understand.
'findel
[edit] ninja'd by EWHM
(...) and just as in the real world, the minions are usually the weak link in evil overlord security.
Well, minions usually have mediocre AC and low Hit Dice, which therefo... Oh, weak link. I get it!
;)
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Owner - D20 Hobbies
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I see these steps a necessary to prevent a scry-and-die on the BBEG.
I play almost exclusively high level (12th to 18th level) games.
I see these steps as never necessary in any game in any situation.All they do is annoy your players for leveling.
Teleport would be good spell option even if every house or dungeon were protected against it.
Preparing for it is one thing. Blocking the PC's from teleporting in every BBEG's lair (or whatever) is another.
I don't have any trouble with teleport, scrying, etc in the adventures I build. Being able to pop into the room of the BBEG unannounced does not give you a significant advantage. Especially when you don't know what is in the rest of the room you can't see from a scry.
Teleport would be good spell option even if every house or dungeon were protected against it.Preparing for it is one thing. Blocking the PC's from teleporting in every BBEG's lair (or whatever) is another.
I don't have any trouble with teleport, scrying, etc in the adventures I build. Being able to pop into the room of the BBEG unannounced does not give you a significant advantage. Especially when you don't know what is in the rest of the room you can't see from a scry.
I never had much trouble with that tactic either (except for one or two fishy prison escapes). I'm just trying to get into a wizard's mind, and how comforting it might be to know that nobody can just pop in before you even got your coffee this morning, or that demons can't start pouring out of that magical mirror aunty Harpy got you for your birthday.
Even evil overlords who don't trust their minions ('cause trust is for the weak anyways) need some sort of comforting blanket, no?
'findel
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I see these steps a necessary to prevent a scry-and-die on the BBEG.I play almost exclusively high level (12th to 18th level) games.
I see these steps as never necessary in any game in any situation.All they do is annoy your players for leveling.
Not really, they can still teleoprt to directly outside of the location and enter through normal means. Having a single, critical location per campaign as a no-teleport zone isn't game-breaking. For all my campaigns, these tactics are also available to the players to use.
Also, think of the situation in a modern lens. If teleport were available IRL, don't you think the White House would have that level of warding?
Thanks for the information everyone. I don't plan on making the spell useless just want plot protection for key NPC's and locations. I normally don't world build with high level spells in mind and I am trying to fix that.
Teleport has to be onto an unoccupied area of a solid surface. Eliminate all such -- for example, fill the area with water and have you and your guests on small barges or floating disks.
Or have gossamer strings hanging everywhere. They won't effect or slow a person walking in the room, but you can't teleport in.
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I like to have countermeasures for teleportation (and similar world-changing spells that aren't all that high of level) that don't rely on having a high-level spellcaster around to cast spells. Otherwise, it negatively impacts my suspension of disbelief and/or restricts adventure and world-building in unsatisfying (to me) ways. E.g., everyone important enough to make an enemy of 9th level or higher but that isn't (or doesn't have a friend who is) an 11th level cleric, 15th level wizard, or equivalent should've been assassinated a long time ago by some scry-teleport assassination team. You could say teleport is incredibly rare -- except you know your PCs will have it, so they will end up the only scry-teleport assassination team around, and they will make snacks of high-level non-spellcaster enemies. So then every opponent has to have high-level spellcasting available, or be on another plane, or the like. You can't have the villain be "evil Conan" who hates magic, because without constant magic, he'd be dead.
It's just dissatisfying. That's why I liked when scrying could be foiled by non-magical means. And one reason why I am only going to run adventure paths in PF/D&D.
if you want an inexpensive, non magical way of blocking teleport, just have moss and ivy that exists on the astral plane and the real world at the same time. This blocks astral movement, and thus teleport. Done. People would grow the ivy (it's pretty, has pretty flowers, and makes the place smell good!) and dungeons would have the moss planted at strategic points.
I don't think it is strictly legal by the rules, but I have an NPC who keeps a cockatrice in a cage above eye level so that any would-be scriers get an eyeful.
It's one of those things that doesn't work to the letter of the rules, but it is a logical countermeasure that is too cool to pass up.
