Planescape Planescape: Fantasy Taken to the Edge (5e conversion)

With Planewalker, the official fan site recovering from a crash, I started this thread for converting the beloved Planescape setting to 5th edition.

Races, Factions as backgrounds, Spells & Magic Items, and more will appear here as I convert them. And by all means, you're welcome to contribute your own conversions!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Variant Rules
Power of Belief: Inspiration Variant (this post, scroll down)

Portals
The Portal Resource (random tables; links to r/DnDBehindtheScreen)

Planar Races
Aasimar, variant
Tiefling, variant
Rogue Modron

Magic
Planar Spell Effects

Factions
Athar
Believers in the Source
Bleak Cabal
Doomguard
Dustmen
Fated
Fraternity of Order
Free League
Harmonium
Mercykillers
Revolutionary League
Sign of One
Society of Sensation
Transcendent Order
Xaositects

External Resources
Player's Guide to Planescape - GoogleDrive PDF (found online)
[MENTION=6981727]Lennon M[/MENTION]'s Random Planar Portal Tool
Infinite Planes Player Companion – GoogleDrive PDF (my most up-to-date work)
Monster Conversions at Planewalker.com
[SBLOCK=monsters converted by CR]
Astral Searcher CR 1/2 (by [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION])
Vargouille CR 1/4 (by [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION]), official version in Volo's Guide to Monsters
Cranium Rats CR 2, 4, or 6 (by [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION]), official version in Volo's Guide to Monsters
Dabus CR 1 (by [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION])
Yagnoloth, Yugoloth CR 11 (by [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION]), official version in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Maelephant CR 8 (by [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION])
Widdershins CR 9 (new monster by [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION])
Minion of Set CR 3 (by [MENTION=71130]Delazar[/MENTION])
Gohei P'oh CR 1/8 (Kara-tur monster by [MENTION=71318]Wick[/MENTION]e)
Aleax CR variable (by [MENTION=71130]Delazar[/MENTION])
Nic'Epona CR 4 (by [MENTION=71130]Delazar[/MENTION])
Spirit of the Air CR 5 (by [MENTION=71130]Delazar[/MENTION])
Vortex CR 1/2 (by [MENTION=71130]Delazar[/MENTION])
Marraenoloth, Yugoloth CR 7 (by [MENTION=71130]Delazar[/MENTION]), official version in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Decaton, Modron CR 9 (by [MENTION=71130]Delazar[/MENTION])
Nonaton, Modron CR 10 (by [MENTION=71130]Delazar[/MENTION])[/SBLOCK]

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The Power of Belief
Belief can move mountains, and in the Planescape setting that's literal, cutter. 5th edition's Inspiration mechanic is translated as the power of a character's beliefs (their ideals) manifested.

Gaining Inspiration
When a PC acts in accordance with one of their ideals in the face of great cost or personal loss, the PC gains Inspiration. Nearly dying (or actually dying) on a quest, sustaining a debilitating disease or injury, sacrificing something precious, forgoing important personal (or group) goals, refusing to comply and expecting to be severed punished for it - these are all examples of great costs or personal losses. It's important to remember that sacrificing a healing potion to save an NPC ain't necessarily Inspiration-worthy; however, if it clearly supports those of the PC's ideals and the PC (or other party members) could really use that healing potion, then it's definitely Inspiration-worthy.

Note that this system may or may not replace Inspiration as a reward for playing up your PC's flaws. For example, some flaws might be explained as beliefs (albeit unhealthy ones), and therefor indulging or acting them out at great cost might be worth Inspiration. This is for the DM to decide.

Using Inspiration
Inspiration lets you "break the rules" of the planes. In addition to spending Inspiration to gain advantage, you can instead call upon one of these options:

Attune to Touchstone: Attune to a planar touchstone, much in the same way as one would attune to certain magic items. You can only be attuned to one touchstone at a time.

Eschew Components: Wield your Inspiration as a spellcasting focus, ignoring the need for components for a particular spell.

Faction Feats: Faction feats grant you new uses for Inspiration. For example, the Athaon (Athar) feats lets you use Inspiration to banish celestials, fiends, proxies, and petitioners.

