Planar Wizardry

For today, it’s a look at some old-fashioned spells. There are several tradeoffs in spell design, but in this case it’s the distinction between spells that do something specific and spells which give the caster a tool to work with – something that’s often seen as a distinction between “simulationism” and “gameism”.

Today most games run towards “spells that do something specific”. For a very familiar example, look at Fireball. In early editions it basically created an explosion that filled a certain amount of volume if it could. Thus, for example, it could go a long ways down a network of narrow tunnels. You could start fires with it, blow doors off their hinges, use it as a mining tool, and so on. If you set it off in a very confined place it might even do extra damage. Of course, it had all the downsides of explosive use; if you threw it at something behind a transparent barrier, or at a mirror that was reflecting a scene, or just seriously misjudged the amount of space available… it might go off in your face. It could create dangerous choking smoke, collapse roofs, and so on. Using it well demanded cleverness – and adjudicating the results could require a good deal of input from the game master.

Nowadays, it’s a specific radius on the map, starting fires is barely mentioned and almost never considered, barriers simply block it, and it’s quick and easy to use requiring very little caution or adjudication. Just don’t set if off at your own feet.

Personally, I rather like versatile effects – and to consider how things might have developed. Classically, back in first editon, Arcane Spells involved pulling power from other dimensions and carefully storing it in quasi-stable mental constructs – a complex and difficult process – although the number you could keep ready to go expanded with practice. (Divine Spellcasters, of course, cheated by getting their god to do the hard part. Still, that limited them to what their god chose to give them – meaning that they had to keep serving and pleasing their deities to get more magic).

So first up it’s some fundamental effects.

Momentary Breach: Sorcerer/Wizard 3, Components S, MF, Casting Time: Standard Action, Range: Touch, Effect: See Text (usually a short range cone, but the actual area affected is unreliable), Duration: 1 Round, Saving Throw: None, Spell Resistance: None.

This spell is related to Precipitate Breach, but is far smaller and more immediate – allowing the energies of another plane to pour forth in front of the caster for a few moments with the momentary portal (thankfully) facing away from the caster. The problem is that such effects are not magical (and thus ignore antimagic), and are controlled only by their own nature. If you tap into the quasi-elemental Plane of Lightning, you will get some lightning – but it will be electrical arcs that will ground themselves into something nearby and handy, without the intensity, directionality, and controllable area of effect of a proper Lightning Bolt spell. Less damage, a smaller area of effect, and possibly not hitting what you want to at all. Positive energy? Some healing is likely, but so is uncontrolled plant growth, fungi, and temporary animations that will not be under your control. Negative Energy might block an incoming energy attack, but it might also spawn some hostile minor undead. Chaos usually has effects similar to a Wand of Wonder. In no case can the caster target a specific area or creature. The GM may rule that some creature comes through, but that is entirely up to him or her. The focus is a rod or staff bearing a rune representing the plane being tapped, although a given staff or rod may bear many such runes. The possible planes to tap are:
● Elemental Planes: Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Life (Positive Energy), and Death (Negative Energy).
● Paraelemental Planes: Smoke, Ice, Ooze and Magma
● Quasi-Elemental Planes: Ash, Dust, Salt, Vacuum, Lightning, Mineral, Radiance, and Steam
● Outer Planes: Good, Evil, Law, Chaos
● The energies of the Transitive Planes (Astral, Ethereal, Shadow, and Temporal) are stable on their own, and so do not come through.
● Demiplanes are too small to target.
● Campaigns which incorporate the realms of the Fey or other specialized planes of existence (such as the Far Realms, Dream Realms, and others) may allow more knowledgeable mages to draw on those as well – but that tends to get quite weird, and is best left to rather high-level casters.

Experience does mean something of course; any required caster rolls resulting from the spell recieve a circumstance bonus of (Level – 5, +15 maximum). So if the game master has you roll 4d6 for elemental damage, or wants a dexterity check to keep the magma flow pointed away from your friend, or wants a reflex save because sucking the air out an area brought down the roof, the caster gets the bonus on such checks.

