Planes to Plane Shift someone to to ensure that they die?

[ATHATH]

Unfortunately, it seems that the Elemental Plane of Fire doesn't deal passive damage to people who remain in it anymore. Are there any planes that DO deal passive damage to the people inside of them, or are otherwise completely unsurvivable, even for a high-level character (that doesn't have access to Plane Shift)?

Does the Far Realm count as a plane that you can Plane Shift someone to? How lethal is it in this edition?

[Wraith]

I think the bottom line is that there hasn't yet been enough written about planes and planar travel in 5e to give such details. Whereas there is nothing stopping you from using lore from older editions and making people explode by sending them to the Positive Energy Plane and healing them to death, 'officially' in 5e we haven't really been given much to go on.

The worst that I can think of that has been published so far is probably Avernus, one of the Nine Hells. That place is pretty lethal simply due to the amount of devils and demons that you find there en masse - they generally attack on sight, some of them are pretty gnarly, and most do multiple attacks with Necrotic damage so eventually even hardened adventurers will run out of HP unless they can escape, to say nothing of what happens if they fall into the Styx.

With regards to the Far Realms, I would say yes - it is listed in the Player's Handbook under "Other Planes" and is separate from the section titled Demiplanes so I'd argue that it is one specific by itself. It's quite hard to get to though, and few mechanical details have been given about it, so it sounds like one of those things you'd have to discuss with your GM to find out what actually happens when you get there.

It probably *should* be pretty lethal for someone who gets sent there unprepared - nothing I've read about it says that air or even floors are readily available, let alone food or places of sanctuary so unless your target is a Warforged then it's likely they won't last long from arrival....

[Millstone85]

Unfortunately, it seems that the Elemental Plane of Fire doesn't deal passive damage to people who remain in it anymore.The Elemental Plane of Fire has an "innermost region" that resembles the Material, just more fiery, and an "outermost region" that is a great expanse of blazing fire (DMG p52). Planeshifting someone to the latter would, I assume, be like throwing them into the sun.

Then, further away from the Material, is the Elemental Chaos, which seems quite different from its 4e version. Now elementals themselves find it uncomfortable. So if the sun somehow wasn't enough, that ought to do the trick.


Are there any planes that DO deal passive damage to the people inside of them, or are otherwise completely unsurvivable, even for a high-level character (that doesn't have access to Plane Shift)?In previous editions, the Energy Planes were famously lethal, either draining your life force or overloading it. The only 5e confirmation I know of is in the MToF entry on the nightwalker, which says that "Stepping into the Negative Plane is tantamount to suicide, since the plane sucks the life and soul from such audacious creatures and annihilates them at once". However, a few instead become trapped, and you might now be faced with the nightwalker that took their place home.


Does the Far Realm count as a plane that you can Plane Shift someone to? How lethal is it in this edition?I don't know, but probably. However, I would think it presents an even higher risk of your victim coming back as a terrible aberration.

[Lunali]

Avernus isn't all that great of a choice, sure there are lots of devils, but that doesn't mean they'll kill on sight. They have a tendency to deal instead of kill when offered the chance.

The Abyss or Acheron would be a better choice for the swarm of enemies. Carceri likely won't kill them, but it will be more likely to keep them away from you than other planes.

If you know they have no means of interplanar travel, a "harmless" demiplane would be my choice, most adventurers still have to eat and drink.

[Mastikator]

The abyss is a sucky place to be, not a "passive damage" type, more "overwhelmed by demons".

[Avonar]

So it's not in 5e but the in previous editions the Positive Energy plane had an effect where you gain HP/Temp HP each round. If you gained more THP than you have Max HP, you just kind of explode.

Source: Bastion of Broken Souls

[Unoriginal]

Unfortunately, it seems that the Elemental Plane of Fire doesn't deal passive damage to people who remain in it anymore. Are there any planes that DO deal passive damage to the people inside of them, or are otherwise completely unsurvivable, even for a high-level character (that doesn't have access to Plane Shift)?

Does the Far Realm count as a plane that you can Plane Shift someone to? How lethal is it in this edition?

There's no way to *ensure* the target dies if cast in a different plane. As others have noted, the deeper parts of any Elemental planes are fairly lethal, and so is the Elemental Chaos, plus there is a lot of "here people/the plane itself are ready to kick your butt/twist your mind" planes, but throwing your enemy into an alternate dimension and just assuming they die is *begging* for them to come back later in one form or another if the enemy is relevant enough.

[JoeJ]

There's no way to *ensure* the target dies if cast in a different plane. As others have noted, the deeper parts of any Elemental planes are fairly lethal, and so is the Elemental Chaos, plus there is a lot of "here people/the plane itself are ready to kick your butt/twist your mind" planes, but throwing your enemy into an alternate dimension and just assuming they die is *begging* for them to come back later in one form or another if the enemy is relevant enough.

I agree with this. If it's a character that the DM was having fun with and you don't recover the body, it should always be assumed to be a comic book death.

[Lunali]

I agree with this. If it's a character that the DM was having fun with and you don't recover the body, it should always be assumed to be a comic book death.

To be fair, even if you do recover the body, there's always true resurrection.

