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Another great insightful episode. What I appreciate most about all your content is your ability to show your depth of knowledge without it coming across overwhelming. I owe you a massive thanks. I am currently under quarantine in China, and catching up with all your episodes as been the most welcome mental reprieve from the conditions I am currently facing.
Man, my friend got me to read Snow Crash because he loved it too. And it had some cool ideas, but boy did it just drag with like 4 straight chapters of the main character being in some astral library being explained things to. Just way too much exposition and lore dumping for me to really love it.
Ah, the Astral Plane, your tool of choice for dimensional joinery! Take care not to confuse the Astral Plane with the Ethereal Plane: the Ethereal Plane is only rated for softwoods and can't handle denser grains. Also note that the Elemental Chaos, as a pre-formed particulate board, is also pre-planed and should not require additional working besides sandpaper. DISCLAIMER: Misuse of planar incantations and materials may result in injury, loss of property or party members, or the intervention of the Arch-Wizard Mordenkainen (which is probably worse than whatever you were trying to do, but if you're lucky it'll just be Elminster who can be placated with a nice drink and a bacon sandwich).
How would your astral self react when confronted by something Lovecraftian that their mind just can't comprehend? Does your astral self shatter like glass? Also, go check out Color out of Space. Best movie adaptation of a Lovecraft story I've ever seen.
The talk about forging a psychic blade got me thinking; the aspect of conjuration that creates items, it has to summon them from somewhere. What if the conjurer sends his mental image of the object to the astral plane where it becomes real, and then creates a portal to it? The same could actually go for summoning creatures.
4:00 "so it's basically the Matrix" was my immediate thought after Jim said that. In the past 20+ years of being around D&D if not playing it for all of those years, I've never really thought of the astral plane that way. I'm pretty sure I still had a regular D&D group when the matrix came out and was super into Planescape back then, yet never really thought of it that way.
I think I'd prefer to treat the Dreamlands as being a halfway point between the material plane and the astral plane. Not unlike Lovecraft's Dream Cycle, really. It acts like people expect physical locations should, but it doesn't obey all of our laws. Distance is relative, and time runs together like watercolor. Where mountains can be impossibly tall, and if you climb them you could crest a layer of clouds and surface on an island in the middle of a misty sea. It's easier to dream your way into the Dreamlands than it is to meditate into the astral plane (though special drugs may assist this). However, if your travel high enough in the Dreamlands - whether on a succession of mountains or up an impossibly tall spire - you can perhaps reach the astral plane. Some dreamers may spend decades of their life building structures in their own corner of the Dreamlands, constructing towers or pyramids or ziggurats tall enough to escape the Dreamlands entirely and get somewhere else.
I like the Astral Plane as a concept, especially in the context of the spelljammer campaign I am running. (Well, I don't know that it's actually SPELLJAMMER, but it is using a lot of concepts from Spelljammer, and it's in space, so I think it counts). In that campaign, I use the Astral Plane as a means of faster-than-magic travel, where a vessel that can cross into and back out of the astral is capable of incredible speed. It's the essentially similar to warp travel in warhammer 40k.
I would love to see this touched on again now that we have the Astral Self Monk and Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. How would you guys would go about playing beings that can tap into the astral plane? You briefly explained that psychic fights in the material plane have an astral shadow, and if it was happening on the astral plane the fight would be wild. So what does an astral self monk on the astral plane look like? If they can pull their astral form to the material plane, what does their full astral plane self look like if their material plane body was there too?
So, something I like leaning into with the Astral Sea is Platonic philosophy (so, allegory of the cave stuff) where the Astral is the realm of the ideal, and it is more real than the worlds of matter. And so when people go there, be it by astral projection or "physically" they are ghostlike due to being less real than the world around them
In my setting it's more like the Far Realms is the realm of the ideal, and the reason that it's so inhospitable is basically the same reason we cannot truly comprehend ideal forms in our reality. There's a plane of Law that is basically inhospitable to life, there's a Plane of Chaos that's basically Limbo but on steroids, there's a Plane of Good that feels so wonderfull to be in that you don't want to ever leave it, and there's a Plane of Evil that---well, it's literally called Carcosa, so if you know your Lovecraft Mythos I don't think I need to explain exactly how bad that place is for your health. The Astral Plane itself is the transitive plane of the Sphere of Soul, and has more to do with belief and social constructs and that sort of thing.
I like that: Charisma as Constitution in the Astral. Force of will. Makes me wonder if anyone's ever homebrewed the Ethereal to be like that, but reversed, physical stats become mental stats...or something.
@@timothyheimbach3260 I'd go Int=Dex (faster your mind, faster your astral body), wis=Str (because you know size matters not), Cha=Con (force of will).
@@danielfisher898 Whoa, we have even talked about the Ethereal here. What if they switch for Ethereal, and for Astral? Mechanically that covers all the combos. Damn, now I wanna play a planar campaign and try this out!
Back in the day, I always felt wisdom was more appropriate as the governing attribute used in the astral. My reasoning was because all traditions that associate with it have all been steeped in esotercism, occultism, and monasticism. Wisdom also seemed most appropriate for psionics as well. . . Intelligence seems grounded in logic, rationality, skepticism, knowledge, ect. More concrete.
