Returning home requires the power of dimensional teleportation, an ability possessed by all greater supernatural beings
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Those without such an ability must find another way home or make do
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Elementals will always leave immediately.
All elementals can leave EVENTUALLY (dragons and gods 52 explains that if they cease to inhabit a material form, they are automatically sent back after 2D6 hours). This was originally (Palladium RPG, Rifts Conversion Book) I think perhaps the ONLY way they could get back, as they were never given Dimensional Teleport %s until Dragons and Gods, where 3/4 of the major elementals have a % ability to dimensional teleport which I assume means they can return sooner. All three say "same as the Dragon ability".
*pg 60 has Major Earth at 32%
*pg 62 has Major Air at 38%
*pg 64 has Major Fire at 23%
*pg 67 does NOT have Major Water
RCBp197's "destruction of the physical body will break its link to the material world and send it instantly to its own dimension" is something I can't seem to find in Dragons and Gods, so I don't know if this is an ability they would have in Palladium Fantasy or if it might be a power unique to appearing on Rifts Earth.
This is obviously much faster than automatic return after 2D6 hours of being bodiless, if available.
Page 145 right column ("What kind of beings can be summoned") specifies what are lesser and greater beings. We know the greater deevils/demons and as far as I know they all have % chances for their teleports (most lesser ones have those too, except for the Imp, who wasn't given it until Rifts Dimension Book 11, and the Dire Harpy, who is still missing it)
Gargoyle Lords and Lizard Mages are included, page 315 lists the % for their DTs
Then we have a list of other greater beings who so far as I know, do not have a % listed for Dimensional Teleport:
- Lizard Mages
scarecrow
sphinx
sivan
waternix
za
undead (vampires)
sea serpents
angels
Except for the last one, I'm pretty sure none of these have ever had a published dimensional teleport % ability before.
Part of these I can exclude based on semantics: while they are "greater beings" not all are "greater supernatural beings" (GSBs) because some are not explicitly described as being supernatural.
VAMPIRES are supernatural though, so it still creates a problem of what to do with them.
SCARECROWS are also, I think, although they USED to (PRPG pg 232) in the 1st ed be considered "creatures of magic" (but then, so did Minotaurs, Harpies and Mummies...)
ANGELS (Spirits of Light) are described as "supernatural denizens" on page 76 of Dragons and Gods, I get the impression they would be classified as Greater Supernatural Beings...
Originally (PRPGp220) in 1st ed Angels weren't too mobile. The Ariels (Earthies) were the worst at 11% Dimensional Teleport, follows by the firey/airy Seraphs/Cherubs with 50% and the masterful golden seahorse Tharsis with 60%.
DT %s were not used for them in the Rifts Conversion Book, instead they were reinterpreted on page 203 as being (if they revert from a physical humanoid form to a natural energy form) as instantly dimensionally teleporting home. This presumably means that they CAN'T teleport home if they're not reverting from a physical state though... perhaps abandoning the physical state allows them the energy for that teleportation. It comes with a 6D6 day recovery period so it's pretty self-limiting.
I don't totally like how it puts them all on equal footing though, so giving them back the 11/50/50/60 abilities wouldn't be too bad.
Pg 76-82 of Dragons and Gods seems to be very limited angels though... they lack the % teleport that 1st ed PRPG gave them, and I can't see any text about them automatically teleporting back to their home dimensions upon abandoning phsical forms anymore.
This may be an oversight/ommission even though I haven't seen it in any errata. I'm wondering if we should port over their original Dimensional Teleport skills unedited, or possibly give them a boost.
When you compare Resurrection, the one abilities they kept still using % for success (Turn Dead no longer does, and they've completely lost the abilities to do Exorcism and Remove Curse and Healing Touch) it appears to have changed:
The 11/15/15/20 for Ariel/Cherub/Tharsis/Seraph was basically removed for the Ariel/Seraph (neither can do resurrection, closed Seraph has now is 6th level Fire Warlock spell 'Flame of Life' to help those in comas) while the Cherubs now resurrect at an amazing 72% (plus Breath of Life is an alternative if you want a higher % chance at level 3+) while the Tharsis don't have a % but instead have a natural spell ability only costing 400 PPE.
