3.5e interacting with 1e?

[Jazath]

SO...lately Borg has been doing research on an entirely new reality.
A reality that is based on 1e stats and principles.
My question is this, can we interact with this strange black and white reality? It's so strange, all monsters and stats come straight from 1e products. Their knowledge and technology is primitive. As with their arcane knowledge. Jazath observes, however, they could be good for further study. So we have been sending large probes into their universe, only to lose contact with them a few minutes later. When we retrieve them our metal alloy is transformed into adamantine. The drones come back as undead zombies wearing armor.

I'm puzzled, and right now I'm using divination magics to *see* what in baator is going on!
The DM is keeping silent, saying that all my efforts yield little to nothing.
But as a player I'm screaming, does anyone have an idea if I could interact with them? Not trying to metagame here but i'm asking this as a Player.....Do you have an idea what's going on???

[Learn34]

I don't think there's a way to address this non-meta, because it sounds like your DM is just doing a reality-shift to anything you send. This new realm isn't a part of the 3.X cosmology/Ruleset. If you think of the the 3.X rules-set as akin to the Laws of Physics, then this new realm is effectively a different multi-verse with fundamentally different Laws of Physics.

Anything you send has to get translated to the new multiverse's Laws of Physics(rules-set), and simply ceases to exist if there's no closest-approximation. So the 1e/2e multiverse doesn't have a closest approximation to the probes you're sending, and the closest approximation to your drones (in you DMs opinion) are Undead soldiers. Same goes for your uber-material getting converted to adamantine.

Anything you send through will have to be designed from the get-go with that 3.X-to-1e/2e closest approximation in mind (which notably eliminates most of your epic-level advantages, AFAIK there's no real corollary to 3.X Epic levels in 1e/2e)

[Khatoblepas]

I think jazreth will have to investigate this personally, as they're not a drone and won't be turned into a non communicating zombie. I'm sure you're capable of casting Body Outside Body and send in a duplicate to see what would happen to you. Try and find a communication spell that exists both in 3.5 and 1e, and have your duplicate walk on through.

Perhaps a planar bubble could protect you from the effects of walking into first edition. I doubt you'd be able to touch anything though, as AC in 1e counts down and with your massive to hit bonuses you'll never be able thac0.

[Beni-Kujaku]

SO...lately Borg has been doing research on an entirely new reality.
A reality that is based on 1e stats and principles.
My question is this, can we interact with this strange black and white reality? It's so strange, all monsters and stats come straight from 1e products. Their knowledge and technology is primitive. As with their arcane knowledge. Jazath observes, however, they could be good for further study. So we have been sending large probes into their universe, only to lose contact with them a few minutes later. When we retrieve them our metal alloy is transformed into adamantine. The drones come back as undead zombies wearing armor.

I'm puzzled, and right now I'm using divination magics to *see* what in baator is going on!
The DM is keeping silent, saying that all my efforts yield little to nothing.
But as a player I'm screaming, does anyone have an idea if I could interact with them? Not trying to metagame here but i'm asking this as a Player.....Do you have an idea what's going on???

In this case, you should start by looking at what doesn't change. For example, the more mundane metals of your probe should not have changed. If you could build a probe out of iron, stone and wood, you might be able to get intel. Likewise, Borg should know how to control these undeads, or have a cleric nearby. If you can control the undeads to make them mime what they see in the other universe, you might get the informations you need. Depending on your alignment, you might send classed characters to see how they are affected. They might even keep their memories and be able to discuss with locals. In the end, the first phase of what you should do is sending an instance of every material, living being and spell that you can reasonably afford to lose in there, and see how everything changes. Then check if something that has already changed is immune to changing again. If it is, then try to create something that will give you the information you need out of already changed material. If it can change again, try to find a material that changes little enough to still be functional and build your probe out of it.

[Beni-Kujaku]

I think jazreth will have to investigate this personally, as they're not a drone and won't be turned into a non communicating zombie. I'm sure you're capable of casting Body Outside Body and send in a duplicate to see what would happen to you. Try and find a communication spell that exists both in 3.5 and 1e, and have your duplicate walk on through.

Perhaps a planar bubble could protect you from the effects of walking into first edition. I doubt you'd be able to touch anything though, as AC in 1e counts down and with your massive to hit bonuses you'll never be able thac0.

I... really don't think that's a good idea. If drones (constructs) can change into undead, that means things can change type and subtype. Without further testing of the effect of 1e on spells and living beings, you might get turned into something not able to come back and speak what it saw.

(Meta-gaming: every non-human character was a class of its own in 1e, you were an "Elf level 6". So if you are a non-human PC, if you are lucky, you lose all your class levels and turn into something akin to a duskblade (elf levels). If you are unlucky all your class levels become Racial Hit Dice. And if you have a somehow exotic race (that wasn't playable then), you might lose all class levels and become an NPC (difficult to say what that could entail, but nothing good). Losing all class levels may be considered the same as losing your memory, which could make difficult to even go back. And about Planar Bubble and Body outside Body, those spells didn't exist in 1e, so they might get Disjunctioned as soon as you enter the other dimension. After much experimentation, though, he might find that Magic Jar works pretty well in the other world (even better, in fact), and might use it to have his soul go in one of his undeads to explore the other world.)

[Quertus]

As we never really finished our IC conversation, Quertus, my signature academia mage for whom this account is named, will offer you the advice to *not* personally travel to such a reality, noting that any changes made by the realm seem *not* to revert back upon return to your own.

Beyond that? Kudos to your GM for giving you such an interesting puzzle. Let us know what you come up with.

[Particle_Man]

When we retrieve them our metal alloy is transformed into adamantine. The drones come back as undead zombies wearing armor.

