MotP: Timeless pocket dimension

[cantrip]

I don't know what domain (if any) its given in MotP, but I know its in there. I'm almost positive that its also in the ELH, but buried pretty deeply.

In Deities and Demigods it's Creation 9... ELH page 117 has it as Sor/Wiz 9, Creation 9. Couldn't find it in MotP, but the Planeshifter PrC's 10th level ability would do the trick.

 

[Darklone]

Thanks everyone

I keep the "no spell preparation" cause it makes sense to me and looks like a nice defensive measure for an archmages hometurf (did I mention that he has a small exit in his workroom to another demiplane with faster timeflow where he usually prepared spells )?

I do like those aging possibilities somehow ...

 

[Li Shenron]

Sleeping, aging and eating: Ah, right, I remember that part in the book... Boah that's evil. Most of the dudes who are stuck there will turn to dust when the players manage to take them out there. Well. That's better for the PCs than what would have happened with the imbedded slaad eggs in all those guys.

Although this is what some authors have suggested, I don't myself suggest you to do the same about sleeping/eating/aging. I played as suggested once, and I was severly blasted by my players afterwards...

First of all, "timeless" does not mean that your time is slowed to zero, which would mean that you stay there one second and when you come back the world has already ended.
In a "timeless" plane, everything which depends on the passage of time is "frozen" (admittedly, it could be simply reduced to a minimum advancement).
It is not the same thing, and when coming back to your material plane after one hour you could either find out that on earth less or more than an hour or also exactly an hour has passed. Unfortunately IMHO the authors have messed up a little between the idea of having the time running at a different speed (see "flowing time" or "erratic time") and the idea of time having a different effects of creatures: someone on a plane with flowing/erratic time would not notice anything different until they come back to earth and see that for the others time has flown faster/slower.

That said, what effect the time has on you on a plane such as a "timeless" one (or there could be a plane with accelerated effects, although this is not included in MotP's examples) has nothing to do with your coming back to your original plane. You stay 1 year in a "timeless" plane without need to sleep or eat and you don't age, diseases/wounds don't naturally heal but also don't get worse and so on... when you come back IMHO you should really start from whatever condition you are NOW.

If you prefer the idea from MotP, that basically the "timeless" plane is instead accruing all those effects in some kind of "buffer", ready to release them all at once whenever you leave the plane, you are welcome to do so, but I really suggest you to inform your players beforehands. I didn't, and I was criticised a lot for my lack of logic - which of course is not completely mandatory in D&D, but it's still in the mind of many players and it helps playing well.

BTW, I guess you could treat the eggs in the same way, whichever the way you choose: either their idle time is simply suspended while there, or the hatchling is simply buffered and they get released at once when they exit.

 

[Darklone]

Eeks!

Hatchling released at once... OMG. I'll do that

Logic: My players are still newbies at heart (I'm glad for it) and still not in the phase where D&D players try to apply logic... too much at least.

But thanks for the hints.

 

[Piratecat]

Darklone, you didn't fumble. What a great idea! Hopefully the PCs will adopt it as their own. then the wizards enemies can attack, along with people who want to live forever on a tropical island...

Seriously, it's a dozen adventures waiting to happen. Nice work.

 

[Darklone]

Ehm... not really, Pcat

Something the players don't know:
The apprentice of the apprentice of the apprentice of the wizard who build it (he was lvl 19 and developed some level 9 spells, his first apprentice was even more powerful but used his power for more mundane matters... such as ruling a city for some years till they found some nice adventurers who got rid of him) ah well, the right now living apprentice after all (with key and everything to that tower) is one of their good "friends".

He just lost a little bit focus in his life after he got infected with lycanthropy and rules the wererats in Zoa now... Not that he was that focused before it happened (Arcane Trickster build).

So after the PCs fought and fumbled their way through the mostly empty tower (with lots of rampant monstrosities from the "experimental summoning chamber" and lots of animated objects servants from the "experimental golem manufacture") he will most likely be there to offer tea. At least I don't think the players will disable the warning devices in front of the real wizard chambers which will send him a message.

Problem: The players are there to "recover" some Golem Manuals since the sorceress in Zoa lost her house (a golem) to help them... And some of them signed an insignificant paper with blood to help her out with that minor task ...

Edit: Please everyone keep posting, whether you believe it or not this is my first real "plane-hopping" stuff since 10 years and your posts have been a great help so far!