D&D General Favourite Outer Plane?

[Epic Meepo]

I actually love most of them just about equally. But... there are a few that I really don't like. It's simply a matter that if you're in an Outer Plane, it has to feel unworldly. Basically a "we're not on the Material Plane any more, Toto!" situation when you get your bearings and look around. In most cases, this would be instantaneous, but even those that take a few moments for your mind to be blown ("There's land above us where the sky should be!", "The sun/moon isn't rising or setting!", "There's a huge mountain over there with a torus floating above it!") are still good. It's the ones like Arcadia and Elysium, which would be hard to differentiate from Material Plane worlds which are the ones I don't like much. Yes, Elysium has its secrets and trapping mechanism, but that's nowhere immediately apparent, and all Arcadia has is its Storm Kings, something that someone from a deity- and magic-filled Material world wouldn't consider terribly outlandish...

I'd say Arcadia is very alien. The sun is a rotating, hemispherical spotlight that never sets, and rivers inexplicably make perfect 90-degree turns. Plus, it's the only Outer Plane that's being slowly devoured by one of its neighbors, as hives of ant-people slowly drag it into Mechanus from below.

I do think your critique of Elysium is spot-on. It's just not that visually distinct. (Despite that, I'm fond of the way travel works on that plane: as long as you have no interest in performing good deeds, you never reach your destination. It's the most humane defense mechanism of any Upper Plane. An army of demons could invade, and they'd just get lost in the wilderness for the rest of eternity.)

 

[Faolyn]

Time for a lore change!

Or at least a rewrite of the plane to take it from (IIRC) Neutral (Good) to pure Neutral.

 

[Faolyn]

Got any example plothooks? A Plane chock full of Paladins and their gods doesn't feel like a place ripe with adventure

Two LG factions or gods have different viewpoints on what LG means (e.g., greater good potentially being harmful to individual needs) and the PCs get to step in to try to resolve the issue before the factions become zealous. You can potentially play it up that the "greater good" LG was harmful to a small group of people because it "othered" them in some way.

A faction has decided to try to redeem/"convert" fiend souls. Maybe they're doing it through acts of sheer kindness, in the hopes that the fiend will learn to change, especially when bathed by the radiant energies of Mount Celestia's pure goodness. But there was, IIRC, a spell in the 3x Book of Exalted Deeds that captured evil souls in a gemstone for a year and when the year ended, the soul was all shiny and Good. I remember reading a huge thread about it either here or on RPG.net, because the spell's implication was that it mentally tortured the soul for the year--like a lot of things in the BoED, it was Good In Name Only. Whichever way this faction is trying, the adventure is going to be the PCs having to decide if they're going to kill the fiends or let the experiment continue, and if they need to bring the faction to justice for having smuggled Evil into the plane.

There's a MacGuffin that a town is using for an important, but not desperate purpose. Another town needs the MacGuffin for important, but not desperate purpose of their own, and unfortunately, the bureaucracy of Heaven means that it'll be a while before their lower-tier needs are addressed. Will a minor, somewhat Chaotic group in the second town take the law into their own hands? Is there a potential to find or build a second MacGuffin? Can the two towns be persuaded to share it?

 

[Epic Meepo]

Got any example plothooks? A Plane chock full of Paladins and their gods doesn't feel like a place ripe with adventure

To find a certain pilgrimage site, travelers must blaze a trail through an uncharted wilderness, navigate the tunnels beneath an ancient temple, and solve a series of puzzles and riddles. Every leg of the journey is a metaphorical exploration of an important life lesson, chosen by the plane itself to address the needs of the pilgrims making the journey. Travelers who successfully complete the pilgrimage are blessed with a vision of the future (which doubles as a call to action).

 

[TravDoc42]

I'm a big fan of Elysium, with Hades in second place.
Elysium: I'm a big fan of the guardinals, for one thing! And although Elysium may not be as distinct as the other planes, visually, I really like the travel mechanics, the River Oceanus, and the Forgotten Layer of Belierin!

Grey Wastes of Hades: The Grey Wastes are home to a unique type of Evil, one that is rather underappreciated in fiction, IMO: apathetic evil. The very plane itself encourages a traveller to just Give Up, stop caring about anything, and just fade away... Not as dramatic as the Nine Hells' tyranny, or the Abyss' chaos, but as someone who struggles with depression, and sees the damage done by a lack of ability to do anything, it hits close to home.

I might be biased, but reading the old Planescape books, those two grew on me, and they're my favourites as of right now.

 

[Tonguez]

To find a certain pilgrimage site, travelers must blaze a trail through an uncharted wilderness, navigate the tunnels beneath an ancient temple, and solve a series of puzzles and riddles. Every leg of the journey is a metaphorical exploration of an important life lesson, chosen by the plane itself to address the needs of the pilgrims making the journey. Travelers who successfully complete the pilgrimage are blessed with a vision of the future (which doubles as a call to action).

That's a scenario that could happen anyway - in any genre. It's literally the plot of Pilgrims Progress

 

[Epic Meepo]

That's a scenario that could happen anyway - in any genre. It's literally the plot of Pilgrims Progress

Okay, sure. I thought you were requesting plot hooks for adventures that would be thematically appropriate for a plane full of paladins and their gods. I guess I misunderstood.

 

[Faolyn]

Grey Wastes of Hades: The Grey Wastes are home to a unique type of Evil, one that is rather underappreciated in fiction, IMO: apathetic evil. The very plane itself encourages a traveller to just Give Up, stop caring about anything, and just fade away... Not as dramatic as the Nine Hells' tyranny, or the Abyss' chaos, but as someone who struggles with depression, and sees the damage done by a lack of ability to do anything, it hits close to home.

I think that might be why I like the Gray Wastes as well.

 

[Tonguez]

Oceanus does not connect to Byopia, its starts on Elysium, goes through all its layers, then moves on to the First Layer of Beastlands, ...

Ah yeah that was my misremembering - Bytopia is linked to Elysium via underground tunnels

Okay, sure. I thought you were requesting plot hooks for adventures that would be thematically appropriate for a plane full of paladins and their gods. I guess I misunderstood.

Ok, that's fair. My question was more about adventures in Mt Celestia rather than LG adventures generally, in my mind the presence of Paladins already primed for smiting bad guys keeps PCs a bit sidelined.
Nonetheless the Hooks presented certainly can work so I need to be a bit more open minded about it

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Before opening the thread I was debating between Dal Quor and the Shadowfell, before realizing that they're not an "Outer Plane" from the Great Wheel cosmology.

My answer has to be Carceri. IME, most of the other Outer Planes are extremely uninspiring. It has the most interesting premise, being a cosmic prison. But, IMO it's underutilized and not visually how I would imagine a "cosmic prison" plane of existence. I did run a fun side quest in Carceri in one of my campaigns due to an unlucky roll of Prismatic Spray.