# Abrupt Jaunt alt. wizard class feature, PHBII pg. 70



## Stormtower

The _Abrupt Jaunt_ alt. class feature allows a conjurer specialist to take an immediate action to teleport up to 10' a number of times/day = (Int bonus).

This ability seems amazingly powerful.  Instantly and without failure, (Int bonus) times per day a wizard may avoid an attack unless flat-footed or unaware? 

I've already ruled that this ability doesn't allow wizards to avoid spells targeted at them unless their jaunt specifically breaks line of effect to the targeting caster... this seems within RAW.  However, my interpretation is that weaponlike spells would still automatically miss and be wasted (whereas magic missiles or energy missiles and such would still hit unless LoE was broken).

Is the Abrupt Jaunt really as powerful as it seems?  I'm aware of the usual RBDM tricks to ambush PCs and catch the wizard flat-footed.  Once my monsters hit caster level 7 I can nail the wizard with _Dimensional Anchor_, but that uses up precious actions, and only foes who had previous knowledge of the party's tactics could prepare such countermeasures.

Am I interpreting the immediate action correctly as an interruption of the action which preceded/triggered the abrupt jaunt?  Do the rules gurus here (Hyp and FranktheDM or others) have any experience adjudicating this class feature?  Do you consider it balanced?

Thanks for any help on this one.


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## Aestolia

I'd rule this like the 'Flicker' Mystery from shadow magic, in the Tome of Magic:

*Flicker*
_One per round, as an immediate action, you can instantly transfer yourself from your current location to any other spot within a distance of 5 feet per two caster levels. You always arrive at exactly the spot you designate--just as with dimension door. If you cast Flicker in response to an attack against you, the strike has a 50% miss chance._

Reasons being a couple key words: Immediate action, no error / randomness.

So "in response to an attack" i would apply a 50% miss chance.
Alternately, if the conjurer Readied their action to Jaunt away from the next attack I would give it a 100% miss (they were waiting for it).

10' still puts them in range of most AoE spells that would have been cast at them.


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## frankthedm

Stormtower said:
			
		

> Is the Abrupt Jaunt really as powerful as it seems?



YES!


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## szilard

It makes a dip into Wizard awfully tempting for a high-Int scout.

-Stuart


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## RangerWickett

I loved my fighter/conjurer/eldritch knight/spellsword who could effectively get inside any creature's reach with this ability and a 5-ft. step, and still be able to full attack. Fun with arcane strike and wraithstrike.

Is there some other ability with 'strike' in the name? I want to make a guy who fights with baseballs.

I say that avoiding 4 or 5 attacks a day isn't that powerful.


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## Mistwell

See I look at that and think "Auto escape from grapple"


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## shilsen

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> I say that avoiding 4 or 5 attacks a day isn't that powerful.




And I'd say that's extremely powerful. 

If any class in the game had an ability available from 1st lvl which read "3 times per day, as an immediate action, you automatically make an enemy attacking you miss" (that's an ability which is both weaker and less versatile than the Abrupt Jaunt, BTW), I think most people would call it significantly overpowered.


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## Kat'

shilsen said:
			
		

> And I'd say that's extremely powerful.




+1. Given the squishiness of your normal Wizard it normally makes the difference between "alive and kicking" and "can I have some french fries with my Wizburger?".


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## Nifft

Stormtower said:
			
		

> This ability seems amazingly powerful.  Instantly and without failure, (Int bonus) times per day a wizard may avoid an attack unless flat-footed or unaware?



 It is the most powerful alternate feature in that book. IMHO it's broken.

Cheers, -- N


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## eamon

It's powerful for a 1st level ability.  It's not that powerful at higher levels.  You could mitigate by allowing at most 1 jaunt per class or caster level.

In any case, an immediate action such as this happens before the action that triggered it.  I wouldn't place any disadvantages on the attacker or whichever effect caused the wizard to jaunt.

If the attacker is a ranged attacker, he can attack the wizard as normal for his new position.  Ditto for spells.  His new position might be more protected.  A melee attacker probably can't attack any longer, but if he can reach the new location, he can.

