Month: June 2020

Dimensional Anchor

3rd Level Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: self
Components: V, S, M (a small, leaden nail worth 5gp)
Duration: 1 minute

You pound a nail into a point in the ground, anchoring your being to the nail’s location. During the spell’s duration, you can utter a command phrase as a bonus action and magically teleport to the nail’s location and the spell ends.

You can bring along objects as long as their weight doesn’t exceed what you can carry. You can teleport to the nail regardless of physical distance, planar distance, or obstacles (magical or otherwise, including barriers of magical force) between you and the nail. The effect occurs only if the command phrase is audible.

At higher levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the duration of this spell increases to 1 hour.

The intended purpose of this spell is as an exfiltration tool that must be prepared before usage, with clear differences between Misty Step and Teleportation Circle. I’ve deliberately made its teleportation and escape potential much stronger than the others to offset the setup added cost of this spell, and as a way to reward creative thinking and good planning.

Is this spell balanced?

I’ve prepared a list of balance consideration to help guide analysis.

Balance Considerations

• I haven’t determined which classes will be able to use it, so for the purposes of analysis, you may assume that any spellcasting class can use it.
• Comparison with Misty Step:
  • This spell is likely to be used in a similar manner as Misty Step–primarily a means of escaping a sticky situation. The escape potential for this spell is much greater, as it can be used to escape almost any bond or prison.
  • Misty Step can be cast reactively and requires a bonus action, whereas this spell requires a full action and bonus action. Action economy favors Misty Step in almost any scenario , unless the user has specifically approached a situation with a plan in mind.
  • This spell requires a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, while Misty Step requires only a 2nd level spell slot.
• Comparison with Teleportation Circle:
  • This spell is mainly intended as a short-term, higher flexibility counterpart to Teleportation Circle .
  • Teleportation Circle can be used to access any existing Circle, whereas Dimensional Anchor can only be used to return to a recent location. As such, Teleportation Circle has much higher travel utility.
  • Due to its lower casting time, Dimensional Anchor can be used mid-combat.
• Comparison with Word of Recall
  • This spell only works for a single creature (the caster) and has a finite duration.
  • This spell is significantly lower in level, meaning that it can be used more often at lower levels to avoid physical obstacles that wouldn’t otherwise deter a high-level player.
  • The return location for this spell does not require special or cleric-related significance. This greatly increases its real-time flexibility.
• Silence prevents the user from teleporting via this spell.
• The nail can be moved by any creature–hostile or otherwise.