By governing attribute, do you mean the movement speed? Or dex? Or all stats? Or another stat? Or something else? I'm just curious. Like a combo of stats? Also what do you think about it being different for the right brain dominant and left brain dominant, or whatever fantasy version of options to open up. Also, what if the Astral was based on belief for the physical stats, so each character is a different setup on how they get the stats. Maybe belief has just a small effect, and only helps a little. Input?
@@draxthemsklonst In the video they explained how important intelligence was in the Astral, how it governed much of what a character was capable of. I feel wisdom makes more sense. In regards to brain hemisphere dominance. . . There aren't any mechanics that support this, currently. Realistically, as far as I'm aware, it's mumbo-jumbo. That isn't to say it can't be an element of character creation with actual effects, I could easily fall down a rabbit hole as a world builder trying to incoperate that for fun. It's an interesting idea. As for belief determining reality. . . I'd need more info on that, as that'd be hard to incoperate as a system. Is it player belief? Their character's belief? How do you quantify either of those?
Ideas: The Astral Plane is the perfect place to simulate a modern video game trope of re-spawning after a certain time of being dead. It could be as simple as a number of rounds, or surviving members of your party have to take a short rest to bring you back to them. This way you could throw crazy fun-house dungeons at your players way out of their CR, and there is no risk of them permanently dying, and they could keep trying it every few levels to see how much further they can get through the Astral Video Game Dungeon. If you are more whimsical, this is the perfect setting for Peter Pan's Never Never land. No one ages there, improbable fantastic settings, flight at will based on emotion, just follow the second star to the right and straight on till morning.
Fun fact about the Astral Plane: Teleportation and Dimension Door cross through the Astral Plane. Areas where the Astral Plane isn't co-synchronous or doesn't exist don't allow these effects.
Hey Q 1. When astralling do u see demons(bad entities) around "everyone" sleeping or humans that r awake? 2. I see demons in real life and they always sit on me or are staring. They always give weird vibrational irritating energy. I also see them around other ppl. When I look at them they attack me with electric energy. So I always ignore them. I have even seen astral travelers infront of me which were ppl at my school. It was confirmed they were in my house nd shocked I saw them. I was even able to see their pijamas they wore in their bed which is so weird it's like they astral with pijamas 😅 I thought I was hallucinating until my friends told me. How come do I see this all? How do I stop all of this especially the irritating vibrational energy I get from entities which causes me to stress short breathe. They always touch me when they don't I feel I can breathe normally no stress like I'm lighter. They wanted me to believe they were my guiders nd protecting me but I can see through them. They're liars and manipulating. I can like read their minds. It's so weird but they r all different just like us humans but what I noticed they all hate humans but one hates more than the other. The other is like jealous the other wants to have fun with humans and etc. Each has their own personality. They shapeshift but what is funny is that I can see them shapeshift which they don't know I do. They tried to scare me before but I see it's not them. It's like wearing a mask they put a scary figure infront of them they made and it moves and all but they are behind it. They think I don't see them behind it 😅 but now I'm ignoring them all even astral travelers I act as if I don't see anyone I found out it's the best way not to get electric energy from them. Do u have any idea maybe how to stop all this? I didn't tell my friends abt the part I see demons cz I don't want them to look at me with a certain image in their head. That's why I thought I'd ask online.
Love the Shout out to Barbara Tuchman! She was first introduced to me by Luke Crane the author of Burning Wheel. Had no idea that I could snag this on audible! Been so long, I’m going to definitely order it.
This was an amazing video, our party and my artificer just recently found and took claim to an astral ship. Now fully repaired and ready for us to use. So this was amazingly informative.
Has anyone seen the FX Series "Legion"? It deals with some astral projection and the astral plane, as well as an awesome psionic battle between the two leads set to "Behind Blue Eyes."
Yes, half of Season 2 took place in the Astral Plane: in constructed refuges, shared spaces, psychic duels and the whole Clockworks facility! Plus, that epic time-stop/escape scene to "Bolero"! :D
I’ve an idea for a campaign that I haven’t been able to run yet, so it’s only in the conceptual stage. It starts with the PCs being a random assortment of people (acquainted or not, it doesn’t matter) that are shopping in a magic item store. An NPC whopper, whether through malice, carelessness, or an attempt at theft, puts a portable hole into a bag of holding. Doing so creates a rift to the Astral Plane that sucks in all the PCs and a few NPCs, as well. The group is pulled to a random portion of the Astral Plane near a creature of some sort (like an astral dreadnaught) that’ll kill a couple NPCs and force the PCs to run before they can loot too many random items that came along with them. From there, the campaign is essentially an Odyssey. They “sail” the astral sea without even needing a boat, and come across various dead-god-islands as they search for a portal or gate home. They’re frequently harried by githyanki pirates and explore strange locations. The campaign would start the characters with some experience, maybe level 2 or 3. It would also have a limited span, since once a character gains access to a planar travel spell or ability, the campaign is over. You may want to ban any options that would gain such an ability very early on (I don’t know of any that do off the top of my head). Once the characters return to the Material Plane, that would be a logical place to end the campaign. Depending on the time spent on the Astral, they may return to find the world they left behind a different place, which could be a seed for an entirely new adventure with said characters. If anyone wants to steal this idea and make it their own, go for it. I’d be curious what other ideas people had for it.
still not used to beardless Jim. He looks like a bartender about to give my party a quest. looks like he's growing it back, but how they batch record iunno
There would be an interesting way of playing in the Astral Plain. Swords don't exist, only the idea of swords, so your characters can use persuasion to convince themselves that their opponents are not actually armed, and thus helpless. A nat-20 persuasion roll might turn that Astral Dragon into a mouse that you just put in your pocket and keep as a pet.