[False God]

The answer is no.

This is notoriously the TV trope of throwing someone down the reactor core. You assume the destination is deadly enough to kill your target, but without confirmation you're only left to assume they're dead.

If you want to ensure someone dies, do it yourself.

[Naanomi]

Negative energy plane isn't great... Water is bad if they can't breathe there... If you can go to specific layers; there are parts of Pandemonium, the Abyss, Gehenna, and Acheron that are not easily survivable for even short amounts of time.

If they are evil, Arcadia would likely make short work of their presence

If you care less about 'killing' and more about 'never seeing again '; Elysium, The Grey Wastes, the Far Realm, the demi-plane of Dread may all be options.

Carceri is notoriously difficult to leave (at least for very long)

[GigaGuess]

I mean it's not a "Passive Damage" type of place, best of my knowledge, but Carceri is basically a one way trip as I understand it, save for EXTREME circumstances (Like, Wishing oneself off.)

[JoeJ]

Elysium. It won't harm them, but if they don't get out quickly they'll never be willing to leave.

[SupahCabre]

Isn't this the reason why Gate is such a poor spell?

[Quietus]

Remember you'll need a tuning fork for wherever you send someone.

[MaxWilson]

Isn't this the reason why Gate is such a poor spell?

It's not a poor spell. Gate lets you kidnap almost anyone from almost anywhere (deities excepted) if you know their name.

[verbatim]

Finding a Tuning Fork attuned to the Far Realm seems neigh impossible (that being said, using Wish or Divine Intervention to cast Plane Shift would negate the material components).


There are few 5e rules on the Plane of Negative Energy, but its existence is documented in the Nightwalker statblock in MToF and it seems like one of if not the best documented plane to send someone if you don't want them coming back.

"Stepping into the Negative Plane is tantamount to suicide, since the plane sucks the life and soul from such audacious creatures and annihilates them at once. Those few who survive the effort do so by sheer luck or by harnessing some rare form of magic that protects them against the hostile atmosphere. They soon discover, however, that they can't leave as easily as they arrived. For each creature that enters the plane, a nightwalker is released to take its place. In order for a trapped creature to escape, the released nightwalker must be lured back to the Negative Plane by offerings of life for it to devour. If the nightwalker is destroyed, the trapped creature has no hope of escape."

1. Send foe to Plane of Negative Energy: if no nightwalker spawns then they died immediately (not that a party would know this, I suppose).
2. If a Nightwalker spawns, killing it ensures that there is no way for them to escape (the party would also not know this but killing the Nightwalker seems like a logical choice of action).

[Wizard_Lizard]

Well sending 'em to Carceri.. while not killing them.. seems close enough, they ain't gettin' out.

[Naanomi]

Well sending 'em to Carceri.. while not killing them.. seems close enough, they ain't gettin' out.
People do manage to leave Carceri... It just has a way of getting them back sooner rather than later

[Temperjoke]

Send them to Barovia. Or one of the demiplanes of Dread, since you can't really leave without the permission of the domain's lord.

[kingcheesepants]

Well another option is to make your own demiplane and then make a sickening radiance glyph set to trigger if anyone but you enters the demiplane. Sickening radiance does 4d10 radiant damage and 1 level of exhaustion per failed con save and lasts for 10 minutes. That's 100 rounds to hit and will kill anything without exhaustion immunity after 7 hits. And even if they have exhaustion immunity very few things are resistant or immune to radiant damage and the overlap of radiant resistance/immunity and exhaustion immunity is pretty small. But if you're really worried about killing Zariel or something you could add another glyph of say Dark Star (assuming graviturgy spells are on the table) and trigger it to go off if anything is still alive after the sickening radiance. Dark star does 8d10 (average 44) force damage 10 times and half on a save so that ought to be enough to kill your local demon lord. Add a glyph of private sanctum to shut off all planar travel in the demiplane so they can't escape even if they have plane shift and you should be good to go. Then send people to your demiplane of execution whenever you'd like them to not exist anymore.

[KorvinStarmast]

If you want to ensure someone dies, do it yourself. That is probably good advice for a D&D game. :smallcool:

Finding a Tuning Fork attuned to the Far Realm seems neigh impossible (that being said, using Wish or Divine Intervention to cast Plane Shift would negate the material components). My horse thinks that's nigh, :smallbiggrin: and good point on using Divine Intervention or Wish to cast (7th level) plane shift.


Plane of Negative Energy That's the first place I thought of when I saw the question.