Game Masters who feel a need to limit things more precisely might, perhaps, only allow users to know how to draw on one plane per level of Knowledge/The Planes that they possess. For those who wish to increase the effects a bit – or just to offer some compensation from limiting the number of planes available – you might allow casters to use the spell to Call very minor creatures from the relevant planes, such as Mephits, allowing one such option per plane. While this wouldn’t offer any control over such creatures diplomacy and bargaining may produce some results.

Players who want an character with a dangerous untrained mystical talent or some such may want to take Inherent Spell (Momentary Breach) with Bonus Uses – thus creating a character who can spontaneously tap into a wide variety of extradimensional forces without much control or necessarily having any idea of what they’re doing or how to control it. For a mere 12 CP you can be a gifted but utterly untrained magus! (For a few more CP you can throw in some uses of Rope Trick, for secure camping, or perhaps Conjurer’s Tricks (from The Practical Enchanter) for minor tricks).

Planar Cascade: Sorcerer/Wizard 6, Components S, MF, Casting Time: Standard Action, Range: Medium, Effect: See Text (usually about a thirty foot radius but the actual area affected is unreliable), Duration: 1 Round, Saving Throw: None, Spell Resistance: None.

Planar Cascade operates much like Momentary Breach but affects an area at range and usually takes longer for the effects to dissipate (if they ever do) thanks to sheer scale. Dumping magma all over a sizeable area may take hours or days to cool (and will leave rock), filling an area with Chaos often has effects as per a Bag of Beans, and land covered in Salt may not be fertile again for generations. Vacuum, on the other hand, might just suck a lot of stuff up. On the other hand, Water or Air will usually dissipate quickly while Good will likely mere Consecrate the area for a time and damage evil creatures. As with Momentary Breach it is possible that something will come through the briefly-opened door – but the caster has no control over that, although it is remotely possible that praying to something (preferably using it’s true name) will cause it to take notice that there’s a path open for a bit. Of course, even if something comes through… this spell provides no way to so much as influence it, and is likely to overload and destroy any containement effects that might be used.

As with Momentary Breach, the caster gains a circumstance bonus on any spell-related rolls the GM calls for of (Caster Level – 11, 10 maximum).

Obviously enough, the simplest way to restrict this effect is to limit user’s to their list of planes from Momentary Breach. To enhance it… allow learned user’s to slightly twist the result to produce effects equivalent to a few lower (fifth) level effects – Plane Shift (to known planes only), Dismissal (if they can correctly identify a creatures plane of origin and know of it), and Precipitate Breach (may only breach to known planes) – allowing Plane Shift at Knowledge/The Planes 7+. Plane Shift or Dismissal at 14+, and all three at 21+.

This, of course, is serious magic. Dabblers rarely get this far – but it’s hardly impossible; For a mere 48 CP in total you can get five uses/day each of Momentary Breach, Shadow Conjuration, Shadow Evocation, and Planar Cascade – enough to make you a fairly effective “Wizard” or “Sorcerer”. Sure, there will be a lot of things you can’t do – but that’s a lot of versatility for a mere four spells.

Planar Infusion: Sorcerer/Wizard 9, Components S, M (10,000 GP in Gems), Casting Time: Standard Action, Range: Touch, Effect: See Text, Duration: Instantaneous / special, see text, Saving Throw: None, Spell Resistance: None.

Planar Infusion resembles Momentary Breach and Planar Cascade, but it infuses the summoned energies into some item, creature, or structure on a semi-permanent basis. An infusion of Negative Energy might create a powerful undead (albeit while offering no control over what you get or what it does), infusing a machine with Law might make it run for many centuries without requiring fuel or maintenance, infusing a Hospital with Positive Energy might ensure that the great majority of their patients would make full recoveries – or it might lead to it becoming a haunt of bizarre mutant monsters. Infusing a deck of cards with Chaos might result in something like a Deck Of Many Things (although cards would be used up when drawn) or perhaps a Deck Of Conjurations, Fire would likely result in a deck of fire magic – or a deck of natural disasters. Infusing a Staff with Fire might create or recharge a Staff of Fire – or a +1 (or higher) Flaming Staff, or any of many other things. This is versatile and fast, not reliable. As with Momentary Breach, the caster gains a circumstance bonus on any spell-related rolls the GM calls for of (Caster Level – 15, 5 maximum).

