Planescape 5e Planescape- What would you like to see in the upcoming setting?

I'm A Banana

Potassium-Rich
I'd really like to get back to Priests being able to worship whole pantheons, concepts, or philosophies, so that playing a Cleric is simply a matter of "pick a Domain you like, then worry about who/what/where/why/when you worship, be it an established deity or a fringe cult somewhere".

Man, I have come Cleric Hot Takes...
Not every god should have a cleric.

Why does the God of Thieves have clerics? Why does the God of Nature have clerics? Why isn't the most ardent follower of the God of Fighters a fighter instead of a cleric? Why is there an Arcana domain when the Wizard class is right there?

The 5e cleric has something like a billion different domains. It seems so broad, conceptually. Why can't we focus the cleric a little more, let it be its iconic healing/protecting/bonking/enhancing self, and then put divine powers in the hands of other classes, too?

Instead of the Trickery domain, we have a Rogue subclass that gains powers from the God of Thieves. Instead of a Nature domain, we have...druids. Instead of an Arcana domain, we have divinely-guided wizards who learn relevant cleric spells.

The other side of that coin is: not every cleric needs a god. Worship a pantheon, worship a concept, worship some spirits, you're still a cleric and you still have cleric-y powers: healing, protection, some skill with a weapon.

Not every god needs a cleric, not every cleric needs a god, other classes can be divinely powered, we don't need a dumptruck of domains.

They are unimportant in Sigil, they are EXTREMELY important everywhere else. They can literally change the plane's geography or lock you out from visiting it.
I think a PS setting should be mainly about Sigil (PS is not a Manual of the Planes), anyway, which is why I won't miss the fantasy-historical deities too much if they're gone. But I do kind of want them. "All the mythoi got together for a party, and Odin and Ra and Athena all hang out and smoke weed behind the bleechers and talk naughty word about Tlaloc and Gruumsh" is a nice way to show how, in PS, even the most powerful of creatures is a character, with wants and desires and hopes and fears and flaws and quirks. All these pantheons add some kick to the Athar and the Godsmen and the other athiest-esque factions.

Not impossible to get at without the fantasy-historical pantheons, but they do add to the vibe nicely.
 

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James Gasik

Pandion Knight
Supporter
Man, I have come Cleric Hot Takes...

Not every god should have a cleric.

Why does the God of Thieves have clerics? Why does the God of Nature have clerics? Why isn't the most ardent follower of the God of Fighters a fighter instead of a cleric? Why is there an Arcana domain when the Wizard class is right there?

The 5e cleric has something like a billion different domains. It seems so broad, conceptually. Why can't we focus the cleric a little more, let it be its iconic healing/protecting/bonking/enhancing self, and then put divine powers in the hands of other classes, too?

Instead of the Trickery domain, we have a Rogue subclass that gains powers from the God of Thieves. Instead of a Nature domain, we have...druids. Instead of an Arcana domain, we have divinely-guided wizards who learn relevant cleric spells.

The other side of that coin is: not every cleric needs a god. Worship a pantheon, worship a concept, worship some spirits, you're still a cleric and you still have cleric-y powers: healing, protection, some skill with a weapon.

Not every god needs a cleric, not every cleric needs a god, other classes can be divinely powered, we don't need a dumptruck of domains.

At least in 2e, you had a lot of "the followers of the God of Thieves are multiclassed priest/thieves, even if they would not normally be allowed to do this", or "followers of this God of War gain the extra attacks of Fighters", which sort of made more sense.
 


In my game Aoskar isn't so dead... or at least his divine power has got a new onwer.

And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be runnin' up that road
Be runnin' up that hill
Be runnin' up that buildin'

Say, if I only could, oh ;)

The infinitite stair could be reimagined to reuse all the rich mythology about the "backrooms".

86-866335_shoots-the-head-off-of-one-of-them.png


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Maybe there is a dread domain working like a grimm parody mixing Sigil and the infinite staircase.

There was a potential in the wood elemental plane.

The mirror plane is potentially interesting. This should show more than only your opposite-aligment clone.

---

No news about new species? The ardlings, the glitchlings, the bariaurs..
 


cbwjm

Legend
At least in 2e, you had a lot of "the followers of the God of Thieves are multiclassed priest/thieves, even if they would not normally be allowed to do this", or "followers of this God of War gain the extra attacks of Fighters", which sort of made more sense.
For 5e, you have the acolyte background. That's the sort of thing you could use to lean into the fighter priest of the war god.
 


The cosmology has been set up in the original core books, they aren't going to eliminate anything from although I doubt they will focus on the material or mirror planes.

