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Stogoe wrote:

Teleport is iconic, yes, but it also has the crazy ability to ruin a planned session like no other.

Not everyone wants to have to resort to 'every BBEG has these 5 spells prepared so the PCs don't auto-teleport in when he's on the john and behead him' kludges.

Does every BBEG have plans for non-magical assaults?

Oh, I don't want to have every BBEG to plan with these 5 spells to defend his lair. But hey traps, walls, roving guards, having a good AC of course its normal that everyone wants to plan for that kind of stuff that would protect against.

Its a magical world when you get powerful enough you attract powerful enemies, and BBEGs need decent defenses for them. I'm not a big fan of mages basically wondering whether they should cast thunderaga or fireaga this round.

I dunno about you, but I'm pretty strict with Teleport. If you're going off of a verbal description, you're only going to get "False destination" results.

A painting may or may not get you up to "viewed once" but is far more likely to be "False destination." Unless you were the one who created the painting, in which case you're up to "Studied carefully."

Visually sighting on a place, with a telescope or something like that, will be "viewed once" or maybe "seen casually" depending on what you do.

And even with the "very familiar" level, which is usually a carefully prepared space that you've spent hours memorizing, there's still a 3% chance that you're not going to arrive where you want.

Teleport isn't nearly as much of a problem when the DM is taking into account the actual limitations of the spell.

The Blasphemy/Holy Word spells, for starters. They really need to be changed into something more reasonable. The main problem is that they are useless against big dumb monsters (which tend to have a lot of hit dice relative to CR), and have great effect on monsters with powerful abilities (which tend to have few hit dice relative to their CR). Also, it can just end encounters. In addition, neutral creatures should not be as strongly affected by them as creatures of the opposing alignment. They also reduce design space, because any ability that can raise caster level (particularly temporary ones) is so much more powerful for these spells than any other.

Fly really needs to be cut down in power. The current fly spell should really be higher level, and the third level version should grant a lower fly speed, possibly also with a worse maneuverability.

The Orb spells should really be evocation spells, except for Orb of Acid.

Fireball should be higher level, and/or have a lower range and smaller area of effect. It would still be a good third level spell if it only had a ten foot radius burst, but it would now be possible for the party to spread out so that they aren't all within the area.

Teleport spells can be problematic, but I have not had the problems with it that others have had. I do like the idea of having some fixes in for it, such as limiting it to places the caster himself has been to and prepared. Dimension Door is really the problem, since there is no need to see or even know what is in the place you are going to, and no miss chance, but there are also no rules for what happens if you try to dimension door into a solid wall.

Divination spells in general need to be clarified. The spell Divination is a particular problem, as it is very vague as to what kind of questions are fair game. Find the Path is also ridiculously powerful, allowing the party casting it to bypass any sort of riddles or puzzles that the dungeon might have, and making a high level dungeon into just a major grindfest.

Invisibility is too powerful for its level. In general, spells that obviate the need for skills should be significantly altered. Close Portal is another offender, since it makes it pointless for anyone to ever bother learning to pick locks, since the spell makes picking the lock impossible.