How to get to a demiplane

[Andraste]

I'm just starting out in a new campaign, and my friend and I have decided to make it our goal to get a demiplane of our own. The game is mostly core, but the DM seems open to other sources, so I plan on asking if I can buy a scroll of Genesis. I just now thought of the problem of how to get to the demiplane. It says in the DMG that they might be linked to a gateway, but I can't find a way to do this. Is there a better way of getting to a demiplane than spending 7650 gp on two scrolls of Gate every time I want to go there/back?

[ranagrande]

You could spend 4550 and get two scrolls of Plane Shift.

[vampire2948]

Probably cheaper in the long run to buy/make an item of Plane Shift 1 or 2 times a day.

[FelixG]

Really you may want an item with charges or uses/day of genesis as a demiplane with only one use of genesis is rather...tiny.

You may wish to set up a couple of gate like items (think stargate) that lets you travel back and forth as you like. Plant one in a capital city or in a warehouse somewhere and you only need to teleport back there to go home as it were.

My personal favorite item though that is relevant to this discussion is a wondrous item key of mages magnificent mansion with a CL of 13 1/day, an easy escape, has lots of food and is luxury living at its cheapest! also lasts 26 hours which makes it only need a 1/day casting at that CL!

[Diarmuid]

Really you may want an item with charges or uses/day of genesis as a demiplane with only one use of genesis is rather...tiny.

You may wish to set up a couple of gate like items (think stargate) that lets you travel back and forth as you like. Plant one in a capital city or in a warehouse somewhere and you only need to teleport back there to go home as it were.

My personal favorite item though that is relevant to this discussion is a wondrous item key of mages magnificent mansion with a CL of 13 1/day, an easy escape, has lots of food and is luxury living at its cheapest! also lasts 26 hours which makes it only need a 1/day casting at that CL!


I think the OP was looking for some kind of rules for creating such a magical gate. I would think it could be done via the magic item creation guidelines with input from the DM.

[Andraste]

Ok, I'll probably see about making a custom magic item with gate or something if there isn't an official way to have a lasting portal to another plane.


Really you may want an item with charges or uses/day of genesis as a demiplane with only one use of genesis is rather...tiny.

You may wish to set up a couple of gate like items (think stargate) that lets you travel back and forth as you like. Plant one in a capital city or in a warehouse somewhere and you only need to teleport back there to go home as it were.

I assume that you mean custom magic items? Or are there items that do that?

[Quietus]

Doesn't Genesis cost like 5,000 exp on casting? Just ask the DM if you can have it connect to the material plane via a random door somewhere; If you have the right key, you put it into the door, and the door opens to your plane. If you don't, then it opens to reveal wall.

[Andraste]

Doesn't Genesis cost like 5,000 exp on casting? Just ask the DM if you can have it connect to the material plane via a random door somewhere; If you have the right key, you put it into the door, and the door opens to your plane. If you don't, then it opens to reveal wall.

Yes, which is why a scroll of genesis would cost 28,825gp instead of just 3,825g.
I don't think I'd be able to find a random door that could be anywhere on the material plane.

[Lysander]

Well of Many Worlds

This strange, interdimensional device looks just like a portable hole. Anything placed within it is immediately cast to another world—a parallel world, another planet, or a different plane (chosen randomly). If the well is moved, the random factor again comes into play. It can be picked up, folded, or rolled, just as a portable hole can be. Objects from the world the well touches can come through the opening just as easily as from the initiating place. (It is a two-way portal.)

Strong conjuration; CL 17th; Craft Wondrous Item, gate; Price 82,000 gp.

Take the Well to the demiplane, then keep moving it around until it randomly links to a suitable place on the material plane. Once it does leave it there, and build a house/castle around the other end. Presto, permanent two way portal to the material plane.

Or for more flexibility:


Mirror of Mental Prowess

This mirror resembles an ordinary looking glass 5 feet tall by 2 feet wide. The possessor who knows the proper commands can cause it to perform as follows.

