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Introduction
Only a clueless prime or a leatherheaded wizard would ever believe his magic is always going to work the same on every plane. It just ain't so, berk - not when the multiverse has got planes whose very essences are living fire, absolute perfection, howling despair, complete decay, or things even worse. Some of it should be obvious - using a holy word against a pit fiend on its home plane just won't work, as many a sodding basher has learned too late. Some of it ain't so clear, either, like can a cutter summon a djinni to Ysgard?

Some say experience is the best teacher, and a fool could learn a lot about the planes that way, but it'd be painful. A wise blood knows there's no reason to risk his own neck when he can learn from others. Why discover the hard way that fireball don't work the same on Limbo when a cutter can ask around in Sigil and learn? The moral of the story: The DM shouldn't withhold the following information from the player characters as long as they're willing to look for it in the right places.

EFFECTS ON SPELLS
You figure a sword and
a bunch of spells make you tough?
It ain't what you got taht counts, bark
It's what you know.
 - Fairven, a Cipher

A lot of primes don't understand why magic changes so much from plane to plane. It doesn't happen to them on their worlds - they can travel from one end of the world to the other in places like Krynn, yet magic operates the same in every country they visit. Well, going to another plane's just a little bit more complicated than traveling cross-country. Sages have been arguing the causes and reasons for why each plane is magically different ever since they started thinking. 'Course, every faction's got its own answer, too. A Godsman'll say it's because of the divine properties of each plane. A Guvner'll give a long analysis of how all the differences on each plane are interrelated into some grand order that follows certain logical laws they may or may not have yet to discern. A Xaositect just throws up his hands and says, "It's chaos, berk. What's the problem?"

In the end, why really doesn't matter - how does. Whatever the cause, each plane affects spells in a consistent way, and a body can count on that much at least. But for a wizard to make do on a plane, he or she's got to learn what those changes are.

Not surprisingly, there are three things a spellcaster's always got to keep in mind, no matter where his spell goes off: 1) the effect of magic on creatures in their home planes, 2) the relative position of other planes involved in the spell, and 3) the availability of extradirnensional space. These points are fairly easy to pick up on and remember. It's the changes that affect individual wizard spell schools on specific planes that can put a sod in the dead-book before he's got them all straight in his head. Fortunately, it usually takes just one or two unpleasant surprises before most mages wise up and start making notes.

NATIVE SONS

Certain rules hold true no matter what plane a being's on, be it the Prime Material, the Astral, an Inner, or an Outer Plane. The most universal of these deals with a being's home plane. Everybody's got a home plane, and it's not necessarily the place they haunt now. A prime living in Sigil still calls the Prime Material Plane his home plane. It's not where a being lives that matters; it's where he was born, hatched, or sprouted. Home planes matter because a lot of spells work only on creatures either inside or outside their home planes.

The spells most affected by a being's home plane are abjurations and summonings.

Most abjurations protect against creatures from another plane, and a few (like holy word) can drive a creature back to its home plane. In either case, an abjuration can't affect a creature on its home plane. For example, some primes might try to use protection from evil to protect themselves from efreet while they're in the City of Brass. They figure the spell works at home, so it should work on the plane of Fire, too, but it doesn't. The City of Brass is on the efreet's home plane, so the genies aren't an extraplanar there and the protection spell won't work. If anybody was summoned, it was the fool prime.

The home plane has the reverse effect on summoning spells. Specifically, unless it's a spell that summons creatures from another plane (such as conjure elemental or gate), a summoning's got to draw on something close at hand. A monster summoning I can only summon up monsters from the same plane. For instance, casting a monster summoning won't cause a succubus to appear on Ysgard; it's not the fiend's home plane, and not even a plane where it can normally be found.

