Where Does Banishment Take You?

[Bubzors]

So, we are reaching the end of the campaign I am currently DMing and the players have found themselves stranded on the plane of Limbo. They are all 12th level right now and have no method of inter-dimensional travel. Or I thought until the party wizard pointed out that he could just banish everyone back home, since they are not native to the Plane of Limbo. Might take 2 or 3 days to be able to get everyone back, but its doable. Now I thought this was a great and out of the box solution, but I am running into a problem... Where does Banishment spit you out at back in your home plane?

The spell does not specify and location, except back to the home plane. I know that it will just come down to DM decision or whatever, but I was wondering what you guys think about it. Do you pop into a random place on your plane? Or perhaps the point from which you first left your home plane. Or maybe even where you were born?

Appreciate any ideas you may give

[JNAProductions]

Somewhere safe, at least. Other than that, I dunno.

[PotatoGolem]

I like the idea that it sends you back to where you were born. Justify it as the place you are "truly from" or something. Also a chance to give PCs individual throwbacks/hooks to their origin stories, which a lot of players like.

[Hawkstar]

Scatter them far and wide all over the plane - One crashes into a distant, foreign market, upsetting a few vendor carts and stalls. Another ends up in the bathroom with a woman about to take a bath, and suddenly in serious need of some explaining to do. Another wakes up in the nest of a Roc... And one guy ends up deep in a cav beside a sleeping Tarrasque.

Hmm... someone should end up in a field surrounded by banal herd animals, as well.

[Rhaegar14]

Scatter them far and wide all over the plane - One crashes into a distant, foreign market, upsetting a few vendor carts and stalls. Another ends up in the bathroom with a woman about to take a bath, and suddenly in serious need of some explaining to do. Another wakes up in the nest of a Roc... And one guy ends up deep in a cav beside a sleeping Tarrasque.

Hmm... someone should end up in a field surrounded by banal herd animals, as well.

This solution is cool if at least one party member can get in touch with all the others with something like Sending. But barring that they'd never find each other.

[Xetheral]

Roll percentile dice using d4-1 for the hundreds place for longitude, and flip a coin for the hundreds place for lattitude (reroll results in excess of 360 and 180 respectively). Since you probably don't have a detailed enough map of your game world, consult a globe. If the random lattitude/longitude is a nice place on earth, send them to a nice place on your world. If it's a bad place on earth, send them to a bad place in your world.

(And no, I do not actually recommend you do this, amusing though it may be.)

[Daishain]

I like the idea of characters attuning to their environs. If a party got hit by banishment, their destinations would be a physical location they feel attached to. In most cases, probably their home. For a character that's always on the road, it might end up being a bar/Inn they really like, or even just a well traveled patch of the road itself.

Random locations would certainly be amusing as well, but as already mentioned, if the party lacks a means of long range communications, they're never going to meet up.

Another, though slightly less interesting, possibility would be that they simply go back to the spot they exited the Prime Material plane.

Frankly, its not well defined, so just pick something that works from a narrative perspective.

[Inevitability]

I second the idea of having them go to their place of birth. Sure, they'll be split up for a bit, but as soon as they come across someone able to cast sending (or even better, Teleport), the party can be reunited.

[Hawkstar]

This solution is cool if at least one party member can get in touch with all the others with something like Sending. But barring that they'd never find each other.... unless they all end up in the same town, and the next session is them bumbling around and stumbling across each other.

[1Forge]

Send them to the place they felt most at home in their life. That would add soooo much backstory oportunuty, the only problem I'm seeing is that the wizard cant banish himself can he?

Edit: Also just have them all plan a spot to meet up at in their plane, then after everyone is sent and you have some nostalgic backstory stuff, roll some dice for the time it takes everyone to make it, roll for how much $$$ they spent and how much they could have gained over their travel there And ta da. Done.

[WampDiesel]

This solution is cool if at least one party member can get in touch with all the others with something like Sending. But barring that they'd never find each other.

Player in the campaign here. Don't worry the DM has already discussed this with us so I am not ruining anything.

I have spent most of the campaign building a spy network through judicious use of the sending spell. We will be able to locate each other. Also there is an established network of teleport circles that only our party has used in over 100 years. We should be able to reach each other back on our native plane assuming the wizard gets out alive somehow.