By the time anyone can cast this thing their Knowledge / The Planes really ought to be high enough that it isn’t going to be a limiting factor. You could limit it by Knowledge / Arcana on the theory that you need to know how to channel the power into various kinds of items – but by the time you can cast ninth level spells skills aren’t all that much of a barrier either. This one pretty much comes as-is.

Dabblers rarely get this far, simply because getting this far requires some serious dedication. Still, if someone really wants to…

• Spend 18 CP on a L7 Effect – Etheric Creation (as per Major Creation, but Standard Action casting time and five cubic feet per caster level) five times per day.
• Spend 18 CP on a L8 Effect – The Astral Forge (as per Limited Wish, but requires a rune-inscribed, inlaid staff worth 3500 GP as a focus instead of a base cost. On the upside, the staff can be used to cast Prestidigitation and Dancing Lights at will, if only at caster level one. More expensive models have Wand Compartments suitable for a wand or rod for +100 GP. Technically a Wondrous Item rather than a staff if that should ever matter).
• Spend 18 CP on getting Planar Infusion 1/Day. You’d still have to pay the 10,000 GP in gems each time you use it though, so you might want to cut the cost by limiting this to once a week or something.

OK, that’s 102 CP, plus your investment in Skills – but it’s slightly cheaper than buying Adept spellcasting and extremely versatile, even if you do only have seven actual spells.

The Planar Spells are very versatile – but their effects tend to be somewhat random and are far less controlled and focused than a specific spell. Covering an area in nonmagical flames may do some damage and bypass antimagic, but it isn’t going to match the kind of intensity that you get with Fireball, much less with Delayed Blast Fireball or Meteor Swarm. On the other hand, they let a character with only a few spells do a creditable impression of a versatile wizard – just like Shadow Evocation and Shadow Conjuration would.

Lesser Planar Staff (12,500 GP, 10 Charges, recharges 1/Day automatically, but cannot be recharged otherwise).
● Momentary Breach (SL 3 x CL 8 x 400 GP) = 9600 GP
● Momentary Breach (SL 3 x CL 5 x 2000 GP Unlimited-Use Use Activated x .2 1/Day x .5 only to recharge the staff = 3000 GP.

Planar Staff: (36,000 GP, 10 Charges, recharges 1/Day automatically, but cannot be recharged otherwise).
● Planar Cascade: SL 6 x CL 11 x 400 GP / 2 (uses two charges) = 13,200 GP
● Momentary Breach: SL 3 x CL 11 x 300 GP (uses one charge) = 9900 GP.
● Planar Cascade (Sl 6 x CL 11 x 2000 GP Unlimited-Use Use Activated x .2 1/Day x .5 only to recharge the staff = 13,200 GP.

Grand Planar Staff: (100,000 GP, 10 Charges, recharges 1/Day but cannot be recharged otherwise).
● As per a Planar Staff, but add Planar Infusion (Sl 9 x CL 17 x 1500 GP Unlimited Use Spell Trigger Plus 10,000 GP Material Component x 50 Restricted Usage = 729,500 GP x .1 (Usable 1/Week) = 72,950 GP

Creating Planar Staves normally will require both Create Wondrous Item and Create Staff. These are constructed using the Pathfinder rules for making staves, simply because they seem more interesting that way. They’re self-recharging because – otherwise – both 3.5 and Pathfinder 1’st staves don’t really seem to attract many users. 

For the next step past the Planar Dabbler we have the Planar Adept.

A Planar Adept is, in many ways, an ancestral form of Arcane Caster, The basic talent – opening portals to other planes to draw magical power from – is pretty much the same. However, instead of carefully forging that power into prepared spells like a Wizard or pouring it through preset channels like a Sorcerer, the Planar Adept pretty much just turns it loose, focusing on developing the raw talent to blow holes in the universe. All that study, sophistication, spellcrafting, and arcane lore is left to later generations.

