Steward of the Great Beyond Question

[draconswan]

One of my players is a wizard with the Steward of the Great Beyond discovery. Throughout the campaign, he has used this discovery to great benefit of the party. My question is, does this ability trigger only when the ability is being activated, or if any part of the ability effects an area within he's AOE? For instance, if a monster uses a teleportation ability to teleport themselves next to him, but the teleportation starts outside of the wizard's AOE, does he still get his check to block the teleportation?

I'm of the opinion that he wouldn't, since the teleportation effect originated outside of his range (and therefor the magic used to generate the effect was already spent and not counterable). I haven't seen an official ruling on this, and the rules around this discovery don't seem to explain this situation very well.

[Dave Justus]

"Whenever a creature attempts to use a teleportation effect or summon a creature within 30 feet of you"

I believe the best way to read that is "Whenever a creature within 30 feet of you attempts to use a teleportation effect or summon a creature"

Re-structured that way, your question is clear, as the creature creating the effect has to be within 30 feat at the time.

[Java Man]

I am unclear if the 30' limit is intended to be for measured to the caster you are blocking, or the target space of the effect (arrival point for summon or teleport). Thematically either could work.

[draconswan]

@Java Man, yes that is my main question. As Dave worded it, a monster could teleport into a space within the 30 ft of the wizard without being block if the effect originated outside of that range. I read is as Dave says, where if the effect originates outside of the 30 ft range, it's not effected.

[Java Man]

I'm thinking now that the distance limit needs to be in reference to the caster, not the target space. If it were measured in respect to the target it would either require you to have a method of knowing where the enemy is planning to do whatever (a significant limit) or it would have to provide said info (which would be a nice power on its own). So the option that doesn't need further odd rulings or adjustments sounds best.

[Meirril]

From the way its worded, I'd actually judge it doesn't matter where the caster is. Even if the caster is next to the Wizard, if the summons happens outside of 30' this wouldn't block it.

But if the caster wants to start or end a teleport within 30' it could be blocked, and summoned creatures appearing within 30' could be blocked as well.

The key wording here is "teleportation effect or summon a creature within 30 feet of you, you may attempt to block the effect." which can be reblocked to be "[effect] within 30' of you, you may block the effect." I think that is fairly clear that it cares where the effect happens, not where the source is.