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For funsies, and because I might be using it in a PBP game, I am designing a stronghold using the extremely handy Stronghold User's Guide for D&D. I have solved people being able to scry or detect into my base, so my question is now how do I avoid people teleporting into my base.
Advantages (for me):
The base moves (burrows) so does not remain in the same location
I'll be the only one to know EXACTLY where it is.
Disadvantages:
I'm a Good character, so I can't kill all the builders.
I need to be able to teleport into and out of the base because most of the time it's going to be ten miles below the ground.
So, how do I stop enemies teleporting in or out, or better yet, how do I prevent enemies from knowing what my base looks like/prevent the builders from telling anyone anything useful? I need something from Pathfinder ruleset or something 3.5 that a DM won't mind allowing.
Stop scry and you stop most teleports. Private sanctum, lead lining. Most importantly, control who even has access to your lair. Appear in disguise or work through proxies. Make certain that nobody but you knows what the inside of your panic room looks like.
Teleport trap is a spell.
Consider utilizing monsters with teleport foiling effects, if possible.
Decorate. Use pronounced features copied from other, terrible locations as your decor. That way if the teleport fails, they'll end up in a "similar" location — that location may just be the throne room of an aggressive nation.
Some spells may let you alter the memory of your minions. Consider using this as a trap for would-be teleporters.
Use permanent illusions to create multiple sanctums, but trap the heck out of all but one. In fact, just build redundant strongholds, and have many of them be deathtraps.
Lastly, mundane traps. Have one safe "landing point" that you can teleport to, keep it a secret. Trap the hell out of the place, but deactivate the traps only when you need to maintain the illusion of insecurity.
Depends on the size of the area. Passworded Forbiddance spell by a 20th level cleric would get 1200 cubic feet, which is a big ass area.
You could also just use Mage's Magificant Mansion spell if all u wanted was a secret get away when u wanted it, or the create Demi-Plane Spells...
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Few good ideas- is lead lining alone enough to stop scry? That's all i've currently budgeted for.
I'm planning for it to be my personal lair, possibly bringing party members there if its an emergency.
Teleport trap is interesting- my character is able to fly, would it work to cause teleport trap to cause people to appear one inch above a teleportation circle? I would be fine, the others less so...
What monsters have teleport-foiling effects?
Sadly my vanity prevents me from decorating for any reason other than aesthetics
Don't have the $$$ for multiple sanctums, and i'd rather not bother with traps- it costs way too much to get the DC high enough to bother anybody.
Ok well then the Forbiddance spell has u covered. Its permanent and blocks all travel expect physically walking threw it and can have a password set to it.
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Breathing is a problem I am going to have to solve at some point :P
I can't physically walk to the location as it is going to be 500+ft underground most of the time, so unless Forbiddance can be allow planar travel if you know a password it is unsuitable. As it is it seems to only stop damage from entering with a password.
Hand everyone a Bottle of Air.
Hallow can be tied to Dimensional Anchor and can specifically exclude or include targets. No one but the whitelist can teleport in at all.
Make the entrance open into a Mage's Private Sanctum and you are good to go.
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Could I argue that a Bottle of Air would fill the area with air? It states that the bottle emits and replenishes its stock of air in an airless area. Consequently, when opened, it would continuously emit air until non-airless, and when air depleted, repeat. I would need to give it some time to fill the room with air but still workable.
How would Dimensional Anchor keep people out? Surely it would just keep people in once they'd arrived...
See the d20pfsrd.com site's notes about teleporting onto a ship. Since your base moves, the same notes would apply. You have already mentioned prevention of scrying, so even the builders of your base cannot teleport into it or help anyone else do so. Even though they know exactly what your base looks like, they have no more clue than anyone else does as to where it is.
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:) Excellent! Thanks very much, Knott!
Okay, two more questions to finish off.
1. Are there any scrying/such spells that can pierce lead?
2. If I decide to keep my base underground, is there any risk the GM will roll a dice and claim an earth elemental or some such thing destroyed it, or is it pretty safe?
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Talk to your GM, but I imagine leaving a couple of bottles of air lying around and open would keep the place full of air.
DOn't forget your everburning torches as well.
On question 2: nothing can prevent a GM from being a jerk except for the GM's personality.
Edit: or you could have half a dozen of these awaiting your arrival?
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Ooooh I missed those... they could do nicely, I admit. Plus having a vacuum could be a useful defence should anyone attempt to enter.
Oh and i'm going for permanent Dancing Lights, better control, and plus- vacuum.
Probably won't be much trouble, but could still happen. Tell me, how hard would it be to bind an Earth elemental to the outside of the lair? I'd need some sort of guarantee that he'd not destroy my base I admit.
There are some old Dragon Mag articles on protecting your castle from scrying. 295 may have one but there are even earlier articles I wish I could find.