* Read the thoughts of any creature reflected therein, as long as the owner is within 25 feet of the mirror, even if those thoughts are in an unknown language.
* View other places as if with clairvoyance, but vision extends even onto other planes if the viewer is sufficiently familiar with them.
* Use it as a portal to visit other places. The user first views the place with the clairvoyance function, then steps through the mirror to the place pictured. Others can follow her through the mirror if they like. An invisible portal remains on the other side where she arrives, and she can return through that portal. Once she returns, the portal closes. The portal closes on its own after 24 hours (trapping the user if she’s still in the other place), and the user can also close it with a command word. Creatures with Intelligence of 12 or higher might notice the portal just as they might notice a magical sensor from a scrying spell. Any creature who steps through the portal appears in front of the mirror.
* Once per week the mirror accurately answers one short question regarding a creature whose image is shown on its surface (giving answers similar to those from the legend lore spell).

Strong conjuration and divination; CL 17th; Craft Wondrous Item, detect thoughts, clairaudience/clairvoyance, gate, legend lore; Price 175,000 gp; Weight 40 lb

[BeholderSlayer]

Since you can dictate the environment of your demiplane, make sure that at least one area of the environment is coterminous with the astral plane, ethereal plane, and possibly the Plane of Shadow. Use Plane Shift to get there.

[Quietus]

Yes, which is why a scroll of genesis would cost 28,825gp instead of just 3,825g.
I don't think I'd be able to find a random door that could be anywhere on the material plane.

No, I mean do a magical <something> to make that door, over there, that leads nowhere, that you specifically set up for this purpose, go to this plane. At just shy of 30k GP, I don't think that'd be an unreasonable thing to add, personally.

[flabort]

:smallconfused:does not the genesis spell create a permanent gate to/from the created demiplane at the location of the casting? That's how I understood it to work....

Although, You could convince your DM to let you use gate or planeshift in the creation of a custom item if the original location is unsuitable...

[Hague]

I'm certain that you can make a permanent gate with the use of the Gate spell as an ingredient in a wondrous item.

[Shade Kerrin]

There was a spell in the Spell Compendium that I tend to use for this...Energy Transformation Field.
Creates a field that negates any spell cast inside it, instead using it to fuel itself.
When a number of charges equal to to level of a preset spell is cast, it casts that spell for you.
Set it up to cast Gate or such, then buy a wand of CLW and go to town

[Lord Vukodlak]

Since you can dictate the environment of your demiplane, make sure that at least one area of the environment is coterminous with the astral plane, ethereal plane, and possibly the Plane of Shadow. Use Plane Shift to get there.
By environment they mean "factors such as atmosphere, water, temperature, and the general shape of the terrain."
In any event the demi-plane created IS coterminous with the ethereal plane anyway [or astral for the psionic version].

[flabort]

Kerrin, that is brilliant. Cast that spell once, permanency it (the ETF, not the gate spell), and it can cast gate for you at any time, just by zapping a cheap wand.
I'd make it a small area, and "tone down" the gate spell's duration, though, in case anyone's following you, so they can't track you.

Ooh, better yet, make an item with that spell, jam a cheap wand in it. zap it on the run, instant getaway, any place, any time.

[Andraste]

There was a spell in the Spell Compendium that I tend to use for this...Energy Transformation Field.
Creates a field that negates any spell cast inside it, instead using it to fuel itself.
When a number of charges equal to to level of a preset spell is cast, it casts that spell for you.
Set it up to cast Gate or such, then buy a wand of CLW and go to town

I just looked this up, and it seems like it would work, so thanks! I'll talk to my DM about it once we get far enough to be able to afford it.

[Shade Kerrin]

Kerrin, that is brilliant. Cast that spell once, permanency it (the ETF, not the gate spell), and it can cast gate for you at any time, just by zapping a cheap wand.

Thanks, but the ETF is already permanency'd.

[BeholderSlayer]

By environment they mean "factors such as atmosphere, water, temperature, and the general shape of the terrain."
In any event the demi-plane created IS coterminous with the ethereal plane anyway [or astral for the psionic version].