So I'm over here watering my plants, listening to the show when I hear "Snowcrash, my favorite book..." All of a sudden , I'm shouting out in agreement and my feet are all wet. I KNEW I loved this show! Personally, Cryptonomicon is my absolute favorite book of all time, but Snowcrash is definitely up there, top 3.
I love the astral. Gave one of my PCs a vision of the planes of Eberron as unique orbs moving about, between, and within each other through the astral sea. It was thoroughly weird and great.
That jaunt into astral plane abilities was unexpected. The concept of intelligence as mental strength, charisma as mental dexterity, and wisdom as mental health/constitution is useful.
You mean the border ethereal realm. Where ghosts live etc the remnants of the psycho physical matter trapped in between the outer planes and the material world
@@goodhabits I rewatched Insidious and you are right. They are talking about it like its the astral plane and even use the term astral body to describe the phenomenon. In DnD terms they just overlapped the border ethereal with the astral plane which kind of makes sense considering that the astral is the metaphysical realm of the mind / spirit while the ethereal is the opposite. Another explanation is that they use Astral Projection to enter the border ethereal which is a fair interpretation.
Ah, excellent, another Sanderfan watching WebDM. I agree that Shadesmar works fairly well for the Astral Plane, but I tend to think of more like the Ethereal, with the Astral Plane being more similar to the Spiritual Realm.
Gold is a precious and rare metal. We have only found 3 Olympic swimming pools of it on earth and theorize that all the gold in the universe was made during the Big Bang. So I ask, how are all these dragons and nations swimming in gold? The answer the outerplanes. Bahamut's treasure palace, Momon's personal hoard, the entire plane of Bitopia; all these places that count the amount of gold and treasure in units of infinity. Their spillover, spending, and theft from is were all this extra gold comes from. The outerplanes, these places were the thought of things makes them real things that can be carried over into the Prime Material. Why wouldn't there be an East Indian Trading Company of the Astral Sea?
In my campaign the Astral plane is strictly the plane of thought, dreams, memories, etc...its not a world between worlds. All thoughts and dreams "take place" on this plane, so any thinking creature can be accessed by it. Gods and patrons might contact mortals through the astral plane. It doesn't have it's own shape, but rather is shaped by the mind occupying it. 🤔
The way I could see the Astral Plane connecting with dreams is when someone falls asleep, and starts dreaming,their dream becomes a bubble in the Astral plane, just sorta...materialises out of the grey. Normally the dreamer can’t see that because to them it doesn’t exist...unless they are a really good lucid dreamer. In which case they see where their dream world ends and can leave it.
According to my headcannon: In the D&D verse when people dream their soul is actually in the astral plane. So, an easy way to work the astral plane into an adventure is simply one night when the characters take a long rest, i.e. goto sleep, they wake up in the Astral Plane, and have to run a small astral sidequest. I also like to think that each person's dream is in fact a small demi-plane they generate in the astral.
Oh man I love the idea that dreams are sent to the astral plane. Like you can be walking along and you'll see a little dream cloud and can see into people's dreams like in that Spongebob episode.
Oh, so if they're flying around the Astral Plane while practicing Tai Chi, then yeah, the Astral Plane would look like wire-fu Hong Kong martial arts movies. :)
Made my first DnD character a while back, and picked a seeker warlock halfling, and when I was reading all the stuff about the astral sea in the subclass description I thought it was just referring to space, and that my patron was some kind of curious cosmic being that couldn't approach the planet, and I guess that's still kind of true, but now I'm curious how things would play out if my character ever manages to go there being tied to a powerful astral entity that just lives there.
I'd like to have a version of the Astral plane where its NOT basically just a dream. I'd use it as an adventure with real impact, but without the same amount of in-game time expended. Even if you don't get the silver thread cut, you could end up with psychic damage and mental exhaustion or short term madness, and you could also r=learn really important stuff by witnessing fragments of the dreams and inner thoughts of other creatures.
Populate the Astral Sea with dreams, wild spells, and then dead gods and dead ideas. Make parts of it trash heap island *wastelands* of dead ideas and dead spells. Don’t get hung up and overthink things in the Astral.
I like the idea of the astral sea being the stuff of creation, so you don’t just get dead gods you get failed planets and planes of existence drifting in the astral
Out of curiosity has anyone ever played the opposite end of the spectrum to the planes. A game were you never even get to level 1 and just have cantrips. Just asking because I was always a fan of the slingshot and rusty pocket knife levels in computer rpgs and I was wondering if it could work with the 5E rule set. It could be set in a training school for fledgling adventurers or a gang of orphaned street kids trying to get by. You'd finally earn your level 1 skills and spells and would move out into the greater world.
Imagine a wizard dragging a barbarian into the astral plane and then pummeling him to death with his fists since he has better attacks, damage, and hit points there.