Gain an Intuitive Clue: Ask the DM a question or ask for a hint. It is up to the DM how much he or she reveals. This is intended to replace Intelligence/Wisdom checks for gaining hints. It reflects the PC being in tune with the cadence of the planes.

Outer Planar Metaphysics: Many Outer Planes provide new uses of Inspiration; sometimes these are limited to those of a certain alignment,but sometimes they are available to anyone. For example, on Mount Celestia you can spend Inspiration coupled with good deeds to ascend the slopes, whereas in the Gray Waste you may spend it to stave off the wasting sickness.

Reshape the Planes: You can literally reshape the planes with the power of belief. Unlike other uses of Inspiration, this often requires consecutive or simultaneous uses of Inspiration & some adventuring, particularly to achieve the more dramatic effects. Some of the possibilities include:

• (1 Inspiration)
• (2 Inspiration) Stabilize a shifting conduit/portal leading to a plane with an ideal/alignment similar to your own.
• (3 Inspiration)
• (4 Inspiration)
• (5 Inspiration) Shift a gate-town on the verge of slipping from the Outlands to a neighboring plane (or vice versa). Or shift a realm in upheavel within a plane to another location within the same plane (provided no god contests you).

EDIT: Still brainstorming uses (and valuations of the uses) for Reshape the Planes.

Planar Races

Primes and planars...you'll hear Planewalkers use those terms, but what do they mean?

"Planars" are born and bred on the planes, including aasimar, bariaur, genasi, githzerai, githyanki, rogue modron, nathri, planar half-elves, planar humans, tieflings, and stranger beings. Their extradimensional blood allows them to perceive the slight shimmering outline of inactive portals. However, they can be banished and summoned like other creatures of the planes.

"Primes" are folks from the Prime Material Plane worlds like Oerth & Abeir-Toril; typically they are seen as a bit provincial at best and just clueless at worst. Because of their origins, primes aren't subject to being banished or summoned. They can't perceive portals either. Instead, primes have an intangible magic silver cord which tethers them to their home world thru the Astral Plane and allows them to travel via the Astral Projection spell. Now that's a trick a planar can't do, though silver cords bring risks all their own...

I mentioned stranger races on the planes, and it's true we haven't seen half of what's out there! That's why this guide lays out the chant of the latest study from famed planar biologist Gorad Drummerhaven's apprentice on the Racial Composition of Planewalkers and Other Folk Who Risk Death, Dismemberment, Petrification...and Insanity on the Planes. This includes notes on the bladeling, ephemeral, foo dog, fused being, godling, mimir, petitioner, rutterkin, tso, and Yggdrasil spirit.

Where to begin? At 'A' of course!

AASIMAR

Aasimar are plane-touched mortals who can feel the majesty of the Upper Planes in their blood. Many are the descendants of rare coupling between mortals and celestial a such as deva & planetar collectively known as "aasimon" (hence the name). Others were human once but some incredible event on the Upper Planes - such as accessing a potent planar touchstone - infused them with celestial energy. And others still are mortal incarnations of celestial a that have taken on the guise of mortal flesh to better understand humanity or aid the fight against evil.

Aasimar Names: Aasimar often adopt human names to better blend in and not attract attention. However, some celebrate their exalted heritage by assuming names usually associated with saints and celestials. Male: Aritian, Beltin, Cernan, Cronwier, Eran, Ilamin, Maudril, Okrin, Parant, Gural, Wyran, Zaigan. Female: Arken, Arsinoe, Davina, Drinma, Imeash, Masozi, Nijena, Niramour, Ondrea, Rhialla.

Traits
Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Wisdom and +1 Strength or Charisma.
Age: Aasimar reach adulthood in their late teens and can live 120 years or longer.
Alignment: Aasimar tend toward good alignments, embodying the virtues of the Upper Planes.
Size: Aasimar about the same height and weight as humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed: 30 feet.
Darkvision: Able to pierce both metaphysical and physical darkness, you can see in dim light within 60 feet as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.
Exalted Spirit: You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.
Radiance Resistance: You have resistance to radiant damage.
Celestial Gift: Choose one spell from this list that you can cast once per day: aid, cause fear, command, daylight, detect evil or good, lesser restoration, zone of truth.
Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Celestial.

