D&D General How do you handle Astral travel?

It seems kinda hard to have a hidden location in the Astral, where if someone knows of its existence, you think hard and get there...

Maybe that the point? By this time/level its not about the journey, but the destination?

Seems kind of like making players word a wish right of you get to mess with them.

Not even a roll to think of the right place, sort of like Ghostbusters and Staypuff Marshmallow Man.

I do not use the planes that much, so it might never come up in my games, but I do not think I like it like this. Or, maybe it just cuts down on the exploration part of the game and jumps to the next thing.

aco175 said:

Seems kind of like making players word a wish right of you get to mess with them.

Not even a roll to think of the right place, sort of like Ghostbusters and Staypuff Marshmallow Man.

I do not use the planes that much, so it might never come up in my games, but I do not think I like it like this. Or, maybe it just cuts down on the exploration part of the game and jumps to the next thing.

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You would/could assume they are beyond "mere" travelling by this high of level, but I dont think I like it either.
Of course, as the Beyond quote says above, I still get to decide how safe and how "far" away it is.

I made a chart a while back, with familiarity like teleport and DCs. So if you made the DC you prob made it to your destination with only random encounters (astral wind, anubis, etc.), but if you failed the DC, you still made it to the destination with a complication (Staypuff Marshmellow man type thing).

Lets see if I can find it....ah ...

I have not run astral travel in D&D 5e. Back in 2nd edition we ran it, and we had built a time graphic/chart that all of us agreed to beforehand. It had time in other places go by at different rates, and sometimes, we aged at different rates too. It is why my human fighter had to retire - he was suddenly 75 years old after so much astral travel! I will never forget it. I was actually heartbroken at the time, but we had all agreed to the in-house rule.
As far as being a player in 5e, the two DMs that used it made it more fantastical and unique. It was an opportunity to explore. And yes, we did have a few encounters, but for the most part it was contemplative role playing and fantasy exploration.

I use the Ye Old 2E mental movement, so you can think yourself to places.

Really by mid level things are not "hidden" much......

bloodtide said:

I use the Ye Old 2E mental movement, so you can think yourself to places.

Really by mid level things are not "hidden" much......

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Yeah, I'm starting to lean that way.

If i want a "obscure" place to be more difficult to get to, I will have areas like the astral wind surrounding it or something to skill challenge through, like a dangerous barrier like star trek and the great barrier at the center of the cosmos.

My main group has been using Planescape as the setting for a while. Characters can actually get to the Astral Plane at fairly low level if they know of a gate, but once there they have to really be mentally certain about where they are goin. Unprepared characters can easily get lost in the infinite void, and there are many dangers and predators that can sense and prey upon hapless souls. Usually they will try to seek a guide or hire on an Astral ship (I migrated Spelljammer to the Astral a while back before the official 5e release). Moving without a guide or ship will usually be a long journey requiring Int rolls or Arcana to stay on course.

We’ve made a home made Astral map that abstractly places various hot spots and landmarks that we can use to gauge such journeys, even though the distances are not real in a physical sense.