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Thread: Teleport in BR

  1. #1
    Senior Member Osprey's Avatar
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    I was curious as to how different DM's/games handle teleportation and teleport error in Birthright.

    Myself, I leave a 5% chance of error (1 in 20) for Dimension Door (4th), double the chance of error for Teleport (5th), and have Greater Teleport (7th) and Circle of Teleportation work as per the normal margins of error for Teleport as it is in the PHB.

    One of the problems I run into is that becausde every mage with half a brain knows of the dangers of teleporting, they tend to have an 'extra' one as backup in case anything goes wrong. So the few times IMC that characters mis-jump, they just trieed again and prayed they roll better. Which they did.

    The main function I find the teleport-error rule plays is to help discourage blatant teleportation as a standard mode of travel. Though the arcane trickster PC doesn't seem to mind much...maybe 'cause he's a Shadow Walker, I don't know.

    Any other ideas/thoughts on teleporting in Aebrynis?

    Osprey

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    Senior Member Thomas_Percy's Avatar
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    If you like journey-adventures, play at levels 1-8, when PCs have no Teleport (especially at levels 1-4 when they have no Phantom Steed, too).
    At higher levels you can create journey-adventures based on the idea of tracking someone or escorting someone with uncontrollable SR which makes Teleport impossible.
    I personally like Teleport.
    I DM-ed "Bastion of Broken Souls" in Anuire, detective adventure with Teleport as a core way of transport.
    Last weekend I DM-ed a diplomatic adventure for just two PC: Wiz20 & epicWiz, who Teleport from Banien's Deep (their source) to: Calrie, Moriel, Ruorven, Proudglaive multiple times just to talk with regents. It was 2 weeks of life of PC, if they travel by horse, it can take months. Especially that I made a map 2 x bigger:

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    Senior Member Osprey's Avatar
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    That's an interesting re-make of southern Anuire there...neither Ghoere nor Diemed I noticed.

    Did you make that map? If so, how? By altering jpeg images with a photo editor?

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    Senior Member Thomas_Percy's Avatar
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    Yes, I done it in MSPaint & PhotoShop from jgp.
    A lot of work, especially deleting nation borders.

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    I heavily enforce teleportation in BR. Based on where the pc's are, and the level of sources nearby, each teleportation or dim door has a chance of landing the pc's in the shadow world.

    Without a way out, as teleportation will NOT get them out, only in. They have to find a gateway back out. Or, if they have a halfling of sufficient power with them...

    It prevents massive teleportation political assasinations from occurring, a nightmare at the least, if most teleport level mages can do it at will.

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    Senior Member Thomas_Percy's Avatar
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    Regents have Forbiddance, Hallow (Dimension Anchor) etc. to prevent teleportation into theirs castles.
    We can create a useful castle & VIP protection Realm Spell, too.

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    Regents have Forbiddance, Hallow (Dimension Anchor) etc. to prevent teleportation into theirs castles.
    We can create a useful castle & VIP protection Realm Spell, too.
    That assumes that every regent has access to a caster of at least 9th level. Now, admittedly, if the PCs have teleport already, then the campaign is already into the high levels. However, the average level of many regents is significantly less, including most of the divine spell casters. Sure, the "average" wizard regent is about 10th level, and will have access to Dimensional Anchor, but without the divine caster for Hallow, Dim Anchor only has a duration of 1 min/level.

    An arcane teleporting assasin has a major advantage in any campaign setting, but especially in BR, with the lack of defences against them, so there must be some extra disadvantage.

    I have always ruled that ANY type of travel spell uses the shadow world somewhat. Many of the PBEMs I have played in do too, so as to prevent abuse.

    Perhaps it is a matter of personal taste; resurrection spells and teleport spells have always taken a great chunk out of the game's flavour IMO. It's pretty hard to craft any type of adventure when the party can go anywhere, instantaneously, without fear of death. These are high level adventurers where the opponent has to be granted equal capability, making the world into another FR clone.

    Don't get me wrong; I can enjoy a high level campaign as much as the next person. But, if we want to stay in flavour, BR should restrict travel spells.

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    Senior Member Trithemius's Avatar
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    Originally posted by epicsoul@Mar 10 2005, 04:41 AM
    That assumes that every regent has access to a caster of at least 9th level. Now, admittedly, if the PCs have teleport already, then the campaign is already into the high levels. However, the average level of many regents is significantly less, including most of the divine spell casters. Sure, the "average" wizard regent is about 10th level, and will have access to Dimensional Anchor, but without the divine caster for Hallow, Dim Anchor only has a duration of 1 min/level.
    Priestly magic is advanced in Cerilia, especially by comparison to the state of arcane magic; ancient fortresses could very well have this level of protection.

    Alternatively you could assume that relics and prayers are included in the construction of all major structures, as they often were in medieval Europe. This could provide a "free" mantle of protective spells for castles. This could also serve to reduce the effectivness of wizards as one-person siege-trains.
    John 'Trithemius' Machin
    The Other John From Dunedin (now in Canberra)
    "Power performs the Miracle." - Johannes Trithemius

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    Senior Member Trithemius's Avatar
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    Originally posted by epicsoul@Mar 9 2005, 06:49 PM
    I heavily enforce teleportation in BR. Based on where the pc's are, and the level of sources nearby, each teleportation or dim door has a chance of landing the pc's in the shadow world.

    Without a way out, as teleportation will NOT get them out, only in. They have to find a gateway back out. Or, if they have a halfling of sufficient power with them...

    It prevents massive teleportation political assasinations from occurring, a nightmare at the least, if most teleport level mages can do it at will.
    Since, to my understanding, the Shadow World is the main transitive plane in BR (replacing Shadow, Astral, and Ethereal) I expect that transportional magic might have all sorts of additional risks, especially if the "line of travel" crosses battlefields and other unsavoury places.

    Also, how many high level wizards are really interested in teleportation-based assassinations? I expect most of them are more interested in the higher mysteries of their art, not in murdering rivals. If they did decide to murder people, why not make use of invisible stalkers or other magical assassins, perhaps ones that are native to the Shadow World and so not imperiled by travelling through it?
    John 'Trithemius' Machin
    The Other John From Dunedin (now in Canberra)
    "Power performs the Miracle." - Johannes Trithemius

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    Special Guest (Donor) morgramen's Avatar
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    I mostly canned such spells IMC, just to prevent such problems. (Even Invisibility is non-existant, the best you can get is Chameleon Power, and Flying has never been invented either.) I do subscribe to the Shadow World angle though, and have replaced the "summoning" and other "planar" based spells to utilize the shadow world.
    "You need people of intelligence on this mission... quest... thing."

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