Continuing with our look at the plane-touched, here's an entry for everybody's favorite tiefling...

TIEFLING

Tieflings have been touched by the Lower Planes; a shadow of a knife edge in their presence, a dark light in their eyes, a smile that reminds one a bit too much of a leering fiend - whatever it is gives away a tiefling for what they are. Many are the descendants of fiends, though it's best not to probe to deep about the specifics of a tieflings ancestry or they're liable to take it real personal like. Others are humans warped by exposure to powerful Lower Planar energies, such as accessing a potent planar touchstone. And others still are the result of an ancient deal with fiends made by their ancestors that left them cursed. Tieflings, despite their natural charisma, are ostracized across much of the planes, as much due to society's prejudices as due to a tiefling's own dark nature. Because of this it can be hard for many tieflings to trust others, having had no one to rely on but themselves for so long.

Traits
Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Charisma and +1 Intelligence or Dexterity.
Age: Tieflings reach adulthood in their late teens and can live 100 years or longer.
Alignment: While many tieflings are selfish, tending toward neutral, chaotic neutral, or neutral evil, plenty of tieflings defy this stereotype and rise above their base origins.
Size: Tieflings are about the same height and weight as humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed: 30 feet.
Darkvision: Accustomed to Lower Planar realms of metaphysical and physical darkness, you can see in dim light within 60 feet as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.
Fire Resistance: You have resistance to fire damage.
Fiendish Gifts: The default tiefling can cast darkness once per day & has resistance to cold. Tieflings are far from a uniform bunch however, and you may instead roll or choose 2 different gifts from the Fiendish Gift Table.
Unusual Appearance: The default tiefling has goat hooves/legs, a tail, and sharp ears and/or horns. However, tieflings vary greatly in appearance, and instead you may roll or choose 3 times on the Tiefling Appearance Table.
Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and one of these languages of your choice: Abyssal, Daemonic, Infernal, or Lower Planar Trade.

FIENDISH GIFTS TABLE


TIEFLING APPEARANCE TABLE

Quickleaf said:

AASIMAR

Click to expand...

Now that's an interesting picture....

If/when I run my 5E Planescape game, I'm stealing most if not all of Quickleaf's ideas--and my players will be amazed at how smart I am and how much work I put into it.

Great stuff, as usual.

Thanks!

You must spread some Experience Points around before giving it to Quickleaf again.

Click to expand...

I shall return... anon.

TarionzCousin said:

Now that's an interesting picture....

If/when I run my 5E Planescape game, I'm stealing most if not all of Quickleaf's ideas--and my players will be amazed at how smart I am and how much work I put into it.

Great stuff, as usual.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Haha, thanks I am working on genasi now, thinking of giving them one of the Elemental Mantle benefits (it's a level 3 wizard spell in the Basic D&D PDF). Not sure if that would be overpowered, however. For example, a Fire Genasi would have Darkvision, Cast affect normal fires 1/day, and...

Elemental Mantle (Fire): You are immune to fire damage. When a creature within 5 feet makes a melee attach against you they take 1d6 fire damage. In addition, your melee attacks deal 1d6 extra fire damage.

Hmm...definitely overpowered. Maybe I can reduce that to resistance to fire damage? Should I keep the "fire shield" effect of the mantle? Obviously the extra damage will get nixed.

WoTC will come out with planetouched on thier own eventually.

Here is how I would do planetouched, based mechanically on a mix of how the dragonborn and tieflings.



PLANETOUCHED.

Size: Medium

Speed: 30 feet

Darkvision.