Villains might also use magical traps triggered by an incoming teleport, maybe with a safeword they can add to their own casting.
The best proof against teleportation is frequent redecorating. Swap the statues, change the draperies, rearrange the furniture--the wizard may have pictured the room in his mind's eye, but it doesn't look like that anymore, massively raising the chance of getting an incorrect location.
Consequently, sensible wizards will teleport with outdoor locations in mind, as it's difficult to rearrange mountainscapes.
Scrying? If you don't want to be scried, make a point of not letting your enemies know your face. Wear a mask and invest in a hat of disguise and make a point of wearing a different outfit every day.
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Teleport has to be onto an unoccupied area of a solid surface. Eliminate all such -- for example, fill the area with water and have you and your guests on small barges or floating disks.
Where does it say Teleport must be onto an unoccupied area of a solid surface? The spell links 2 points in space, that is all. As long as you can physically occupy the targeted location, that is enough to satisfy the spell's target requirement.
The best proof against teleportation is frequent redecorating. Swap the statues, change the draperies, rearrange the furniture--the wizard may have pictured the room in his mind's eye, but it doesn't look like that anymore, massively raising the chance of getting an incorrect location.
This makes a lot of sense but, unless I'm mistaken, isn't strictly supported by RaW. To what extent does it become "less familiar". Would changing the furniture around simply go "down" the familiarity scale, or directly send a "false destination" result?
Similarly, would a familiar site by winter be less familiar during summertime? How about public places where people move a lot?
interesting thoughts...
The best proof against teleportation is frequent redecorating. Swap the statues, change the draperies, rearrange the furniture--the wizard may have pictured the room in his mind's eye, but it doesn't look like that anymore, massively raising the chance of getting an incorrect location.This makes a lot of sense but, unless I'm mistaken, isn't strictly supported by RaW. To what extent does it become "less familiar". Would changing the furniture around simply go "down" the familiarity scale, or directly send a "false destination" result?
Similarly, would a familiar site by winter be less familiar during summertime? How about public places where people move a lot?
hummm, yummy food for thought...
The best proof against teleportation is frequent redecorating. Swap the statues, change the draperies, rearrange the furniture--the wizard may have pictured the room in his mind's eye, but it doesn't look like that anymore, massively raising the chance of getting an incorrect location.This makes a lot of sense but, unless I'm mistaken, isn't strictly supported by RaW. To what extent does it become "less familiar". Would changing the furniture around simply go "down" the familiarity scale, or directly send a "false destination" result?
Similarly, would a familiar site by winter be less familiar during summertime? How about public places where people move a lot?
interesting thoughts...
If you memorized the royal parade grounds by what they look like when all the kings horses and all the kings men are out on display, you're pretty much screwing yourself for a teleport unless you're doing it on a day and time when the soldiers are out on display in the same formation.
A sensible wizard will memorize more permanent features--the paving stones, the mountains in the distance, the statue of old King Bob on his horse. If someone's ripped up the cobbles and toppled the statue into the river? If the wizard is lucky, he might show up somewhere in sight of the familiar mountain, but more likely would end up on somewhere else that has cobbles, a mountain, and a statue of some guy on a horse.
Indoors? The smartest thing to do is to memorize the architecture, but if the architecture is something bland and the only distinctive things are the furnishings and ornaments, you're stuck with looking at the tables and tapestries and hoping the duchess doesn't redecorate soon.
People who want folk to teleport somewhere will specifically make a teleportation chamber and studiously not redecorate, letting folk teleport into it safely, as would be standard at most wizarding schools. Of course, people who wanted to trap other wizards--especially disgruntled former students--could easily set up reproductions of the famous chamber to catch those with bad aim. Ergo, the most sensible wizarding schools would do something like making a circle of standing stones outdoors which not only are distinctive but have a number of natural landmarks in the background--distinctive mountain peaks, panoramic views of swaths of coastline, even a huge and beautiful swath of some distinctive buildings. Yes, villains could still fake it, but it starts going into budgetary concerns to copy whole buildings let alone mountains.