B. J. Boyd dude thank you. I was struggling with ideas for a cool mechanic for my big bad to throw curveballs at my martially-heavy party... thank you so much this is awesome
True. But there’s just something so underhanded about that shady kidnapping trick... I dunno. I almost feel bad, but a villains a villain, y’know? Besides they don’t have a barbarian. Fighter, cleric, shadow sorcerer, Tabaxi ninja XD
Thanks for the Barbara Tuchmann recommendation! I'm working my way through Jared Diamond's Collapse, and I need something waiting for me on the other end!
an Arena oneshot for 2 players turned into a mini campaign where new characters help a character from the eberron oneshot build a gauntlet that allows the artificer arena champ navigate the astral plane ... which will then prompt another oneshot where the party get pulled into the astral plane only to run into this artificer NPC again lol.
I would love to see someone take on other systems with the passion and general like of open discussion that you guys have. The Crown Royal bag in the previous video I saw made me respect you, this made me a subscriber.
Am I right that the Astral Plane is where all the DnD extra-dimensional spaces are located too? Traveling thru the Astral would you be bumping into a wizards Magnificent Mansion or Demiplane (the spell)? Maybe see someone's Handy Haversack just bobbing along?
You guys should make a second video that's updated on the new books that just came out. Cuz it sounds similar to what you're talking about but I think it defines it a lot more clearly
It's very easy to confuse/conflate the astral sea with outer space and the phlogiston space between crystal spheres. What I''m most curious about is the relationship between the Far Realms and the overall D&D universe. There are planets within the crystal sphere, with potentially innumerable spheres within the greater phlogiston space. I also understand that those spheres all share the same outer planes, but what you experience when you visit the outer planes depends on which crystal sphere you access them from. That's because the outer planes are constructs of thought and emotion, and the environment you encounter in one of those planes would likely be heavily influenced (if not outright shaped) by the ambient beliefs and expectations of the crystal sphere nearest to where you opened the portal to the outer planes. If you go really deep into a plane, you might even reach an area where the greater proximity (abstractly) to a different crystal sphere causes the plane change due to the greater influence of that sphere's different belief structure, i.e. if you access Mount Celestia via Toril and go really deep into it, you might reach a point where it stops being Mt. Celestia according to Toril and instead becomes Mt. Celestia according to Tal'Dorei. Still, that brings me to the Far Realms. I've always imagined the Far Realms being outside the greater universe just as phlogiston space is outside the crystal spheres. Meaning there were entirely separate universes, each one with innumerable crystal spheres, out there beyond the madness of the Far Realms. That was the premise of a previous campaign reboot of mine. My group accidentally allowed the planar barrier between the material realm and an outer plane to be dissolved, pulling the entire material plane into the outer planes. The result was like pulling a key stone out of a stone doorway, with the outer planes and the inner planes collapsing in together, which in-turn set off a cascading chain reaction where all sphere's followed suit. We escaped to a new universe across the far realms (like the obyrith), with its chaotic influence warped our bodies, starting us over at level 1 and letting us re-roll our stats. I can still hear the screams...
why aren't the Quori from the Astral Plane or nods of "reality" within it? I know that Eberron has its own planar structure, but, as WotC always says: if something exists in one 5E setting, it can exist in all 5E settings.
Something weird I was thinking of too. I didn’t grow up playing d&d (although I played a 3.5 box set once) so I’ve been trying to wrap my head around literally this specific concept for so long. If the astral plane here can be treated as a dream realm, could the quori exist in other settings as beings that have been dreamt up as bad dreams, gaining somewhat of a physicality over thousands of years? How do the Kalashtar play into all of it in another setting? Are they potentially guardians of gateways to the astral plane in homebrew settings? Maybe it’s one of these Kalashtar that’s simultaneously the guardian of a specific gateway and the head chef of Flavortown.
I had an idea for an adventure where the characters would need to go into the Astral plane for something but wouldn’t know that, they would come to an old “haunted” house to find something to end a curse but they would find certain aspects of the house was really weird. For instance entering the necessary would give you the instant effect of a short rest (because it’s a rest room) nothing can die in the living room, you experience the compulsion to eat in the dining room, and the compulsion to sleep in the bedroom. Eventually they find out that the astral plane has been seeping into the house from a portal in the basement, and their perceptions of words and houses have been creating physical effects, they solve it and then need to enter the astral plane for what they originally wanted from this place.
Not only that but out of character joking would have an effect so if they said “and then skeletons suddenly appeared” I would say “all of a sudden a small group of skeletons appear out of nowhere” and it’s not that they have control over things it’s just that their expectations and errant thoughts are given life
I'm so confused, I thought the Astral Sea was literally space. What is the "area" called when leaving Toril's atmosphere? It'd make more sense to me, personally, for the Githyanki to be literal space pirates as opposed to... mind pirates? Soul pirates? Why do they even need ships? Seems more like a Spell Jammer thing to me.
So, the mind part is sort of secondary, as the Githyanki were not actually native to the astral planes. They just went to the Astral Plane because it connected all the worlds, as the original Githyanki desired to wage war on every species that could possibly enslave them.
