How Would One Survive on the Plane of Fire?

[Balkoth]

It seems like most places on the Plane of Fire deal 4d6 fire damage each round outside of a safer haven like the City of Brass.

The best fire resist spells and gear seem to only have 15 fire resist and 4d6 each round would obviously wear a PC down within like 10 minutes in most cases (average is 14 but you'd have rolls above the 15 resist mark at a reasonable rate).

[SuperBidi]

Plot armor, McGuffin, so many ways...

[Claxon]

For 2E, there is probably something like Planar Adaptation and if not it could be a ritual the PCs have.

If you're going to have an adventure on a plane, it's probably something PCs should get access to.

[Finoan]

So don't delay, act now, supplies are running out
Allow if you're still alive, six to eight years to arrive
And if you follow there may be a tomorrow
But if the offer's shunned
You might as well be walking on the Sun

[Balkoth]

Yeah, I improvised in the moment and said they could research and devise some kind of ritual if they wanted to go there. Good to know I apparently wasn't missing something obvious.

[Farien]

There is some armor that is immune to fire. So once the character incinerates, their armor will still be fine.

[Themetricsystem]

Once you figure out how to survive the fire damage you'll simply be left with the need to traverse in an environment that is composed of fire and little to no solid ground to stand on, probably zero gravity, and a complete lack of oxygen to breathe.

[Dubious Scholar]

Probably looking for effects that reduce the degree of extreme heat. Endure Elements rank 5 should cover it.

If you need to handwave it at lower levels, bespoke magic items, a blessing from Atreia, etc. - lots of narrative options come to mind.

Edit: Wait, what gives it fire damage every round? That exceeds even Incredible Heat under temperature rules.

[Bluemagetim]

Are the elemental planes element themed versions of the material plane that can be traveled to or are they completely just fire or water or air or whatever?

[Castilliano]

In a PF1 PFS adventure on that plane there were amulets that the mid-low level PCs were given temporarily due to PFS diplomatic ties so the adventure could proceed. They were considered valuable, had to be returned at the end of the adventure, and if I recall did not appear on the chronicle for purchase. A.k.a. purely plot devices to acclimate the PCs to the plane, but which notably did not confer fire resistance or other defenses one might think necessary to survive there.
If I recall, that was just to survive in the City of Brass outside of visitor areas.

I believe Planescape had similar plot devices, though those would often be rewards which again conferred little if any bonus other than the ability to traverse environments w/o necessarily aiding vs. unusual hazards or anywhere else, i.e. one item might be tuned to Hell's fires (and maybe only on a specific level), but wouldn't aid on the Plane of Fire or other fiery realms.

A temporary Ritual works too, of course, though might want to require some sort of key or rare component as well as the limits on the items above.

[Claxon]

Bluemagetim wrote:

Are the elemental planes element themed versions of the material plane that can be traveled to or are they completely just fire or water or air or whatever?

It depends on the plane, I think.

The plane of air I believe is like an endless plane of open air with "islands" of land, but the land can be "up or down" relative to other land and not "left or right". In other words one "island" can be positive/negative Z axis and not just different X or Y coordinates.

I think the plane of water is similar, but replace air with water. There may be a bottom ocean "floor", not 100%.

I think the plane of earth is mostly earth, but there may be "cavities" of open space, similar to the "islands" of land in other planes.

And I thought the plane of fire was most similar to the material plane with more standard geography, with the exception of everything being on fire. With higher and lower degrees of "on fire" depending on location.

[Castilliano]

Bluemagetim wrote:

Are the elemental planes element themed versions of the material plane that can be traveled to or are they completely just fire or water or air or whatever?

They are primarily composed of their main element, and in some places, yes, completely so. Yet some areas have chunks/oases of other elements. For example, there are dirt islands which float in the Plane of Air, and leaders might tie them together with cables & bridges. Of course water & fire have difficulty surviving in the opposite plane, and what use is a pocket of air on the Plane of Earth if it's hidden or has so little oxygen it depletes rapidly? (Plus dust, radiation, cave-ins, etc.)

Yet over the course of eons the residents have developed trade centers that can harbor visitors and gates which bring in supplies for said visitors to survive. Being infinite in nature though, the bulk of the elemental planes are inhospitable w/o magic to survive & navigate. So a GM's free to tune to visit to their tastes from teeming metropolis w/ bizarre citizens, struggling outposts, secluded lairs of researchers or outcasts, to outright hostile regions, i.e. solid ice in the Plane of Water, eternal tornadoes in the Plane of Air, etc.

IMO though, once one pops the cork on that bottle, it's hard to think of Golarion the same way. The infinite, civilized nature of the planes kinda diminishes the scale of one little planet struggling to develop (albeit the Prison of Rovagug & home of the Starstone). Taldan/Common begins to look more like a language Golarion appropriated rather than created and spread.

[Balkoth]

Dubious Scholar wrote:

Edit: Wait, what gives it fire damage every round? That exceeds even Incredible Heat under temperature rules.

Plane of Fire general info: https://2e.aonprd.com/Planes.aspx?ID=6

Planar rules: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1172

Planar Essence of Fire:

"Fire: Planes with this trait are composed of flames that continually burn with no fuel source. Fire planes are extremely hostile to non-fire creatures.

Unprotected wood, paper, cloth, and other flammable materials catch fire almost immediately, and creatures wearing unprotected flammable clothing catch fire, typically taking 1d6 persistent fire damage. Extraplanar creatures take moderate environmental fire damage at the end of each round (sometimes minor environmental damage in safer areas, or major or massive damage in even more fiery areas). Fire magic is enhanced, and cold and water magic are impeded. Water creatures are extremely uncomfortable on a fire plane, and any natural resistance they have against fire doesn’t function against this environmental fire damage."

Environmental damage: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=591

Moderate environmental fire damage is 4d6-6d6 a round combining all of the above.

[Bluemagetim]

Its cool to have fantastical planes of existence but if they are not accessible then they are just theoretical spaces and not really playable spaces.
If i run any campaigns that use these planes i would want areas to exist that are relatively hospitable to material plane peeps. These areas can still have fantastical environments but with settled residence that have cities, gene kind will work, that player characters can still relate to/conceptualize/interact with. I assumed that was all in existing lore.

[Sibelius Eos Owm]

For what it's worth, it's already been mentioned that Medina Mudii'a, the City of Brass, is notable for the magic sphere surrounding it which keeps the temperature within tolerable levels for humanoids. Likewise the city of Zjarra is a political neutral zone that is safe for visitors by a crystalline dome created by the axiomite founders millennia ago.

Also, for what it's worth, the elemental planes last time I looked were "immeasurable" but not "infinite"; this might be a legacy assumption that crops up from other cosmos? I only recall a post by James clarifying that not even the Outer Rifts are 'infinite', merely so unimaginably large that no mortal creature could possibly travel beyond it.

[Castilliano]

There's a whole season of PFS1 where PCs of lower levels participate in scenarios on the elemental planes, so yes, those settled, hospitable areas do exist. Note that the "average" citizen is hardly average which might make social obstacles vs. generic NPCs harder than one might expect.

--
Yeah, I suppose "infinite" (yes, a legacy of The Ring/Planescape) taps into logical conundrums that "immeasurable" avoids, though for practical purposes they're the same.

And speaking of Planescape, it too has many modules/scenarios for low-level PCs to make an impact among high-level factions, and to operate in hazardous territory one would typically think off-limits. If looking to build a planar campaign, it still IMO has the best resources.