Too bad for the nation of my birth (a fascist theocracy called "the Empire") that I made friends with a dragon and gave that dragon all the info he needed to show up just in time to turn the decisive battle . Many lives were lost but I (and the dragon) will profit greatly. They shouldn't have been racist against The Greatest Halfling ever (or the rest of my kind). Now who gets tossed in a broom closet?

I'm actually glad that our decisions as a party have destroyed the fascist Empire where I was born. Otherwise if I showed up on their doorstep they probably would still want to kill me for treason, or theft, or maybe even murder of a religious figure (don't know if they know that was me though). Too bad they are now ruled by a dragon. Haha.

[RazDelacroix]

Glad to hear things went swell in the campaign!

If I were to DM a situation where my players were clever enough to save their skins via Banishing themselves, I would probably hand each of them a card giving some detail about where they wound up. Then time-skip them to meeting up again. Potentially with souvenirs, novelties, and party tricks!

"So, back together again! I just crawled back from my ole' hometown! Mom says hi."

"I had to escape the dungeon of some fat kingly sort. Got an axe out of the deal."

"Too many eyes... The eyes, the EYES! THE EYE!"

"Got dumped into the Evocation College's graduation ceremony. They gave me an honorary doctorate in dodging fireballs."

"Uhhh... So I'm married now, to this dryad... Still not certain how that happened."

[WampDiesel]

Glad to hear things went swell in the campaign!

If I were to DM a situation where my players were clever enough to save their skins via Banishing themselves, I would probably hand each of them a card giving some detail about where they wound up. Then time-skip them to meeting up again. Potentially with souvenirs, novelties, and party tricks!

"So, back together again! I just crawled back from my ole' hometown! Mom says hi."

"I had to escape the dungeon of some fat kingly sort. Got an axe out of the deal."

"Too many eyes... The eyes, the EYES! THE EYE!"

"Got dumped into the Evocation College's graduation ceremony. They gave me an honorary doctorate in dodging fireballs."

"Uhhh... So I'm married now, to this dryad... Still not certain how that happened."


Well I hope they will go well for my character... It stands to if I can get out alive. It might end poorly for others though. We shall see. We literally ended last session right after the paladin smote the ever loving hell out of the BBEG. We still haven't gotten out of the BBEG fortress on the Plane of Limbo yet. Which is why my DM is asking the question of where we would end up if we banish ourselves back home.


Follow up question. Can two people banish each other simultaneously? Both the sorcerer and the wizard know banishment. If they time it well enough and both fail their save can they both pop back home? Does being banished break concentration?

[SharkForce]

Well I hope they will go well for my character... It stands to if I can get out alive. It might end poorly for others though. We shall see. We literally ended last session right after the paladin smote the ever loving hell out of the BBEG. We still haven't gotten out of the BBEG fortress on the Plane of Limbo yet. Which is why my DM is asking the question of where we would end up if we banish ourselves back home.


Follow up question. Can two people banish each other simultaneously? Both the sorcerer and the wizard know banishment. If they time it well enough and both fail their save can they both pop back home? Does being banished break concentration?

in combat, i don't think it's possible for two people to banish each other simultaneously. out of combat, when deliberately attempting to do so, i'd say it's probably possible. being banished will not break your concentration unless your DM rules otherwise (that is, it is not on the list of things that will break concentration).

that said, i see no particular reason you could not (theoretically) banish yourself.

[bam13302]

in combat, i don't think it's possible for two people to banish each other simultaneously. out of combat, when deliberately attempting to do so, i'd say it's probably possible. being banished will not break your concentration unless your DM rules otherwise (that is, it is not on the list of things that will break concentration).

that said, i see no particular reason you could not (theoretically) banish yourself.
I know this is a old thread, but banishment in 5e puts you into the incapacitated state, which is one of the things that explicitly ends concentration, effectively preventing someone from banishing themselves.

[RulesJD]

I know this is a old thread, but banishment in 5e puts you into the incapacitated state, which is one of the things that explicitly ends concentration, effectively preventing someone from banishing themselves.

Necroooooooo

Although you can get around this problem by use of a Glyph of Warding.

[SharkForce]

I know this is a old thread, but banishment in 5e puts you into the incapacitated state, which is one of the things that explicitly ends concentration, effectively preventing someone from banishing themselves.

context, my good sir.

the spell was being used in a fortress on the plane of limbo. banishment doesn't incapacitate you unless it is cast on a target in their native plane.