Planar Origin:

Pick a Planar Origin

Species/Resistance/Cantrip/ 1st Spell/Second Spell


Devils/Fire/Fire Bolt/Hellish Rebuke/Misty Step
Demons/Cold/Poison Cloud/Darkness/Crown of Madness
Aberrations (Far Realms)/Posion/Vicous Mockery/Confusion/Unseen Servant
Air Elemental/Lightening/Poison Cloud/Gust/Leviate
Fire Elemental/Fire/Fire Bolt/continual flame/Flaming Sphere
Water Elemental/Cold/Ray of Frost/Fog Cloud/Grease
Earth/Acid/Druidcraft/Spider Climb/Hold Person
Angels/Radiant/Thaumaturgy/Healing Word/Bless
Archons/Radiant/Guidance/Cure Wounds/Divine Favour
Elderin/Radiant/Sacred Flame/Blur/Tasha's Hideaus Laughter
Some shadow race/Necrotic/Ray of Frost/Darkness/Misty Step
Fey/Psychic/Minor Illusion/Misty Step/Charm Person

Yeeesssssssssssss!!!!!!

I am definitely subbing to the thread and will give what you have some thought. It might not be for a few months (wrapping up an existing PF campaign with the kids), but I think I'm going to definitely do a 5e Planescape campaign. Been itching to do some sort of Planescape for ever (heck, I owned and ran Planewalker.com for a while and never actually got to play or run a PS campaign, it was a dark time in my gaming days...)

I am thinking it might be time to do that now. I'm going to work on converting over a bunch of the old adventures (well, more like re-imagining them into a level 1-20 campaign, like a lot of 2e published stuff, most all of it was written for mid-level PCs rather than the full range). So hopefully soon, I should be able to start converting over stuff in prep for that even if I don't start playing it for a while.

One thing I was thinking is with the Factions, backgrounds could work, but I think things could be more open and flexible. The original system of everyone who joins the faction has some little neat trick seems too limiting nowadays. Although I'm waiting to see what's in the PHB, my thoughts on Factions were to have recommended (but clearly not required) backgrounds, traits, flaws, and ideals (especially ideals, of course).

Depending on what's in the PHB, maybe come up with some more to round things out for the Factions. I could see some options for Background or two tied to each faction for those who are more devoted, but given how rich backgrounds can be for PCs, I'm not sure about "Faction X is Background Y." Plus you can work faction mechanics into many places depending on how the PC wants to tie themselves to their Faction. I can easily see class options (for example, roguish archetypes) for certain factions, and especially feats for those who want to expand their abilities in ways that really align with their faction (like how PW handled their 3.x conversions).

I think opening it up to allowing PCs (and NPCs) to define how they interact mechanically with their faction would allow a wider range of PC concepts, as well as not trying to fit all of the factions into a single mechanic. Some may work as backgrounds, others as feats, some as class options, etc.

I will probably be diving into detailing out my fuzzy ideas once I have the PHB in hand. But I am eager to see what others come up with. I think it's definitely time for Planescape to rise again.

[MENTION=40359]kenmarable[/MENTION] Cool to hear from you! I remember when you used to manage Planewalker.

Definitely check out [MENTION=2067]Kamikaze Midget[/MENTION] 's excellent faction conversion just down the house rules page, there's a link to his site. Really solid conversion of the spirit of each faction as backgrounds.

My model was to have a group of faction backgrounds and a group of non-faction plant backgrounds (e.g. Chant-Broker, Blood War Mercenary, etc) for those players who just aren't joiners or don't grok the factions. And then each faction has one feat clustering abilities from Factols Manifesto & 3e for those who want greate attention on their faction beliefs / powers. The premise is that since belief is the main theme of Planescspe then factions should be woven into the heart of the game because they represent what character's believe.

I agree that belief needs to be woven into the fabric of the rules for a Planescape game, and factions need to have some presence, but I'm not sure you need factions as background....actually, I am not even sure you need the Big 15 factions. On the story games forums, someone mentioned that in their ideal conversion of Planescape for Burning Wheel there would be a "Faction Burner", a way to generate a planar organization with a coherent belief system and interesting NPCs & adventure hooks.

A question: If factions aren't backgrounds, then what backgrounds do planar PCs choose from?