The real question is whether an effect (such as a melee attack) is wasted if you can't use it anymore after the jaunt.  Since the effect doesn't say so specifically, I'd be inclined to say no; you can decide to do something else, instead, since other immediate effects specify this explicitly and since otherwise the jaunt is very powerful, but it's a little unclear to me.


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## Nifft

eamon said:
			
		

> It's powerful for a 1st level ability.  It's not that powerful at higher levels.  You could mitigate by allowing at most 1 jaunt per class or caster level.



 Escaping from a _force cage_ as an Immediate action isn't broken? Getting through a _wall of force_ (or any other wall) isn't awesome? Getting out of range of a _harm_ isn't powerful? Ducking behind cover to avoid a _dimensional anchor_ ray isn't strong?

At 1st level you can ruin Charge attacks. At higher levels you can negate many more kinds of effects -- because you'll be facing many more kinds of effects.

IMHO this ability starts overpowered and stays that way.

Cheers, -- N


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## Stormtower

Seems others feel similarly to myself about this one.  IMO it's quite overpowered and introduces some odd vagueness in certain situations.  I think Aestolia's take on it - 50% miss chance for an attack if the jaunt is used to avoid such, or 100% miss chance on a readied action.  Heck, I have no problem with this ability at all if it's used when readied.  Go right ahead and ready that action... it means your wizard isn't casting spells that round, or doing much else really.

Nifft's and Mistwell's examples of using the jaunt to escape _Force Cage_, grapple et. al. are even worse.  I hate banning stuff (_wraithstrike_ excepted, oh yes indeed) but this one may need the ban hammer.  I love all the options that the alt class features add, but I don't want to start an arms race with my players here... we've already had the _wraithstrike_ conversation.

Now Eamon suggests that the attacker, whose attack is jaunted away from, can immediately and without error re-target a different square in response to the (immediate action/interrupt) jaunt.  Can you reference other immediate effects that allow the PC/monster to change his action after the interrupt?  

Thanks for the feedback, folks.


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## Aestolia

Stormtower said:
			
		

> I think Aestolia's take on it - 50% miss chance for an attack if the jaunt is used to avoid such, or 100% miss chance on a readied action.



The way I see it, if power or use of an ability is in question, find the next closest thing to see if it has any more info on it.

Flicker works pretty much exactly like Jaunt... I'm not necessarily saying it's balanced, just that there's some precedence for written rule on it.

Less Mark of Passage in Eberron can do the same thing--if you pump some extra feats into it.

Another comparable mechanic is Blink, it's not quite the same, but does give the 50% example.


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## Mistwell

Nifft said:
			
		

> Escaping from a _force cage_ as an Immediate action isn't broken? Getting through a _wall of force_ (*or any other wall*) isn't awesome? Getting out of range of a _harm_ isn't powerful? *Ducking behind cover* to avoid a _dimensional anchor_ ray isn't strong?
> 
> At 1st level you can ruin Charge attacks. At higher levels you can negate many more kinds of effects -- because you'll be facing many more kinds of effects.
> 
> IMHO this ability starts overpowered and stays that way.
> 
> Cheers, -- N




I believe you must have line of sight, so you cannot do some of those things.


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## RangerWickett

The revision that I agreed to work into the initially overpowered low-level teleport spell in War of the Burning Sky was that you couldn't pass through any barrier that would stop your movement normally. You could hop over chasms or up cliffs, but not through cell doors.

An easy solution for abrupt jaunt is to have it make the teleporter dazed one round after he jaunts.


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## brehobit

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> The revision that I agreed to work into the initially overpowered low-level teleport spell in War of the Burning Sky was that you couldn't pass through any barrier that would stop your movement normally. You could hop over chasms or up cliffs, but not through cell doors.
> 
> An easy solution for abrupt jaunt is to have it make the teleporter dazed one round after he jaunts.




This I like.   Keeps the power, lets it do crazy things, but with a cost.  Still very powerful, but not unreasonable IMO.

