Defenses against Teleport

[Thot]

In another thread, I recently laid out a "magical cruise missile", basically an intelligent artifact that teleports to a target (unlimited range...) and unleashes a one-shot hell upon it. In my campaign, the king of the magic superpower kingdom uses it to solve a certain kind of problems, such as when the new Orc king attacked the magic superpower's neighbor and ally. Problem was solved before dinner (or so they thought, but that's another story entirely).

Thing is, even looking at the entirety of RMU spell law, I cannot find anything that would work as a defense against such attacks. Surely this one kingdom is not the only power who has access to high-level enchanters. So how do we defend against various kinds of teleport-based attacks?

Spell Shield will protect one subject, so the target will not be aggressively teleported 10 km above the ground, okay, but I want to keep castles and fortresses in my campaign, so what we really need is a spell that protects buildings against unauthorized teleporting into restricted areas.

For my game world, I have solved this by using a mineral called Arcanite, which blocks all magic, but that's the GM cheating, sort of. What is, in my opinion, needed, is a spell list (one for each Realm) that protects areas against Teleport, Flight, magically burrowing through stone and earth, etc. It should be an Open list, because countermeasures against magic should always be quick and easy, IF you think to implement them (so the setting remains somewhat recognizable).

If I am not mistaken, no such list currently exists. Right?

[nash]

Castles and Ruins had a defence against this.  Basically you could put an enchantment on a building while it's being constructed so that no one could teleport in without a "key".   Depending on your setting this is the sort thing every major fortification would have or maybe just places of magic.

And of course.. if one of teh keys falls into the wrong hand... Thankfully such things would never be something PCs would be hired to retrieve happen.

[MisterK]

One of the morals of such stories is that, for every weapon, there is either a countermeasure or one in the works, and for every countermeasure, there is either a breaching weapon or one in the works.

It applies to mundane warfare, and there's no reason why it wouldn't apply to magical warfare as well.

The corollary of a perpetual magical arms race shouldn't be lost on anyone. In other words, a setting where magic balance is static is not believable in the long run (over a short enough period, it obviously can be).

[jdale]

If you want to protect large structures over long periods of time, that sounds like ritual magic and not spells. Or items.

[Thot]

If you want to protect large structures over long periods of time, that sounds like ritual magic and not spells. Or items.

But... ritual magic as given in RMU Spell Law basically just means to cast spells, even if the list in question is not known. Sure we could improvise a spell list for that, assign levels to various anti-transportation spells and use the skill "Magical Ritual (Summoning and Transportation)", but that brings us back to square one: We need a defense list against transportation magic.

[Thot]

[...] for every weapon, there is either a countermeasure or one in the works, [...]

Thing is, we don't have any example of an anti-magic zone that would help us set the parameters for anti-transportation-magic zone.

I'll just make one up for my campaign, but I feel it should be in the core books.

[Thot]

Castles and Ruins had a defence against this.  Basically you could put an enchantment on a building while it's being constructed so that no one could teleport in without a "key".   Depending on your setting this is the sort thing every major fortification would have or maybe just places of magic.

And of course.. if one of teh keys falls into the wrong hand... Thankfully such things would never be something PCs would be hired to retrieve happen.

Sadly I don't own that book. Can you share the details on this magic?

[EltonJ]

Castles and Ruins had a defence against this.  Basically you could put an enchantment on a building while it's being constructed so that no one could teleport in without a "key".   Depending on your setting this is the sort thing every major fortification would have or maybe just places of magic.

And of course.. if one of teh keys falls into the wrong hand... Thankfully such things would never be something PCs would be hired to retrieve happen.

Sadly I don't own that book. Can you share the details on this magic?

Castles and Ruins are available on Drivethru for a nice price, though.

[jdale]

But... ritual magic as given in RMU Spell Law basically just means to cast spells, even if the list in question is not known. Sure we could improvise a spell list for that, assign levels to various anti-transportation spells and use the skill "Magical Ritual (Summoning and Transportation)", but that brings us back to square one: We need a defense list against transportation magic.

For ritual magic purposes, the GM just has to agree that the list could exist and assign a level to the spell. Since you don't have to actually know the list.

That said, the 18th level Type Barrier on the Sanctifier list Sacred Structures could be used to block all teleportation type spells. There are a number of other spells on that list that could also be relevant.

[Spectre771]

I know you specifically state RMU in the OP, but it is posted in the general RM thread, so I would suggest that Elemental Companion (page 139) from RM2 may be of help too.  The elemental material laen is used for reflecting magical spells.  It is made of elemental earth and elemental cold.  It's suggested that a 5' radius per level of the spell can be used as a zone of effect.

Eog, another element formed from cold and earth is a material of magical nullification.  It's nullifies or cancels the effect of spells.  Again, 5'R per spell level is suggested.  Perhaps it would be possible for the enchanters in your setting to craft walls, wards, or obelisks using the materials with the support of barrier and protection spells.  A few beautiful statues of the benevolent and glorious leader placed strategically about the palace with 50'-100' radii zones of nullification could be quite handy.  What benevolent and glorious leader wouldn't want statues of themselves about the palace grounds?

I've often used glyphs and/or wards for protections and/or to trigger traps but I don't think that would would with the situation you are describing.

[Thot]

[...] the 18th level Type Barrier on the Sanctifier list Sacred Structures could be used to block all teleportation type spells. There are a number of other spells on that list that could also be relevant.

Excellent hint! I keep forgetting to check Treasure Companion so such thing! Now, that gives me an idea how similar spells in Essence or Mentalism could look like. Many thanks!

[Thot]

[...] posted in the general RM thread,

By all means, suggest what you seem fit! But I would like to point out that the "general RM thread" IS, in fact, the RMU thread.

[...] material of magical nullification.  [...]

Yes, that's one method I use as well.

[katastrophe]

Without adding additional layers of complexity - this is where wards and glyphs and such come in. As noted above ritual magic as well.

Mainly large anti magic or spell prevention is the whole purpose for wards in areas.

[Thot]

Without adding additional layers of complexity - this is where wards and glyphs and such come in. As noted above ritual magic as well.

Mainly large anti magic or spell prevention is the whole purpose for wards in areas.

Could you point me to the place in RMU Spell Law or Treasure Law that you mean?

[katastrophe]

Without adding additional layers of complexity - this is where wards and glyphs and such come in. As noted above ritual magic as well.

Mainly large anti magic or spell prevention is the whole purpose for wards in areas.

Could you point me to the place in RMU Spell Law or Treasure Law that you mean?

you need some very specific rules for something that is essentially something you need to hand wave?

[Thot]

you need some very specific rules for something that is essentially something you need to hand wave?

So in other words, you just made stuff up. Dude. How do I tell you this... I was already aware of that option.

[katastrophe]

you need some very specific rules for something that is essentially something you need to hand wave?

So in other words, you just made stuff up. Dude. How do I tell you this... I was already aware of that option.

I'd hope so since that is the best option in a game enviroment which cannot reasonably come up with a fix for EVERY situation. Particularly for things that will have a level of rarity in most game environments that its a real waste of time for game designers to put forth the effort. There are no specific rules for eating and digestion and how how often characters need to defecate but i think that most GMs can wing it.

[Thot]

  game enviroment which cannot reasonably come up with a fix for EVERY situation.

But as you can read in this thread, the game system HAS come up with a fix, in Treasure Law and, by extension, in chapter 5 of Spell Law.