No Astral Plane?

[dobu]

in my new campaign, some guy is sucking up all of the astral plane to open up a portal straight to nessus.

I want all the affects of the astral plane to fail somehow. so no teleport, no summoning and so on. If someone attempts to cast a spell like this, i've worked out some mishap tables, depending on the time and the strength of the chaos on the astral plane (think about whirlpools while it gets sucked on the material plane)
what else wouldn't work?

Spoiler

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(I):
Conjuration (calling, summoning, and teleportation) and divination spells and similar spell-like abilities are impeded, meaning that a caster must roll on the mishap table(for conjuration spells), or make a casterlevel check (DC15+ spell level). In addition, spells that forcibly return creatures to their native plane, such as banishment and dismissal, automatically fail.

[01] Trapped on Astral Plane. Summon Monster + Caster on Astral Plane.
[02] Off target (10%)
[03] Spell delayed. 1d3 rounds on Astral Plane.
[04] Spell Fizzles.
[05] Spell Fizzles, but stays in Memory
[06] Works normally
[07] Works normally
[08] Works normally
[09] Works normally
[10] Works normally
[11] Works normally
[12] Works normally
[13] Works normally
[14] Works normally
[15] Works normally
[16] Works normally
[17] Works normally
[18] Works normally
[19] Spell takes a free action to cast
[20] Spell cast, but stays in memory, or Twinned.

(II):
As (I), but in addition, summoned creatures no longer return to their native planes. When a summoning spell’s duration expires, the summoned creature is no longer under the caster’s control. Divine spellcasters have difficulty drawing on the Positive Energy and Negative Energy planes, and they cannot communicate easily with their deities. Divine spells are cast at –1 caster level, and turn or rebuke attempts take a -5 penalty on the check
and damage rolls.

[01] Caster ages 1d100 years.
[02] Trapped on Astral Plane. Summon Monster + Caster on Astral Plane.
[03] Spell partially works. Part of target stays on Astral Plane (or equipment).
[04] Two-Way Portal opens for 1d4 rounds.
[05] Benign Transposition (Save, random target)
[06] Dimensional Anchor (on caster)
[07] Dimensional lock (centered on caster)
[08] Off target (10%)
[09] A Celestial Monkey appears next to the caster
[10] Summon monster II (free willed)
[11] No effect
[12] Works normally
[13] Works normally
[14] Works normally
[15] Works normally
[16] Works normally
[17] Works normally
[18] Works normally
[19] Works normally
[20] Spell takes a free action to cast

(III):
As (II), but the casterlevel check increases to 20 + spell level and in addition the connection with the Astral and the Outer Planes grows more tenuous. Divine spells are cast at –2 caster level, and turn or rebuke attempts take a –10 penalty on the check and damage rolls. The souls of the dead are hindered to leave the material plane.

[01] Caster ages 2d100 years.
[02] Trapped on Astral Plane. Summon Monster + Caster on Astral Plane.
[03] Spell partially works. Part of target stays on Astral Plane (or equipment).
[04] Two-Way Portal opens for 1d4 rounds.
[05] Benign Transposition (save, random target)
[06] Benign Transposition (no save, random target)
[07] Spell delayed for 1d4 rounds
[08] Spell delayed for 1d4 minutes
[09] A Celestial Monkey appears next to the caster
[10] 5d6 Damage on Caster and Targets
[11] 5d6 Damage on Caster and Targets
[12] Dimensional Anchor (on caster)
[13] Dimensional Lock (centered on caster)
[14] Summon Monster II (free willed, stays on plane)
[15] No Effect
[16] Works normally
[17] Works normally
[18] Works normally
[19] Works normally
[20] Works normally

(IV):
As (III), but in addition every soul is trapped on the material plane

[01] Caster ages 2d100 years.
[02] Trapped on Astral Plane. Summon Monster + Caster on Astral Plane.
[03] Spell partially works. Part of target stays on Astral Plane (or equipment).
[04] Two-Way Portal opens for 1d4 rounds.
[05] Two-Way Portal opens for 1d4 minutes.
[06] Spell delayed for 1d4 rounds
[07] Spell delayed for 1d4 minutes
[08] Spell delayed for 1d4 hours
[09] A Celestial Monkey appears next to the caster
[10] 5d6 Damage on Caster and Targets
[11] 5d6 Damage on Caster and Targets
[12] Dimensional Anchor (on caster)
[13] Dimensional Lock (centered on caster)
[14] Summon Monster II (free willed, stays on plane)
[15] Summon Monster III (free willed, stays on plane)
[16] Benign Transposition (no save, random target)
[17] Benign Transposition (no save, random target)
[18] No effect
[19] Works normally
[20] Works normally

