Though myths from ancient times tell tales of casters instantaneously traveling the world with precision and regularity, none have been able to replicate these feats in recorded history. Mages that learn to teleport themselves find that the process is almost uncontrollable when attempting to move long distances, though short-range hops are only off-target to such a small degree as to be negligible.
However, accurate long-distance teleportation is not completely unknown. Ancient structures scattered around the world, known as anchor sites to scholars and under a variety of names in common parlance, mark and maintain fixed points in which controlled teleportation is still possible. The caveat, however, is that each site can only access certain others - it is not a fully networked system. These structures are not particularly commonplace, but not rare either - many cities have built up around them, which also facilitates their convenient use. If a city is located in a highly unusual geographic position, chances are high an anchor site was already present in that location.
See the page for anchor sites for more details about their appearance, history, and use.
Mechanics
- Long range Teleport and Teleport-like spells work, in that they teleport the targets, but targeting a destination outside specific anchor sites is effectively impossible. This causes these spells to work more like a same-plane version of Anywhere But Here, moving the targets to a randomly rolled destination.
- Teleport-like means spells that instantaneously move a target from point A to B without passing through anywhere in the middle.
- Short range teleport spells like Dimension Door are unaffected - the range on these is low enough that the random variation from planar movement does not have time to accumulate. Variation increases exponentially.
- Other non-Teleport-like spells that deal with transportation (Overland Flight, etc) are unaffected.
- Items and the like that have Teleport-like effects stapled to them have the same changes applied.
- These same changes apply to NPCs and enemies as well. Bestiary entries that have Teleport on their spell lists will likely have it replaced, probably with an equivalent number of uses of Dimension Door or a spell of the same level.