How Many Times Can One 5e D&D Character Teleport in Combat?
One extremely fun thing to do during combat in 5e Dungeons and Dragons is teleport. You find yourself grappled? Teleport! The enemy came into your melee range and you’re a ranged fighter? Teleport! You’re a melee fighter and the enemy is too far for you to reach with your movement speed? TELEPORT!
It’s just a really great ability that opens you up for a lot of range, freedom, and shenanigans. And if you’re really lucky, you can do it over and over again throughout the combat.
But what combination of class and race grants you the most teleportation abilities? Without using any items, without aid from allies, how many ways can a single player bamf around the battlefield?
Well, let’s look at your options first.
Racial Abilities
This doesn’t take long to explore. From what I could find of non-homebrew 5e content, only two elf subclasses have an innate teleportation ability: Eladrin and Shadar-Kai. Both can teleport 30 feet as a bonus action at 3rd level.
Classes and Spells
Clerics of the Peace domain can combine two class features for teleportation: Emboldening Bond and Protective Bond. Trickery clerics gain access to the spell Blink at level 3, and Dimension Door at level 7. Clerics can also teleport with the spell Word of Recall at level 11.
Among druids, the Circle of Dreams subclass can teleport with Hidden Paths at level 10, and Circle of the Wildfire can use their wildfire spirit’s Fiery Teleportation at level 2. At level 3, the spell Misty Step is available to Circle of the Land druids based in the coast. Any druid can learn Tree Stride at level 9.
Two fighter subclasses gain teleportation through their features: Echo Knights at 3rd level using Manifest Echo and swapping places with the resulting Echo, and 15th level Eldritch Knights with Arcane Charge. Eldritch Knights also have limited access to Wizard spells, including Misty Step at level 8, Blink or Thunderstep at level 14, and Dimension Door at level 20.
Only monks of the Way of the Shadow can use any teleportation abilities, through Shadow Step at level 6.
Paladins have a few options for teleporting, with Oath of the Ancients paladins and Vengeance paladins gaining access to Misty Step at level 5. Vengeance paladins can also use Dimension Door at level 15.
Rangers have quite a number of ways of teleporting. Fey Wanderers can learn Misty Step at level 5 and Dimension Door at level 13, and then at level 15 they gain the Misty Wanderer feature. Similarly, Horizon Walker rangers get Misty Step at level 5, and then Distant Strike feature at level 11. Finally, Swarmkeeper Rangers can use the feature Swarming Dispersal at level 15. And rangers in general can use the spell Tree Stride at level 17.
Soulknife rogues can teleport via Soul Blades at level 9. Arcane Tricksters, just like Eldritch Knights, can learn a limited range of wizard spells: Misty Step at level 8, Blink or Thunderstep at level 14, and Dimension Door at level 20.
Two sorcerer subclasses gain teleportation features: Abberant Mind sorcerer with Warping Implosion at level 18, and Shadow sorcerer with Shadow Walk at level 14. Sorcerers also have access to a number of teleportation spells, including Misty Step at level 2, Thunder Step at level 5, Dimension Door at level 7, Far Step at level 9, Arcane Gate at level 11, and Teleport at level 13.
Warlocks are another class that have access to a wide variety of teleportation features and spells. Features include the level 6 Archfey’s Misty Escape and the Fathomless’ level 14 Fathomless Plunge. Hexblades can use Blink at 5th level. Warlocks in general have access to several spells, including Misty Step at 3rd level, Thunder Step at 5th level, Dimension Door at 7th level, Far Step at 9th level, and Arcane Gate at 11th level. And on top of that, Warlock’s can use invocations. Pact of the Talisman Warlock’s can use the Bond of the Talisman invocation at level 12, and any warlock can use the Relentless Hex invocation at level 7.
Lastly, we have wizards. Conjuration wizards have the Benign Transportation feature at level 6. And any wizard, of course, has access to a wide range of spells: Misty Step at level 3, Thunder Step at level 5, Dimension Door at level 7, Far Step at level 9, Arcane Gate at level 11, and Teleport at level 13.
Who Has the Most Variety?
Now, looking into how many times a character can teleport is a complicated question, as it gets into spell slots and number of usages for a given ability, which — in some cases — is near limitless within the context of a single battle. Peace clerics, for example, can use the combined effects of Emboldening Bond and Protective Bond to swap places with whoever they are magically bound to as a reaction for a duration of 10 minutes. If every minute is ten rounds and you can use a reaction every round, that equals a potential 100 uses of this form of teleportation.
I don’t want to focus too much on how many times each class or subclass can use a particular feature or spell, since that amounts to a lot of math and can get convoluted. What I’m more interested is the variety of ways a single character can move themselves around the battlefield.
Using either an Eldarin or Shadar-kai elf for a racial teleportation ability, take 11 levels of Hexblade warlock to gain Relentless Hex, Arcane Gate, Far Step, Dimension Door, Thunder Step, Misty Step, and Blink. Then, as a level 2 Wildfire druid, you can use Fiery Teleportation. And lastly, Way of the Shadow Monk at level 6 allows you to use Shadow Step. With this combination, by level 19, you have 10 different ways to teleport.
I am by no means saying this is a good or practical way to multiclass. But if you want to have a lot of ways to jump around the battlefield, this is one fun, weird way to do it. Or, if you’re more ambitious than me, you can do a whole bunch of math and find some magical combo that gives you 200 teleportations. I won’t judge.
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Originally published in 2021.
