D&D General the elemental planes are trash

[Corinnguard]

My own personal 8 elements are this, though: Air, Lightning, Fire, Metal, Earth, Wood, Water, Ice, and back to Air.

Imagine what the Inner Planes would be like if they were made up of the five Chinese Elements of Wood, Metal, Earth, Fire and Water. And the Positive (Yang) and Negative Energy (Yin) planes complimented another instead of opposing one another.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was 4th Edition is lost, for none now live who remember it.

Alchemically, Water+Earth = ice could work. Water is cold and wet, Earth is cold and dry. But where does that take us?

Earth and Fire are both Dry, but they can be hot and cold. Metal is dry, and it can be hot and cold. Metal is forged from ore, refined with heat. So it can work.

Air and Fire are both warm, but what is warm and also wet and dry? Thunder storms are usually hot and humid, so that works.

Air and Water are both wet. What is wet but also warm or cold? Clouds, steam, mist, weather, rain could all work.

My own personal 8 elements are this, though: Air, Lightning, Fire, Metal, Earth, Wood, Water, Ice, and back to Air.

air and water is blood being both needed for life

 

[Yaarel]

Imagine what the Inner Planes would be like if they were made up of the five Chinese Elements of Wood, Metal, Earth, Fire and Water. And the Positive (Yang) and Negative Energy (Yin) planes complimented another instead of opposing one another.

5e has a sense of the Dao elements: Positive (Yang), Negative (Yin), Fire, Water, Air (Tree, Wood, Wind), Earth (Metal, Crystal), Ether (Void, Soil, Earth).

 

[AmerginLiath]

Imagine if the Elemental Planes were condensed into a single 'world' and represented another echo of the Material Plane (much like the Feywild and the Shadowfell)?

In 1st edition, the elemental planes were originally the Elemental Material Planes, hence the origin of the term Prime Material Plane for the realm created by the overlap of the elements (and forces of the Positive and Negative) like colored gels overlapping to create white light. Just as the Feywild and Shadowfell act as Positive Material and Negative Material echoes of the Prime, a campaign could have Elemental Material echoes of the Prime: one submerged in water with only the mountains rising above likes islands, one burnt to cinders with a City of Brass rising amid the ruins of where the capital should be, etc. Beyond all these could be an Elemental Chaos which reaches into each, channeling through them to reach the Prime.

 

[Corinnguard]

Imagine what the Inner Planes would be like if they were made up of the five Chinese Elements of Wood, Metal, Earth, Fire and Water. And the Positive (Yang) and Negative Energy (Yin) planes complimented another instead of opposing one another.

See my previous post on post #54.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Other idea is the elemental planes have got different layers, or domains, and someones are easier to be visited and explored, mainly planar traders.

Or when some region from a outer plane was conquered by an external force then this is "translated" to other space. For example the domains within the fire elemental were before regions from infernal planes before being conquered by the efreetis and other powers.

If I was a D&D sea deity my astral domain would be designed to allow the highest level of sea life. This should mean sunlight and not too deep. The paradise for the people who lived as fishers.

Is the Riverweb canon in 5ed?

Maybe the paraelemental and quasielementals were created as "punishment zones", the equivalent to outer planes for factions of elemental civilitations. For example marid (water genie) would be sent to the salt plane to suffer after failing a rebellion against the rulers.

 

[Libertad]

I think that the gameability of the elemental planes could be massively improved by expanding on the places that are hospitable to PCs and have incentives for planar travels to visit. The City of Brass is perhaps the best example of being a planar metropolis full of greedy, ambitious efreeti and a hub for traders and travelers across the Multiverse. It's a great example and one that got a lot of coverage in various products, but sadly the other elemental cities never got equivalent material. The City of Glass and the Great Dismal Delve tend to be footnotes in a lot of content.

 

[Yaarel]

I am leaning toward: the Elemental Planes should be demiplanes within the Material Plane. There is a mountain? Enter into its earthiness. There is a sea? Enter into its wateriness. Meanwhile, the elementally active areas that are near each other can have their respective demiplanes interconnect with each other, forming a patchwork of elemental regions. It would even be a kind of "dungeon crawl" moving thru demiplane spaces.

 

[GuardianLurker]

I think that the gameability of the elemental planes could be massively improved by expanding on the places that are hospitable to PCs and have incentives for planar travels to visit. The City of Brass is perhaps the best example of being a planar metropolis full of greedy, ambitious efreeti and a hub for traders and travelers across the Multiverse. It's a great example and one that got a lot of coverage in various products, but sadly the other elemental cities never got equivalent material. The City of Glass and the Great Dismal Delve tend to be footnotes in a lot of content.

This is actually what 5e tried to do. But, IMO, it missed its mark by also throwing out the rest of the planes for just those areas that mortals could readily access.

The Plane of Elemental Fire is not just the City of Brass and its survivable surroundings. It's also the "Fire Mirrorlands" where everything is a direct analog to the Prime Material Plane, just made entirely of Elemental Fire. And the very alien environment where everything is Sentient Fire, and conscience merges and separates in the middle of a thought. And so many, many, other things than just "Genie Lavaland". Even the 3.x Manual of the Planes didn't get it entirely right. But it did a better job than the 5e DMG's section on the planes.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Demiplanes could be created within elemental planes or elemental Limbo to work as trade cosmopolis. These places could source of stories style "Babylon 5" or "Star Trek: Deep Space 9".

If some places are too hostile or dangerous for explorers, then they may be perfect to hide threasures in hidden vaults. Or the prisons of ordinary humanoids.

Maybe there are secret vaults in the fire plane created by an advanced magitek lost civilitation.