I was just thinking about the Keen Mind feat and realized that it might be beneficial when using the teleport spell.
Keen mind states the following:
You can accurately recall anything you have seen or heard within the past month.
So if you've only seen a location once, but it was within the last month, would you be considered very familiar with the location?
Here are the relevant familiarity descriptions:
"Very familiar" is a place you have been very often, a place you have carefully studied, or a place you can see when you cast the spell. "Seen casually" is someplace you have seen more than once but with which you aren't very familiar. "Viewed once" is a place you have seen once, possibly using magic.
I would venture to say that yes, it would give you "Very Familiar" for that first month. I, personally, have a fairly good memory and I'm a visual learner. When I drive, I remember turns and stuff by notable landmarks like the gas station on the left or that place where the guard rails are dented. I wouldn't go so far as to say I have a keen mind, but I think of it as a "Remember what you heard when you weren't really listening" kind of thing. You are able to recall stuff when you weren't so focused on it. So if you can accurately recall a place you've seen in the last month, then I'd argue that you could focus enough on that spot, you could study that spot in your head and get enough detail out of it to justify teleporting there relative to all of those landmarks.
My argument is this, if they could paint the place they saw or draw a decent map of it, that is enough relative spatial awareness to teleport, as I think that's what the teleport rule is intended to be. If you are teleporting, you need it to be a relative position, like 30 feet east of the water tower. Well, if you've only been there once, maybe the water tower is all you remember being there and maybe you don't recall which way east was. But with keen mind, maybe you remember that the water tower was about 50 feet south from two houses and just a bit to the west of those, there was a pasture. Well now you have 4 points of relativity. "I need to be 30 feet east of the water tower, about 70 feet south by southwest of the two houses and about 75 feet southwest of the pasture.
I would also argue that if you literally paint a picture or write down this in a book (Within that 30 says of course), you could keep the "very familiar" aspect of it by studying that section of the book for a couple of hours. (Or at the very least, seen casually an all of it.)
I am also, however, a fairly forgiving DM. I tend to allow a lot of things. But in this case, a good argument can be made.
Hey, thanks for the thorough reply; that's definitely similar to what I was thinking! I had watched a video discussing "the worst feats in D&D", which admitedly is a bit click-baity, but I was surprised to see keen mind in the video, as it just seems like it can be used as a great justification for novel solutions. Another great possibility would be conjuring a key, replicating one you've seen before. Ultimately though, I think it's up to the DMs interpretation of how accurate that keen memory actually would be.
I was just thinking about the Keen Mind feat and realized that it might be beneficial when using the teleport spell.
Keen mind states the following:
So if you've only seen a location once, but it was within the last month, would you be considered very familiar with the location?
Here are the relevant familiarity descriptions:
I would venture to say that yes, it would give you "Very Familiar" for that first month. I, personally, have a fairly good memory and I'm a visual learner. When I drive, I remember turns and stuff by notable landmarks like the gas station on the left or that place where the guard rails are dented. I wouldn't go so far as to say I have a keen mind, but I think of it as a "Remember what you heard when you weren't really listening" kind of thing. You are able to recall stuff when you weren't so focused on it. So if you can accurately recall a place you've seen in the last month, then I'd argue that you could focus enough on that spot, you could study that spot in your head and get enough detail out of it to justify teleporting there relative to all of those landmarks.
My argument is this, if they could paint the place they saw or draw a decent map of it, that is enough relative spatial awareness to teleport, as I think that's what the teleport rule is intended to be. If you are teleporting, you need it to be a relative position, like 30 feet east of the water tower. Well, if you've only been there once, maybe the water tower is all you remember being there and maybe you don't recall which way east was. But with keen mind, maybe you remember that the water tower was about 50 feet south from two houses and just a bit to the west of those, there was a pasture. Well now you have 4 points of relativity. "I need to be 30 feet east of the water tower, about 70 feet south by southwest of the two houses and about 75 feet southwest of the pasture.
I would also argue that if you literally paint a picture or write down this in a book (Within that 30 says of course), you could keep the "very familiar" aspect of it by studying that section of the book for a couple of hours. (Or at the very least, seen casually an all of it.)
I am also, however, a fairly forgiving DM. I tend to allow a lot of things. But in this case, a good argument can be made.
You only lose if you die. Any time else, there's opportunity for a come back.
Hey, thanks for the thorough reply; that's definitely similar to what I was thinking! I had watched a video discussing "the worst feats in D&D", which admitedly is a bit click-baity, but I was surprised to see keen mind in the video, as it just seems like it can be used as a great justification for novel solutions. Another great possibility would be conjuring a key, replicating one you've seen before. Ultimately though, I think it's up to the DMs interpretation of how accurate that keen memory actually would be.
The feat is only within the last month, so I'd definitely say yes. That limitation makes it very reasonable.
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