Teleport: One Way Ticket to The Hell Out of Here
Usable By: Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard
Spell Level: 7
School: Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 10 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V
This spell instantly transports you and up to eight willing creatures of your choice that you can see within range, or a single object that you can see within range, to a destination you select. If you target an object, it must be able to fit entirely inside a 10-foot cube, and it can’t be held or carried by an unwilling creature.
The destination you choose must be known to you, and it must be on the same plane of existence as you. Your familiarity with the destination determines whether you arrive there successfully. The GM rolls d100 and consults the table.
| Familiarity | Mishap | Similar Area | Off Target | On Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent Circle | -- | -- | -- | 01 - 100 |
| Associated Object | -- | -- | -- | 01 - 100 |
| Very Familiar | 01 - 05 | 06 - 13 | 14 -24 | 25 - 100 |
| Seen Casually | 01 - 33 | 34 - 43 | 44 - 53 | 54 - 100 |
| Viewed Once | 01 - 43 | 44 - 53 | 54 - 73 | 74 - 100 |
| Description | 01 - 43 | 44 - 53 | 54 - 73 | 74 - 100 |
| False Destination | 01 - 50 | 51 - 100 | -- | -- |
Familiarity. “Permanent circle” means a permanent teleportation circle whose sigil sequence you know. “Associated object” means that you possess an object taken from the desired destination within the last six months, such as a book from a wizard’s library, bed linen from a royal suite, or a chunk of marble from a lich’s secret tomb.
“Very familiar” is a place you have been very often, a place you have carefully studied, or a place you can see when you cast the spell. “Seen casually” is someplace you have seen more than once but with which you aren’t very familiar. “Viewed once” is a place you have seen once, possibly using magic. “Description” is a place whose location and appearance you know through someone else’s description, perhaps from a map.
“False destination” is a place that doesn’t exist. Perhaps you tried to scry an enemy’s sanctum but instead viewed an illusion, or you are attempting to teleport to a familiar location that no longer exists.
On Target. You and your group (or the target object) appear where you want to.
Off Target. You and your group (or the target object) appear a random distance away from the destination in a random direction. Distance off target is 1d10 × 1d10 percent of the distance that was to be traveled. For example, if you tried to travel 120 miles, landed off target, and rolled a 5 and 3 on the two d10s, then you would be off target by 15 percent, or 18 miles. The GM determines the direction off target randomly by rolling a d8 and designating 1 as north, 2 as northeast, 3 as east, and so on around the points of the compass. If you were teleporting to a coastal city and wound up 18 miles out at sea, you could be in trouble.
Similar Area. You and your group (or the target object) wind up in a different area that’s visually or thematically similar to the target area. If you are heading for your home laboratory, for example, you might wind up in another wizard’s laboratory or in an alchemical supply shop that has many of the same tools and implements as your laboratory. Generally, you appear in the closest similar place, but since the spell has no range limit, you could conceivably wind up anywhere on the plane.
Mishap. The spell’s unpredictable magic results in a difficult journey. Each teleporting creature (or the target object) takes 3d10 force damage, and the GM rerolls on the table to see where you wind up (multiple mishaps can occur, dealing damage each time).
Review by Samuel West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Some days you wake up in the middle of a gruesome crypt, surrounded by death and decay, and that just isn’t doing it for you. On days like that, when the smell of fetid water full of floated, bloated dead rats just isn’t the mood, take a one trip literally anywhere else, courtesy of Teleport!
Teleport is instantaneous mass evacuation, the best tool for exploration on a single plane, and one of the culprits in the upper tiers of play for removing the entire survival pillar from the game. Access to Teleport means access to every location you’ve ever heard of, no matter the distance, in the blink of an eye. What makes the spell so fun to play with, though, is the degrees of success attached to it.
Mishaps and Similar Area rolls can put you suddenly in a completely new adventure and problem. What could be causally attempting to reach a new city could result in being teleported to the middle of a mob bust in a similarly decorated city, right in the heart of a completely unrelated story. Having your allies tossed to the wind trying to get to a place that doesn’t exist can lead to individual arches over breaks where the goal is simply to get back together with your party, and while not the best outcome for live play, can work incredibly in between live sessions.
More spells and features in 5e deserve this kind of treatment. Having degrees of success like this takes the spell to the top tier of designs for me, and while you typically can get it to do what you want, having the element of unpredictability and scale makes it a wild time to use each and every cast.
Beyond the fun presentation and feel, it is a practical tool essential for massive scale conflicts dealing with forces beyond your run of the mill vampires and dragons. Teleport allows parties to influence events across a massive scope, and can up the scale of a game from local problems to global ones. Teleport is at its best in the hands of players and villains dealing with global problems, and shines brightest as a tool to facilitate that form of play.
This does mean it won’t be a great fit at certain tables. Yes, the results of the Teleport can put you in nearby space, but typically Teleport removes the bulk of travel and adventures found within that journey. You can maintain some of that if the core vision of the game is journeying into the truly unknown, but the moment rumors of a place pop up, the group can attempt to Teleport there daily. The sense of discovery the game is built around can be lost because Teleport exists.
If you want to take Teleport, talk with your DM about it. Some groups just won’t be the right fit for the style of game it facilitates. I will say I’m a sucker for the “big damn heroes” kind of game where saving the world is the end goal, so I’d recommend picking this up and restructuring your future adventures.
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