Escaping a Dead Magic Plane and similar

[Crake]

If you have acess to Invoke Magic my favorite method is targetting yourself with Shadow Well from Spell Compendium, it is a 4th level Illusion that transports one creature to a pocket realm in the Plane of Shadow for 1 round/level, it specifically allows scape within the duration with Plane Shift or similar.

Is there not a clause somewhere stating that spells and effects that interact with the plane of shadow or the ethereal plane only function on the material plane, since those planes are all coexistent? You cannot, for example, ethereal jaunt or shadow walk while on the outer planes?

Fake Edit: Ah, here it is, page 151 of the DMG: "The Outer Planes are coexistent with the Astral Plane. They are separate from the Ethereal Plane and the Plane of Shadow, so certain spells (ethereal jaunt, for example) aren’t available to a caster on the Outer Planes."

So it would depend on where this dead magic plane is located in the cosmology, shadow well may not be usable.

[Jowgen]

Is there not a clause somewhere stating that spells and effects that interact with the plane of shadow or the ethereal plane only function on the material plane, since those planes are all coexistent? You cannot, for example, ethereal jaunt or shadow walk while on the outer planes?

Fake Edit: Ah, here it is, page 151 of the DMG: "The Outer Planes are coexistent with the Astral Plane. They are separate from the Ethereal Plane and the Plane of Shadow, so certain spells (ethereal jaunt, for example) aren’t available to a caster on the Outer Planes."

So it would depend on where this dead magic plane is located in the cosmology, shadow well may not be usable.

MotP expands upon this, giving a list of "Planar Spells" on p. 32 and more specifically a list of spells that don't work if there's no plane of shadow on p. 62.

Shadow Well is not on that list, and since MotP was published September 2001 while Shadow Well first appeared in Magic of Faerun in August 2001, it not being mentioned could be seen as a RAW argument that the spell thus not falls under this rule.

On a more practical/serious note, the spirit of the rule is to address issues with spells like Blink, Ethreal Jaunt and Shadow walk; i.e. spells that rely on you being on a coterminous plane to the one in question to adjucate tactical and strategic distance. Shadow Well does not fit that bill, and there's a bunch of other stuff that makes it unlikely that it should be contrained by this.

First, rather than using the shadow proper, it creates a "gateway" to a "pocket realm" that happens to be nestled in the shadow much like a lot of demiplanes are nestled in the ethreal. So a) if "pocket realm" is to be taken interchangeable to Demiplane (supported by teleport not being a valid escape option), it is technically not the plane of shadow, and b) the Spell creates an actual "gateway" to the plane, which is something that magic can do regardless of coterminous/coexistent-ness.

[Crake]

MotP expands upon this, giving a list of "Planar Spells" on p. 32 and more specifically a list of spells that don't work if there's no plane of shadow on p. 62.

Shadow Well is not on that list, and since MotP was published September 2001 while Shadow Well first appeared in Magic of Faerun in August 2001, it not being mentioned could be seen as a RAW argument that the spell thus not falls under this rule.

On a more practical/serious note, the spirit of the rule is to address issues with spells like Blink, Ethreal Jaunt and Shadow walk; i.e. spells that rely on you being on a coterminous plane to the one in question to adjucate tactical and strategic distance. Shadow Well does not fit that bill, and there's a bunch of other stuff that makes it unlikely that it should be contrained by this.

First, rather than using the shadow proper, it creates a "gateway" to a "pocket realm" that happens to be nestled in the shadow much like a lot of demiplanes are nestled in the ethreal. So a) if "pocket realm" is to be taken interchangeable to Demiplane (supported by teleport not being a valid escape option), it is technically not the plane of shadow, and b) the Spell creates an actual "gateway" to the plane, which is something that magic can do regardless of coterminous/coexistent-ness.

Hmm, I can see that as a fair argument.