CONNECTED PLANES

When a prime wizard casts conjure elemental, he usually doesn't think about where the elemental comes from. The creature appears and that's that. Spells make for a lot more planar traveling than most folks suspect, though. Take that conjure elemental spell: It (obviously) has to reach the Elemental Planes in order to work. Cut off that connection and the spell can't function. Now, primes tend not to notice any of this because the Prime Material Plane's connected to all the other planes, either through the Ethereal or Astral. The same just ain't true for the Inner and Outer Planes. The Inner Planes are cut off from the Astral Plane (and thus the Outer Planes) while the Outer Planes are cut off from the Ethereal (and thus the Inner Planes).

So what's this mean? It means that on the Inner Planes a spellcaster or a priest can't normally use things like the astral spell or raise dead. And on the Outer Planes, the same person would have troubles with conjure elemental and aerial servant, since these call upon things found on the Inner Planes. In some cases, a spell reaches through either the Ethereal or the Astral Plane, depending on who or what the caster is after. For example, contact higher plane passes through the Astral Plane to reach the powers on the Outer Planes and through the Ethereal Plane to reach the elemental lords, but a spell slinger can't reach Arborea from the Ethereal and he can't call the plane of Air from the Astral - get it?

A complete list of spells that have planar pathways (spells that must access any specific plane or group of planes) is given in Table I at left. Although priest spells aren't affected by planar pathways, those that cross dimensions are listed in Table I because magical items that perform priest spell-like effects are impacted by planar boundaries.

TABLE I: SPELLS WITH PLANAR PATHWAYS


Astral
Astral spell*
Astral window*
Divination*
Duo-dimension
Find familiar**
Identify
Join with astral traveler*
Raise dead*
Reincarnation
Resurrection*
Speak with astral traveler*
Speak with dead*

Ethereal
Aerial servant*
Chariot of Sustarre*
Conjure earth elemental*
Conjure elemental
Conjure fire elemental*
Demishadow magic
Demishadow monsters
Distance distortion
Elemental swarm*
Energy drain
Estate transference
Etherwalk*
Invisible stalker
Khazid's procurement
Leomund's secret chest
Lorloveim's creeping shadow
Lorloveim's shadowy transformation
Major creation
Minor creation
Negative plane protection*
Reflecting pool*
Restoration*
Shades
Shadowcat
Shadow engines*
Shadow magic
Shadow monsters
Shadow walk
Summon shadow
Vanish

  Dual
Augury*
Commune*
Contact other plane
Dismissal
Divine inspiration*
Drawmij's instant summons
Draw upon holy might*
Ensnarement
Hornung's random dispatcher
Sanctify*
Vision

Extradimentional
Deep pockets
Extradimensional detection*
Extradimensional manipulation*
Extradimensional pocket*
Leomund's secret chest
Maze
Mordenkainen's
Magnificent mansion
Rope trick
Seclusion*
Transformation*


*  May or may not cross planar pathways, depending upon the creature called.
**  Priestly magic with planar pathways - affected only if used through a scroll or other magical item.

EXTRA DIMENSIONS

A handful of spells and magical items create weird little pockets known as extradimensional spaces. Using these spells isn't normally a problem - unless a body's on the Astral Plane, where there aren't any extra dimensions. Try to use a rope trick there and nothing's going to happen. Now, the reason to mention this is that the planes aren't perfectly mapped out, especially all those little the demiplanes in the Ethereal. There's a chance any one of those might be like the Astral - completely cut off from the extradimensional world. If that's the case, it'll be noted in the description of that particular place, so keep an eye peeled for it.

CATEGORICAL ALTERATIONS

Aside from the above considerations, most spell changes are grouped by school. All spells of a given school of magic are affected the same way. The possible effects on a school are themselves divided into enhanced (+), altered (#), diminished (>), and null (0). See Table II for a list of spell schools and their status on each of the planes.

Enhanced (+) indicates that spells of the noted schools have their power increased on the given plane. The effect is probably due to the similarity of the magic to the properties of the plane itself. Enhanced spells function at one level higher than normal. Thus, a fireball spell cast by an 8th-level wizard on the Elemental Plane of Fire actually inflicts 9 dice of damage. Saving throws against enhanced spells that cause damage are made with a -1 adjustment, while saving throws against enhanced spells that confer protection are made with a +1 bonus.

