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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mythmere" data-source="post: 1565705" data-attributes="member: 7995">Thanks, Piratecat!Here is how I've structured things: please comment further if you have any thoughts!1) I've resolved my folded space issue (you're just twisting prime material, not affecting other planes, which explains the relatively low level of the magic involved).2) The astral is important because, per the rules, "Deities and other beings who rule a planar realm can prevent a gate from opening in their presence or personal desmesnes if they so desire" - description of Gate spell.  Contested planes or multi-deity planes (ie the larger ones) won't have such locks for the entire plane (I assume a key of some kind permits gating into locked planes; a good source of adventures).  The astral projection spell suggests that a gate is not necessary for an astral traveler to enter another plane: "To enter [another plane], you leave the astral plane, forming a new physical body (and equipment) on the plane of existence you have chosen to enter." - Astral Projection spell descr.  A gate spell can be locked out, but astral projection does not require a gate.  We must assume that being in the astral itself makes some other kind of access possible; an actual boundary (this is the MOP term: ie, a permeable connection) must connect each plane to the astral from (at the least, at a single point on each plane).  Otherwise, astral projection would require some other means of moving from the astral to the targeted plane; a gate.  I assume this permeable boundary is a planar anchor of some kind connecting the plane to the astral.  Such points might be well defended in locked planes, but accessible to peaceful traders or well-armed raiders who take the time to actually move from one place to another in the astral.Why don't the traders and raiders just gate to the boundary?  I assume a gate or teleport cannot target astral substance; only the material floating in the astral can be located (astral substance is utterly indistinguishable).  Matter in the astral, on the other hand, is not actually astral.  It's matter.  For all intents and purposes, a speck of material floating in the astral is a demiplane.  The only distinction is that matter IN the astral has a boundary with the astral in all dimensions, whereas "true" planes and demiplanes have only the one anchoring boundary I have proposed to explain the astral projection spell.  Okay, so how does Astral Projection find the right place if a gate spell can't?  Maybe because it's a divine spell.  Maybe Astral projection can be blocked like a gate spell, but the PH fails to mention it.  Maybe because it is a specifically astral spell that can work within the structure of the astral itself rather than being designed to punch through the astral, as a gate spell is designed to do.  I favor the latter explanation, because it requires the least nerfing.Regardless of the explanation of Astral Projection, Astral Projection can be understood to be useless for any purpose other than arriving at the boundary-point in projected form.  You can't use it to "spot" for a gate spell as a forward observer, because you still won't see anything other than indistinguishable astral substance; there's nothing for the gate spell to grab hold of.  If you want to get there physically, you have to travel physically in the astral from a gate-accessible point, ie, an island in the astral or one of the other places where there is an astral landmark.And there is a major downside to astral projection.  As I read it, you can't take anything back with you.  If you want to buy something cool in the astral plane, you've got to be there physically.Second, I assume an astral-to-astral gate is not possible, just as a prime material to prime material gate is not possible.Economic consequences?  If an island in the astral has a product (souls, magic items, information, etc), the only way to move it to a protected plane is to ship it through the astral, physically.  Once your ship is there, you could use the ship as the target for your gate, so many astral trade-ships might not carry their goods; they would be spotters, heavily armed to protect themselves (the value of such a ship would be huge), but actually gating the trade goods to the ship upon arrival.There.  My theory of the astral is developed.  It is entirely conceivable that traders and raiders would fill the astral plane, and the islands of physical matter in the astral plane will have huge economic importance to such trade.</blockquote>

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