He's talking about Teleport as a standard effect keyword - covering abilities more like Dimension Door or Misty Step. Full Teleport was much much rarer (and most long distance Teleportation was IIRC done by Teleportation Circle which emphatically did not require line of sight).
Not when I'm DMing...
Maybe. Echolocation would be one example of Blind Sight - but so too in both 3.X and 5e is "I'm a high level rogue used to working in the dark and of course I can feel the shapes of what's around me".
Name the edition which has a rule for this and explain it. AFAIK in all versions of D&D AoEs simply appear in the desired location, usually explained as the caster designating the range and location.
Again, no rule in 4e covers that, the target location is simply invalid and thus the action cannot be taken, at least by strict RAW.
There are no 'aiming rolls' in D&D anywhere. Nor do I accept that your thought experiment is accurate. I require data to make those sorts of judgements.Which is why I force the aiming roll.
But judging distance you can see is far easier than judging distance you can't see. Easy experiment: if you have access to a large-ish dark room with some open space in it (a garage with no cars in it, for example), lay a hula hoop down on one side of the room and try to land a bean bag in it from the other side. Then try again with the lights off, or while wearing a blindfold.
Is Blind Sight the same as a bat's echolocation? If yes, it can certainly be used for targeting.
Well, 4e has basically 2 completely different sorts of teleport. One is a movement type, essentially, like Fey Step. This typically has a range of a few squares. Ritual teleport is more similar to the high level AD&D type teleportation and is similarly a higher level paragon tier thing. Epic tier features interplanar versions as well as things like planeswalking and such.
Right, 3e is the only edition which gets into this kind of detail, but unfortunately each spell needs to spell it all out! Most don't. No edition explains how, or under what conditions Wizards are able to judge distances accurately, nor suggest ways to adjudicate that besides always doing it perfectly.
Ah, so my confusion stems from their using "teleport" to mean both types, then. Got it.
Indeed, which is why I long ago (as in, the mid-1980s) houseruled in the idea of their having to aim these spells. "You want to centre your fireball there? OK, now roll a d20 and let's see how close you got it." It's usually an easy roll unless the caster is really trying to fine-tune the aim e.g. to have the fireball's area end precisely between the foes' front-liners and our own; the biggest thing is that forcing an aiming roll also - and very intentionally - pulls in the rules for fumbling, and fumbling with a big blasty AoE spell ain't always recommended.
Yeah, for whatever reason they decided to use 'teleport' as a keyword/movement mode. I guess some other term might have been used. In terms of 4e itself though the usage is fine and seems like a very appropriate choice. One of those cases where any choice has pros and cons.
Never played D&D with fumble, always hated the whole concept myself. I agree though, an aiming check is not an inherently bad idea, though in the sorts of games I usually play now it's likely rolled into an overall action resolution process.Indeed, which is why I long ago (as in, the mid-1980s) houseruled in the idea of their having to aim these spells. "You want to centre your fireball there? OK, now roll a d20 and let's see how close you got it." It's usually an easy roll unless the caster is really trying to fine-tune the aim e.g. to have the fireball's area end precisely between the foes' front-liners and our own; the biggest thing is that forcing an aiming roll also - and very intentionally - pulls in the rules for fumbling, and fumbling with a big blasty AoE spell ain't always recommended.