Altered (#) spell schools are the most common, making for different spell results based on either a philosophical or physical property of the plane. The exact result of the alteration varies from spell to spell within the school, but the same general principle is applied to all spells of its type. Thus, fire-based spells on the Paraelemental Plane of Ice produce scalding explosions of steam rather than fire.

Diminished (>) spell schools have their effects reduced, due to some opposition between the school and the nature of the plane. Diminished spells function at one level lower than normal. For instance, an air-based spell used on the plane of Water is automatically diminished by the nature of that plane's element. Furthermore, diminished indicates that the casting of highlevel spells is impossible. Because the power of this magic is more than can be tolerated by the forces of the plane, spells higher than 4th level can't be cast.

Null (&) indicates that spells of the noted schools are simply unavailable while the wizard is on that plane. The magic of the spell is too opposed to the nature of the plane, so spells of that school don't function within the plane. Cast that spell and it's gone, berk.

TABLE II: SCHOOL ALTERATIONS BY PLANE


  Con Enc Ill Inv Elemental
Plane   Abj Alt Sum Div Cha Pha Evo Nec Wil Air Fire Earth Water

Astral   - # > - - # - - + # # # #
Ethereal   > - # & - + - - - - - # #

Elemental: Air   - - # - - - # - - + > > >
Elemental: Earth   - - # - - - # - - > > + >
Elemental: Fire   - - # - - - # - - > + > &
Elemental: Water   - - # - - - # - - > & > +

PE: Ice   - - # - - - # - - - > > -
PE: Magma   - - # - - - # - - > - - >
PE: Ooze   - - # - - - # - - > > - -
PE: Smoke   - - # - - - # - - - - > >

QE: Lightning   - - # - - - # - - + - > #
QE: Mineral   - - # - - - # - - > > + #
QE: Steam   - - # - - - # - - - + - >
QE: Radiance   - - # - - - # - - - # - +

Positive Energy   - - # - - - # # + - + # #
Negative Energy   - - # - - - # # > > > # #

QE: Ash   - - # - - - # - - # & - #
QE: Dust   - - # - - - # - - # - - >
QE: Vacuum   - - # - - - # - - & & - -
QE: Salt   - - # - - - # - - - - - &

Abyss   - # # # - + - # + # # # #
Acheron   - - # # - - - # > # # # #
Arborea   - - # # # - - # - # # # #
Arcadia   - - # # # # - # > # # # #

Baator   - - # # - - - # > # # # #
Beastlands   - # # # # - - # - # # # #
Bytopia   - - # # - - - # - # # # #
Carceri   - # # # - - - # - # # # #

Elysium   - - # # - - - # - # # # #
Gehenna   - - # # > - + # - # # # #
Gray Waste   - - # # # - - # - # # # #
Limbo   # # # # # # # # # # # # #

Mechanus   - - # # - & - # & # # # #
Mount Celestia   - - # # - - - # > # # # #
Outlands   # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Pandemonium   - # # # - - - # + # # # #
Ysgard   - # # # - - - # + # # # #

Plane   Abj Alt Sum Div Cha Pha Evo Nec Wil Air Fire Earth Water
  Con Enc Ill Inv Elemental

No alteration to school
Alterations to school occurs; see plane description for details
School is diminished on plane
School is enchanced on plane
School is null on plane

Abbreviations: A Air; Abj Abjuration; Alt Alteration; Con/Sum Conjuration/Summoning; Div Divitation; E Earth; Enc/Cha Enchantment/Charm; F Fire; Ill/Pha Illusion/Phantasm; Inv/Evo Invocation/Evocation; Nec Necromantic; PE Paraelemental Plane; QE Quasielemental Plane; W Water; Wil Wild Magic.

SPELL KEYS
Spell keys are like scars -
you never lose them.
 - Meg o' the Maze

With all these alterations and restrictions, a spellcaster's life on the planes could be nigh impossible. Imagine some poor sod of an elementalist wizard out there on Gehenna, cut off from the Ethereal and unable to cast the most powerful of his spells. Kind of makes a wizard just want to stay home, eh?