I would think that wizards and other teleporters would be a good market for miniatures with "postcard shots" of various picturesque landmarks, making it so that it would be much easier to teleport to a world's equivalent of the Taj Mahal or Mt. Fuji.
Katherine Kurtz's Deryni Chronicles had 'Port Points', these were circles charged with magic, and each had a specific tile pattern. Once you'd visited one and touched it's magic and memorized it's pattern, you could use any other port point to teleport to that point, if you knew how to port in the first place.
I think this would make an excellent way of gaining the benefits of Teleport, without having the downside. You can still get the long distance travel benefits, but you can't just teleport anywhere you want.
Make the port points buildable with Teleport and Craft Wondrous Items.
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Katherine Kurtz's Deryni Chronicles had 'Port Points', these were circles charged with magic, and each had a specific tile pattern. Once you'd visited one and touched it's magic and memorized it's pattern, you could use any other port point to teleport to that point, if you knew how to port in the first place.
I think this would make an excellent way of gaining the benefits of Teleport, without having the downside. You can still get the long distance travel benefits, but you can't just teleport anywhere you want.
Make the port points buildable with Teleport and Craft Wondrous Items.
As a house rule, you could say that the teleport spell leaves the traveler dazed for up to 2d4 rounds upon arrival, giving the BBEG time to take notice and coordinate a response. Of course Greater Teleport and higher level spells do not have such limitations. This is something I call "teleport daze".
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One house rule I've seen that explains why dungeons are so prevalent is to have teleportation blocked by 40ft. of earth. Thus hidden underground lairs are protected from scry and die.
Hmm... I actually kind of like that. I could see something like 40 - 60 feet of earth blocking scrying/teleportation while 20 - 30 feet of stone will do the same.
I'll have to run this by my players. Though, I doubt they'd ever try scry and die tactics anyways. Thanks for the idea.
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it's best to limit anti-teleportation stuff as much as possible in the game if you allow player characters to learn the spell. If teleportation is a huge turn-off for a GM, it's easy enough to remove it entirely from the game... but before you do, let the players know!I agree. You should limit yourself from making adventures that block teleport.
Yeah, because high level D&D is exactly like low level D&D and high level intelligent BBEGs love when people pop into their living room unannounced :)
Teleport has to be onto an unoccupied area of a solid surface. Eliminate all such -- for example, fill the area with water and have you and your guests on small barges or floating disks.Where does it say Teleport must be onto an unoccupied area of a solid surface?
Under the general Conjuration rules. Creatures cannot be conjured into empty space; only into unoccupied areas that can support their weight.
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Under the general Conjuration rules. Creatures cannot be conjured into empty space; only into unoccupied areas that can support their weight.Teleport has to be onto an unoccupied area of a solid surface. Eliminate all such -- for example, fill the area with water and have you and your guests on small barges or floating disks.Where does it say Teleport must be onto an unoccupied area of a solid surface?
I think you are taking that piece of text out of context, read it again...
"A creature or object brought into being or transported to
your location by a conjuration spell cannot appear inside
another creature or object, nor can it appear floating in
an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a
surface capable of supporting it."
I take this to mean that when you summon or teleport things to YOU, the rule applies. Besides, I think it's fun to let a teleporting character to misjump and wind up in an ocean or submerged dungeon somewhere. Such misadventures can lead to great new adventures, quite inadvertently. I use the movie "Jumper" as my visual guide.
Yeah, because high level D&D is exactly like low level D&D and high level intelligent BBEGs love when people pop into their living room unannounced :)it's best to limit anti-teleportation stuff as much as possible in the game if you allow player characters to learn the spell. If teleportation is a huge turn-off for a GM, it's easy enough to remove it entirely from the game... but before you do, let the players know!I agree. You should limit yourself from making adventures that block teleport.
HD, when I read that, I agreed — one should not make adventures that interfere with teleport too often. NPCs, on the other hand... :)
I made a room that was dead magic just by putting a huge disk of plastic in it. It's in the Cleaves. The Game of Balance. Science and magic don't mix. If you want to make gunpowder or plastic you have to remove all magic from the workplace.
Another fun idea, teleport shunt. In the Dungeon Engineers, I fixed a magical effect of shrinking as characters went down a hall with teleport sending characters to a trap elsewhere in the dungeon.
