Are there any rules to the creation of the forked metal rods attuned to the plane of travel?
Are they difficult to come by?
Should it be more difficult to get these rods for planes such as hell?(since escape from hell i just wrong)
Are there any rules to the creation of the forked metal rods attuned to the plane of travel?
Are they difficult to come by?
Should it be more difficult to get these rods for planes such as hell?(since escape from hell i just wrong)
Unless it's changed the metal rods thing is an optional requirement. It keeps players from randomly teleporting to one of the infinite probability planes that they've never heard of before.
* I imagine a plane made of puppies and milkshakes* "HOLY CRAP! IT WORKED!"
My DM uses rods because he doesn't like planar travel and wants to keep the party limited for this reason. It's never been an issue before. he just assigns a DC for the crafting (which we usually subcontracted) and calls it a day. Getting TO the plane and/or finding planar metal is harder than crafting the rod itself.
Also for a fun hook, Creatures native to particular planes are considered "attuned" and can be used as a focus for planar travel. They have to be permanent on their present plane, not summoned. That's why casters can always teleport home. I'm not sure if that's official or not, but it's always made good flavor for our game. Creatures are harder to keep track of than forked rods so it has caused some interesting story development.
No real rules that I know of. I believe it's purposefully left vague so that GMs are free to make the acquisition of specific tuning forks as straightforward or tricky as desired. Not prepared to run an adventure on the 514th layer of the Abyss? Turns out that a fork for accessing the 514th layer requires a rare-earth metal that is smelted in the fires of mount Oblivion itself! None of the shopkeepers or sages in town can even fathom how to acquire such a thing, especially since mount Oblivion has been dormant for the past three centuries. But you're in luck! There's a liquidation sale on forks for the 512th layer down at the local Magic-Mart™, this week only!
At the very least I'd imagine that producing a viable rod would require either a successful Knowledge (planes) or Spellcraft skill check followed by a successful Craft (smithing) skill check; both of which can be contracted out to appropriately skilled sages or craftsmen if desired.
An interesting anecdote from a campaign I ran: The BBEG wizard was hiding out in a Mage's Magnificent Mansion he cast daily in a nondescript alleyway. Knowing that undesignated people couldn't enter, let alone find the entry point to the extradimensional space, he felt fairly secure inside. Unbeknownst to him, his adult son had grown fearful of his insane father's schemes and so secretly contacted the party to offer them his covert aid. Turns out that he was aware of the nature of his father's hideout and that the BBEG was using a silver spoon taken from their family's silverware set as the spell's focus. The son's proffered aid? A silver fork from the same set (twin to the spoon used to create the extradimensional space). It turned out to be the perfect focus for a plane shift spell, allowing the PCs to gain entry to the BBEG's unique hideout. =)
well its not so much getting to the desired plane i have a problem with its escape with ease using planeshift.
If i was an evil overlord from hell/abyss i would most welcome visitors, however id be hard pressed to let them leave when they feel like it.
Ah. Well, if escape is your only goal and anywhere is better than your current location then use any old tuning fork with the spell. No guarantees as to where you'll land, but it certainly won't be where you were. =)
That being said, I'd imagine that the one for the prime material plane is likely to be the easiest tuning fork to acquire for most PCs. To that end, plane shifting is a ready form of escape from most planes. Your evil fiendish Overlord had best look into magic that'll effectively block teleporting / plane shifting to / from his realm rather than trying to somehow limit the use of tuning forks. Though a gestapo-style fiendish secret police searching local denizens and seizing contraband forks sounds sort of cool too... Keine gabeln!
well its not so much getting to the desired plane i have a problem with its escape with ease using planeshift.
If i was an evil overlord from hell/abyss i would most welcome visitors, however id be hard pressed to let them leave when they feel like it.
Don't most plane-shifting parties bring a fork tuned for home with them?
My thoughts are, if you want to trap someone on a plane, do it before they have easy access to planeshift. By the time they can planeshift at will, shift your approach to adventures.
My understanding is that to create a tuning fork, you need to tune it on the plane in question. So you either need to go there yourself or buy it from someone who has. Usually in a planescape style game various forks tuned for different planes are available for sale in a planar metropolis like Sigil. Other times you use portals and gates to get where you want to go and build your own collection of forks.
My thoughts are, if you want to trap someone on a plane, do it before they have easy access to planeshift. By the time they can planeshift at will, shift your approach to adventures.
Well, problem is that planeshift is only a 5th level spell for clerics and sending players to other planes do not generally happen in my "worlds" before 11th level.
Sending my player to the outer planes seems rather "evil" before those levels.
Just casting 1 spell to run away to the prime again seems a bit to easy for some notorious planes.
Anyways how expensive do you all feel a fork to hell,abyss,etc should be?
Just casting 1 spell to run away to the prime again seems a bit to easy for some notorious planes.
There's nothing easy about casting any 5th level spell; it requires an exceptionally skilled/experienced caster to shift between worlds. A character who has mastered the magic necessary to tear through dimensions shouldn't easily have that ability curtailed.
Anyways how expensive do you all feel a fork to hell,abyss,etc should be?
There's no listed cost for a tuning fork so chances are they don't cost more than a pittance to produce; say a few gold coins at most. The trickier part is in discerning the right sort of fork to use to get where you want to go; researching the issue might require more substantial coinage.
Ignore my remarks about the creatures attunement thing. Apparently that's old school.
Well, problem is that planeshift is only a 5th level spell for clerics and sending players to other planes do not generally happen in my "worlds" before 11th level.
Sending my player to the outer planes seems rather "evil" before those levels.
I come from the perspective of a Planescape GM. My group started in Sigil at level 1. So they had an emergency planeshift scroll long before level 11. Usually what keeps them on the planes is they have something they need to get there. A planeshift escape is like giving up on an adventure. Or in the easiest case it is like retreating from a dungeon to try again another day.
Anyways how expensive do you all feel a fork to hell,abyss,etc should be?
This really varies. In a place like Sigil, where forks are common, I would say 200-500 would not be unreasonable. In a major city on a prime plane, 500-1000 might be about right. If there simply are none to be had, a high level mage might be convinced to gate there himself and make a fork, but I'd expect that to run 5k-10k gp. So it really just depends on how much you want your players to have or not have one.
well its not so much getting to the desired plane i have a problem with its escape with ease using planeshift.
If i was an evil overlord from hell/abyss i would most welcome visitors, however id be hard pressed to let them leave when they feel like it.
That's why you spend the money to enchant your dungeon with permanent dimensional anchor.
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That's why you spend the money to enchant your dungeon with permanent dimensional anchor.
Actually, hallow/unhallow can have a spell attached to them and dimensional anchor is one of them.
DA is a 4th level spell so it would cost 5,000 gp per year to maintain this effect, but that's a pittance for anyone who really has something to protect. Or you can create a custom item (probably a rod) that produces the effect, or perhaps a creature whose presence disrupts planar travel could be convinced to take up residence...
In my games, the only way to make a forked rod "attuned" to a plane is to craft it on that plane-- and then it's attuned to the specific layer or planet on which it was crafted. Plane Shift is powerful enough without allowing the PCs to use it to go anywhere.