Why does Dimension Door disable actions?

[shintsurugi]

Was discussing this with a friend earlier, and couldn't find an answer (or my google-fu is weak).

So, Dimension Door states that:

Quote:

After using this spell, you can't take any other actions until your next turn.

However, Teleport, one spell level higher, has no such restriction.

Has there ever been a justification for this? What happens between level 4 and 5 spells that gets rid of that? Or is just Teleportation vs Dimension Door like comparing a TARDIS and a Vortex Manipulator?

Is Dimension Door a different form of teleportation that causes you to have to spend the rest of your turn not being disoriented?

[The Sword]

I guess dimension door doesn't have any miss chance which is an advantage over teleport.

I really like the way it worked in the Return of the Archwizards trilogy where teleporting also left you unable to act for a short time. I wanted to bring it into our group but was over ruled lol.

[Jeraa]

Tradition. Dimension Door seems to always have had a restriction on what you could do afterwords, at least as far back as 1st edition AD&D (where there was a recovery period of 7 segments after you used it).

[Nox Aeterna]

Well , like you said yourself teleport comes after it , it should in theory be the stronger spell (and it is overall) , after that comes greater teleport which is once again just better and so on.

[Azten]

Plus, it's a verbal only spell, isn't it? That means you can escape most things easily enough.

[Casual Viking]

"Because Gary wrote it that way". Note that Teleport used to be a much worse spell; mishaps could and would kill you and leave your body extremely hard to find and recover.

[Loren Pechtel]

It's intended as an escape spell, not a gate the rogue behind the enemy wizard to backstab spell. Without a stun effect you would get automatic sneak attack damage in such a situation as they certainly wouldn't know you were there (because you weren't there.)

[RegUS PatOff]

Also note that there are a number of feats built to allow you to overcome the "can't take any action until your next turn" limitation of Dimension Door.