Emergency low level planar travel... Help!

[Tiadoppler]

First, a little bit of background:



In my party, there is a wizard who was born on another plane of existence.

He was brought to (the campaign setting) as an infant and abandoned there.

Some of his primary character motivations include: finding his way to his home plane, finding his parents, finding other members of his species.

The party recently reached level 7, gaining access to the 4th level spell Banishment

The wizard's idea was to let himself be banished once a day for 54 seconds (9 rounds) so he could try to make contact with other members of his species, and find a way to travel back and forth to his home plane.

The second time the Cleric banished the Wizard, the Cleric lost count, permanently banishing the Wizard to his home plane.



Now I'm looking for ideas, or advice I can give my (newly level 7) party on how to communicate/gain access to/retrieve their wizard from another plane (that none of them have ever been to).




TL;DR: Low level Cleric banished low level Wizard to an alternate dimension. How do I get him back?

[Lunali]

Portals are accessible regardless of level, though they may have special requirements. Keep in mind that once you make a portal usable, you'll either have to let the players travel more or less at will or find a reason why it won't be usable later.

[Algeh]

I suppose the real question is "how long are you willing to keep the wizard separated from the rest of the party?" and "did the players understand how dangerous this plan of theirs was and what could go wrong with it?"

Personally, I'd be tempted to turn this into a pretty long-term quest/project for the group with no obvious DM-provided escape hatch since their risky plan didn't work out and got them into this mess, and have the wizard's player take on another character during that quest so they have something to do since this may take quite a bit of game time. I'd also be open to the idea that they never do find the wizard again since they were pretty clearly messing around with things they didn't have the tools to handle. Basically, leave the door open to the idea they may get the wizard back someday, but treat it pretty much like the wizard's been killed off for now (in terms of the player making a new character and there being no immediate rescue unless the players have a really clever idea about how to go about it). If they do find the wizard again, *poof* he's also had off-screen solo adventures to get to whatever the party's level is now, and that player can decide which of their two characters to keep playing.

So I guess I suggest not solving this problem for them specifically, but rather letting it become one of the Big Problems the PCs are trying to solve in your overall campaign.

Once they're of an appropriate power level to have the tools for planar search-and-rescue, then you can flesh out where the wizard is and what adventures they'll have trying to get there. If they need an immediate adventure hook related to all of this, point them toward some sage/wizard/etc who knows more about the planes than they do and can give some of this information about how long and involved this will be to them in character, and who maybe can send them off somewhere else distant and with level-appropriate adventures along the way to travel to to talk to some other sage/wizard/etc for more information or possible access to some magical device, and so on. You can basically make "getting the wizard back" one of the many party motivations for quite a while.

[JDanton]

My suggestion would be to either give them a limited use magic item that allows them to travel between planes, like a broken cubic gate that is only good for one use and then hopefully a return trip before breaking, make the rescue mission more interesting by giving them an arbitrary time limit before the gate closes and they're trapped in the other plane (and no matter how long they take have them just make it in time), this may sound quite cheesy and a bit too convenient but if done correctly you could create a great side quest that doesn't have any long term consequences. Another option is to introduce a horizon walker NPC to guide the players to the nearest planar portal and maybe even assist in the rescue for the purpose of maintaining peace between the planes, you could quite easily work this NPC into the story, have them reveal that they were tracking the wizard who was frequently crossing between planes to make sure that he wasn't a threat, have fun with it, again if done well you can tell a really compelling story without any consequences. Of course if you really want to have fun, just go with it, give the party a cubic gate and let them go plane hopping, go full planescape and have fun with it.

