Teleporters

[corwyn]

So we have a class of enemies who can teleport, have multiple maneuvers, weapon master, and decent stealth. Most of us PCs can take a hit or two from it and be okay, but not my wizard who is fragile but relies on not getting hit - Shield, Missile Shield, Blink, and Haste primarily. Typically, we allow for hearing vs stealth to get a dodge from attacks from the back which I'm pretty good at but I'm looking at some other solutions.

What are some other options for avoiding these situations or getting out of them?

I'm playing a powerful wizard with mad stealth, hearing, bow, outdoor skills. I typically have Great Haste and 11 move so I usually just rely on that and Resist Pain to get out of trouble if I get hit.

[Anthony]

The Rear Vision spell, if available (it's in Magic but not DFRPG). Several partial shapeshifting options also give peripheral vision (again, not in DFRPG). The timeslip spell (if available) will allow avoiding an entire turn's worth of attacks.

[Balor Patch]

Against teleportation specifically:

Teleport Shield spell DFRPG Spells pg. 65. Stops teleportation into an Area.

Divert Teleport on p.34 can keep someone nearby from teleporting.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by Balor Patch

Against teleportation specifically:

Teleport Shield spell DFRPG Spells pg. 65. Stops teleportation into an Area.

Divert Teleport on p.34 can keep someone nearby from teleporting.

Neither of these seem very practical, especially in combat, when I'll need it the most. DT could be as much as -10 to skill; TS has 6 rather niche prereqs and takes 10 seconds to cast. Well, 3 seconds for me with Great Haste, but still.

I think I'm better off with the spells to just take it. Could be as much as 30 damage though. Looks like Resist Pain may be part of my regular buff suite.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by corwyn

Neither of these seem very practical, especially in combat, when I'll need it the most. DT could be as much as -10 to skill; TS has 6 rather niche prereqs and takes 10 seconds to cast. Well, 3 seconds for me with Great Haste, but still.

I think I'm better off with the spells to just take it. Could be as much as 30 damage though. Looks like Resist Pain may be part of my regular buff suite.

Ask your GM how he interprets these attacks relative to Sense Danger. RAW that seems like it should give you at least 1 minute warning of in-porting attackers, plenty of time to get that Teleport Shield up. Admittedly you can't afford to cast it every minute. Spell Shield is faster to cast and seems like it should work, though it only lasts a minute.

A number of defensive spells are "automatic" in that they will stop any one attack and don't say you need to detect the attack first - Bless for sure, but I really thing you can make a case for Iron Arm or Blink - if you make the spell roll, you avoid the attack, and you don't need a separate roll first to know there is an attack.

You might also want to discuss Divert Teleport with your GM. It seems to have a tremendous number of limitations that, say, Ward, a similar Blocking spell, does not.

But yeah, GURPS spells are definitely skewed against effective defenses. This is a something common to pretty much every game, and I believe intentional - magic systems are built on the assumption the [players] are going to be using the spells, and "your cool spell fails every time you use it, because there is a cheap and effective defense anyone or anything important enough for you to cast it on would certainly be able to afford" is not much fun, no matter how "realistic" is probably would be.

[zoncxs]

Blur to give those targeting you up to -5 to attack you.
Flight so you can take to the air and avoid melee (your post makes no mention of the enemy being able to fly).

If the enemy has normal HT scores -> Mass sleep
If they have normal Will scores -> Terror

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by malloyd

A number of defensive spells are "automatic" in that they will stop any one attack and don't say you need to detect the attack first.

Blocking spells are active defenses and thus cannot be used when an active defense would not be possible.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by zoncxs

Blur to give those targeting you up to -5 to attack you.
Flight so you can take to the air and avoid melee (your post makes no mention of the enemy being able to fly).

If the enemy has normal HT scores -> Mass sleep
If they have normal Will scores -> Terror

Blur and Flight would help, though the enemy in question has 18+ skill. He's also a "bird-fold+ but I don't think he flies. As for the others, I'm not worried about how to deal with them after I find them; I'm also a Heroic Archer with Stun and Dehydrate.

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by corwyn

What are some other options for avoiding these situations or getting out of them?

Are better group tactics an option? If your group steps into close combat with each other, back to back, then there's no place for teleporters to teleport immediately behind you without having someone else in the way. Especially if your allies have Shield Wall Training or the Sacrificial Block or Parry perks, they can defend for you. Even if they don't, it might be cheaper to have your allies to pick them up rather than you learn some long spell chains.

I know there's a tendency in DFRPG to try to rely on your own character to solve these kinds of problems, but DFRPG is a group game and it often makes more sense to rely on your allies.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

Are better group tactics an option? If your group steps into close combat with each other, back to back, then there's no place for teleporters to teleport immediately behind you without having someone else in the way. Especially if your allies have Shield Wall Training or the Sacrificial Block or Parry perks, they can defend for you. Even if they don't, it might be cheaper to have your allies to pick them up rather than you learn some long spell chains.

I know there's a tendency in DFRPG to try to rely on your own character to solve these kinds of problems, but DFRPG is a group game and it often makes more sense to rely on your allies.

The issue the last time we encountered one, we didn't know it was around and the plan had me sniping from a different area, admittedly, not a great plan. In the future, just keeping closer together should make it tougher and more dangerous for him to focus on my back. We have a martial artist with Flurry and an 11 move allowing a 5 yard AOA to ruin his day even if I'm behind the melee. Our cleric has a 1 second Death Vision for a guaranteed stun. Any one of us can kill him in one turn once the cleric stuns him, making him the most likely target now. The cleric is sturdier than I am with significantly more DR so that puts us in a better place.