Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Tevish_Szat May 22, 2008 19:21:28	One thing that has always struck me regarding the rules in the manual of the planes is that the alignment factors of a plane matter comparatively little. Is this to make planewalking easier? Because they didn't want them to be dangerous like other dominant traits? Well, I have a rework that steps up the game. PLANE ALIGNMENT Planar alignment comes in three types: Mild, Strong, and Overwhelming. Each specifies one side of an alignment axis (Except for "Neutral", which specifies True Neutral). If a plane has multiple alignment traits, their effects stack. Mild: Entities of an opposed alignment feel ill or off... unwelcome in the plane. They take a -2 penalty to Charisma based checks Strong: The plane is closely tied to this alignment, and entities not of it take a -2 penalty to all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma based checks. Overwhelming: The epitome of one side of the Great Wheel, or close to it, the plane itself hates all else. Entities not of the specified alignment take a -2 penalty to all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma based checks. Beings of Opposed alignment take an additional -2 penalty to all rolls, and spells with the opposing alignment descriptor cannot be cast (though effects from items or spells cast before entering the plane continue to function) Neutral-aligned: A mildly neutral aligned plane assigns no penalties to entities on it. A strongly neutral plane assigns a -2 penalty to all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma based checks of any creature with a non-neutral component to its alignment (so a -4 penalty to all such checks if the creature is LG, CG, CE, or LE), and an Overwhelmingly neutral plane treats all alignments with only one neutral component as other, and all with two non-neutral components as opposed, as well as preventing the casting of any spell with an alignment descriptor. Plane by Plane In this system, the Outer Planes would have the following Alignment traits Ysgard: Strongly Chaotic, Mildly Good Limbo: Overwhelmingly Chaotic Pandemonium: Strongly Chaotic, Mildly Evil The Abyss: Strongly Chaotic, Strongly Evil Carceri: Strongly Evil, Mildly Chaotic Hades: Overwhelmingly Evil Gehenna: Strongly Evil, Mildly Lawful Baator: Strongly Evil, Strongly Lawful Acheron: Strongly Lawful, Mildly Evil Mechanus: Overwhelmingly Lawful Arcadia: Strongly Lawful, Mildly Good Celestia: Strongly Lawful, Strongly Good Bytopia: Strongly Good, Mildly Lawful Elysium: Overwhelmingly Good Beastlands: Strongly Good, Mildly Chaotic Arborea: Strongly Good, Strongly Chaotic Outlands: Mildly Neutral (Or, if you want to tone it up in campaign, Strongly or Overwhelmingly Neutral) Advantage of this Planar Arrangement: Now, every alignment component of a plane is respected and prevented. No longer are the Alignment Traits of Pandemonium and Ysgard interchangeable: Rather, their inclinations towards Evil or Good are seen and felt on the plane. The same goes for every "Between" plane: Bytopia, The Beastlands, Ysgard, Pandemonium, Carceri, Gehenna, Acheron, and Arcadia were all rather ill-represented with only one alignment trait.
#2 deacon_liadon May 23, 2008 16:50:56	Something that I always got the impression of from the MotP was that Planeswalking is fairly easy. A -2 on checks to caused by alignment issues makes sense, but won't really have much of an effect on how the group plays. You're take on it certainly seems to make more sense, but I'm still uncertain as to how a group would view it. Likely that they would pay attention only to the four cardinal planes (Elysium, Limbo, Grey Wastes, Mechanus). When I first started DMing on the planes, I used a system, pretty much the same as what you have there. It's quite possibly my group, but I found that they related little to the nature of the Planes as regards alignment when I used this system. If you're doing a lot of Plane-hopping, then it can become difficult to keep track of as well. Eventually, I decided to go old school and got copies of the PS box sets and started using the rules from those instead. It allowed for a much more interesting game and was easier to keep track of.