So if the Astral is the realm of thought and dreams and the space between the planes. Then what the actual crap are the Etherial and border etherial plane?
the astral is the space between the outer planes the ethereal is the space between the inner planes. that's why they're both called transitive planes. the way i picture it is they're the same plane, like, if you've ever heard the theory that blackholes form bubble universes inside them. that space gets sucked into the blackhole and inflates on the other side as another universe. like pulling fabric through a hole, you've got the flat fabric outside the hole and the nub that's gotten pulled through. in both analogies the astral would be our universe or the flat fabric and the ethereal would be the bubble or the nub of fabric stuck through the hole. the hole would be sigil and looking at it from the astral side would look like an actual blackhole on the astral sea or the infinite mountain on the outlands. i like that model because gives a concrete structure to the planes, there's the astral/ethereal and everything else is pocket dimensions inside that floating on one side or the other of the hole/sigil. i have a dream that i could run a campaign one day that ends with the party near level 20 assaulting the campaign bbeg's fortress that orbits the astral blackhole. complete with the interstellar movie's soundtrack in the background the whole time of course.
Just gonna say that charisma wasn't exactly a dump stat in 2e; it affected the number of followers you were allowed to have. More charisma, more followers. And followers were really important for some stuff.
I always had issue with the "timeless" nature of the Astral plane. Just determining what things did behave as if time passes (like the action economy) always felt troublesome to me on a theoretical level. I did liked the lore that astral dreadnaughts were created by (or are still being created by) the imprisoned god Tharizdun.
Personally, I do a lot of study of astrophysics, so I set up the astral plane to basically be 4th dimensional space. To me it makes sense for it to be a mental realm in that regard, because a 3rd dimensional being can only really think of 4 dimensions, they cannot actually live in them. It also makes sense, because it allows players to move from one 3rd dimensional place to another. If anyone's seen the whole "this is what the universe looks like when you're in a black hole" image, I use that as the different planes and how you get to them. For those that haven't seen it, it's basically like if you took everything you could see in every direction and turned into a little bubble.
lol like a square peg in a round hole, planar types can't just wander into the material plane as they are. you got to adopt some kind of form there. kinda like your digital form in the matrix, which may vary, presumably.
I'm planning a campaign that heavily involves the planes and magic being stopped in certain places of the material plane and planes colliding. I was just watching the psionics episode before this and I quite like the the connection of psionics and the far realm. And my image of the far realm is very similar to the astral and ethereal planes, I see them all as being part of the same realm but they get thinner the closer to the material realm they get, protected by the positive and negative planes. So the far realm is reduced to the astral realm and the astral realm is reduced to the etheral realm. If you think about the planes like a planet then the far realm is space and the positive and negative planes are the magnetosphere and the astral realm is the atmosphere.
Also how I see psionic and magic abilities is that with magic you are bending the weave with psionics you are accessing the power of the astral plane (and therefore the far realm) in this way i would personally count ethereal abilities as psionic rather than magic, or at least related to it
Without a doubt the coolest damn thumbnail you guys have ever done. Jim, your...many arms are both terrifying and awesome. Imagine how many spells you could cast at once... all those somatic components....suck one, spellweavers! And Pruitt, the way your eye just... consumes your whole face.. oh my sides. XD
I think I may to write up a campaign centered around a version of Lloth. She lives in the astral, hunting travelers and stealing their silver cords to make her Web. Those her survive and are willing to serve her, rather than be unutterably destroyed become her 'Drow'.
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but, guys, is the Etherial Plane a plane or it is just negative space?
It's a transitive plane!
Yo, what's the tune you play when Pruitt reveals that he has ascended? I need me that third-eye jam
Maybe we can find Jim's beard there.
664th level of the byss
I didn't see he's beard here, but I think I saw its shadow
Slowly returning, from the far realm.
it will return when the world is safe
not quite, but we found Jerry Beard here.. lol ;)
"Hello Indigo Children" My sides.
Barbarians become the Glass Cannons, Their ability and tendency to be single minded is very powerful.
we're watching Jim's beard slowly grow throughout each episode
Please don't give this comment more likes, it has 69 now.
I thought you said bread.....
This may be the first time I've seen Pruitt's beard longer than Jim's...
Another great insightful episode. What I appreciate most about all your content is your ability to show your depth of knowledge without it coming across overwhelming.
I owe you a massive thanks. I am currently under quarantine in China, and catching up with all your episodes as been the most welcome mental reprieve from the conditions I am currently facing.
Thank you for the kind words! Hope you and yours stay healthy and can get moving!
I'm starting to worry that Jim doesn't know all the beard comments come from a place of love.
Man, my friend got me to read Snow Crash because he loved it too. And it had some cool ideas, but boy did it just drag with like 4 straight chapters of the main character being in some astral library being explained things to. Just way too much exposition and lore dumping for me to really love it.
Ah, the Astral Plane, your tool of choice for dimensional joinery!
Take care not to confuse the Astral Plane with the Ethereal Plane: the Ethereal Plane is only rated for softwoods and can't handle denser grains.
Also note that the Elemental Chaos, as a pre-formed particulate board, is also pre-planed and should not require additional working besides sandpaper.
DISCLAIMER: Misuse of planar incantations and materials may result in injury, loss of property or party members, or the intervention of the Arch-Wizard Mordenkainen (which is probably worse than whatever you were trying to do, but if you're lucky it'll just be Elminster who can be placated with a nice drink and a bacon sandwich).
Intensely underrated comment, this
How would your astral self react when confronted by something Lovecraftian that their mind just can't comprehend? Does your astral self shatter like glass?
Also, go check out Color out of Space. Best movie adaptation of a Lovecraft story I've ever seen.