[RulesJD]

context, my good sir.

the spell was being used in a fortress on the plane of limbo. banishment doesn't incapacitate you unless it is cast on a target in their native plane.


Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Technically that's true, the Incapacitation is only mentioned in the Native to the Plane section. Well that's just nifty.

[Vogonjeltz]

So, we are reaching the end of the campaign I am currently DMing and the players have found themselves stranded on the plane of Limbo. They are all 12th level right now and have no method of inter-dimensional travel. Or I thought until the party wizard pointed out that he could just banish everyone back home, since they are not native to the Plane of Limbo. Might take 2 or 3 days to be able to get everyone back, but its doable. Now I thought this was a great and out of the box solution, but I am running into a problem... Where does Banishment spit you out at back in your home plane?

The spell does not specify and location, except back to the home plane. I know that it will just come down to DM decision or whatever, but I was wondering what you guys think about it. Do you pop into a random place on your plane? Or perhaps the point from which you first left your home plane. Or maybe even where you were born?

Appreciate any ideas you may give

Depends. If it were the same approximate coordinates on the other plane, that could impose lethal situations from getting banished (they end up in the middle of the ocean or in a volcano)

If it's random, that makes banishing the party one at a time equally reckless (they might end up in a volcano, hypothetically, or given that the majority of the material plane is probably made up of water, they're very likely to end up drowning).

If you're not inclined to inflict harm on the party that would probably result from either of the two methods outlined, just have them end up at a crossroads, or perhaps at the same location where they entered Limbo in the first place.

[RickAllison]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Technically that's true, the Incapacitation is only mentioned in the Native to the Plane section. Well that's just nifty.

And it makes sense. If someone is ejected to their native dimension... They are home. Why should they have any penalties? But if they are native, they are shunted into a pocket dimension that only exists to give them somewhere to be. It is not large enough to permit movement of any kind.

I had some players try and Banish this monstrosity who emerged from this portal. It worked... And he walked right out of the same portal he had just crossed through. Not their shining moment...

[Sigreid]

A quiet bar between the planes under a permanent and irresistible sanctuary effect. The bartender, Jillian appears to be a once beautiful, and still handsome human female who has tended the bar for as long as any being can remember. When someone arrives, she serves them their favorite drink and snack. Most people don't remember what happened to them and assume they were suspended, unaware and outside time. Those few who do remember often long to visit the place again.

[RickAllison]

A quiet bar between the planes under a permanent and irresistible sanctuary effect. The bartender, Jillian appears to be a once beautiful, and still handsome human female who has tended the bar for as long as any being can remember. When someone arrives, she serves them their favorite drink and snack. Most people don't remember what happened to them and assume they were suspended, unaware and outside time. Those few who do remember often long to visit the place again.

They have an actual bar sorta like that, the World Serpent's Inn. My current wizard has that as his plane of origin, actually...

[Slipperychicken]

They're dumped in a facility resembling an airport, used by planar travelers. After confirming they are citizens of the material plane, they can be deposited in a place of their choosing.


But actually, I prefer the "place you feel most at home" option. Dumping people in their birthplace could be rather awkward when they keep appearing in maternity wards, perhaps during a birth if they're really unlucky.

[Daishain]

They're dumped in a facility resembling an airport, used by planar travelers. After confirming they are citizens of the material plane, they can be deposited in a place of their choosing.


But actually, I prefer the "place you feel most at home" option. Dumping people in their birthplace could be rather awkward when they keep appearing in maternity wards, perhaps during a birth if they're really unlucky.
Not to mention, what happens to all those characters with tragic backstories concerning their original home? Escaping Limbo just to pop up in the middle of a city of drow slavers?

[Mith]

If the PCs have a stronghold or a base of operations, I would allow them to arrive there. I would also see that if you have willing banishment, one could guide where they end up with the banishment. Not as interesting, but it works.

[Sigreid]

They have an actual bar sorta like that, the World Serpent's Inn. My current wizard has that as his plane of origin, actually...

And here I thought I was being fairly original.

[RickAllison]

And here I thought I was being fairly original.

As South Park once said, "The Simpsons already did it." By now, truly original ideas are extremely rare simply due to how many iterations of ideas have occurred!

[NorthernPhoenix]

I agree that "place of birth" is the most interesting thematically, while providing a challenge for using the spell that way which is still not too punitive.

[RulesJD]

I would actually go with wherever they were last on the Material plane, as that makes the most sense to me thematically.