Teleportation: carrying gear does not carry another creature

SRD 5.2.1 · Movement

At the table

  1. Move instantly to the destination without spending movement unless the effect says otherwise; teleportation never provokes Opportunity Attacks.
  2. Take worn and carried equipment, but another creature needs explicit permission in the effect.
  3. For an occupied or solid-blocked destination, choose the nearest unoccupied space; read the effect’s destination-visibility requirement.

Example decision

A character touches an ally while using a teleport effect that says nothing about transporting another creature. Does touch alone bring the ally along?

No; the effect must permit transporting that creature.

The entry explicitly distinguishes equipment from another creature being touched. Worn and carried gear travels with the teleporter, but the ally does not travel unless the effect says otherwise. Read that effect before selecting passengers or a destination, and remember that the transportation itself does not cross the spaces between endpoints.

Watch for this mistake

Do not infer that all teleport effects require seeing the destination, or that none do. The effect’s own description supplies that requirement.

Ask the table

Who or what can this effect transport, and what destination restrictions does it state?

Source rule

Teleportation is a special kind of magical transportation. If you teleport, you disappear and reappear elsewhere instantly, without moving through the intervening space. This transportation doesn’t expend movement unless a rule tells you otherwise, and teleportation never provokes Opportunity Attacks. When you teleport, all the equipment you’re wearing and carrying teleports with you. If you’re touching another creature when you teleport, that creature doesn’t teleport with you unless the teleportation effect says otherwise. If the destination space of your teleportation is occupied by another creature or blocked by a solid obstacle, you instead appear in the nearest unoccupied space of your choice. The description of a teleportation effect tells you if you must see the teleportation’s destination.

Source: SRD 5.2.1, 190. Online guide.

Source and reuse

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 (“SRD 5.2.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

The explanation, example and table prompt are Table Ready adaptations; source text has been reflowed. This guide and its printable card are available under the same CC BY 4.0 license. Independent reference; no official affiliation. These rules are optional for our system-neutral adventures.