The talk about forging a psychic blade got me thinking; the aspect of conjuration that creates items, it has to summon them from somewhere. What if the conjurer sends his mental image of the object to the astral plane where it becomes real, and then creates a portal to it? The same could actually go for summoning creatures.
4:00 "so it's basically the Matrix" was my immediate thought after Jim said that.
In the past 20+ years of being around D&D if not playing it for all of those years, I've never really thought of the astral plane that way. I'm pretty sure I still had a regular D&D group when the matrix came out and was super into Planescape back then, yet never really thought of it that way.
Hugo Weaving is Agent Smith and Elrond. Think about that.
One of my favorites takes on the astral plane is The Void from the Dishonored games. the devs wrote some great lore on it.
I think I'd prefer to treat the Dreamlands as being a halfway point between the material plane and the astral plane. Not unlike Lovecraft's Dream Cycle, really. It acts like people expect physical locations should, but it doesn't obey all of our laws. Distance is relative, and time runs together like watercolor. Where mountains can be impossibly tall, and if you climb them you could crest a layer of clouds and surface on an island in the middle of a misty sea.
It's easier to dream your way into the Dreamlands than it is to meditate into the astral plane (though special drugs may assist this). However, if your travel high enough in the Dreamlands - whether on a succession of mountains or up an impossibly tall spire - you can perhaps reach the astral plane. Some dreamers may spend decades of their life building structures in their own corner of the Dreamlands, constructing towers or pyramids or ziggurats tall enough to escape the Dreamlands entirely and get somewhere else.
Brb y'all, going to go take a nap a work on my dream-bridge to the outer realms
I like the Astral Plane as a concept, especially in the context of the spelljammer campaign I am running. (Well, I don't know that it's actually SPELLJAMMER, but it is using a lot of concepts from Spelljammer, and it's in space, so I think it counts). In that campaign, I use the Astral Plane as a means of faster-than-magic travel, where a vessel that can cross into and back out of the astral is capable of incredible speed. It's the essentially similar to warp travel in warhammer 40k.
I would love to see this touched on again now that we have the Astral Self Monk and Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. How would you guys would go about playing beings that can tap into the astral plane?
You briefly explained that psychic fights in the material plane have an astral shadow, and if it was happening on the astral plane the fight would be wild. So what does an astral self monk on the astral plane look like? If they can pull their astral form to the material plane, what does their full astral plane self look like if their material plane body was there too?
So, something I like leaning into with the Astral Sea is Platonic philosophy (so, allegory of the cave stuff) where the Astral is the realm of the ideal, and it is more real than the worlds of matter. And so when people go there, be it by astral projection or "physically" they are ghostlike due to being less real than the world around them
In my setting it's more like the Far Realms is the realm of the ideal, and the reason that it's so inhospitable is basically the same reason we cannot truly comprehend ideal forms in our reality. There's a plane of Law that is basically inhospitable to life, there's a Plane of Chaos that's basically Limbo but on steroids, there's a Plane of Good that feels so wonderfull to be in that you don't want to ever leave it, and there's a Plane of Evil that---well, it's literally called Carcosa, so if you know your Lovecraft Mythos I don't think I need to explain exactly how bad that place is for your health.
The Astral Plane itself is the transitive plane of the Sphere of Soul, and has more to do with belief and social constructs and that sort of thing.
I like that: Charisma as Constitution in the Astral.
Force of will.
Makes me wonder if anyone's ever homebrewed the Ethereal to be like that, but reversed, physical stats become mental stats...or something.
Int=str. Wis=dex. Cha=Con?
@@timothyheimbach3260 I'd go Int=Dex (faster your mind, faster your astral body), wis=Str (because you know size matters not), Cha=Con (force of will).
Yup, I’ve always homebrewed it as such.
Charisma equals constitution.
Wisdom equals strength.
Intelligence equates to dexterity and movement speed.
It always seemed to me that it should be Int=str
Cha=dex
Wis=con
@@danielfisher898 Whoa, we have even talked about the Ethereal here. What if they switch for Ethereal, and for Astral? Mechanically that covers all the combos. Damn, now I wanna play a planar campaign and try this out!
Quality thumbnail. Quality intro. Quality beard growth.
Edit: Quality puns.
Back in the day, I always felt wisdom was more appropriate as the governing attribute used in the astral. My reasoning was because all traditions that associate with it have all been steeped in esotercism, occultism, and monasticism. Wisdom also seemed most appropriate for psionics as well. . .
Intelligence seems grounded in logic, rationality, skepticism, knowledge, ect. More concrete.
I always figured wisdom was conscientiousness.
I mean flavor from the rules i'd agree. Why else would a monk need so much wisdom?
I agree, that makes a lot more sense.
By governing attribute, do you mean the movement speed? Or dex? Or all stats? Or another stat? Or something else? I'm just curious. Like a combo of stats?
Also what do you think about it being different for the right brain dominant and left brain dominant, or whatever fantasy version of options to open up.
Also, what if the Astral was based on belief for the physical stats, so each character is a different setup on how they get the stats. Maybe belief has just a small effect, and only helps a little.
Input?
@@draxthemsklonst In the video they explained how important intelligence was in the Astral, how it governed much of what a character was capable of. I feel wisdom makes more sense.
