Manual of the Planes

Plane drift through the miasma: bits of forest, meadow,ruined castles, and small islands.Limbo is inhabited by living natives. Most prominentof these are the githzerai and the slaadi. In Limbo, mostpetitioners take the form of unthinking, ghostly spheresof swirling chaos.Limbo has no layers. Or if it does, the layers continuallymerge and part, each is as chaotic as the next, and eventhe wisest sages would be hard-pressed to distinguish onefrom another.LIMBO TRAITSLimbo has the following traits.• Subjective Directional Gravity: The strength of gravityis the same as on the Material Plane, but individualschoose in which direction it pulls. Limbo has no gravityfor unattended objects, but worn, held, or carriedobjects share the subjective gravity of their owner. Thiscan be very disorienting to the newcomer.• Normal Time.• Infinite Size: Limbo goes on forever, though it hasfinite components (including big chunks of stabilizedearth and githzerai monasteries and cities).• Highly Morphic: Limbo is continually changing, andkeeping a particular area stable is difficult. A givenarea, unless magically stabilized somehow, can react tospecific spells, sentient thought, or the force of will.Left alone, it continually changes. For more informationon stabilization, see Controlling Limbo, below.• Sporadic Element-Dominant: No one element constantlydominates Limbo. Each element (Earth, Water,Air, or Fire) is dominant from time to time, so anygiven area is a chaotic, dangerous boil. The elementaldominance can change without warning.• No Energy-Dominant Traits.• Strongly Chaos-Aligned: Nonchaotic characterssuffer a –2 penalty on all Charisma-, Wisdom-, andIntelligence-based checks. However, the stronglychaos-aligned trait disappears within the walls of githzeraimonasteries (but not githzerai cities).• Wild Magic: Spells and spell-like abilities in Limbofunction in wildly different ways. They function normallywithin permanent structures or on permanentlystabilized landscapes in Limbo.But any spell or spell-like ability used in anuntended area of Limbo, or an area temporarily controlled,has a chance to go awry. The spellcaster mustmake a level check (1d20 + spellcaster level) against aDC of 15 + the level of the attempted spell. If the casterfails the check, roll on Table 1–1: Wild Magic Effects.LIMBO LINKSPermanent portals exist between various planes andLimbo. However, a huge ball of fire, a pile of boulders, ora terrible windstorm could surround the Limbo side ofthe portal. Thus, entering Limbo can be quite dangerousfor visitors unprepared to deal with the plane of chaos.CONTROLLING LIMBOThere are three kinds of terrain in Limbo: uncontrolledraw areas, controlled areas, and stabilized areas. Raw areasmake up most of the plane, while the controlled areas(also called tended areas) and stabilized areas are tinyislands in comparison.Raw Limbo: Uncontrolled areas of Limbo are dangerous,but most sentient creatures can exert a localizedcalming influence (see Controlled Limbo, below). Butsometimes there’s no control, such as when a visitor firstenters Limbo or when a traveler is knocked unconscious.When no one’s trying to control a given area of Limbo, itexhibits the qualities noted on the table below. For thepurposes of this table, an area is everything within a 25-foot-radius sphere, though areas can drift and movearound randomly. For a given area, roll on the table onceevery 1d10 minutes.Table 7–1: Uncontrolled Limbod% Effect01–10 Air-dominant11–20 Earth-dominant21–30 Fire-dominant31–40 Water-dominant41–50 Mixed dominant: Air and earth51–60 Mixed dominant: Fire and earth61–70 Mixed dominant: Water and earth71–80 Mixed dominant: Water and air81–90 Mixed dominant: Air and fire91–100 Balance (as if air-dominant)Element-Dominant: The indicated type of element surges inthe given area. The previous dominant element is wiped awayin the first round, and the effects of the new dominant elementcome into play immediately. For the effects of the elementdominanttrait, see Elemental and Energy Traits in Chapter 2.Limbo’s subjective gravity trait overrides elemental gravitytraits that conflict with it.Mixed Dominance: Two elements mix together, creating ahybrid effect. All effects of both element-dominant traitssimultaneously affect the area. In addition to the traiteffects, the region develops a chaotic mix of both elements.For example, where earth and fire mix, a boiling ball ofmagma results.Balance: The elemental forces come into exact balance, andtranquility results (for 1d10 minutes). Treat a balanced area asair-dominant, because that trait has no dramatic effects.Controlled Limbo: Controlling a raw area of Limbo isan exercise of the mind. A Wisdom check (DC 16) establishescontrol within part of a raw area of Limbo, and thecheck can be repeated once per round as a free action. Atraveler who has failed checks twice in a row gains a +6circumstance bonus on subsequent checks. If entering anarea of raw Limbo from a controlled or stabilized area, acharacter can make a control check just prior to steppinginto the boil.If the Wisdom check succeeds, the creature has establishedcontrol over part of the area and can reshape it asshe desires, allowing a desired element or a mixture ofelements to become dominant. A favorite among travelersfrom the Material Plane is a chunk of earth surroundedby a small atmosphere of air.CHAPTER 7:THE OUTERPLANES93