(V):
All conjuration (calling, summoning, and teleportation) effects cease to function. Divination effects that contact extraplanar beings (such as commune and contact other plane) are likewise foiled. Divine spellcasters attempting to replenish their spells for the day incur a 20% chance per spell of not gaining the spell or spell slot. Divine spells are cast at –4 caster level, and turn or rebuke attempts take a –20 penalty on the check and damage rolls.

all of the stuff floating around on the astral plane gets sucked on the material plane as well. This means meteor showers of the bodies of dead gods and a massive githyanki incursion.
What else lingers on the astral plane and may come to the material plane?

The only ways to planar travel will be the shadow plane and the infinite staircase. Did I forget something?

Thanks for help :-)

[Eldan]

One other large effect would be extradimensional spaces: no rope tricks, no bags of holding, no handy haversacks, no mage's chest.


For other astral critters, converted from AD&D planescape into the OGL, go to Planewalker and check out their book on monsters of the transitive planes. I especially like the various forms of corporeal thoughts.

[The Cat Goddess]

The Ethereal Plane connects the Prime to the Positive, Negative & Elemental planes.

Thus, summoning Elementals should be unaffected (for example).

In the old rules, Divine (Cleric, not Druid) spells of levels 1-4 were granted entirely based on Faith... so lack of connection to the deity wasn't required.

Further, since Turning/Bolstering/Rebuking is entirely based on channeling Positive/Negative energy, it should be unaffected as well (see above).

Clerics who follow an ideal instead of a deity would likely not be nearly as badly affected... same with most Druids.

Ur-Priests (one of the favorite PrCs around here, apparently) would be affected just as much as regular Clerics... if not more-so, since the deities would be focusing more on attempting to maintain contact with thier followers and more likely to notice what an Ur-Priest does.

[dobu]

well. this campaign will take place in the forgotten realms (with wheel cosmology though). so druids get their spells from deities as well and clerics of an ideal are out.

i've recently read the avatar trilogy. clerics don't get spells at all, while the gods are on faerûn, so I think, I'll let this affect all spells.

True, the ethereal plane connects the positive/negative/elemental planes to the material plane, but the caster would have to relearn everything to get it over the ethereal plane. normally it works via astral plane, doesn't it?

What do you think about the mishap tables?

thanks for pointing out extradimensional spaces! This could get messy when all my groups stuff is sucked to the material plane :D

[Eldan]

It depends on which cosmology you use:

AD&D Planescape/Great Wheel said that the Astral only connects the Prime to the Outer Planes, while the ethereal connects the Prime to the Inner planes. So no, the Astral wouldn't grant elemental spells here.

In 3.X, they changed that, here, the Astral connects everywhere, so it's also possible to use it to connect the elemental planes to the material.

[dobu]

ah! never knew they changed that from AD&D to 3.X.

I guess i'll go with the 'astral plane goes everywhere and is used for extraplanar transportation of any kind, except [shadow] stuff' version. It would be too much work for me as a DM otherwise. If my player's are creative they might relearn some of the mentioned stuff to use the ethereal plane (or the plane of shadow).

[Yuki Akuma]

The Plane of Shadow doesn't connect to anything other than the Material, so any spells they learn to 'fake' using the Plane of Shadow would be illusory half-real duplicates.

Which is pretty cool actually.

[dobu]

hehe. I was being inaccurate. :D

I meant Dimension Door and Teleport for getting duplicated by shadow spells/abilities (so all of the non planar traveling, but still using the astral plane abilities).

shadow plane shift would be... interesting, ye ^^

[awa]

Be careful with the instant aging particularly if the pcs don't know it can happen an elf or a dwarf might be able to suck up a hundred years with minor difficulty but if the half orc gets hit by that hes dead worse then if someone stabbed him to death. If he knows it could happen and more or less the odds of it happening that's one thing but if he blind sides him that's never fun and fun is the whole point of the game.