D&D General Advice needed for planar adventure...

[aco175]

I kind of picture gates or pools or such in the ethereal that you would just walk through like a normal portal. They might be tied to places in the material of significance such as a place where a demon was slain or an old battlefield. Perhaps there are guardians to battle or play mind games with in a roleplay riddle or such. This can tie with player/PC knowledge of places in the material to boost chances of getting to a portal or at least thinking of where to start.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

It should be noted that:

1. Plane shift requires some kind of item from the destination plane and;

2. if you can get access to a teleportation circle “address”, you can use Plane Shift to travel unerringly to that circle from any other plane. So if there’s a teleportation circle somewhere in Hell and you can get the address, you can use Plane shift to get there.

 

[kigmatzomat]

It should be noted that:
1. Plane shift requires some kind of item from the destination plane and;

5e requires a tuning fork "attuned to a plane of existence". That could be from the plane or just skillfully crafted.

 

[xefic]

As mentioned elsewhere, in "classic AD&D" the Ethereal Plane didn't connect to Hell or any of the Outer Planes. That's what the Astral Plane was for.

That said, it's your world, so the planar architecture is up to you.

I'd focus on players' (not the characters') experience to emphasize the, well, etherealness of the Ethereal Plane, and the weirdness of it. Some quick examples:

- PCs have a long role playing social encounter. later, they discover the person they were interacting with was never there.

- Have encounters where each PC perceives a different antagonist.

- When describing the environment or encounters, don't limit yourself to real adjectives. For example, "You see a pair of snarling lions. One is black, the other is efoirhd." When players ask what that made up word means, just look at them like they're crazy.

- PCs suddenly appear in a new area without traversing the interim distance, like in a dream.

- Causality sometimes works different - narrate effects before causes: "Yes you can try to climb there, but your broken ankle is going to make that difficult." "Wait, what broken ankle?" "You slip on a loose stone and twist your ankle. You hear a sickening crack and feel intense pain."

- And finally, if players get used to creatures in the Material Plane not being able to see them, someone does.

 

[xefic]

Here's the description of the Ethereal Plane from Appendix IV of the original ADD hardcover PHB:

The Ethereal Plane is that which surrounds and touches all of the other Inner Planes, the endless parallel worlds of the universe, without being a part of any of them. Any creature able to become ethereal and then return to material form can use this plane to move from one to another of the Inner Planes...

Encounters from p. 181 of the original hardcover DMG don't include demons, devils, or angels, but do include, for some reason, Nightmares, Lammasu, Ki-rin. And of course, lots of elementals.

 

[Rhemoraz]

Hi all!

Sorry for the silence and TY for the suggestions!

I'm actually running 1e/ AD&D but am very flexible with using ideas from any edition that fits my style.

The aim here is to streamiline & simplify the process. Esp. with regards to spellcasting & affect on magical items, etc.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

As already mentioned, as per 1st edition rules, you can't get to the Hells from the Ethereal Plane. As per 5e rules, being on another plane has a fairly minimal effect on game mechanics.

The big question really is what is your style? The thing about the Ethereal (also applies to some other planes) is there is no world map. Which means the default state is a string of predetermined, possibly randomised, combat encounters. Which may be fine for your game. However, if you want to give your players some agency, I would draw some kind of schematic diagram, with branches based around potential player choices. So you might have Border Ethereal (Home plane), Border Ethereal (adjacent plane), Deep Ethereal (party is lost), Deep Ethereal (party has means of navigation), etc. Around those locations I would scatter one or two guides or other potential solutions to the "how do we navigate this trackless void" issue, which would seem to be the main obstacle for the party to overcome.

The most recent addition to the Ethereal plane is the Radiant Citadel, which lurks somewhere in the Deep Ethereal. The setting, without the adventures from the book, was available as a free download at one time. It doesn't give a way to the Hells, but it does have a location called The Preserve of the Ancients, where primal beings live. I ran a non-combat mini-adventure were the players had to try and get some information from one of the (largely non-vocal) ancients (they didn't know which one). If your players were to get lost in the Deep Ethereal they could stumble upon the Radiant Citadel and seek guidance there.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

If you're running 1e I'd definitely go with the Guide to the Ethereal Plane. It's 2e, so basically everything in it (other than 2e-specific stuff like non-weapon proficiencies that will be irrelevant) should just work without conversion. It includes random encounter tables and other useful bits.