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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quasqueton" data-source="post: 615256" data-attributes="member: 3854">The "What's Hell Like" thread here today made me think of this again. Something that I haven't been able to really get my mind around in the D&D cosmology is just how planar travel works.I've read the MotP and each of the relavent spells (gate, plane shift, etc.) but I can't put this together.The MotP says the first layer of each outer plane is the entrance/foyer/front door of that plane. For instance, when going to the Nine Hells, the first layer (Avernus) is the entrance. Does this mean that plane shifting (the spell) only takes you to this first level. You then must travel from level to level "internally"? And how is this done? Do you have to plane shift again to get to level 2? Are there portals on the first level that take travellers to the 2nd level? Wouldn't these portals be guarded?How about the 666/infinite layers of the Abyss? Do you have to go from one level to the next in order?Actually, do you have to go to the Astral plane first, then to the first level of the outer plane? This would seem to be the case from reading how the planes are set up, but then none of the spells mention this method. Reading the spells it seems plane shift can take you directly to the outer planes.How about the summon monster or gate spells? Where do the summoned monsters come from? Are you summoning them directly from the outer planes to the material plane, bypassing the planes in between? When you open a gate, does that gate give access to/from any level of any plane, bypassing the planes in between?When you plane shift, you need a tuning fork atuned to the plane you are travelling to. Does this mean a tuning fork for "Hell" and when you shift you arrive in Avernus? Or can you have forks for any specific layer of the plane?Using Hell as an example: say I make a plot where the PCs must go to Nessus, the 9th level of Hell, for whatever reason. Can they go directly? Or must they get to the Astral plane, then to Avernus, then to Dis, so on and so on. Either plane shifting nine times in, then nine times out, or finding the official (or possibly hidden) portals to travel to the next level. Could they gate directly to Nessus?I like the idea of having to go to each level in turn (including a trip through the Astral), but none of the rules and non-rule official material follow the pattern explained in the MotP.Hows does planar travel work exactly?Quasqueton</blockquote>

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