I think it'll mostly flesh out the Outer, Inner, and Astral Planes. Maybe something on the energy planes.

But no eliminating planes.
I do t think we will get much past outer planes and Sigil. In Fact, i hope that is the case. Otherwise the content would skimpy I would guess
 

There's been a lot of argument over the alignments and realms of real world deities in Planescape back in the 90s, I can see them wanting to avoid such things, even if it's something like "Why does Ares have a realm in Chaotic Good Arborea, when he's Chaotic Evil?"
 

James Gasik

Pandion Knight
Supporter
There's been a lot of argument over the alignments and realms of real world deities in Planescape back in the 90s, I can see them wanting to avoid such things, even if it's something like "Why does Ares have a realm in Chaotic Good Arborea, when he's Chaotic Evil?"
Or the Gods whose home plane is somehow the Prime Material.
 

Planescape makes a lot of sense to assign some of the gods the newer domains since the original PHB, they've already made suggestions for the domains, it shouldn't be too hard to add more domains to them.
Not really as mentioned gods are pretty unimportant to the primary Planescape experience.
 

Not really as mentioned gods are pretty unimportant to the primary Planescape experience.
2e Planescape devoted an entire book to the gods and their followers - On Hallowed Ground.

Multiple adventure seeds in the books involved going to one divine realm or another to interact with the god(s) that rule it, or doing something specifically because of the machinations of the gods.
 


Parmandur

Book-Friend
2e Planescape devoted an entire book to the gods and their followers - On Hallowed Ground.

Multiple adventure seeds in the books involved going to one divine realm or another to interact with the god(s) that rule it, or doing something specifically because of the machinations of the gods.
How many products came out for Planescape prior to On Hallowed Ground...? Wouldn't that make the case that it is not necessarily a primary part of the experience?
 

I do t think we will get much past outer planes and Sigil. In Fact, i hope that is the case. Otherwise the content would skimpy I would guess

I think we will get something for the transitive planes and Inner Planes, but that won't take up much space.

Honestly I hope they pushed Sigil into the adventure, instead of the Gazetteer, the Planes interest me alot more then Sigil.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend
I think we will get something for the transitive planes and Inner Planes, but that won't take up much space.

Honestly I hope they pushed Sigil into the adventure, instead of the Gazetteer, the Planes interest me alot more then Sigil.
The Rock of Bral made up a fair bit of Spelljammer, and probably would have been enlarged if that book had a larger wordcount.

The art so far seems Sigil-centric, and Sigil is a little more Adventure-friendly than the Outer Planes most of the time.
 

I think we will get something for the transitive planes and Inner Planes, but that won't take up much space.

Honestly I hope they pushed Sigil into the adventure, instead of the Gazetteer, the Planes interest me alot more then Sigil.
I mentioned earlier that I think that this will mainly focus on the Outer Planes, and leave the Inner and other planes basically to be fleshed out elsewhere. Honestly, with just 96 pages (barring anything that could appear in the adventure book), there really isn't going to be room for much outside Sigil and the Outer Planes. My guess right now would be roughly 1/8 general setting info, 5/8 Outer Planes, and 1/4 Sigil. 24 pages for Sigil is roughly about what Waterdeep and Sharn got in their books, after all (and I would guess that some Sigil locations will appear and be described in the adventure). 60 pages for the Outer Planes is just a bit less than what they got in the 3e MoP, so that would be adequate for a reasonable overview.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend
I mentioned earlier that I think that this will mainly focus on the Outer Planes, and leave the Inner and other planes basically to be fleshed out elsewhere. Honestly, with just 96 pages (barring anything that could appear in the adventure book), there really isn't going to be room for much outside Sigil and the Outer Planes. My guess right now would be roughly 1/8 general setting info, 5/8 Outer Planes, and 1/4 Sigil. 24 pages for Sigil is roughly about what Waterdeep and Sharn got in their books, after all (and I would guess that some Sigil locations will appear and be described in the adventure). 60 pages for the Outer Planes is just a bit less than what they got in the 3e MoP, so that would be adequate for a reasonable overview.
Sharn got 32 pages, whereas Khorvaire and and the rest of Eberron got 47 pages. A little more than thst for the Outer Planes, and a few pages of PC options, seems doable.

What sort of PC options, I wonder? We got the "Glitchling"/Modron explicitly in UA along with a bunch of Feats, but perhaps they will put the Ardling in here? Reprints of Assamkr, Genesis, and Gith seem quite likely, anything else...?
 



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