In old skool rules lead could block both teleport and scrying. No need to lead sheet your castle just mix lead with your mortar or create chain link lead tapestries.
In simplifying everything some times 3.5 and Pathfinder killed some good flavor.
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The 'Teleport into a Wall' addendum.
If missing the target gets you teleporting into the wall then design the base so that they will teleport into an object filled room or hall. Have it so as you walk down a hall the hall is filled with rods that project from the wall and retreat into the wall and back out around you as you move down the hall - so a teleporter will never have a safe spot to teleport in - its a DM ruling really. If acid rains from the ceiling and you need an umbrella to walk down the hall - teleporting in will result in teleporting into the same space in which acid rain is falling so you have acid all through you if you teleport in. YOu could teleport the umbrella in first and then follow - but as long as the rain is so fine that they cant see the drops - scrying wont reveal the rain of death.
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If you wanted to be a douche, trap your lair with maze resetting traps that ignore people wearing a particular amulet or insignia. Anyone who teleports into your lair is hit by a no-save maze, and if they escape the maze they are immediately mazed again. The only way to escape the maze is by using plane shift or similar magic to go to another plane.
If your lair is that far underground the mere volume of dirt will block scrying. Lead is useful, but only necessary when you dont have enough other materials to block scry. Altough a lead lining is never a bad idea assuming you sandwich it in brick or something as to not give yourself lead poisoning.
How about this.
Use traditional means (forbiddance) to bar teleportation into most of your base. The only "entrances" which are forbiddance-free are trapped, but each trap operates on a timer. One deactivates, and another activates to take its' place - all on a rigid schedule.
If you know the schedule, you know which room is safe to teleport into at any given time. If you don't know the schedule, you could be teleporting into a deathtrap.
Daron Woodson
Abandoned Arts
If you wanted to be a douche, trap your lair with maze resetting traps that ignore people wearing a particular amulet or insignia. Anyone who teleports into your lair is hit by a no-save maze, and if they escape the maze they are immediately mazed again. The only way to escape the maze is by using plane shift or similar magic to go to another plane.
I know this one is disqualified due to level/expense... but I can't help but think of some pet minotaurs in there.
If you wanted to be a douche, trap your lair with maze resetting traps that ignore people wearing a particular amulet or insignia. Anyone who teleports into your lair is hit by a no-save maze, and if they escape the maze they are immediately mazed again. The only way to escape the maze is by using plane shift or similar magic to go to another plane.I know this one is disqualified due to level/expense... but I can't help but think of some pet minotaurs in there.
I think that calling minotaurs pets might upset them. They are sentient creatures after all. :)
Did I mention I am going to be a level 8-12 summoner? High level spells like that could be a bit tricky.
Well, technically that's not stopping you from arming the place with maze traps all by yourself. It would be kind of goofy expensive though, but I figured if you were using the SHBG, money was probably no object anyway. Some of the price figures in that book are a little screwy, IMHO. Especially since a 11th level wizard can build the basics of most fortresses on about 3,000 gp; including furniture.
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Could I argue that a Bottle of Air would fill the area with air? It states that the bottle emits and replenishes its stock of air in an airless area. Consequently, when opened, it would continuously emit air until non-airless, and when air depleted, repeat. I would need to give it some time to fill the room with air but still workable.
How would Dimensional Anchor keep people out? Surely it would just keep people in once they'd arrived...
Dimensional Anchor should, if I'm understanding it correctly, stop them just before they entered the warded area, which puts them solidly in the earth.
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My problem is that unless you're willing to spend crazy amounts on traps there isn't anything that will actually bother a high-level rogue or wizard. I much prefer the strategy whereby you stop them from entering your lair in the first place, via the blocking of scrying and the blocking of teleporting.
And plus, again, on a budget- enormous traps and rooms can't fit.
My problem is that unless you're willing to spend crazy amounts on traps there isn't anything that will actually bother a high-level rogue or wizard. I much prefer the strategy whereby you stop them from entering your lair in the first place, via the blocking of scrying and the blocking of teleporting.
And plus, again, on a budget- enormous traps and rooms can't fit.
Here you go Arkwight. Divert Teleport is what you want. It's a psionic power but you can use Craft Wondrous Item to build traps that utilize it just as you can spells. Each time someone tries to teleport into your base, the traps go off and attempt to redirect the teleportation to a new location. The new location could be outside your base, or a heavily trapped/defended room inside your base (worst case scenario would be a room welded shut and filled with resetting mechanical traps amidst an AMF trap).
Dimensional Anchor should, if I'm understanding it correctly, stop them just before they entered the warded area, which puts them solidly in the earth.Could I argue that a Bottle of Air would fill the area with air? It states that the bottle emits and replenishes its stock of air in an airless area. Consequently, when opened, it would continuously emit air until non-airless, and when air depleted, repeat. I would need to give it some time to fill the room with air but still workable.