[tieren]

My suggestion would be to either give them a limited use magic item that allows them to travel between planes, like a broken cubic gate that is only good for one use and then hopefully a return trip before breaking, make the rescue mission more interesting by giving them an arbitrary time limit before the gate closes and they're trapped in the other plane (and no matter how long they take have them just make it in time), this may sound quite cheesy and a bit too convenient but if done correctly you could create a great side quest that doesn't have any long term consequences. Another option is to introduce a horizon walker NPC to guide the players to the nearest planar portal and maybe even assist in the rescue for the purpose of maintaining peace between the planes, you could quite easily work this NPC into the story, have them reveal that they were tracking the wizard who was frequently crossing between planes to make sure that he wasn't a threat, have fun with it, again if done well you can tell a really compelling story without any consequences. Of course if you really want to have fun, just go with it, give the party a cubic gate and let them go plane hopping, go full planescape and have fun with it.

I love the horizon walker NPC idea. I was going to suggest something similar, maybe the party seeks help at a nearby wizard tower and the NPC wizard offers to give them a Gate spell scroll if the party retrieves some macguffin magic reagent for him (possibly have the reagent in the other plane so the party joins up quickly then does the side quest there before coming back).

Having a timer on the Gate can add an interesting pressure on the side quest to make rest resource management more interesting too.

[Tiadoppler]

Thanks for the advice!

This campaign will eventually end up in serious plane-hopping adventure, and I'm perfectly willing to have the wizard gone for quite a while (in this campaign, each of the (4) players controls two characters each, so the wizard's player can still participate in the main quest with his other character). I may simply run a part-time solo adventure for the wizard for a while.

I like the portal idea a lot, and the horizon walker one, but because of plot, there are no powerful allied NPCs to draw upon.

If I can hold the solo adventure together until level 11 (or 13), having shenanigans with Planar Ally (or Plane Shift) might be the answer.


And I just realized Sending works to other planes of existence. Okay, the communication thing is solved.

[Keravath]

Depending on your game world, they could just hire an appropriate NPC to cast a planar travel spell or similar to get them to the same realm where their wizard currently resides.

[Greywander]

The first thing I'd do ask the players what they want to do. Is the wizard player upset about losing their character, or are they totally cool with rolling up a new character while they go on a long term quest to get the wizard back?

Ask your players what they'd like to do, and prepare a few options ahead of time just in case they're not sure. Here's a few ways you could go:

Retcon, but with a price
Possibly literally, rolling back time to before the Banishment and just saying, "that didn't happen," or figuratively, with a powerful entity offering to return the wizard to them in exchange for something. In any case, I wouldn't just give them this for free, make it clear that they made a mistake and that it should cost them something to undo it. It doesn't have to be bad, though; using this as an opportunity for a new quest hook could be lots of fun and still maintains the consequences of their actions.

Make it a quest to recover the wizard
Horizon Walker rangers can detect portals. Certain powerful characters and entities likely also have the ability to travel the planes, if you can offer them something they want. But the planes are a dangerous place, and they'd better watch their step. If the party gets the help of a temporary NPC, you can let the wizard player control the NPC until the wizard is recovered.

This could also be a way to tease what they have to look forward to later on in their campaign, since you said they'll be doing a lot of planar travel later on. Kind of like when in a video game you fight a boss you can't beat, only to defeat them much later when you've gotten stronger.

Roll a new character, the wizard is now an NPC
I'd only go this route either if the player is okay with it, or if you're needing to crack down on consistently poor behavior (in which case you should probably talk to your players about what they're looking for in a game, it might not be the same as you). The wizard could still come up later on and work their way back into the plot, but it would be as an NPC.

[Isaire]

Book not to hand - can cleric banish self to the same plane?

[DeTess]

Book not to hand - can cleric banish self to the same plane?

Nope, because the spell either banishes you to your home plane, or to a harmless demi-plane if you're already on your home plane.

OP, how did the cleric lose count, and do you allow PvP in your campaign?

[Tiadoppler]

OP, how did the cleric lose count, and do you allow PvP in your campaign?


I strictly prohibit PvP (Player vs Player) activity in my campaign (disagreements between players should be handled away from the table), but place no restrictions whatsoever on Character vs Character activity that has the consent of the involved players.