Why not send in undead zombies wearing adamantine armour (the armour is expensive, but zombies are cheap!) and see what they come back as (or if they come back unchanged)? If that works, maybe send in more intelligent undead in adamantine armour if you want some reports about 1e other than "brains . . ."

[Jazath]

I... really don't think that's a good idea. If drones (constructs) can change into undead, that means things can change type and subtype. Without further testing of the effect of 1e on spells and living beings, you might get turned into something not able to come back and speak what it saw.

(Meta-gaming: every non-human character was a class of its own in 1e, you were an "Elf level 6". So if you are a non-human PC, if you are lucky, you lose all your class levels and turn into something akin to a duskblade (elf levels). If you are unlucky all your class levels become Racial Hit Dice. And if you have a somehow exotic race (that wasn't playable then), you might lose all class levels and become an NPC (difficult to say what that could entail, but nothing good). Losing all class levels may be considered the same as losing your memory, which could make difficult to even go back. And about Planar Bubble and Body outside Body, those spells didn't exist in 1e, so they might get Disjunctioned as soon as you enter the other dimension. After much experimentation, though, he might find that Magic Jar works pretty well in the other world (even better, in fact), and might use it to have his soul go in one of his undeads to explore the other world.)

.....Agh...I'm a Phane......
A Time Elemental NPC?
And do phanes have a SOUL in question? I'm a form of divinity....I think we have a soul...

he might find that Magic Jar works pretty well in the other world (even better, in fact), and might use it to have his soul go in one of his undeads to explore the other world

.
I should note Lord Azalin did something similar in ravenloft....

Why not send in undead zombies wearing adamantine armour (the armour is expensive, but zombies are cheap!) and see what they come back as (or if they come back unchanged)? If that works, maybe send in more intelligent undead in adamantine armour if you want some reports about 1e other than "brains . . ."

We have replicator technology and a list of a large amounts of resources in magic, psionics and technology. A level 700+ phane should have no difficulties.
"Undead" and "Intellegnce" are irrelevant. We would not utilize beings who had free will to scout and talk with locals. We would prefer a Hive Mind to efficiently control our people.

In this case, you should start by looking at what doesn't change. For example, the more mundane metals of your probe should not have changed. If you could build a probe out of iron, stone and wood, you might be able to get Intel. Likewise, Borg should know how to control these undeads, or have a cleric nearby. If you can control the undeads to make them mime what they see in the other universe, you might get the informations you need. Depending on your alignment, you might send classed characters to see how they are affected. They might even keep their memories and be able to discuss with locals. In the end, the first phase of what you should do is sending an instance of every material, living being and spell that you can reasonably afford to lose in there, and see how everything changes. Then check if something that has already changed is immune to changing again. If it is, then try to create something that will give you the information you need out of already changed material. If it can change again, try to find a material that changes little enough to still be functional and build your probe out of it.

After a while my character will realize these things, then I think we should construct a spelljamming ship. Create a elder brain to control it. Conjure mindlayer (A Hive Mind-like creatures with the brain) Give them powerful magic Items and directives from the Borg and send them on there way to gather info, we create humans and elves who serve Borg.
We then those Mindflayers, humans and elves gather materials from that universe through much exploration, build materials out of THEIR universe and use their own reality to create a Borg-like species. Utilize the resources already present in that Verse. Once we obtain enough power we search for something that would aid in the recreation of their laws of physics..

As we never really finished our IC conversation, Quertus, my signature academia mage for whom this account is named, will offer you the advice to *not* personally travel to such a reality, noting that any changes made by the realm seem *not* to revert back upon return to your own.

Beyond that? Kudos to your GM for giving you such an interesting puzzle. Let us know what you come up with.

Agreed.

I'll let you know the decisions of the Collective.

[Crake]

This sounds like it's based on what was happening in wandavision. Anything you send through that doesn't fit in a 1e world is simply transformed into something setting appropriate. As for what is causing that, probably the overdeity of that crystal sphere, depending on which one you're looking into. Sounds like you need to play along and see how things go.

[Jazath]

This sounds like it's based on what was happening in wandavision. Anything you send through that doesn't fit in a 1e world is simply transformed into something setting appropriate. As for what is causing that, probably the overdeity of that crystal sphere, depending on which one you're looking into. Sounds like you need to play along and see how things go.

in our universe, things are not divided by crystal spheres.
They are divided in galaxies and such.
So the recent discovery of these spheres intrigue the Borg. We are currently exploring the same multiverse of the forgotten realms setting. Which contains the Weave and crystal spheres.
We're not sure if it's in a crystal sphere in this 1e campaign.
If we could find away to coexist in this reality we could come to dominate it (And help further improve the quality of lives for others.). It could be ALL of the spheres in this multiverse are based on the same principle as 1st edition.

Also, it may sound like it was inspired. But I don't think our DM got his idea from that show. He never cared for superhero movies. More like a history channel and sci-fi guy."

[Endless Rain]

Why are you talking in-character?

[Beni-Kujaku]

Why are you talking in-character?

Why not? Is this a roleplaying forum or what? Stop oppressing his culture you ethnocentric wyrm!

[Jazath]

Why not? Is this a roleplaying forum or what? Stop oppressing his culture you ethnocentric wyrm!

Agreed.

On that note my character figured it out, we started going into the edition and experimenting with their resources. We discovered that we can build scientifically advanced objects and constructs in their universe. It's just a little bit different and needs to start from the bottom up. We created nanocolonies in this universe and began building a separate Borg hive mind. We spent a few weeks constructing the stations for cube production using magic and psionics from assimilated creatures. Together we're building a future in this realm. Once more bringing perfection to this imperfect and primitive realm.

So....we did it.
We're hoping to manifest the first Borg Cube, and spheres