Question for the Planescape fans

[klofft]

With all the regular references to Planescape on these boards, I went to Paizo and was surprised to see how inexpensive the pdfs were. I am interested in reading some more, but my needs are very specific and so I'm asking the advice of the experts.

I'm looking for info on what used to be called the upper and lower planes. More specifically, heaven (LG upper plane) and all of the various "evil" planes. Which products contained information specifically on them? More specifically, things like place descriptions, denizen descriptions, and metaphysics.

A few things to keep in mind for me in answering:
1) I'm not using the setting itself at all, so I'd rather not have to wade through excessive metaplot and fiction.
2) I am using the new Fiendish Codices, so I'd rather not have too much material that duplicates them. Similarly, I'f rather not have info that outright contradicts them (even though I know the PS fans think that the old material is better).
3) If the supplement has particularly evocative art, all the better.

Thanks in advance!
C

 

[Sammael]

There were three boxed sets produced which covered all planes of the Great Wheel:

Planes of Law (Mount Celestia, Arcadia, Mechanus, Acheron, and Baator)
Planes of Chaos (Arborea, Ysgard, Limbo, Pandemonium, and the Abyss)
Planes of Conflict (Bytopia, Elysium, Beastlands, Gehenna, Gray Waste, and Carceri)

Judging from your needs, you probably want to get Planes of Law first, as that covers two of the basics (Heaven and Hell). Another good book is Faces of Evil, but it's very metaplot-heavy, so I'm not sure you'd have much use for it.

 

[Psion]

Take a look at the "Planes of" boxed sets. The sets split the outer planes into law/neutral/chaos. The "seven heavens" as they exist would be in Planes of Law, but to get all the evil planes, you need all 3 boxed sets.

Most of the fiend stuff outside of what appears in the evil plane material is in Hellbound and Faces of Evil, so no worries there.

 

[BOZ]

i'm fairly certain that the evil and good planes were mixed that way to even out the sales. if they hadn't, the "evil set" would have far outsold the "good set" which in turn would have far outsold the "neutral set", IMO.

 

[Psion]

i'm fairly certain that the evil and good planes were mixed that way to even out the sales.

I'm fairly certain you are correct.

 

[Oryan77]

The PS adventure Fires of Dis has some really good encounter ideas if you need to spice up an adventure taking place in Hell (Baator).

It describes the first layer with a map of a few landmarks. And then there's a lot of information for the second layer & the city of Dis.