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This question came up in our group due to the interaction between floating disk and misty step. Floating Disk says:

If you move more than 20 feet away from it, the disk follows you so that it remains within 20 feet of you. [...]
If you move more than 100 feet from the disk (typically because it can’t move around an obstacle to follow you), the spell ends.

The question is, what will happen if you are using misty step while you have an active disk?

I suspect that how teleporting works is undefined, and thus up to the DM. In the absence of a statement that teleporting involves travel throught the etheral plane or somesuch, I'll rule that the disk follows you, as long as you do not teleport further than 100 feet away from it.

If teleporting however counts as leaving the plane, you would be more than 100 feet away from the disk while doing it, and teleporting would end the disk spell. Is there any description about what happpens when you teleport in some official source? I could not find any in the 5e core books, or in the SAC. Is there any in other publications for 5e, or in older editions that could be used as a fallback reference on what happens when you teleport? (I prefer 5e, but would be willing to use older editions as precedent).

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    \$\begingroup\$ The [dungeons-and-dragons] tag is for questions about the franchise broadly, not questions about a specific edition where info from other editions might provide helpful insights. That tag should almost never be used in conjunction with a specific system tag. Let me know if it’s still unclear and I can explain in more detail. \$\endgroup\$ Commented 2 days ago

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You simply stop being in one place, and appear in another.

For lack of clarification on "teleportation" as a function (as opposed to the Teleport spell) in the spell(s) in question, we can only assume that we use the standard English definition of teleportation (emphasis mine, the first definition isn't relevant to the question):

1: the act or process of moving an object or person by psychokinesis

2 (in fiction): instantaneous travel between two locations without crossing the intervening space

"Instantaneous travel" does not give any implication of moving to an intermediary realm/plane/location of existence, it just happens. You stop being where you were, and start being where you end up.

This coincides with the Teleport spell, which admittedly is a different spell entirely, but the result is more or less the same, albeit a vastly different range (emphasis is once again mine):

This spell instantly transports you and up to eight willing creatures of your choice that you can see within range, or a single object that you can see within range, to a destination you select. (...)

Once again, the word "instantly" allows us to infer that nothing happens in between - it simply happens immediately, with no intermediary step.

So, your ruling seems to be the correct one. The floating disk will follow you through Misty Step, and any other teleportation, as long as it is within 100 feet of your destination and there is nothing blocking its path to you.

It's also worth noting that the disk does not teleport with you. If you Misty Step through a wall or similar obstacle that you can see through but the disk cannot get through, the disk will still be subject to its obstacle rules, unless you use a spell like Teleport to get it through.

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    \$\begingroup\$ "teleportation" is not a defined game term - but it is a meta-referenced game term. That is, in the SAC one can find statements like "Some teleportation effects do specify that you teleport with your gear; such specification is an example of a rule being needlessly fastidious, since no teleportation effect in the game assumes that you teleport without your clothes, just as the general movement rules don’t assume that you drop everything when you walk." Thus there is some class of effects in the game called "teleportation effects" that have a meaning more specific than the common English usage. \$\endgroup\$ Commented 2 days ago
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Older Editions, all the way up to 4E, included information defining teleportation travel as briefly transporting you through the Astral Plane.

TLP's answer is accurate from a current mechanical standpoint. But I'm getting old, so it's time for another segment of, 'back in my day, we rolled 3d6 flat, six times, in order.' (What about older editions, you say?)

In 3.x, Teleportation effects would not work if you were on a plane that wasn't adjacent/coterminous with the Astral Plane. Anything that blocked Astral Travel also stopped teleportation from working.

In AD&D1/2e, this reliance was also understood, and called out explicitly in Spelljammer via rules around Teleportation and extradimensional spaces failing in Phlogiston due to no connection with the Astral Plane.

As of 5E/2014, this stopped being a thing - teleportation is now purely a mechanical transport with no underlying explanation in the core text, and no explicit rule that causes it to fail via lack of access to the Astral Plane (although a DM may still create rules around whatever world explanation they come up with, it would no longer be RAW).

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    \$\begingroup\$ Thank you! I knew there was something … the sediment of over 30 years of gaming on my neurons \$\endgroup\$ Commented yesterday
  • \$\begingroup\$ Your AD&D1/2e I think is more properly 2e, only. 1e had MoP but not Spelljammer. And lots of Gods had inherent teleport ability, even on their own planes, whereas all but the 'topmost' or 'bottom-most' layers were removed from the Astral. That is, a god could still use its teleport in the Second of the Seven Heavens, even though only the First Heaven bordered the Astral. \$\endgroup\$ Commented yesterday
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Kirt I should probably come back through this later and add some extra details; the implicit understanding that (at least some) teleport effects involve the Astral Plane date back to the PHB rules of 1e AD&D, where if you tried to Dimension Door into occupied space, you "remain(s) in the Astral Plane until," with a rider about being stunned. \$\endgroup\$ Commented yesterday

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