Based on huge changes like that, maybe Angels just aren't intended to be dimensional teleport-capable anymore?
It feels like they and other greater supernatural beings (lizard mages, scarecrows, vampires, sivan) ought to have SOME chance of success though...
Maybe it could be treated as a base 0% chance and then using the bonuses from Rifts Dimension Book 7 (Megaversal Builder, page 9) that bonus could give them some capability, but only to escape to dimensions with weak dimensional barriers like Rifts Earth, which gives a variable 5-20% chance to teleport TO.
Actually, you could even give these creatures a base -19% skill, so that they need a full +20% (happening 25% of the time) to get a 1% chance to teleport. This basically means they'd have to attempt a teleport on average 400 times to be successful. This would technically keep the Summoner OCC description legal without upsetting balance by giving reliable teleport abilities to creatures we don't tend to treat as naturally having them.
This would also explain a big reasons for creatures coming to Rifts Earth: it's one of the few places they CAN go to escape a world a summoner has teleported them to.
I believe demons had a rule where it cost 1 melee attack to port, and they could only teleport once per melee round. To slow down interdimensional travel, a house rule applying a 1 PPE cost to dimensional teleports would probably also be a good idea.
Another might be for dimensional teleport attempts (successful or not) to create micro-fissures in reality similar to dimensional rifts, giving things a chance to slip through and possibly hassle teleporters until they can lose their pests.
I know in Rifts it used to be that a pair of Poltergeists would appear ANY time a rift was opened (this was reduced to MOST of the time / USUALLY in Dark Conversions rewrite of the Poltergeists) but I'm not sure if that's the case for Rifts opened in other dimensions such as Palladium Fantasy.
I think it's a good idea but maybe a % chance.
If you viewed Rifts as happening most of the time due to its variable 1d4x5 bonus (average 12.5% bonus) then you might say there is a 40% base chance of a Poltergeist entering a dimension to explain how Rifts is usually 52.5% on average chance. If you apply a 1 PPE cost to teleports then a Poltergeist who stole that PPE could negate the natural teleporting ability and a demon / vampire / lizard mage / sivan might have to go "sleep it off" or meditate to get that PPE back to try again.
1 PPE is basically nothing compared to the hundreds it normally takes to dimensional teleport with spells, and it seems an entirely reasonably thing to charge. Of course this results in a creature who only succeeds 1 in 400 times (as proposed for beings who have no listed ability at all) as needing to spend 400 PPE over time.
+20% happens 100% of the time for Dimension of Spires (DB7), so it would be a more reliable getaway than Rifts Earth (success should take on average 100 attempts instead of 400) but it's potentially more dangeruos since there are ley line storms going on that could derail your incoming teleport, cause dangers to appear there, etc.
Dimensional teleporting in general also seems to be limited to places you've actually been, so even if all greater supernatural beings have it, if they've never left their native world (let's say for example, a vampire) they shouldn't be able to go elsewhere.
In the case of vampires, the only thing which has actually been off-world might be the essence fragment (not the body itself) so it might be that the exorcized essence returns that way but not the entire vampire.
Lizard Mages and Sivan, if they might be native to PF, also couldn't teleport anywhere except dimensions they'd visited. Which could explain why they might be interested in visiting other dimensions, to get more "bolt points" if they're ever trapped under a mountain or anything.
I figure ALL gods are considered "greater supernatural beings" and should probably have dimensional teleport abilities (even those a Summoner can't enslave) even if they too are very low and put at the #NegativeNinteteen level just barely needed to make it possible, for the ones who don't have that ability listed (many do not)
In the case of guys like Atlas (the imprisoned Greek Titan) I'm thinking perhaps Tartarus has a -% penalty to teleport out of which could be impeding him from doing so, though he might be able to teleport out of the Palladium World or Wormwood since these don't have penalties to exit/enter.