I had a great look over [MENTION=2067]Kamikaze Midget[/MENTION]'s conversion of several Planescape races and the 15 factions as backgrounds, and it is all superb stuff! Unsurprisingly

Check it out here: http://daedaluswing.wikidot.com/

Rather than recreate the wheel, I thought it would be good if my conversion efforts supplemented the awesome work he has already done. There are things I'm working on both on the Player's side and the DM's side....

On the Player's side, in addition to some really cool bizarre races, I was thinking about factions. Doing them as backgrounds makes sense if you have a game that is 100% Planescape and all the players are on board to play as faction members. But what about games where that's not the case? What about players who love Planescape but just aren't joiners and don't care for the faction philosophies? What about campaigns where clueless primes travel to the planes? What about games where Planescape elements are fused into an existing campaign? Does a "sage" or "urchin" lose their background to gain "Harmonium Member" or "Bleaker"? It's an interesting question... Maybe the easiest answer is to say everything stays the same but the unique feature changes, so the "sage" would lose the "knows where to find the answer" feature for the Harmonium's ability to cast charm person once per day and some perks. Maybe this makes faction background features more potent by design? Cause belief is powerful.

While I'm mulling that over, I know for sure that I want to write up a feat for each faction representing advanced study/great devotion on the part of a character. These will be based on the Factol's Manifesto and the prestige classes that appeared in Dragon magazine. So the idea is that a basic member (namer) in a faction takes the faction background or whatever, but someone with real dedication (a factotum or factor) will then take the feat corresponding to their faction, e.g. Athaon (for Athar) or Entropy Champion (for Doomguard).

Also, as I participate in the Planar Renovation Project over at www.Planewalker.com, I am thinking it will be really cool to compile the reworked planes with a simple 1 or 2 page spread with 5th edition mechanics for the conditions on the plane and effects it has on magic. Since I'd be doing this with an eye toward making the plane imminently usable for my own adventures, it would be very DM-friendly.

Just some initial thoughts. More to come.

In my tackling of this, I basically put the "more powerful" faction abilities into Inspiration. The Harmonium background, for instance, lets you charm someone, but only if you spend your faction-specific Inspiration to do so (so Harmonium members that don't really risk anything for their belief just have the mundane training and guild-like membership benefits, while those that do can shape the multiverse according to their beliefs).

That Inspiration ability could be acquired even if you didn't take the background, by signing up as a member with the faction and living that faction's beliefs (since handing out Inspiration is in the hands of the DM anyway). In fact, it's entirely separate from the in-world organization of the faction -- if someone lives the beliefs of the Dustmen, in a PS game, they should probably earn inspiration for that, even if they DON'T belong to the faction officially.

I'm not sure they're all the most thoroughly balanced, but they're all evocative and interesting ways to spend Inspiration, which was the primary goal here. Balance can come with iteration.

The "feature" of every faction was basically the little membership benefits that being a member gives you. Access to the faction HQ, training, libraries, lore, dormitories, and a way to get to the faction's planar HQ. More about linking you to the setting.

For those of other backgrounds who join the faction anyway (like, a Noble who joins the Bleakers), they don't really get the feature, meaning essentially that this character is more embedded in the setting according to their actual background than their faction membership. A Noble Bleaker is more defined by being a noble than by being a Bleaker, though they are both (and can receive Inspiration for adhering to the Bleaker philosophy as well, and spend it on the Bleaker-specific ability). It matters more what family they're from than what soup kitchen they work at.

So separating out the more powerful special ability into the Inspiration mechanic leaves room for these kinds of distinctions. For instance, a member of the Dust who was a Hermit might be someone who spends most of their time at the Fortress of the Soul contemplating death and who discovered some truth via that. They'd be a member of the Dust, but they wouldn't really use the Mortuary or the Catacombs or become a corpse-collector or make regular use of the portal leading back to the Fortress. They're defined more by their secret discovery than by their faction membership (though they can gain faction inspiration and benefit from the Dead Truce just like any other factioneer).

As a side benefit, this also helps me weave in the faction restrictions from 2e. An Athar member is free to accept healing from a priest of a specific god -- but refusing such healing on the basis of faction belief would be an excellent reason to award an Athar member Inspiration, thus tying the use of their faction ability precisely to the action of adhering to your belief.