Well another option is to make your own demiplane and then make a sickening radiance Glyph of Warding set to trigger if anyone but you enters the demiplane.
Sickening radiance does 4d10 radiant damage and 1 level of exhaustion per failed con save and lasts for 10 minutes. That's 100 rounds to hit and will kill anything without exhaustion immunity after 7 hits. And even if they have exhaustion immunity very few things are resistant or immune to radiant damage and the overlap of radiant resistance/immunity and exhaustion immunity is pretty small.
But if you're really worried about killing Zariel or something you could add another glyph of say Dark Star (assuming graviturgy spells are on the table) and trigger it to go off if anything is still alive after the sickening radiance. Dark star does 8d10 (average 44) force damage 10 times and half on a save so that ought to be enough to kill your local demon lord.
Add a glyph of private sanctum to shut off all planar travel in the demiplane so they can't escape even if they have plane shift and you should be good to go. Then send people to your demiplane of execution whenever you'd like them to not exist anymore.
I added some carriage returns, and that's a devious set up.
(Fires off a quick note to The Director: kingcheesepants- that one bears watching! :smallbiggrin: )

[Temperjoke]

I don't know that you can directly go to the Negative Energy plane, from what I recall, most access to that is via the Astral Plane or Shadowfell. Maybe it's not impossible, but I'm not sure how feasible it is. The other side of it, at least with the Negative Energy Plane, is that when a mortal enters the plane, a Nightwalker is released from it, per Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. So, you send someone there, something worse can come out.

Which, honestly, is one of the most D&D of outcomes.

[Nagog]

So it's not in 5e but the in previous editions the Positive Energy plane had an effect where you gain HP/Temp HP each round. If you gained more THP than you have Max HP, you just kind of explode.

Source: Bastion of Broken Souls

Is that rule still viable? Could my negative Con Wizard accidentally kill themselves with an upcast Armor of Agathys? because that would be both funny and rather sad.

[Unoriginal]

Is that rule still viable? Could my negative Con Wizard accidentally kill themselves with an upcast Armor of Agathys? because that would be both funny and rather sad.

Even back then, it wasn't a rule for temporary hit points in general, just for the specific planar effect.

[Angelalex242]

Just send someone to 'insert your least favorite demon Lord's' layer of the Abyss. Even if they aren't killed, the phrase 'fate worse than death' comes to mind.

[micahaphone]

Cover them in loads of sausage then send them to the wildlands

[Naanomi]

Just send someone to 'insert your least favorite demon Lord's' layer of the Abyss. Even if they aren't killed, the phrase 'fate worse than death' comes to mind.
Or you've given the demon a servant he can harass you with later in the plot (while drawing their attention)

[verbatim]

I don't know that you can directly go to the Negative Energy plane, from what I recall, most access to that is via the Astral Plane or Shadowfell. Maybe it's not impossible, but I'm not sure how feasible it is. The other side of it, at least with the Negative Energy Plane, is that when a mortal enters the plane, a Nightwalker is released from it, per Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. So, you send someone there, something worse can come out.

Which, honestly, is one of the most D&D of outcomes.

Depending on what level the party is this could be a good thing, since killing the Nightwalker prevents them from ever leaving.

If the party can't kill a Nightwalker they would be better off sending someone to Carceri, the Prison Plane.

[furby076]

The answer is no.

This is notoriously the TV trope of throwing someone down the reactor core. You assume the destination is deadly enough to kill your target, but without confirmation you're only left to assume they're dead.

If you want to ensure someone dies, do it yourself.

A true Schrodengers DM scenario

[kingcheesepants]

A true Schrodengers DM scenario

Indeed. They're "dead" until the DM thinks of a cool/fun scenario where they come back stronger and looking for revenge.

That's one advantage of using your own trapped demiplane to do them in. You can go in afterward and check that there's a body.

[KorvinStarmast]

Cover them in loads of sausage then send them to the wildlands I think that a way to permanently dispose of an enemy is
1. Hold them still until they are turned to stone by a basilisk or a gorgon.
2. The basilisk eats them (see 5e MM, they do that)
3. Basilisk digests and then excretes ... basilisk poop.

Pretty much done, I think.

A special tip of the cap goes to the bad guy in Snatch for that method of disposal's basic idea.

[TalksAlone]

Feed them to a Barghest, job done.

If soulless, or with soul trapped elsewhere, it won't work.

[kingcheesepants]

Feed them to a Barghest, job done.

If soulless, or with soul trapped elsewhere, it won't work.


I think that a way to permanently dispose of an enemy is
1. Hold them still until they are turned to stone by a basilisk or a gorgon.
2. The basilisk eats them (see 5e MM, they do that)
3. Basilisk digests and then excretes ... basilisk poop.


The problem with these options is that whatever you're trying to kill with plane shift is presumably too strong to take on in a straight fight (hence the plane shifting). I doubt highly that a demon lord or a tarrasque or whatever is gonna be susceptible to these sorts of methods but you might be able to pull off a surprise plane shift (cast through a familiar perhaps?) or last a round or 2 in combat whittling away it's legendary resistances before plane shifting it to somewhere it'll die.

[Naanomi]

I mean... if material components are not a barrier... the Plane of Imprisonment (where Tharizdun is trapped). Even if they could somehow survive in there with him, if he can't get out odds are they can't either

[neceros]

Just say that's what happens. Use your DM fiat to make the story. Tell the players "Character disappears and doesn't leave a trace behind." You can discuss what happens with the player later on if necessary. There are times one simply cannot win no matter how many feats, magic items, or abilities a character has.

That said... it's probably best to just come up with a story with the player. DMs need not surprise the players -- A group story is always way better than some plot.


Add things into the game that the players aren't expecting. The planes are especially devisable with this method. Not everything must come from a book. Just make something up.