Given the number of planes available to tap into this is a surprisingly versatile effect – but control is quite another matter. Planar Adepts will quite often find things going somewhat, or even seriously, wrong until they’re using very high order effects indeed. There isn’t much subtlety either; you won’t find clever mental manipulations, or transformations, or subtle illusions among their repertoire. They get the eighteen spells given below, and that’s it. Still, thanks to that specialization, they are capable of accessing those specific spells earlier than a Wizard or Sorcerer could, which is something.

Planar Adept Package (26 CP to start, +4 CP per additional level, additional purchases – Knowledge / The Planes, more Rite of Chi, or more Mana – may be wanted:

• Opener Of The Ways: Wilder, Corrupted for Reduced Cost (Likely Cha or Int-based, 4 CP/Level) / Does not provide any Abilities, only usable with the Planar Portals and Planar Rifts Paths.
• Access to the Planar Portal and Planar Rifts Paths (12 CP).
• Keys Of Creation: 2d6 Mana with Spell Enhancement, Specialized and Corrupted / only for Spell Enhancement, only to access higher-order effects with the Planar Portals and Planar Rifts Paths (4 CP).
• Breath Of The World: Rite of Chi, Specialized and Corrupted / only to restore the Pools given above, requires several minutes of downtime to use (2 CP).
  • +4 Bonus Uses of Rite of Chi, Specialized and Corrupted / only to restore the Wilder Power pool above (2 CP).
  • +4 Bonus Uses of Rite of Chi, Specialized and Corrupted / only to restore the Mana pool given above (2 CP).

Planar Portals Path:

1. Bestow Planar Infusion. Note that this may be cast at Level Four to provide the Improved Infusion or at Level Seven to provide the Greater Infusion.
2. Conjurer’s Tricks. From The Practical Enchanter. Basically upgraded Prestidigitation.
3. Momentary Breach,
4. Open The Underworld. Greater Invocation of Create Pit, normally creating two instances of Create Pit or a single Spiked Pit. Cast at L5 it can create an Acid Pit or two Spiked Pits, at L6 a Hungry Pit or two Acid Pits, at L7 a Roaming Pit or two Hungry Pits, and at L8 two Hungry Pits. (Honestly, at higher levels you usually have much better things to do than to create pits, but as ascalable invocation those spells might see SOME use).
5. Teleport.
6. Planar Cascade.
7. Planar Seal. Creates any dimensional sealing effect of level six or less. Likely examples include Dimensional Anchor, Scramble Portal, Forbiddance, Seal Portal, and Seal Planar Breach.
8. Pocket Realm, Produces any Spacewarp template spell (See The Practical Enchanter) of level seven or less.
9. Planar Infusion (The ninth level version above).

Planar Rifts Path:

1. Gatekeeper. For ten minutes per caster level the user may detect planar disturbances at long range and may use Open Locks and Disable Device on portals, gates, and similar phenomena.
2. Dimension Step. As per Dimension Door, but only Medium Range,
3. Blink.
4. Shadowform.
5. Greater Blink.
6. Etherealness.
7. Immediate Temporal Acceleration.
8. Portal Mastery: Can produce any one of the following lesser effects – Greater Plane Shift, Greater Teleport, or Shadow Walk.
9. Reality Maelstrom. Note that if you decide to simply drop all control, this is equivalent to the spell Precipitate Complete Breach. This is NOT advised.

Obviously enough you’ll probably want more levels of Wilder, some Knowledge/The Planes, and – of course – hit dice and such. Still, while the initial cost is similar to that of a Wizard, even throwing in some more bonus uses on Rite of Chi and a few more dice in the Mana reserve, the per-level cost is going to be far below that of an actual Wizard or Sorcerer. The flexibility will be too, but it’s not at all a bad package for a “primitive” arcanist – or it could serve as a template for various other specialists. There are plenty of other domains and paths out there.