Good thing, then, that there's a way around it: For each plane, there are secret spell keys that attune a wizard to the magical vibrations of that plane. Once the spellcaster's in harmony with the plane's essence, some or all of his spells may behave normally again. It's really not much of a dark, since most planar mages know the keys exist, even if they don't know the keys for every plane. It's the spellcasters from the Prime Material who tend to be most clueless about such things, much to the general amusement of their planar counterparts.

Most keys, regardless of what they are, add 1 to the initiative or casting time of the spell.

Spell keys take on lots of forms, which are never the same from plane to plane. On Ysgard spell keys are almost always runes - traced out, spoken, thrown, or whatever - invoked as the spell is cast. On Mechanus keys take the form of equations - mathematical formulae that alter, just slightly, the nature of the universe. On Limbo, the heart of Chaos, the keys are constantly changing, so a sodding spellcaster is never quite sure what's going to work right next.

Different keys have different ranges of power. The most common is the general key. In this case, a single key affects all spells of the same type. For instance, a general key might restore the spells of an altered school or reactivate all fire-based magic. Other keys are not so generous and are known as specific keys. These empower a single, particular spell. On Mount Celestia, a cutter needs a special key to make fear work properly.

Another specific key allows a wizard to cast conjure elemental spells on the Outer Planes, but it should be pointed out that the thing which shows up is made of elements that exist on the plane where the spell is cast, and the spirit of the creature is drawn from the essence of that same plane, too. Those elementals ain't the same as "true" elementals, and the summoning sod who doesn't take that into consideration is in for a long day. (See "Magic on the Outer Planes" for details.)

It doesn't take a club to point out that keys have limits, and only a leatherheaded wizard's going to think they'll solve everything. Some schools and spells simply have no keys - most times that's because the nature of the plane is too incompatible to the spell's magic. No matter what's done, a fireball won't work on the plane of Water, and wild magic will never function in the rigorously ordered universe of Mechanus.

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PRIESTS AND THEIR GODS


All these changes of spell effects aren't just for wizards - magic changes for priests, too. Priests have got their own considerations that affect spellcasting, and it's all tied to their high-up men, their deities. The biggest deal with priests is that they don't get their power from science and study, but from their deities. Now, since nearly all the powers (except for a few elemental types) live on the Outer Planes, some sages would postulate that most priests on the Inner Planes are out of luck. After all, by the logic already explained, the Inner Planes are cut off magic-wise from the Outer Planes. Well, those wouldbe sages are wrong. That's what happens when a berk tries to follow logic out here.

Here's the dark of it: If the powers couldn't reach their followers everywhere in the multiverse, they wouldn't be very fearsome, would they? Think about it. Powers are unfathomable, mysterious, and magnificent. How they overcome the logic problem that binds the rest of the magic-using multiverse isn't found in the mortal world. 'Course, the factols debate it: Godsmen say mortals haven't achieved internal understanding, and the Athar use it as evidence that there's a greater universe beyond this one. Are they right? Are they wrong? What's it matter what the poor sods think? The fact is simple: Priests pray and get their spells.

Contacting their gods to learn spells isn't the problem for priests - wandering into enemy territory is. Here's the chant: The planes - Inner, Outer, and even some of the Demiplanes are territory specifically beholden to one group of powers or another, powers that don't look kindly on interlopers, especially not provocateurs from some other plane. Some powers, especially those down on the Lower Planes, have enough trouble holding to a truce with rivals on their own plane, let alone with gods from planes that differ both morally and physically. All the sodding priests out to impress their high-ups could make the Outer Planes a very bloody place. Still, putting every enemy priest in the deadbook's only going to make trouble for a deity, and since it's not possible to lock all the doors to a plane, the powers find other ways to suppress the meddling agents of their rivals.

