Druids in Sigil? Help!

[On Puget Sound]

I'm starting a campaign based in Sigil, the City of Doors. As I'm considering races and classes and how they would fit in, races are no problem; anything from anywhere could at some point walk, crawl, swim, fly or slither into Sigilvia a portal, and once there, settle down and raise a family. Classes, though, are troubling me. Particularly Primal classes and anything that summons (including shamans, necromancers, beastmaster rangers and many wizards).

What Primal spirits can exist in a plane that has no geography, no native flora or fauna, and no Divine/ Primordial conflict that caused the awakening of Primal powers in the Prime World? And if nothing can ever be summoned into Sigil - nothing, not even a deity, can enter or leave save by a portal - how can I handle classes that summon? Do I just ban those classes and spells?

 

[Shemeska]

I've always had most summon spells act normally, with anything short of a gate simply being allowed by the Lady and rerouted via portals. They essentially operate normally, though perhaps they feel 'off' in a way that doesn't feel right. Gates spells and calling (versus summon) I would have just not function.

I'm going by the 3.x difference between summoning and calling, which may or may not function in 4e mechanics the same way. So keep that in mind. But that's how I'd handle it.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm starting a campaign based in Sigil, the City of Doors. As I'm considering races and classes and how they would fit in, races are no problem; anything from anywhere could at some point walk, crawl, swim, fly or slither into Sigilvia a portal, and once there, settle down and raise a family. Classes, though, are troubling me. Particularly Primal classes and anything that summons (including shamans, necromancers, beastmaster rangers and many wizards).

What Primal spirits can exist in a plane that has no geography, no native flora or fauna, and no Divine/ Primordial conflict that caused the awakening of Primal powers in the Prime World? And if nothing can ever be summoned into Sigil - nothing, not even a deity, can enter or leave save by a portal - how can I handle classes that summon? Do I just ban those classes and spells?

I figure a lot of potential summonable creatures (eg fey spirits from the Feywild, ancestral spirits, elemental spirits) could also have gone through those portals.

You might need to alter the flavor text of some classes. I don't know what beastmaster rangers summon (why does WotC insist on giving rangers magic?) but perhaps they could simply have a companion with them at all times.

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm starting a campaign based in Sigil, the City of Doors. As I'm considering races and classes and how they would fit in, races are no problem; anything from anywhere could at some point walk, crawl, swim, fly or slither into Sigilvia a portal, and once there, settle down and raise a family. Classes, though, are troubling me. Particularly Primal classes and anything that summons (including shamans, necromancers, beastmaster rangers and many wizards).

In the original Planescape boxed set, summoning was possible in Sigil, IIRC. After all, bags of holding still work in Sigil, and those technically (at least in 2e) access extra-dimensional space. For summoning, you might explain it as the caster knowing relevant portal/spell keys unique to Sigil which allow the caster to effectively summon creatures thru a portal. Narrative-wise, you can assume the PC gathers necessary components during downtime, though you could always have a portal sparse zone (either "naturally" or cause of a spell like sure lock/portal ward) where summoning doesn't work or they need to do some footwork to acquire the necessary portal/spell key.

What Primal spirits can exist in a plane that has no geography, no native flora or fauna, and no Divine/ Primordial conflict that caused the awakening of Primal powers in the Prime World? And if nothing can ever be summoned into Sigil - nothing, not even a deity, can enter or leave save by a portal - how can I handle classes that summon? Do I just ban those classes and spells?

Short answer: Don't ban the classes, that defeats a big part of the appeal of a Planescape game - the no holds barred character creation. My short lived 4e PS game had a modron artificer, Minotaur monk, hamadryad Druid, and pixie cavalier!

Long answer: I'd only worry about it if primal spirits etc. will play a significant role in your campaign. If that's the case, consider either ditching the 4e Divine/Primordial/Primal story, or adapt. By adapt I mean there are lots of flora and fauna which have immigrated to Sigil over the centuries. I mean, part of the conceit of Sigil is that you can find *anything* there, right?