Those may be the examples given, but they are not the only things that may be dictated. You may dictate the plane's time flow, magic suppression, many things. There is no reason you may not dictate coterminous zones, as the spell does not have any limitations put on what facets you may dictate. It merely states that you may implement any condition that you can visualize.

[Lysander]

Those may be the examples given, but they are not the only things that may be dictated. You may dictate the plane's time flow, magic suppression, many things. There is no reason you may not dictate coterminous zones, as the spell does not have any limitations put on what facets you may dictate. It merely states that you may implement any condition that you can visualize.

IMO (and this isn't a popular opinion because people like to make fast time planes made of solid gold) this line imposes limits on what you can do:


The spellcaster determines the environment within the demiplane when he or she first casts genesis, reflecting most any desire the spellcaster can visualize. The spellcaster determines factors such as atmosphere, water, temperature, and the general shape of the terrain.

So yes, the spell first says it can do almost anything you want. Then it says what you determine are basic physical traits like temperature and landscape. I've always viewed that to exclude more exotic things like time flow and magic. It's sort of like entering a diner and asking the cook what he can make for you. He says "I can make anything you want. I can make stuff like eggs, sandwiches, salads..." and then you say "I want a sandwich that cures cancer"

[BeholderSlayer]

IMO (and this isn't a popular opinion because people like to make fast time planes made of solid gold) this line imposes limits on what you can do:



So yes, the spell first says it can do almost anything you want. Then it says what you determine are basic physical traits like temperature and landscape. I've always viewed that to exclude more exotic things like time flow and magic. It's sort of like entering a diner and asking the cook what he can make for you. He says "I can make anything you want. I can make stuff like eggs, sandwiches, salads..." and then you say "I want a sandwich that cures cancer"
I, obviously, read it differently. If the words "such as" had been left out, I would agree. However, at least to me, by using "such as" the authors left the spell open-ended to literally anything you can visualize.

I have no delusions that I'm going to change anybody's mind, so I hope we can agree to disagree. I just am throwing ideas out there for the OP because his DM may read it in a similar way that I do, which is extremely liberally.

[FelixG]

I think on the strong hold builders guide it gives examples of stargate like portals that can go between planes.

I was thinking of upgraded ring portals but bigger but they cant travel across planes

[Andraste]

I think on the strong hold builders guide it gives examples of stargate like portals that can go between planes.

I'll look that up, since we'll be wanting to be building things there anyways.

[Duke of URL]

Really you may want an item with charges or uses/day of genesis as a demiplane with only one use of genesis is rather...tiny.

Depends on your needs. A 180' radius yields 2 1/3 acres surface area, which should be sufficient for build a nice base of operations, but wouldn't be enough for establishing a working farm.

[Marnath]

:smallconfused:does not the genesis spell create a permanent gate to/from the created demiplane at the location of the casting? That's how I understood it to work....


This is how it works, I think. You guys are making this too complex. You can travel back and forth from your demiplane at will where you cast the spell from on the ethereal(it has to be cast in the ethereal plane.)

[Andraste]

This is how it works, I think. You guys are making this too complex. You can travel back and forth from your demiplane at will where you cast the spell from on the ethereal(it has to be cast in the ethereal plane.)

I don't plan on spending most of my time on the ethereal plane, and the spell doesn't say anything about that anyway. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/spells/genesis.htm

Never mind, forgot what coterminous meant and just looked it up. I still want to stay on the material plane mostly.

[Marnath]

I don't plan on spending most of my time on the ethereal plane, and the spell doesn't say anything about that anyway. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/spells/genesis.htm

Never mind, forgot what coterminous meant and just looked it up. I still want to stay on the material plane mostly.

Easy enough, just ask your DM to allow you to make it coterminous to the Prime Material instead of the Ethereal.

[Anterean]

While not exactly core (and 3.0) the "Create Portal" feat from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting maybe what you are looking for.
Can´t hurt running it by game master at any rate.