The end of it all is that there's a two-part understanding that keeps the multiverse from going to war. First off, gods just don't go sending legions of their faithful into each other's home planes. It's bad form and bad business, even for tanar'ri and baatezu, who have their hands full with each other as it is. Second, and most importantly, when a priest character is on an Outer Plane other than where his deity resides, he functions as if he were one experience level lower for every plane between himself and his deity's home plane.

For example, Nayla the Righteous is a 10th-level priest leading a band of faithful warriors into the heart of Pandemonium. The home plane of Nayla's deity is Bytopia. Moving around the outside of the Great Ring (see the poster map of the planes), Elysium, the Beastlands, Arborea, Ysgard, and Limbo all lie between Bytopia and Pandemonium. Therefore, while on Pandemonium Nayla is effectively a 5th-level priest, and all those spells that higher-level clerics wield are lost to her until she gets a little closer to home.

Spell loss is instantaneous and temporary, taking place the moment a plane is entered. If the character currently has memorized more spells and spell levels than are allowed, the extras (of the player's choice) are instantly wiped from his mind. Upon crossing a boundary that brings him closer to his deity's home plane, the priest's spell levels are instantly restored. However, knowledge of lost spells doesn't instantly return; the character must rest and pray for spells as usual.

Note that Nayla's "power conduit" doesn't trace the shortest route to her home plane, like magical items do (see below). Why? Because the gods don't want it to work that way! It stands to reason that a priest from Bytopia should have a tougher time casting spells on Pandemonium than on Limbo - not everything powers do is unfathomable, berk. On the other hand, if a priest's deity resides on one of the Inner Planes, he's going to lose three effective levels on any Outer Plane, as the Astral, Prime, and Ethereal lie between him and his power source. The same limitation applies to those clerics of the Outer Planes who visit the Inner Planes, so in this case priest magic does work like magical items. (Is the logic circular? Remember the Unity of Rings principle?) At any rate, the moral of the story is: If you can't take all your spells with you, take lots of scrolls they're not affected by any of this rival-power/plane stuff.

POWER KEYS
We're marooned in Battor,
You've lost the gate key,
a dozen pit fiends are headed this way,
the paladin is down and might be dead,
and your power key's a fake - so what?
- Hortaz of the Bleak Cabal

A priest, because a plane's home to his high-up man, can also discover power keys. A power key doesn't just restore a spell to normal (like a spell key does), it makes the spell work even better than before. For instance, a cleric who has the right key can cast cure light wounds and get the maximum effect every time. Power keys are rare, very rare, and the priest who knows one should count himself a lucky soul. Whereas general and specific keys are just part of the planar landscape, power keys (as their name says) are created by the powers themselves.

A power key can change anytime the deity wills it, so there's no promise that a priest can use the same key forever. Odin might teach one of his priests a rune that's a power key to improve all divinations. If that priest should foolishly go out and teach this to all his disciples, Odin might get offended and change the power key so the priest's rune no longer works.

The gods use power keys to reward faithful servants or as extra muscle on a particularly dangerous quest, and they only pass them out to those who deserve them. A priest can't request a power key or even find one in a treasure trove. The best guess as to why power keys are so carefully guarded is that each costs the deity a tiny portion of its might. Not many deities relish the idea of weakening themselves, so power keys are pretty rare.

There's one risk in using power keys that should be mentioned, particularly to priests on the Lower Planes. More than a few of the evil powers enjoy making false power keys. It amuses them no end to let out the chant that standing on one foot while casting a spell or plucking the feathers from a chicken will work as the power key to a whole group of spells. If a priest's lucky, this humor won't cause anything worse than not having a key at all. More likely, the false power key's going to alter the spell in ways the priest surely won't want. In other words, when a berk gets a key, he'd better make sure it's from his deity and not some rival.

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MAGICAL ITEMS

Most magical items are bound by the same rules and limitations as wizard spells when it comes to functioning on the planes. Take a wand of fire to the plane of Water and all it's really good for is making harmless bubbles of steam. A wand of wonder, which uses wild magic, is a useless stick on orderly Mechanus. And unlike spells, there are no keys to make magical items work properly. Table III in the next column lists magical items and the spell school equivalents they fall into. Refer to Table II for specific alteration effects on magical items.

