D&D 5E Astral Sea and Wildspace in the 5e Cosmology

[Umbran]

Of course this raises the question, why not just develop a spell that moves your ship directly to the Astral, or open a Gate and sail through?

Simple answer - those spells require a spellcaster of sufficient level to cast them. Then your ship doesn't move without that high level spellcaster. Gate, for example, is a 9th level spell, and will only admit things at most 20' across. That's a bit of a limit if you want t move a lot of cargo...

We don't know how helms for the new Spelljammer will work yet, but broadly - By Xanathar's rules, you don't need to cast spells to make a magic item in 5e, so if you have the recipe to build the helm, you no longer need that rare high level spellcaster.

 

[Staffan]

We don't know how helms for the new Spelljammer will work yet, but broadly - By Xanathar's rules, you don't need to cast spells to make a magic item in 5e, so if you have the recipe to build the helm, you no longer need that rare high level spellcaster.

In OG Spelljammer, making helms was a proprietary technology of the Arcane (later renamed as Mercane, I believe). I don't know if that's a thing they'll keep, but it was there in the old rules.

As for the physical properties of Wildspace, space in Spelljammer was still a vacuum. The main thing that worked differently was gravity. Every "loose" object would exert its own gravity of 1G. Small things (like people) would tend to have this gravity pointing toward their center, but larger things would create a gravity plane. This gravity would hold an envelope of air close to either a person or a vessel. That's why the knight can stand on the open deck of their squid ship and breathe freely, not because there's air/ether in space.

 

[Staffan]

Of course this raises the question, why not just develop a spell that moves your ship directly to the Astral, or open a Gate and sail through?

That's always been one of the big meta-questions about Spelljammer: why go to all the trouble and expense of traveling through space to get from Greyhawk to Waterdeep when plane shift is right there?

The answer, of course, is that plane shift is a 5th level spell (in 2e – 7th in 5e). So that would indicate that spelljamming would be a thing mostly for low-to-mid-level characters, before plane shift becomes available. Plane shift also requires a key in the form of a tuning fork, with each plane requiring a different key. This means that plane shift is mostly useful if you know where you're going, and not for exploring to see what's out there.

 

[Hussar]

That's always been one of the big meta-questions about Spelljammer: why go to all the trouble and expense of traveling through space to get from Greyhawk to Waterdeep when plane shift is right there?

The answer, of course, is that plane shift is a 5th level spell (in 2e – 7th in 5e). So that would indicate that spelljamming would be a thing mostly for low-to-mid-level characters, before plane shift becomes available. Plane shift also requires a key in the form of a tuning fork, with each plane requiring a different key. This means that plane shift is mostly useful if you know where you're going, and not for exploring to see what's out there.

Additionally, isn't Plane Shift limited to 8 people? That's not a lot of cargo. Could be a work around if you start using bags of holding and the like, I suppose, but, it also might just be one of those things we're not supposed to question as it's a lot more fun if we have honking big flying ships.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

That's always been one of the big meta-questions about Spelljammer: why go to all the trouble and expense of traveling through space to get from Greyhawk to Waterdeep when plane shift is right there?

That's a bit like asking why would you sail from Waterdeep to Neverwinter when you could teleport instead.

 

[Rogerd1]

Here's a KS book that would work great with Spelljammer

Skyraiders of Abarax: A 5E world from Tracy & Laura Hickman

A sky-high fantasy world discovered through magical books brought to life with our unique ‘Living Tome System.’

www.kickstarter.com

 

[beancounter]

Personally, I'd prefer to keep the Astral plane strictly as a way to travel between planes (9 hells, 7 heavens, etc.) rather than mixing it with outer space and traveling between planets

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try.

 

[Rogerd1]

I would be inclined to steal from Palladium on this one.

Astral Domains: This is where the mystical entities reside.
Astral Kingdoms are demi-planes that could literally be anything - Including the 5e KS Hereafter (it looks neat), or Kisarta.
Astral Sea is where the players travel.

Personally, I'd prefer to keep the Astral plane strictly as a way to travel between planes (9 hells, 7 heavens, etc.) rather than mixing it with outer space and traveling between planets

You could use what was in 4e, or steal blatantly from Champions rpg on this one.

 

[Umbran]

In OG Spelljammer, making helms was a proprietary technology of the Arcane (later renamed as Mercane, I believe). I don't know if that's a thing they'll keep, but it was there in the old rules.

Okay. I don't think that changes my point in the slightest.