Does the spell Dimensional Anchor stop the ability Shadow Jaunt from the Tome of Battle?
[RPG] Does the spell Dimensional Anchor stop Shadow Jaunt
combat-maneuverdnd-3.5eteleportationtome-of-battle
Related Solutions
[RPG] Do Swashbuckler’s Insightful Strike, Swordsage’s Insightful Strike and Shadow Blade feat stack
That is correct. None of the bonuses are typed, and they come from different sources, so they stack.
Ultimately, this is a very costly exercise: you have to improve four different ability scores, you need three levels of swashbuckler and four of swordsage, and a feat that locks you in to a Shadow Hand stance. And even then, it only works when you use strikes of the appropriate discipline, which means most of the time you’re not full-attacking and applying those damage bonuses multiple times. The levels of swordsage, of course, are quite good, and Shadow Hand stances are pretty solid, so that’s not all bad, but you’re still talking about a lot of effort. And the multiple ability dependency you’ve inflicted on yourself is quite burdensome.
In contrast, it’s possible to add Charisma to damage 2-4 times. Strength is added 1.5 times with no investment at all just from using a weapon in two hands, and there are ways to add it again. Power Attack doesn’t rely on ability scores at all, and can add twice one’s level to damage. Any of these is likely to result in much higher amounts of damage than are four separate ability scores being added to damage. And they have fewer restrictions, so for example they can just be used on a full-attack and applied to each of your iterative attacks instead of just once.
So, basically, this is a way to pump damage, but it’s fairly inefficient. Much better alternatives exist. Which says something about 3.5, no question, but ultimately the game pretty much is rocket tag.
Incapacitate them and use Dimensional Shackles
The most straightforward analog is probably to incapacitate the creature and then put some Dimensional Shackles on them before they recover. The shackles only require an action to place on a creature, but that creature must be incapacitated (remember that other conditions, including stunned, unconscious, and paralyzed, also incapacitate). Compared to the dimensional anchor spell you've cited from a previous edition, the problem shifts from hitting them with dimensional anchor's attack roll to making them fail their save against an incapacitating condition. Once they are incapacitated, they do not get a save against the shackles. So this puts the shackles on the same order of difficulty as dimensional anchor: one good hit (or failed save) will do it.
However, if an enemy is incapacitated and your goal is simply to kill them before they escape, then using your action to do as much damage as possible might be the better option, since there's a good chance your party can finish them off before they recover from the incapacitating condition and take their next non-incapacitated turn to escape. On the other hand, if you're trying to capture them alive, this is a good option. Of course, be careful of very strong enemies (or if your group plays with automatic skill check success on a natural 20), since they have the potential to break out of the shackles with a DC 30 Strength (Athletics) check. (But note that they are only allowed one escape attempt every 30 days.)
There are a wide variety of ways to inflict the incapacitated condition, including lowly 1st-level spells like Tasha's hideous laughter, so the main obstacle to setting this plan up is the acquisition of the Dimensional Shackles.
High-level option: Wish a dimensional/teleporation ward into existence
There are several spells, such as Mordenkainen’s Private Sanctum, that can ward a large area against both teleportation and planar travel. These would be perfect if not for their long casting times, which make them unusable during combat. However, if you have access to a Wish spell, you can use it to bypass the casting time. Wish has a casting time of 1 action, and can "duplicate any other spell of 8th level or lower. You don't need to meet any requirements in that spell, including costly components. The spell simply takes effect." If you use Wish to duplicate an 8th level Private Sanctum, you can ward a 600-foot cube as an action.
Keep in mind that since you are warding the entire battlefield rather than a single creature, you are also cutting off your own escape via the same means, unless you first use an action to dismiss the sanctum.
Best Answer
The spell dimensional anchor may or may not prevent a martial adept from using a maneuver like shadow jaunt
While the spell 4th-level Sor/Wiz spell dimensional anchor [abjur] (PH 221) lists some of the spells, spell-like abilities, and psionic abilities that it prevents, the spell also "completely blocks extradimensional travel," which all spells of the conjuration subschool teleportation employ to commit instantaneous transportation, the subschool's description saying, "Teleportation is instantaneous travel through the Astral Plane" (173).
The 2nd-level Shadow Hand maneuver shadow jaunt [special] (Tome of Battle 79) et al. are presented with the descriptor [teleportation], and the [descriptor] description, says, "Most of these descriptors have no game effect by themselves, but they govern how a maneuver interacts with other maneuvers, powers, spells, or abilities" (44).
So one reading is that because the spell dimensional anchor blocks extradimensional movement, and the [teleportation] descriptor indicates that the maneuvers are teleportation effects, the maneuvers shadow jaunt et al. are blocked by the spell dimensional anchor. Another reading says that because the spell dimensional anchor lists spells, spell-like abilities, and psionic abilities and shadow jaunt et al. aren't any of those and that because the teleportation descriptor is otherwise undefined in Tome of Battle and used, instead, throughout much of the game's remainder solely as an indicator that a spell or effect is part of that conjuration subschool, the shadow jaunt et al.'s descriptor in this context carries very little weight, the spell dimensional anchor being unable to prevent the maneuvers' use and likewise allowing teleporation into and within, for example, an area warded by the 6th-level Clr spell forbiddance (PH 232-3).
Because the official Tome of Battle errata document is a mess, this is likely to go unresolved except by the DM.
However—and whether this is unintentional or by design, we'll, again, likely never know—, Tome of Battle also says, "Unless the description of the specific maneuver or stance says otherwise, treat it as an extraordinary ability" (40), and shadow jaunt et al. do not say otherwise, making the maneuvers some of the few instantaneous transportation abilities that can be used in, for example, an area affected by the 6th-level Sor/Wiz spell antimagic field [abjur] (PH 200).