In regards to brain hemisphere dominance. . . There aren't any mechanics that support this, currently. Realistically, as far as I'm aware, it's mumbo-jumbo. That isn't to say it can't be an element of character creation with actual effects, I could easily fall down a rabbit hole as a world builder trying to incoperate that for fun. It's an interesting idea.
As for belief determining reality. . . I'd need more info on that, as that'd be hard to incoperate as a system. Is it player belief? Their character's belief? How do you quantify either of those?
Ideas: The Astral Plane is the perfect place to simulate a modern video game trope of re-spawning after a certain time of being dead. It could be as simple as a number of rounds, or surviving members of your party have to take a short rest to bring you back to them. This way you could throw crazy fun-house dungeons at your players way out of their CR, and there is no risk of them permanently dying, and they could keep trying it every few levels to see how much further they can get through the Astral Video Game Dungeon.
If you are more whimsical, this is the perfect setting for Peter Pan's Never Never land. No one ages there, improbable fantastic settings, flight at will based on emotion, just follow the second star to the right and straight on till morning.
The Land of Nod! OMG the Astral Plane is so important to my Campaign right now, I love thinking about this stuff. Thank you.
Fun fact about the Astral Plane: Teleportation and Dimension Door cross through the Astral Plane. Areas where the Astral Plane isn't co-synchronous or doesn't exist don't allow these effects.
Hey Q
1. When astralling do u see demons(bad entities) around "everyone" sleeping or humans that r awake?
2. I see demons in real life and they always sit on me or are staring. They always give weird vibrational irritating energy. I also see them around other ppl. When I look at them they attack me with electric energy. So I always ignore them.
I have even seen astral travelers infront of me which were ppl at my school. It was confirmed they were in my house nd shocked I saw them. I was even able to see their pijamas they wore in their bed which is so weird it's like they astral with pijamas 😅 I thought I was hallucinating until my friends told me. How come do I see this all?
How do I stop all of this especially the irritating vibrational energy I get from entities which causes me to stress short breathe. They always touch me when they don't I feel I can breathe normally no stress like I'm lighter. They wanted me to believe they were my guiders nd protecting me but I can see through them. They're liars and manipulating. I can like read their minds. It's so weird but they r all different just like us humans but what I noticed they all hate humans but one hates more than the other. The other is like jealous the other wants to have fun with humans and etc. Each has their own personality. They shapeshift but what is funny is that I can see them shapeshift which they don't know I do. They tried to scare me before but I see it's not them. It's like wearing a mask they put a scary figure infront of them they made and it moves and all but they are behind it. They think I don't see them behind it 😅 but now I'm ignoring them all even astral travelers I act as if I don't see anyone I found out it's the best way not to get electric energy from them.
Do u have any idea maybe how to stop all this?
I didn't tell my friends abt the part I see demons cz I don't want them to look at me with a certain image in their head. That's why I thought I'd ask online.
Love the Shout out to Barbara Tuchman! She was first introduced to me by Luke Crane the author of Burning Wheel. Had no idea that I could snag this on audible! Been so long, I’m going to definitely order it.
In my game I play a warlock of the seeker, so learning more about the astral plane is always nice since my patron lives there.
This was an amazing video, our party and my artificer just recently found and took claim to an astral ship. Now fully repaired and ready for us to use. So this was amazingly informative.
Has anyone seen the FX Series "Legion"? It deals with some astral projection and the astral plane, as well as an awesome psionic battle between the two leads set to "Behind Blue Eyes."
Yes, half of Season 2 took place in the Astral Plane: in constructed refuges, shared spaces, psychic duels and the whole Clockworks facility! Plus, that epic time-stop/escape scene to "Bolero"! :D
I just found my old 2nd edition Guide to the Astral Plane. I was so happy since I'm running a 5e Planescape-esque game. :)
I’ve an idea for a campaign that I haven’t been able to run yet, so it’s only in the conceptual stage. It starts with the PCs being a random assortment of people (acquainted or not, it doesn’t matter) that are shopping in a magic item store. An NPC whopper, whether through malice, carelessness, or an attempt at theft, puts a portable hole into a bag of holding. Doing so creates a rift to the Astral Plane that sucks in all the PCs and a few NPCs, as well.
The group is pulled to a random portion of the Astral Plane near a creature of some sort (like an astral dreadnaught) that’ll kill a couple NPCs and force the PCs to run before they can loot too many random items that came along with them. From there, the campaign is essentially an Odyssey. They “sail” the astral sea without even needing a boat, and come across various dead-god-islands as they search for a portal or gate home. They’re frequently harried by githyanki pirates and explore strange locations.
The campaign would start the characters with some experience, maybe level 2 or 3. It would also have a limited span, since once a character gains access to a planar travel spell or ability, the campaign is over. You may want to ban any options that would gain such an ability very early on (I don’t know of any that do off the top of my head). Once the characters return to the Material Plane, that would be a logical place to end the campaign. Depending on the time spent on the Astral, they may return to find the world they left behind a different place, which could be a seed for an entirely new adventure with said characters.
If anyone wants to steal this idea and make it their own, go for it. I’d be curious what other ideas people had for it.
still not used to beardless Jim. He looks like a bartender about to give my party a quest. looks like he's growing it back, but how they batch record iunno
Jim shaves everyday. they recorded the last few early in the morning this is after lunch. By the time they head home jim will look like a wizard!