TABLE III: SPELL SCHOOL EQUIVALENTS OF MAGICAL ITEMS*


Potions and Oils  generally fall in the alteration school, changing the user in some fashion.
Philters  are usually enchantment/charms.
Protection Scrolls  are abjurations.
Rings  fall into several categories, depending on function. Most are either alteration (ring of blinking, ring of fire resistance) or enchantment/charm (ring of human influence, ring of mammal control). Rings that project energy (ring of the ram) are invocation/evocation. Those that call on beings are conjuration/summoning. A ring of protection or a ring of spell-turning uses abjuration magic. Rings with several uses abide by the af fects of the "spell" being cast at the moment.
Wands  are generally of the invocation/evocation school.
Staves  are affected according to the spell being cast. Weaponlike functions use alteration magic.
Rods  either go by the spell-like power used at the moment or use alteration magic for weaponlike abilities. Several rods (the rod of rulership, rod of beguiling, rod of splendor, and the rod of terror) use enchantment/charm magic.
Miscellaneous Magical Items  can use the full range of magic schools. The best approach is to compare the item's effects to existing spells. Bracers of brachiation are alteration magic, Bucknard's everfull purse is conjuration/summoning, and a libram of gainful conjuration is necromantic (since it adds life energy in the form of a new level).
Artifacts  are unaffected by the planes. Unless specifically noted otherwise, an artifact functions normally on all planes, although even the effects of an artifact are subject to the natural laws of the plane. Thus, an artifact that creates a massive fireball cannot overcome the problems facing fireballs within the solid ocean of the plane of Water.
*  When determining the planar effect on a special magical item, compare it to existing spells - a potion of healing would be classified as being in the same school as a cure light wounds spell, and a ring of flying would be from the same school as a fly spell. When there is no clear match for a magical item, the type of item can be used to determine any alteration, as determined in Table III. called.

MAGICAL WEAPONS AND ARMOR

When magical weapons and armor are made, they become attuned to the energies of the specific plane on which they are crafted. Move such an item away from that plane and its connection to those magical energies weakens. The further it moves from its home plane, the weaker the item becomes, instantly losing one plus for every plane's distance from its home. For instance, take a sword +2 made on the Prime Material to the Astral or Ethereal Plane and it becomes a sword +1. Carry it further still, to the Outer or Inner Planes, and it becomes just a sword +0, with no magical bonuses at all. Magical armor suffers the same fate. Despite being inert, these items still detect as magical to a detect magic spell or other divination device. Magical items reduced to 0 pluses are effectively inert (until they're moved closer to their home planes). At that point, extra abilities - speech, spell-like powers, and so on - can't be used. (Weapons with multiple pluses, such as a sword +1, +4 vs. lycanthropes, are not rendered inert until the entire +4 bonus is lost.) Note that a sword +2 three times removed from its home plane doesn't become a sword -1. The absolute bottom is 0.

To keep track of this change during a game, affected weapons can be noted in adventure keys by placing the modified bonus to hit in parentheses - for example: sword +2 (+1). An inert blade would be noted as a sword +2 (0). An inert item isn't completely useless, for it can still be used against creatures that can only be hit by any magical weapon. If a +1 or greater enchantment is specified, however, the sword must retain at least that many bonuses to be effective.

Those bloods who figure cursed weapons are affected in the same way will have to pike it when they exercise the theory. A cursed blade interacts directly with its wielder no matter where he stands, and all the plane hopping in the multiverse won't change that.

When calculating the distance between the current plane and the home plane, the DM should remember that the Astral Plane connects to every Outer Plane and that the Ethereal connects to every Inner Plane. So, if a character on Pandemonium uses a magical sword forged on Gehenna, the sword loses 2 from its pluses because the shortest route traces through the Astral (or the Outlands) to Pandemonium. If the sword's home plane were Limbo, it would only lose 1 plus, since Limbo and Pandemonium are directly adjacent (see the map of the planes). The same pattern applies to the Inner Planes, where the Ethereal serves as the link. The greatest number of planes that can separate two points is four. If an Inner Plane is a weapon's home, the longest path would be Ethereal to Prime Material to Astral to Outer.