Mark


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## Stormtower

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> The revision that I agreed to work into the initially overpowered low-level teleport spell in War of the Burning Sky was that you couldn't pass through any barrier that would stop your movement normally. You could hop over chasms or up cliffs, but not through cell doors.
> 
> An easy solution for abrupt jaunt is to have it make the teleporter dazed one round after he jaunts.




I like it.  This seems appropriately balanced; in effect the conjurer is trading his next round's action to counter an enemy attack with a 100% success rate, essentially giving and action for an action.


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## Dannyalcatraz

I like that mod as well.

Hope they keep stuff like this in 4Ed...with appropriate balance as well.


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## eamon

Why would you not be able to retarget?  You can interrupt game flow with your immediate action, but in general, the game just flows on afterwards.  Certain immediate actions specify that they have consequences for the interrupted action, such as those meant to disturb or counter some other activity.  In general though, that's not the case, right?

In any case, I don't see any real problem with allowing it, and doing so means that immediate actions are less likely to be "accidentally" powerful - such as this jaunt ability.  An ability which does cause your opponents to waste actions would be much more powerful, and would perhaps be worth "dazing" yourself next round - a fine ability, but more in-your-face than the less extreme variant.

I still think that the ability is a little powerful, and would add the limitation (seems obvious) that you need line of sight to your new location.

I'm considering this alternative because it's less invasive than simply rendering the caster dazed.  Further, compared to a sorcerer, all these abilities are rather flimsy compared to the sorcerer's gain which is to enable normal-speed meta-magic - an extremely useful ability, rendering metamagic far more powerful for the sorcerer than for the wizard.

Then there's the fact that the wizard's power is largely due to his extreme flexibility.  An ability like the jaunt, even if powerful, doesn't really make the wizard any more "over-the-top".  I like reserve feats and this sort of alternative class ability since they help de-emphasizing the "nova" part of the wizard.  I do think they're indeed a little weak, most of them, with certain exceptions (such as the jaunt).

I'd prefer a less invasive restriction of the jaunt, which preserve the defensive advantages (which are by nature unlikely to break the game), but don't penalize enemies as heavily (i.e. their actions are not wasted intrinsically).

Many wizards successfully avoid all attacks in a session.  Since that's so, I don't think this ability will be extremely powerful as long as it's not used as a weapon (i.e., the enemies shouldn't be penalized too badly).

Course, it's a matter of taste.


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## Andion Isurand

Possible revisions to start with.

Adding a 50% miss chance as described above, when done in response to an attack.

You have to wait 1d4 rounds before the ability can be used again.

You can Jaunt up to 10 ft. per day + 5 ft. for every 2 class levels you obtain. (if you want Juants of variable distance)

You can Jaunt no more than 1/day for every 2 class levels you obtain (minimum 1, maximum equal to your Intelligence modifier).
------ (or) ------
You can Jaunt a number of times per day equal to the spell level of the highest level arcane spell you can prepare (maximum equal to your Intelligence modifier).


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## Sylrae

here's a thought.

You give up your move action on your next turn.


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## Primitive Screwhead

Personally I would rule the following into the Jaunt mechanics:

50% miss chance when taken to avoid a melee attack, ranged attackers may retarget.

The movement taken counts towards total movement taken during your next action {ie, no Jaunt + 5' step}

You cannot cross any barrior that would stop normal movement {but you can 'jump' across narrow chasms and such}

Of course, I have a PC made on this sort of mechanic, altho from before PHB2 was released. Nice to see WoTC stealing my ideas!


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## Nifft

My re-work would be:

*Abrupt Jaunt* -- You may use this effect as a reaction to a single attack or effect. You momentarily transport yourself to the Astral plane. The attack or effect suffers a 50% miss chance against you.

Cheers, -- N


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## FEADIN

Another way to tune it down is to make it a swift action like in my campaign.


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## Sylrae

I'm gonna rule personally, Swift instead of free, and you give up your next move action. Just my 2 cents. I dont think you should get the 50% miss if you give up your next move.


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## Nifft

Sylrae said:
			
		

> I'm gonna rule personally, Swift instead of free, and you give up your next move action. Just my 2 cents. I dont think you should get the 50% miss if you give up your next move.



 It was never Free -- it was always Immediate.

 -- N


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