Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Apr 12, 2004 13:22:37	A friend of mine, Albar Al'Izin, a Sha'ir in Zakhara and Endili Hafuz Ibn Ali a Ghul lord presented me their questions. As aSha'ir, Albar depends on his Gen, an lesser elemental, to bring him spells as he wants. But his gen must go to the specific elemental plane to find the required spell and bring it back. This demands time. The fact of the outer planes being apart of the elemental planes will delay his Gen? And how does it works on sigil? Endili is a Ghul lord, a wizard who create effects directly manipulating the forces of the negative plane, again, being the Negative plane apart of the outer planes, can he cast his manipulations?
#2 sildatorak Apr 12, 2004 14:44:08	One thing is certain: inside of Sigil, the Sha'ir is out of luck. His gen can't do the planeshifty thing to leave or come back so no spells for him. Someplace else in the outer planes may present problems of more limited scope. I'd say that for spells from the elemental provinces his gen requires the next highest time interval (for 2e: rounds/turns/hours, rounds/minutes/10's of minutes). So say he is a 5th or higher level sha'ir looking for a fireball. His gen goes out for 1d6+3 (turns or minutes depending on edition) instead of 1d6+3 rounds. For spells in the universal province, I would say that there is no change since he can probably find the magical energies for those in the outer planes. If you feel nice and want to balance this out some, you might want to reduce the time required for priest spells by one increment since they are nearer the gods. The Ghul Lord, on the other hand, is probably going to be able to keep doing his thing. Undead that rely on a negative material connection for continued existence can live on the outer planes quite easily (more easily in some cases, like vampires). There must be a certain amount of "leakiness" to negative energy (and positive energy, too) that allows it to be drawn through to the outer. Either that or there are alternative sources that these creatures tap into (infernal energy, maybe?) A Ghul Lord probably could tap into these leaks or alternative sources and still employ his manipulations.
#3 zombiegleemax Apr 12, 2004 14:46:15	The Negative and Inner planes really aren't coterminous with the Prime, either, as I recall... Sure, you can't just plane shift or gate to the plane of your choice when you're in Sigil, but there are plenty of portals around which serve much the same purpose. I don't really know enough about Gen to give a good answer, but the fact that you say it 'takes time' seems to imply to me that it doesn't just planeshift to where it needs to be normally, so if it has to physically run out to the Elemental Planes and back, it wouldn't be significantly disadvantaged in the City of Doors if it knows which portals are the ones it needs and what key it needs to get through. Heck, in some circumstances, it might be faster. It's certainly easier to find a portal in Sigil than to find a pure elemental point (like the heart of a volcano for Fire, etc) that's cotangent with the Prime. Ooze, in particular, is especially plentiful in some areas, to the point where you can easily step in portals accidentally. Though if I'm guessing wrong, and it just magically pops out to the Planes and back, it's anybody's guess. As for the Ghul, how direct a maniuplation are we talking about here? If this isn't any more direct than normal necromantic work and animating the dead and casting inflicts , again, there shouldn't be a problem. The Dustmen certainly don't seem to have any trouble with it, that's for sure. The Outer Planes aren't really cut off from the Inner Planes that much, even if they don't have points where they specifically touch. Sigil, in particular is VERY connected to most places, you just have to use the Lady's portals rather than jumping there yourself. In any case, no matter how direct a connection you need, you should be able to work things out by finding an appropriate portal and setting up shop right next to it. It won't help much if you're running away from an angry glabrezu, but for long, quiet, relaxed rituals, it shouldn't be a problem. Erf. Sildatorak posted while I was posting, and he has more of an idea what a Gen can and can't do than I did. Bugger.