When calculating distance, the demiplanes, extradimensional spaces, conduits, color pools, vortices, and everything else have no effect. A demiplane in the Ethereal doesn't count as a separate plane; likewise, a conduit from the Prime Material to an Outer Plane doesn't reduce the number of planes separating the two.

Fortunately, the variety of planar sources isn't that broad, since most weapons and armor the characters are likely to get come from only a few sources. With the exception of those few deities devoted to the forge, the powers discourage folks on their turf from creating magical items willy-nilly. It doesn't do for even their agents to be making themselves powerful without permission, especially not in the eyes of some fiend-princes of the Lower Planes. Petitioners as a rule don't manufacture magical goods, since this doesn't very often bring them to the great reward they're striving for.

Forge work's not barred everywhere, of course, or there'd be no magic at all on the planes. Aside from the odd bit of godly crafting - something no sod is ever likely to stumble over Sigil's well known for its magical paraphernalia. The Great Bazaar (see Sigil and Beyond) in particular is lined with stalls where a forgemaster wizard'll take an order for a bit of custom work. 'Course, it'll cost a cutter a lot of jink to pay for the job, but there's enough money on the planes to keep a dozen wizards in steady work.

The main reason Sigil's got more of this work than anywhere else is because the gods can't interfere with the business there - not at the center of the Outlands, and not on the Lady of Pain's turf. With nothing to prevent their hand, emigrant dwarves, cunning tieflings, and practical humans have all set up shop in relative safety. Relative safety, mind, because there's always the threat of some offended god sending a proxy to put a body in the dead-book. Plus, there's always thieves practicing the cross-trade on lucrative targets.

There's another reason Sigil's weaponry is in demand, a practical one that keeps the business coming. Weapons made in Sigil lose only a single plus on the Great Ring, as the Outlands are adjacent to all the Outer Planes. It's the best place for a planar to make a weapon, short of the Astral, and that plane's too full of dangers.

Another common source of weapons is the Prime Material Plane, as so many primes have been making, trading, and getting themselves killed over magical weapons for eons. 'Course, prime-based weapons suffer the loss of 2 pluses on both the Inner and Outer Planes. This means most prime-material gear is a patch weaker than what a planar might make. All told, the best that can be said of prime weapons is that they're equally disadvantaged on the Inner and Outer Planes.

Because of its importance to a PLANESCAPE campaign, DMs and players should keep track of the home plane of magical weapons - but this doesn't need to be a difficult and secretive process. The source of most weapons made on the planes is easy to tell; a sword made on the Abyss just doesn't look the same as a sword from Mount Celestia. If a basher can't identify the source, there are experts in places like Sigil who will gladly do so (for a fee, of course).

When a magical weapon is discovered, the DM can choose one of three options for its origin. First, it can be given a particular home plane, carefully chosen for some specific adventure purpose. This choice is best reserved for those really rare items made by proxies. Getting and using one of these items is usually a highlight touch to a grand adventure: Braving the 50th layer of the Abyss, the player characters discover the armor and sword of the late Imperious the Faithful, who had been specially outfitted and sent on the same quest the characters are now trying to complete. That'll give the players pause.

Second, the weapon's home plane can be the same as the current plane. This is quick and convenient at the time the weapon's found, but can lead to confusing bookkeeping, especially if the characters travel to several planes and acquire gear on the way. Also, what seems like reasonably good magic when first found can prove weak and nearly useless as the group travels farther away.

The third and easiest solution is to assume the weapon comes from Sigil. This way, most weapon adjustments in the entire party are consistent throughout the majority of the Outer Planes, simplifying bookkeeping for players and DMs. This choice should be used as the default unless stated otherwise. That way it serves as a protection, should the DM forget, the players lose their notes, or some similar calamity occur.

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A DM Guide to the Planes