How would Dimensional Anchor keep people out? Surely it would just keep people in once they'd arrived...
Sadly, it is a ray attack.
Sadly, it is a ray attack.Dimensional Anchor should, if I'm understanding it correctly, stop them just before they entered the warded area, which puts them solidly in the earth.Could I argue that a Bottle of Air would fill the area with air? It states that the bottle emits and replenishes its stock of air in an airless area. Consequently, when opened, it would continuously emit air until non-airless, and when air depleted, repeat. I would need to give it some time to fill the room with air but still workable.
How would Dimensional Anchor keep people out? Surely it would just keep people in once they'd arrived...
It is, but it's also a valid spell to combine with Hallow, which wards an entire area. My understanding of that combination was that everyone in the area of effect from hallow also has the attached spell applied to them. In the case of dimensional anchor, it effectively becomes a persistent AoE spell. Its effects, not its targeting or duration, are applied to hallow; its targeting and duration become that of hallow.
It doesn't make any sense to me otherwise.
Dimensional Lock is not on the Permanency list, and therefore not RAW legal. Also, if it were, it would cost 20,000 gold. A hallowed dimensional anchor costs 5k for a year, and has twice the radius.
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It does sound like the three facts that 1. the base moves 2. the base is sheathed in lead 3. the base has two miles of sand beneath it and the surface means it keeps out pretty much all teleporters and scryers, which does make me quite happy.
Also after reading 'interplanetary teleport' I am quite tempted to buff myself with 'immunity to fire' and a 'necklace of adaptation' and go sun-diving.
A hallowed dimensional anchor costs 5k for a year, and has twice the radius.
If that works, then a hallowed dimensional anchor may have just won the thread...
...and my heart.
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It does sound like the three facts that 1. the base moves 2. the base is sheathed in lead 3. the base has two miles of sand beneath it and the surface means it keeps out pretty much all teleporters and scryers, which does make me quite happy.
Also after reading 'interplanetary teleport' I am quite tempted to buff myself with 'immunity to fire' and a 'necklace of adaptation' and go sun-diving.
Why do you need interplanetary teleport? Greater teleport can get you to the sun and back without issue. Immunity to fire would be a good bet, but does a necklace of adaptation prevent damage from pressure? I mean the gravitational power of a star would be amazingly destructive in its own right.
IMHO, liches make the best space explorers. If you accidentally destroy yourself, then you reform with your phylactery in a few days and mark your findings.
"Dear Diary,
It seems that the Planet J324 is not a planet at all, but actually a white dwarf of a star that has collapsed in the past. It appears that what we see in the sky is only the afterimage of the star, as the distance the light from the star is traveling throws off the real picture.
Needless to say, the now defunct star has left an insurmountable gravitational rift, and despite my best efforts I could not teleport away quickly enough to avoid being crushed into oblivion. A pity, since I was scheduled to have tea with the archmage. She will have to understand however, and likely will, since she is helping to fund these expeditions. Or, I should say paying me for them, since it's not costing me a damned thing. Haha! I do love being a lich. It was so worth eating 100 crunchy chicks to complete my phylactery. Sure, it was unspeakably evil, and a bit gross, but yeah, I'm a lich, so I win at life.
Anyway, I shall be reporting my research findings to the archmage, so that we can revise the star maps to note that there is no planet J324, and to avoid teleporting to it. Tomorrow I plan to explore the blue planet just beyond the edge of the galaxy to see if it contains water or can support life. If so, I may organize a colonization of the planet using a team of skeletal workers. If all goes well, I may win that award I've been wanting. Ah, all the mageling fangirls I will have..."
A hallowed dimensional anchor costs 5k for a year, and has twice the radius.If that works, then a hallowed dimensional anchor may have just won the thread...
...and my heart.
For 5k a year, all the "maximum security" prisons in our world and pretty much every throne room is warded with (un)hallowed dimensional anchors.
For 5k a year, all the "maximum security" prisons in our world and pretty much every throne room is warded with (un)hallowed dimensional anchors.A hallowed dimensional anchor costs 5k for a year, and has twice the radius.If that works, then a hallowed dimensional anchor may have just won the thread...
...and my heart.
Deep in the bosom of the earth, no less. That shunting damage can be a b&&&% goddess.
My theurge's stronghold is permanently teleport-trapped to redirect anyone teleporting into the place without a password into a portal which leads directly to the interior of the sun.
It's a good deterrent.
A moving base won't stop scrying, because Scrying shows a place a user knows. If they know what a room in your Base looks like they can scry it even if it is moving.
This is why evil wizards usually retain the services of a full-time interior decorator.