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Using only the teleport spell, what are the ways to reduce the chance of failure for a caster? Aka chance of landing in the wrong place or a misshap of the spell. In other words I want to maximize landing "On Target" with the spell

We're playing in a very small map, not small enough to as teleport being useless, but small enough that a misshap can kill the entire party.

I know that the greater teleport spell exists but I can't access it at the moment and its going to be a long while until I can.

Resources: We can use any legal 3.5 book (including dragon magazine but that would be more difficult to put through). I have one at the highest 2 feats I can spend on this and I have money to spend on it, we're level 10, I'm a CL 9 conjurer malconvoker. We're under half WPL but I might be able to increase the money for teleportation items.

Simon
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  • Can you elaborate a bit on what you mean when you say minimize the chance of failure? Are you talking more generally about how to reduce the chances of failing to cast a spell, or more specifically with teleport? – B. S. Morganstein Jun 22 '17 at 16:22
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    How large is your map, in miles, and what "kills" you if you go too far? – godskook Jun 22 '17 at 16:32
  • @B.S.Morganstein reduce the chance of misshap/reduce the chance of not arriving at the correct destination. – Simon Jun 22 '17 at 16:33
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    @Simon, I'm trying to understand which risks you're trying to minimize, as there's several possible interpretations, that are still unclarified. Of the possible rolled results, are both "off-target" and "similar" dangerous options? Or just "off-target". The way your question read, I assumed only "off-target", but your reply just here makes me think that "similar" is also a dangerous result. Also trying to understand if this is an XY problem. – godskook Jun 22 '17 at 16:53
  • @Simon I missed it. How far do you need to travel for a solution to work? – godskook Jun 22 '17 at 17:07
  • @godskook a few miles between the major towns, total distance of the map (as far as we have explored, although I have reason to believe that its bigger) is 9 metrical miles across – Simon Jun 22 '17 at 17:13

3 Answers3

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Know where you're going is the most important part of succesfully teleporting to an area. Going by the teleportation description and table, for optimal results you need familiarity and a destination that still exists and has not been altered significantly. Other than that, it's down to luck (and/or the Fortune's Favor feat). Scrying a given area for at least an hour raises your chance of complete success to 94% if you can afford the time.

Maximizing your chances of success would require repeated, extensive visits to the target beforehand and an area your character feels "at home", such as his hometown.

Even if you don't visit or examine your destination often but more than once (considered seen casually for rolling purposes), you still have a chance of complete success approaching 90% and a 5% chance of grave failure in the form of damage from mishaps or being thrown into a wrong but similar area altogether.

The final variable on teleportation success are "strong physical or magical [energies]" that are not explained in further detail and are often left to the DM's discretion.

If you're afraid of mishaps that may happen after teleporting or in the unlikely event of failure (teleporting into a mob of enemies, dangerous terrain or a mishap sending the party a mile off target and falling down a cliff), you can either ask your party to prepare actions to attack or react the moment your party is jumped or cast protective spells such as Endure Elements or Feather Fall. Rolling for Knowledge Local, Geography and Nature will help you anticipate such dangers to a degree.

Tsugihagi
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Be familiar...

Teleport has a table on familiarity which shows that the better you know an area, the more likely you are to arrive on-target. Try to scry on the area prior to going, or go to places you've visited.

This stack question has two options that I found that will help here:

Use a feat...

Accurate Jaunt from Unearthed Arcana is a spelltouched feat that allows you to roll twice for accuracy.

Or a spell

Cynosure (Dragon #338, p77) is a 4th level Sorcerer/Wizard spell, that reduces the distance from the target area by 75% (rounding fractional miles down).

Community
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Chemus
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Alternate Solution:

Assuming Fly(3rd level spell), sufficient* Rods of Intermediate Enlarge(11kgp each), 20 Int and Dimension Door, you cast 7 Dim-doors, traveling .1553 miles per casting(with a single moveaction of Fly), .2992 miles for 3 castings per Rod.

With 3 rods(or 2 rods and the feat), you can travel 2.0946 miles near instantaneously. With scrolls, wands or additional casters, you can travel farther.

Given that you'll be in the air, you'll be able to pick-out reasonable spots for travel that aren't ~too~ dangerous, and basically everything will have trouble keeping up with someone moving at these speeds long-enough to pose you any trouble. Especially since you should have a surprise round on them in which to panic-cast another Dim-Door.

*Sufficient here defined as enough to get you from departure to destination within the turns required to cast ~7 Dim-Doors.

godskook
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  • I understand your logic, but the question is using the teleport spell, not dimension door. The dangers also won't be stopped by just flying. I doubt I'd get a suprise round since neither are aware of the other, I'd be unable to act for the rest of my round so they might even get a suprise round as I'm standing still in the air for 3 seconds before doing anything. – Simon Jun 22 '17 at 17:48
  • @Simon, given that these resources are within your capabilities, I was trying to solve the XY-problem, rather than get too focused on WHICH spell brought you safely from one town to another. – godskook Jun 22 '17 at 17:51
  • Yes, I understand your logic behind it but the answers I previously provided as well as the reinforcement of my recent answer on this questions states that I can't use short range teleportation like that. I understand that you're trying to solve an XY problem but this is not the a solution to the problem. – Simon Jun 22 '17 at 17:55
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    @Simon, ok. I'm going to leave it up though cause it'll keep others from re-treading this ground, and it might help someone else. – godskook Jun 22 '17 at 17:59
  • Very good point, I will use this for other campaign definitely, its a good solution were it not for the very specific problems of this case – Simon Jun 22 '17 at 18:02