This situation wasn't really PvP or Character vs Character: The Wizard wanted to be banished permanently (sooner or later) but thought that it was a bad idea now (because of plot) so he accepted a compromise. The Cleric was supposed to banish the Wizard for between 54 and 60 seconds (so the Wizard could learn as much as possible, cast spells, make skill checks, talk to any people he found, etc.).

One of the other players suggested that because this wasn't combat, and people weren't running around casting spells as fast as possible, and (for example) the Cleric's heart rate would be slower, it would make sense for the players to count out the seconds, rather than having it be automatic success or a skill check. The rest of the table agreed (to make it interesting).

The first time the Cleric banished the Wizard, the majority of the party was there helping the Cleric keep count, they made each other nervous and counted too fast, and the Wizard was returned after 41 seconds.

The second time, the Cleric was alone (and a bit more relaxed, because it had gone well the first time), and counted to 54 in 61.7 seconds. The Wizard did not return.


Edit:


The first thing I'd do ask the players what they want to do. Is the wizard player upset about losing their character, or are they totally cool with rolling up a new character while they go on a long term quest to get the wizard back?

Each player controls two characters in this campaign. The wizard's player isn't knocked out of the game, and the plot was heading to his homeland sooner or later. The players are all pretty cool with this development.



Retcon, but with a price
Possibly literally, rolling back time to before the Banishment and just saying, "that didn't happen," or figuratively, with a powerful entity offering to return the wizard to them in exchange for something. In any case, I wouldn't just give them this for free, make it clear that they made a mistake and that it should cost them something to undo it. It doesn't have to be bad, though; using this as an opportunity for a new quest hook could be lots of fun and still maintains the consequences of their actions.

No need, and there's a distinct lack of powerful NPCs that aren't actively hostile in the setting (relatively post-apocalyptic).


Make it a quest to recover the wizard
Horizon Walker rangers can detect portals. Certain powerful characters and entities likely also have the ability to travel the planes, if you can offer them something they want. But the planes are a dangerous place, and they'd better watch their step. If the party gets the help of a temporary NPC, you can let the wizard player control the NPC until the wizard is recovered.

This could also be a way to tease what they have to look forward to later on in their campaign, since you said they'll be doing a lot of planar travel later on. Kind of like when in a video game you fight a boss you can't beat, only to defeat them much later when you've gotten stronger.

Oh, it'll be a quest. I'm still deciding how many portals there might be in the world. There's definitely going to be planar exploration, but it'll likely be limited to the party's direct resources, or have a terrible price from some amoral entity.


Roll a new character, the wizard is now an NPC
I'd only go this route either if the player is okay with it, or if you're needing to crack down on consistently poor behavior (in which case you should probably talk to your players about what they're looking for in a game, it might not be the same as you). The wizard could still come up later on and work their way back into the plot, but it would be as an NPC.

No need. The player still has a party member to control, and I don't mind a little solo survival quest.

[Contrast]

The second time the Cleric banished the Wizard, the Cleric lost count

Did you honestly make a player roll to successfully count to 60?

Edit - ah sorry, explained above. Your players are idiots.

[tieren]

If there's no powerful NPC wizard's or horizon walkers on your world, grab one from another, maybe the popping back and forth caught the attention of a devil or archfey and they would be willing to help out, for a price...

Bonus points if anyone actually planned to MC warlock.

[dmteeter]

I can't get over the fact that your players actively counted to 54 and it took them 61 seconds.

I also cant handle the fact that as DM you were like well hate to break it to ya that was actually 61 seconds and now Tim is stuck forever.

This whole scenario has me cracking up and i wish i was playing at your table.


Now as for a solution to your problem i would talk to the player about turning his character into an NPC.

If he does not mind that would open you up for one hell of a story arc in which his character learns why he was sent to the other plane and it turns out he was actually meant to destroy that plane of existence in some sort of plot to leech the life force out of all the world in an effort to save his home world. All of this leading up to a very interesting end game in which a party member who everyone once viewed as an ally becomes twisted and ends up being the BBEG.

