Do caster out of combat options matter?

[Dr.Samurai]

This is the line of thought that I think misses the point a bit. Never stood a chance of what?

The idea being put forth is that the DM has created this world and the world is unaffected by character creation. Meaning, the DM doesn't make any changes to the world based on what the players decide to play.

Well, then it turns out that in order to save the world or beat the bad guy or whatever, the players will have needed a specific high level spell that they do not have access to and cannot gain access to because the DM has already decided on their world building in advance and has a principle that they will not make changes on account of the players.

So the party has lost since session 0 of the campaign, but still went through the motions to get there.

That sounds harsh, but...

I don't think it matters if it sounds harsh or not. I'll just repeat myself from my original post on the topic, it matters if it matters, and it doesn't if it doesn't.

In your case, it would matter greatly if no one had access to certain spells. But the point is, that's not "the game". That's you, and your particular world building and your approach to the matter and what you want to add, include, etc.

It matters because you have decided it matters.

Nobody said Teleport was required. People said that if it doesn't matter, your campaign sucks.

Yeah, it's the same argument, just veiled.

Obviously you can't say it's required because that would mean every party needs a caster that grabs Teleport and every DM needs to run a game that makes Teleport necessary. That's unreasonable of course.

Instead you say "well, it's not required, but if it wouldn't make a difference your game sucks". Not very compelling.

Just going by my current games, only two are high enough level for some poor sap to feel the incredible pressure or learning Teleport. One takes place in Avernus, and I don't even think teleport works well there. In the other game, teleport might be useful for "refueling", but the module already gives you a way to travel to each location (a magical "chain" that teleports you). Also, our level 13 caster there is a druid, so doesn't have access to it anyways (oopsy, session 0 failure I guess).

The other three games we're level 10, 6, and 4 respectively. The level 10 one is in Castle Ravenloft, so takes place in Barovia. Not sure how useful Teleport would be. The other two are actual hex crawls, so I bet Teleport would be rather useful. One will end at around level 9 as per the DM so no luck there. The other has been ongoing for years and the party is level 6 so... looking forward to someone learning Teleport in the next decade or so...


Anyways, not every campaign is going to be a race against the clock in this way. And for those that are, not all of them will have a wizard or sorcerer with Teleport. Doesn't mean they suck, and the DM sucks, and the players suck, etc etc.