How to get back to the material plane (no wizard)?

[Saeviomagy]

I'd go with Knowledge: Planes for that.

The problem with this is that it basically means that in order to use a spell, you need to have a skill.

It hurts sorcerors quite a bit, because they don't have k as a class skill.

I'd suggest that knowledge of the spell automatically conveys knowledge of the keys for widely known planes. Specifically ones home plane and the plane of ones diety, or possibly some alternate plane in the case of non clerics (ie - the negative plane for necromancers, elemental planes for elementalists etc).

 

[UltimaGabe]

If you're just trying to get back to your home plane, any forked metal rod you own would feasably work for purposes of the Plane Shift spell. After all, what plane would a forked rod be naturally attuned to, other than the one it came from?

Also, there's a spell from Magic of Faerun called Wieldskill. It's a 1st-level Cleric spell that, when cast, grants the creature touched a +10 competence bonus on the skill of your choice for 1 minute/level, provided that the character has ranks in the skill. If he does not have ranks in the skill (and I'm assuming you don't have any ranks in Knowledge: The Planes, otherwise you would have used it) than the creature simply gets half a rank in the skill, allowing him to use it untrained (although not really giving you an increase to your score).

That's always a possibility.

 

[Felix]

I suggest the rogue let the cleric and the paladin go first. When they get eaten by the erbs which surely like [Good] meat, slink away. Now you can actually move around the plane without drawing attention to yourself. Proceed to the first castle you see and appeal to the lord within. Promise a favor in exchange for transport back to the PMP. That's a week tops, and you'll be able to atone for that black spot on your soul; just start doing a lot of [Good] deeds.

Of course, if you are the cleric or the paladin... 4d6 drop lowest.

[EDIT]
Or!
The paladin can summon his mount right? It's always a good animal, and able to communicate in some manner because of its high INT. Summon the mount to that plane, tell it to go recruit some wizardly help from the PMP, dismiss it back to where it usually lives and hunker down for the cavalry to arrive.

 

[Toric An'Cu]

LOL w/ Felix

Too True

 

[Ovinomancer]

The forked metal rod that the spell plane shift uses is very important. According to the spell description, you need a forked metal rod tuned to the plane you wish to travel to. Think of it as a tuning fork, with each pitch tied to a specific plane. You would need to do some research into what rod you need, or find someone to give/sell it to you. Given that demons and devils don't routinely pop onto the material plane, I would assume that not many of them have a forked rod tied to the material or the knowledge of how to make one. Otherwise they'd be popping up everywhere.

Until you can get the appropriate rod tuned to your material plane, keep your heads down and take it one day at a time!

 

[Staffan]

So can we choose what plane it sends us to? Or is that up to the DM? Is there a way we can know (in character) what size and type of metal rod we need? Also, the cleric didn't have the spell prepared - otherwise we would have tried using it to escape (I thought it was going to be a TPK).

Each tuning fork would be linked to one plane, but I think it's a pretty safe bet that the first fork a cleric gets would be the one to his deity's home plane, and the second would be for the Material plane. Since you're 12th level, you've had Plane Shift for a while, and thus probably acquired those.

 

[Thanee]

12th level clerics can call planar allies with the ability to bring them back for sure!

Bye
Thanee

 

[pawsplay]

So you're in Hell? This might be a good time for the Cleric and Paladin to make direct appeals to their deity. Maybe someone will hitch them a ride.

EDIT: Another option would be to try to survive long enough to gain Prestige Classes from the Manual of the Planes.

 

[Stalker0]

12th level clerics can call planar allies with the ability to bring them back for sure!

Bye
Thanee

I agree, that's what that spell is for!!