Plane Shift to meet your god?

[Iron_Chef]

A favored servant of Bane in the Realms just got the ability to planeshift and wants to use it to meet with his god in Bane's home plane (Acheron?). As you can imagine, this is rather problematic for a DM to decide what to do with, so any suggestions are appreciated.

Have any of you dealt with similar things in the past? I know it says planeshift is rather tricky and you arrive within 500 miles of your destination, but if the spell is being used to visit your god (who is granting you the power to cast the spell in the first place), would it be fair to say it automatically succeeds in getting you to your target destination (your god willing of course)?

How many mortals go visit their god directly in the flesh before their time is up? What are the ramifications of something like this?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I say the spell just won't function. If the gods welcome every single worshiper with planar travel spells, they (and all their avatars) would do nothing than talk with mortals. None but the most devout (and accomplished) worshippers have any chance to get an audience.

BTW: Yes, it used to be Acheron, now it's The Barrens of Doom and Despair. They don't use the Great Wheel for the Realms any more. But feel free to use it nonetheless (which I do, since I don't like the new Cosmology very much).

 

[dcollins]

...would it be fair to say it automatically succeeds in getting you to your target destination (your god willing of course)?

If the DM decides that the god wants to help them out in this way, then so be it. However, I see no rationale to make things easy on the character in this case. My own gut reaction to this would be to:

(1) Send the character off by a few hundred miles as usual.
(2) Make them deal with the environment effects of the plane as usual.
(3) Have a variety of defenses, guards, and underling powers confront the character (for example: Q1 had secretary demons who required scheduled appointments, but had permanently lost the schedule book).
(4) Deal with the god's punishment if bothered for a trifling reason.

Unless, of course, the DM has a compelling campaign reason to arrange for such a meeting.

 

[andargor]

Yes, I agree that the character should only be able to meet his god if there's a compelling "campaign" reason for him to do so. He's the Chosen One, or some such.

Of course, it's still a god we're talking about, and presumably a god's power comes from worship. So a god would have to do more than just answer some prayers. Being a god, he could probably speak to all petitioners all at once...

And yes, frivolous requests should get punished, especially from an evil god.

If you wish to keep the character from meeting the god, the bureaucratic approach sound fair to me, for lawful gods. For chaotic gods, they are out hunting or some such.

Andargor

 

[HeavyG]

I did this once. Of course, my deity was Red Knight, a newly ascended demigoddess worshipped in one region of one world (Forgotten Realms). She probably had something like 3-5 clerics capable of plane travel max.

It was part of my character's atoning for a serious misdeed and becoming a divine disciple.

With a friendly local independent god, you may not have the kind of support you get from being part of a large-scale international religions, but what I like is the personalized service and attention to detail.


I say, let the player go to the deity's realm, but he might have to wait a long time to get an audience and have him meet with some kind of the deity's servant to determine if the need is great enough to bother big daddy. After all, if you can speed-dial your god with Commune, this is not too far fetched a use for another spell of the same level.

 

[andargor]

Another analogy came to mind...

Sure, everyone has the ability to walk into the CEO's office at their job.

But they better have a damn good reason, or an appointment, or both.

Andargor

 

[Stalker0]

you could always make an adventure where the person plane shifts and then must battle monsters, solve puzzles, and what not, to prove that he is worthy of having an audience with the god.

 

[Iron_Chef]

Another analogy came to mind...

Sure, everyone has the ability to walk into the CEO's office at their job.

But they better have a damn good reason, or an appointment, or both.

Andargor

Good one.

They could set up an appointment via commune ahead of time, by requesting an audience to discuss a specific matter/seek the god's blessing for a specific project to be undertaken in his name and for his benefit.

Showing up unannounced, without an appointment and without a good reason could indeed be seen as an affront to the deity.

 

[Ferret]

He would send you to some suffering and say I am suffering or something corny.

 

[Cespinar]

Are you going to let him find a rod attuned to that plane? Or is this just the arcane version?