The Power of Time Zones

[Emmit Svenson]

(This is meant not as a serious attempt to exploit a loophole, but as entertainment for those who are amused by rule exploits.)

A Theologian or Ecclesitheurge cleric with the Travel domain chooses a specific time of day when her spell slots replenish. Let’s say dawn.

She spends her adventuring career exploring the globe, and at some point after reaching 9th level ends up on the opposite side of the world from her childhood home. One dawn, after preparing her spells, she realizes she can be nearly twice the spellcaster she’s been up until now.

She has four hours to select spells and cast all she likes, save for a single memorization of Teleport. She can then spend eight hours on downtime activities such as sleeping, crafting, practicing her profession, performing religious duties, ruling a populace or whatever.

Then she teleports to the opposite side of the globe, where it’s dawn. Her spell slots replenish, save for the one she used to cast Teleport. Luckily, her archetype allows her to prepare Teleport in her normal spell slots. She once again has four hours to cast and eight hours to do other things. She could have two bases of operations on different sides of the globe, or she could teleport back immediately after replenishing spells.

Traveling via Teleport 2-4 times a day carries considerable risk in the long term, even if both spots are very familiar. However, these risks are cut in half at level 11, when she can Word of Recall to a sanctuary for one leg of the journey. (Also at this level, any cleric with the Travel domain can use this trick, teleporting on one leg and recalling on the other.) The travel risk is eliminated at level 13 when she learns Greater Teleport.

At level 17, any cleric regardless of domains might consider using Interplanetary Teleport (and perhaps a method of tracking daylight over multiple planets) to pull off the same trick.

[Christopher Rowe]

Clever.

I've always tried to not pay overly close attention to time-of-day rules mechanics for precisely this reason.

It's one of the things that makes my head hurt if I think about it too much, along with things like rules mechanics that depend for their effect upon, say, the season of the year (what's the definition of "winter" and what if, as in your example, you wind up in the antipodes of where you began your adventuring career—note this assumes Earth-like seasons, as is the default for most fantasy RPG settings like Golarion?).

The answer, of course, is to embrace the spirit/intent of such rules elements (once per day means once per 24-hour period or however long a day is on your adventuring world) but it certainly provides material for questions, debates, and exploits like those you outlined above.