That's just how i would spin it at my own table.

[Damon_Tor]

One of the other players suggested that because this wasn't combat, and people weren't running around casting spells as fast as possible, and (for example) the Cleric's heart rate would be slower, it would make sense for the players to count out the seconds, rather than having it be automatic success or a skill check. The rest of the table agreed (to make it interesting).

The first time the Cleric banished the Wizard, the majority of the party was there helping the Cleric keep count, they made each other nervous and counted too fast, and the Wizard was returned after 41 seconds.

The second time, the Cleric was alone (and a bit more relaxed, because it had gone well the first time), and counted to 54 in 61.7 seconds. The Wizard did not return.

It's hard to imagine that, with the stakes being what they were, that the party wasn't willing to invest in a simple sand timer, test the sand timer for accuracy and consistency, add/remove sand until it reliably counts down to 55 seconds, and only then begin this sort of experimentation. It's reckless disregard for safety which strains credibility, like an astronaut who just couldn't be bothered to tether himself to his spacecraft before popping out the airlock.

When my players attempt to make very stupid decisions, I have one of their characters roll an int check, and I use the result to explain to them how dumb they're being.

[Tiadoppler]

Your players are idiots.

Many of the characters are exceptionally low in common sense and the genre is mostly Action Comedy, so the players are pretty willing to go with wacky plots and schemes, and do things that cause problems for themselves later. Also, yes, kind of.


If there's no powerful NPC wizard's or horizon walkers on your world, grab one from another, maybe the popping back and forth caught the attention of a devil or archfey and they would be willing to help out, for a price...

I may use this (or a variant thereof). There's a Great Old One who's taken a certain interest in recent events.


I can't get over the fact that your players actively counted to 54 and it took them 61 seconds.

I also cant handle the fact that as DM you were like well hate to break it to ya that was actually 61 seconds and now Tim is stuck forever.

This whole scenario has me cracking up and i wish i was playing at your table.

Counting seconds accurately is harder than it sounds, especially once you get past 10-15.
My motto is "yes, this is a comedy campaign, but your actions still have consequences." That includes repeatedly prank-calling Lolth. Yes, she answers. Yes, you will regret this.


It's hard to imagine that, with the stakes being what they were, that the party wasn't willing to invest in a simple sand timer, test the sand timer for accuracy and consistency, add/remove sand until it reliably counts down to 55 seconds, and only then begin this sort of experimentation. It's reckless disregard for safety which strains credibility, like an astronaut who just couldn't be bothered to tether himself to his spacecraft before popping out the airlock.

When my players attempt to make very stupid decisions, I have one of their characters roll an int check, and I use the result to explain to them how dumb they're being.

To be perfectly fair to them, they were planning to buy a clock for that purpose eventually. The Wizard is the only party member with an INT greater than 12, and he wanted to go home, and he was begging the Cleric every day for the chance.

[the secret fire]

It's hard to imagine that, with the stakes being what they were, that the party wasn't willing to invest in a simple sand timer, test the sand timer for accuracy and consistency, add/remove sand until it reliably counts down to 55 seconds, and only then begin this sort of experimentation. It's reckless disregard for safety which strains credibility, like an astronaut who just couldn't be bothered to tether himself to his spacecraft before popping out the airlock.

When my players attempt to make very stupid decisions, I have one of their characters roll an int check, and I use the result to explain to them how dumb they're being.

Heh...yeah, that basic self-preservation instinct which (often) prevents us from doing suicidally stupid things in real life doesn't work too well when the stakes are lower. I generally prefer Wis checks to help PCs avoid player stupidity, but I agree with you that sometimes the DM needs to give the PCs a chance when the players are being dim.

Of course, killing PCs is also fun, so ymmv.

[Snowbluff]

Or, you know, he could meet a member of his species, which gives him some knowledge including how to return freely from his homeplane. He could come back with a cool cloak and everything.