Ethereal, shadow, dreaming, etc

[Shinoskay]

Are there any low level ways to shift (even temorarily) between the overlapping planes to and from the material plane?

[Tzardok]

Anybody enters Dream automatically while asleep, and if you have the Lucid Dreaming skill you can notice that and actually travel it.:smalltongue:

The lowest level spell that can physically transport you to Dream is, as far as I know, Dream Walk, a 4th level Planeshift variant. It can only be learned by those who have the Improved Oneiromancy feat.

The lowest ability that allows you to enter Shadow is, as far as I know, Pass into Shadow, a 5th level shadowcaster mystery (also a Planeshift variant). (This isn't actually lower than using a cleric's Planeshift.)

The lowest ability that sends you to Ether is Swift Etherealness, a 5th level spell which sends the target as a Swift Action for 1 round to Ether. Again, if you have a cleric, just use Planeshift.

The lowest ability that allows you to enter the Astral is the 3rd level psionic power Astral Caravan. It is only available to nomads and requires the participants to benefit from the 1st level psionic power Astral Traveler (which does nothing besides allowing you to be a member of an astral caravan.)

I don't remember any specialized "low-level" spells for entering Faerie, Mirror or the Spirit World. (Mirror does in fact have the Mirror Walking spell, which is like Planeshift 5th level for clerics and 7th level for wizards/sorcerers. On the other hand, you can't planeshift into Mirror.)

In all cases, you may have an easier time finding a natural portal or a native willing to take you there. Xill for example are just CR 6 and able to switch between Material and Ethereal nearly at will.

[Fero]

I agree with the above list with the addition of Shadowfade (5/Illus/SC) as another 5th level spell to get you to the Shadow.

The Jaunter PrC gets planeshift as an SLA as early as character level 5 or 6.

Also, for the Astral, you could try casting Rope Trick while inside the extradimensional space created by a Rope Trick. On a similar note, the 3.0 1st lvl Familiar Pocket (T&B) could create Astral rifts but the 3.5 (SC) version likely nerfed that feature.

As a final note, you can die. Per the Ghostwalk rules the dead souls of humanoids appear in the Ethereal to be carried by Ethereal Planes to the appropriate outer plane. Some souls fight against those winds and become ghosts.

[Chronos]

Blink is only 3rd level, and will also get you to the ethereal plane.

[Tzardok]

As a final note, you can die. Per the Ghostwalk rules the dead souls of humanoids appear in the Ethereal to be carried by Ethereal Planes to the appropriate outer plane. Some souls fight against those winds and become ghosts.

That's only in the Ghostwalk setting. In the Great Wheel, souls are drawn through the Astral (according to, for example, Complete Divine). Ghosts (as in, the undead ghosts from the Monster Manual) are the result of refusing to let go from the Material, as something keeps them from moving on. The outsider typed ghosts from Ghostwalk, on the other hand, are the default of the setting. They appear in the Ethereal besides their corpse and then need to physically walk to the gate to the afterlife (which apparantly is not related to the Outer Planes).

[Shinoskay]

What about ways to get from shadow, etheral, etc.... to the material plane? I get blink and plane shift.

[Tzardok]

Most of the abilities I listed should also work into the other direction. Dream Walk and Pass into Shadow explicitely do. Leaving Mirror is easy; just step through a mirror. Both the Astral and the Ethereal have a large number of natural portals that allow you to leave (not all of them are two-way).

[Fero]

Most of the abilities I listed should also work into the other direction. Dream Walk and Pass into Shadow explicitely do. Leaving Mirror is easy; just step through a mirror. Both the Astral and the Ethereal have a large number of natural portals that allow you to leave (not all of them are two-way).

Can you use Dream Walk to travel through dreams across the Prime or to other Planes? I always get confused as to the lines between the MoP and HoH dream dimensions.

[Ramza00]

Are there any low level ways to shift (even temorarily) between the overlapping planes to and from the material plane?
Permeable Form makes you incorporeal for 1 round as an immediate action. It is 3rd level and you can use a rod of extend lesser for 3k gp if you need 12 seconds instead of 6.

Thus you can flicker and have a 50% chance of missing an attack, but also can go through walls, fly, etc.


Blink is also 3rd level and is standard action cast with a longer duration, becoming ethereal some of the round and material other parts of the round. If I recall there were advanced rules with the 5th level of Blink, Greater where you can do slightly more with blink if you ready an action thus getting a 100% miss chance.

[Doctor Despair]

Shadow Well is a 4th level sorc/wiz/spell thief spell that gets you into the plane of shadow temporarily.

[Tzardok]

Can you use Dream Walk to travel through dreams across the Prime or to other Planes?
Dream Walk is essentially just Planeshift, except to Dream and back. The RAW doesn't say that you can use it to go to a different plane than you started on, but I as a GM would certainly allow it.


I always get confused as to the lines between the MoP and HoH dream dimensions.

I think there aren't any. Or better, HoH focuses on how adventures can involve dreams and dreamscapes and what weirdness (and horror, of course) you could encounter there, but it is practically silent on the mechanics and the cosmological place of dreamscapes and nightmare realms. And what it has to say about those doesn't really contradict MotP's a lot more technical description of the Region of Dream as a plane in the cosmology.
So in short, HoH and MotP don't contradict each other, but HoH is for cosmological discussions like this one pretty worthless.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Using the Transdimensional Power feat (CPsi) on the dimension swap (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/dimensionSwap.htm) power (XPH) allows you to swap with someone else on any of those planes as early as level 3. Since teleportation effects and AoE effects generally allow you to "target" a space or a vertex thereof (despite not having an actual Target line), and Transdimensional Power allows for AoEs without Targets, you might be able to use other teleportation powers to go there directly, without an intermediary creature to swap with, then the dimension hop power (CPsi) would allow it at level 1, although it's self- (and psicrystal-) only.

[Fero]

Using the Transdimensional Power feat (CPsi) on the dimension swap (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/dimensionSwap.htm) power (XPH) allows you to swap with someone else on any of those planes as early as level 3. Since teleportation effects and AoE effects generally allow you to "target" a space or a vertex thereof (despite not having an actual Target line), and Transdimensional Power allows for AoEs without Targets, you might be able to use other teleportation powers to go there directly, without an intermediary creature to swap with, then the dimension hop power (CPsi) would allow it at level 1, although it's self- (and psicrystal-) only.

That is brilliant. By the same logic, you could use Transdimensional Spell to target an Ethereal/Shadow creature with Benign Transposition, right?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

That is brilliant. By the same logic, you could use Transdimensional Spell to target an Ethereal/Shadow creature with Benign Transposition, right?Yep, although unlike Transdimensional Power, the Transdimensional Spell feat increases the slot level by +1, meaning the earliest you could do it (without using a cantrip or cost reducers) is level 3.

Are there any teleportation cantrips?

[Gorthawar]

A crinti shadow marauder can use shadow walk at level 3 (ECL8).

[Shinoskay]

A crinti shadow marauder can use shadow walk at level 3 (ECL8).

ECL 8 is basically level 12 that everyone likes to pretend is level 3 XD
In my opinion anyways.

Very well designed teleportation trick though, certainly something I'm going to have to consider.