Manual of the Planes

CHAPTER 5:THE TRANSITIVEPLANES50(down is beyond your feet, and up is above your head).Unlike normal flying, climbs and dives on the AstralPlane don’t change a character’s speed, and there’s nominimum speed to avoid a stall.An astral character may double move, but his maneuverabilitydrops to average. An astral character may moveat four times his speed (effectively running), but maneuverabilitydrops to clumsy.Individuals with an Intelligence of 0 or without a listedIntelligence score (golems, for example) can move veryslowly, and then only by pushing off other solid objects.Their maximum speed is 10 feet, and they cannot doublemove or run. If they are somehow grounded by localizedgravity and able to walk, they move normally.Distances are deceptive on the Astral Plane, and mapsare almost completely useless in the hazy expanse. Thetime it takes an individual or a group of individuals toreach a particular part of the Astral Plane depends onhow familiar the travelers are with that area.FamiliarityVery familiarStudied carefullySeen casuallyViewed onceDescription onlyTravel Time2d6 hours1d4×6 hours1d4×10 hours1d6×20 hours1d10×50 hours“Very familiar” describes a place the traveler has been tovery often and feels at home with. “Studied carefully” is awell-known place from regular visits, including most colorpools the traveler has used before. “Seen casually” is a placeknown from occasional visits, including a color pool of aparticular type but not a specific color pool (any color poolto Ysgard as opposed to a specific color pool to Ysgard, forOPTION: A CHANNELED ASTRAL PLANEIn the D&D cosmology, the Astral Plane connects with all otherplanes. It’s easy to imagine a channeled Astral Plane with onlyparticular color pools available when a traveler arrives.Travelers select a particular destination plane when theyenter a channeled Astral Plane, either physically (the planeshift spell) or in astral form (the astral projection spell). If atraveler doesn’t choose a destination plane, then the journeythrough the astral haze reveals no color pools no matter howthorough the search.Once in the Astral Plane, a traveler is able to see and useonly color pools and portals of either the destination plane shechose or her origin plane. If she comes from the Material Planeand seeks an entrance to Celestia, then those are the only colorpools she’ll see. A color pool to the Nine Hells will be invisibleto her, and the traveler cannot access it in any event (the portalrebuffs her).Though invisible and locked, the other color pools are present,and creatures may come out of them. Like the characters,these interlopers can also see only color pools leading to theirplane of origin and their destination plane.example). “Viewed once” is for a place seen one time only,or a place that has been seen only by magic. “Descriptiononly” can be verbal or written, although a map to the locationwould be useless on a plane so devoid of landmarks.Travelers on the Astral Plane suffer no movementpenalty for armor or weight, but they can carry no morethan a heavy load while moving.Movement through the Astral Plane is silent.Astral CombatThe Astral Plane has no gravity, so attackers may approachfrom all sides. (See the Combat in Three Dimensions sidebarin Chapter 1.)And without gravity or anything else to affect it, anarrow can effectively fly forever. The penalty for eachrange increment beyond the first is –1 instead of –2.There is no maximum range, except the limit of theattacker’s vision.The Astral Plane has the timeless trait with respect tosuch things as poison and disease, so a poisoned wizardon the Astral Plane would be unaffected until she movesto another plane. A traveler in astral form would not beaffected at all, because damage taken by the astral formisn’t transferred back to the original body on anotherplane. The Astral Plane is also timeless with regard to naturalhealing, so only magical healing works.Travelers on the Astral Plane suffer no penalties tospeed for armor or encumbrance. Armor check penaltiesand arcane spell failure chances still apply, however.FEATURES OF THE ASTRAL PLANEWhile mostly empty, the Astral Plane has some featuresof interest to the planar traveler.pqqqqrsOPTION: WITHOUT THE ASTRALThe Astral Plane is a vital piece of most planar arrangementsbecause it makes movement across these vast distances possible.However, you may wish to exclude the Astral Plane from acosmology you create. Doing so has the following effects:• The following spells don’t work in a cosmology without anAstral Plane: astral projection, interplanar message,* andsummon monster (I–IX).• The following spells have elements that do not function in acosmology without an Astral Plane: dimensional anchor andzone of respite.* (Otherwise, these spells work normally.)• The following spells can still work, but you will have to determineexactly how they function without an Astral Plane:dimension door, teleport, teleportation circle, teleport withouterror, and vanish.• Passage between non-Transitive Planes is still possible, butthese planes must be coterminous or coexistent. The destinationplane must connect with the plane of origin for travelto occur. Access to other planes is thus limited to specificlocations on the Material Plane. There is no Astral Plane forconduits from portals to weave through.pqqqqrs