I was going to suggest a magic brick or spike that blocks teleporting. A Miscellaneous magic item is a good shortcut.
Note that noble families have special bedrooms for entertaining. Female thief magic users will grab everything valuable and try to teleport out. They probably rented a teleporting device.
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HD, when I read that, I agreed — one should not make adventures that interfere with teleport too often. NPCs, on the other hand... :)Yeah, because high level D&D is exactly like low level D&D and high level intelligent BBEGs love when people pop into their living room unannounced :)it's best to limit anti-teleportation stuff as much as possible in the game if you allow player characters to learn the spell. If teleportation is a huge turn-off for a GM, it's easy enough to remove it entirely from the game... but before you do, let the players know!I agree. You should limit yourself from making adventures that block teleport.
I run a pretty sandbox-y game when I DM. So, much of the time, if the players want to take someone on, they have to put in the legwork, not just "choose the path" like a lot of published adventures provide. They tend to pick the place they decide to fight much of the time, which mitigates having to deal with defenses in their opponent's lair. But, sometimes, they need to assault the lair, so they have to come up with ways to deal with the bad guy's countermeasures. I find this allows for the players getting to use their abilities they earned while occasionally making them think outside the box to get their mission accomplished.
One house rule I've seen that explains why dungeons are so prevalent is to have teleportation blocked by 40ft. of earth. Thus hidden underground lairs are protected from scry and die.
A friend had one like that, but with greater depth to ward against higher level foes. Certain stonework also bolluxed teleport, etc., with Dwarves specializing in that tech. Shame he hasn't run in 20+ years...
The players in one game foiled astral invasions by building the walls into the astral. Expensive, but possible. Port areas on the other hand, require rubble being cleared from the astral and ethereal meaning only landing pads of this type can be teleported to by spells otherwise too weak. A teleport tunnel from Menzoberanzan(spFail) to Skullport in the ether would be as expensive as a normal tunnel. Maybe it would cost less because of reduced distances on that plane.
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Whether Teleport was designed to break into the villain's lair or not is another question altogether. If teleport is left without serious countermeasures on purpose for the sake of gameplay, I might still disagree, but I'd understand.
s I recall, a "thin layer of lead" blocks teleportation. So just use the same paint that the Chinese use for their children toys. ;) Or the paint we in the U.S. used for decades to paint our houses! It's up to the GM as to what constitutes a "thin layer". In my campaign, all of the villains take basic precautions such as this. My PCs haven't started doing so yet, but keep reading...
My PCs have been scried upon three times so far (that they know of, i.e. that they made their Perception checks to detect the invisible scrying sensor). Yet they've taken no action to attempt to block teleportation. The PCs have three times used magic (dimension door, teleport) to either enter and/or leave a location they were assaulting (the same general building complex each time) and the villains are about to turn the tables on them.
I think they're going to be very sad that they didn't plan ahead. :( I may have their HQ hit while they're gone though, since they'll be able to see the results of their negligence without being personally affected. It could seriously hurt the Leadership score of the PC with a cohort though, depending on how it turns out.
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I may have their HQ hit while they're gone though, since they'll be able to see the results of their negligence without being personally affected. It could seriously hurt the Leadership score of the PC with a cohort though, depending on how it turns out.
Depends on the villians I think. Are they the dramatic kind, 'sending a warning'? Or are they the ruthless kind, to crush any such opposition? If the PCs haven't used it on anything but underlings, and not been a serious hindrance, the first option might be best. If they thought the people they were jumping in on were the main bag guys and that they needed to blitz them, they're likely to do the same once they figure out who the overlords are, the second is the only logical choice for the villians.
I hope your party survives to learn their lesson! :)
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We played with a smaller cast of players than usual, so I cut them a break. The villains were waiting for the party to show up (which they very obligingly did!) so the villains then left to attack the party's allies!
The allies had used the lead-paint-on-the-walls technique yet the villains still got in (I can't say how as at least one of the players reads these boards). They stole away with the leader of the allies, so now the PCs will have a side quest to get the leader back! Yay, more XP for the PCs! ;-)