Also, bear in mind that in Harbinger House a god exists in Sigil momentarily because he ascends to godhood while within the city. By extension, if you can conceive of a way for a summoned creature to instead be *conjured* from what is alredy present, that might be a good way to handle it. For example, a summon Nature's ally doesn't summon a bear in Sigil, rather it conjures a statue of a bear to life (which returns to stone after serving) or teleports an angry owlbear from a nearby market to serve the caster (and an irate merchant is sure to follow). Just use the normal stats and change the description.

 

[Klaus]

I'm starting a campaign based in Sigil, the City of Doors. As I'm considering races and classes and how they would fit in, races are no problem; anything from anywhere could at some point walk, crawl, swim, fly or slither into Sigilvia a portal, and once there, settle down and raise a family. Classes, though, are troubling me. Particularly Primal classes and anything that summons (including shamans, necromancers, beastmaster rangers and many wizards).

What Primal spirits can exist in a plane that has no geography, no native flora or fauna, and no Divine/ Primordial conflict that caused the awakening of Primal powers in the Prime World? And if nothing can ever be summoned into Sigil - nothing, not even a deity, can enter or leave save by a portal - how can I handle classes that summon? Do I just ban those classes and spells?

Sigil's native fauna include cranium rats, and its flora includes the ubiquitous razorvine.

So what you need to do is twist whatever regular creature the druid hopes to summon into a visually distorted planar creature: a tiger covered in metal scales (like those in Chronicles of Riddick), a gargoyle-like winged lemur instead of a bird, etc.

 

[On Puget Sound]

Thanks for the suggestions! I decided that unintelligent creatures (druid animals, etc.) skate below the Lady's radar; she allows them because it's not worth bothering with. Anything approaching human intellect or more cannot be summoned, so no Angels, Elementals, etc. Shamans' spirit companions are native to Sigil, or possibly twinned parts of the shaman's own soul - no one is sure, but they work, anyway.

This approach just means that a few wizard spells won't work, and I don't mind that - the need to adapt gives the setting some flavor and doesn't hurt anyone's power level as long as alternate spell choices are available.

I'm looking forward to this. The players want to start at first level, which means most published planar encounters won't work. I'm thinking we'll spend the first 5 or 6 levels almost entirely in city - sort of a "Sharn with weirder people", with rare, brief and dangerous portal hops that focus on achieving objectives while avoiding conflict with the way-bigger-than-you inhabitants.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

I think in a place like Sigil, you could also have druids, rangers, and the like tending to parks, wildlife refuges, private menageries, and the like. Places for animals of dead worlds to live, living in isolated environments where the likelihood of them surviving and contaminating other ecosystems is less since Sigil itself has few ecosystems of its own.

Case in point, the Guide to Sigil has sort of a combination of a tavern and park that's called the Green Mill. A large structure somewhat blocked off from the rest of the Lower Ward and kept clean through regular maintenance. It's a favored spot by sylvan creatures and natury-sorts b/c of the large courtyard filled by trees (rumor has it the elves planted a mini-World Tree there). Even the inside of the building itself is forest-like in that it is low-lit and leafy like the inside of an eldritch forest. Its mill is powered by a waterwheel in the nearby Ditch. You could easily expand this into a nature preserve and hub for nature oriented characters (perhaps a permanent portal to the Beastlands or Arborea is nearby?)

 

[Psychotic Jim]

Oh, on summoning, it's almost been my opinion that Sigil almost has its own little personal Astral Plane, since you can still teleport around Sigl (so long as you don't teleport into or out of it). in 3e they had the astral construct psionic power, which created a construct from astral matter. I believed it worked in Sigil as well. If you wanted to, you could treat summoned monsters in Sigil like the astral construct- temporary beings created from astral substance or some otherwise nebulous formless matter that holds Sigil together.