There would be an interesting way of playing in the Astral Plain.
Swords don't exist, only the idea of swords, so your characters can use persuasion to convince themselves that their opponents are not actually armed, and thus helpless.
A nat-20 persuasion roll might turn that Astral Dragon into a mouse that you just put in your pocket and keep as a pet.
So I'm over here watering my plants, listening to the show when I hear "Snowcrash, my favorite book..." All of a sudden , I'm shouting out in agreement and my feet are all wet. I KNEW I loved this show! Personally, Cryptonomicon is my absolute favorite book of all time, but Snowcrash is definitely up there, top 3.
I love the astral. Gave one of my PCs a vision of the planes of Eberron as unique orbs moving about, between, and within each other through the astral sea. It was thoroughly weird and great.
The Gith have weapons, so yeah weapon-forging in the Astral Plane is a thing. I think silver swords of some kind are a thing there.
That jaunt into astral plane abilities was unexpected. The concept of intelligence as mental strength, charisma as mental dexterity, and wisdom as mental health/constitution is useful.
The movie “Insidious” has an amazing interpretation of the Astral Plane.
You mean the border ethereal realm. Where ghosts live etc the remnants of the psycho physical matter trapped in between the outer planes and the material world
@@NoOne-uh9vu no I don’t
@@goodhabits I’ll check it out then. I watched the movie a long time ago and I can’t even remember that part
@@goodhabits I rewatched Insidious and you are right. They are talking about it like its the astral plane and even use the term astral body to describe the phenomenon. In DnD terms they just overlapped the border ethereal with the astral plane which kind of makes sense considering that the astral is the metaphysical realm of the mind / spirit while the ethereal is the opposite. Another explanation is that they use Astral Projection to enter the border ethereal which is a fair interpretation.
My favorite thing like the Astral Plane is Shadsmar/ the Cognitive Realm from Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books.
Ah, excellent, another Sanderfan watching WebDM. I agree that Shadesmar works fairly well for the Astral Plane, but I tend to think of more like the Ethereal, with the Astral Plane being more similar to the Spiritual Realm.
Gold is a precious and rare metal. We have only found 3 Olympic swimming pools of it on earth and theorize that all the gold in the universe was made during the Big Bang. So I ask, how are all these dragons and nations swimming in gold? The answer the outerplanes. Bahamut's treasure palace, Momon's personal hoard, the entire plane of Bitopia; all these places that count the amount of gold and treasure in units of infinity. Their spillover, spending, and theft from is were all this extra gold comes from. The outerplanes, these places were the thought of things makes them real things that can be carried over into the Prime Material. Why wouldn't there be an East Indian Trading Company of the Astral Sea?
Wouldn't that cause the value of precious metals to tank? Even if it is a fantasy world?
it has, check prices
In my campaign the Astral plane is strictly the plane of thought, dreams, memories, etc...its not a world between worlds.
All thoughts and dreams "take place" on this plane, so any thinking creature can be accessed by it. Gods and patrons might contact mortals through the astral plane. It doesn't have it's own shape, but rather is shaped by the mind occupying it. 🤔
The way I could see the Astral Plane connecting with dreams is when someone falls asleep, and starts dreaming,their dream becomes a bubble in the Astral plane, just sorta...materialises out of the grey. Normally the dreamer can’t see that because to them it doesn’t exist...unless they are a really good lucid dreamer. In which case they see where their dream world ends and can leave it.
I was just thinking about writing an Astral Plane campaign, what a nice coincidence for me.
According to my headcannon: In the D&D verse when people dream their soul is actually in the astral plane. So, an easy way to work the astral plane into an adventure is simply one night when the characters take a long rest, i.e. goto sleep, they wake up in the Astral Plane, and have to run a small astral sidequest. I also like to think that each person's dream is in fact a small demi-plane they generate in the astral.
Agreed. Astral Sea is definitely my favorite version.
Oh man I love the idea that dreams are sent to the astral plane. Like you can be walking along and you'll see a little dream cloud and can see into people's dreams like in that Spongebob episode.
Great episode guys, my party might have to literally unite the Githyanki and Githzerai back in a single united race, so it was very informative
Cool!
"I came to bring the pain hardcore from the brain
Let's go inside my astral plane"
Clearly Method Man is where the astral plane exists.
Could githyanki silver swords be forged from the silver cords they've severed?
Oh, so if they're flying around the Astral Plane while practicing Tai Chi, then yeah, the Astral Plane would look like wire-fu Hong Kong martial arts movies. :)
I love that you're getting more use out of that green screen!! Reminds me of an acquisitions incorporated show!! Keep it up.
Made my first DnD character a while back, and picked a seeker warlock halfling, and when I was reading all the stuff about the astral sea in the subclass description I thought it was just referring to space, and that my patron was some kind of curious cosmic being that couldn't approach the planet, and I guess that's still kind of true, but now I'm curious how things would play out if my character ever manages to go there being tied to a powerful astral entity that just lives there.
I'd like to have a version of the Astral plane where its NOT basically just a dream. I'd use it as an adventure with real impact, but without the same amount of in-game time expended. Even if you don't get the silver thread cut, you could end up with psychic damage and mental exhaustion or short term madness, and you could also r=learn really important stuff by witnessing fragments of the dreams and inner thoughts of other creatures.
Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft is a pretty cool novella that could easily reflect a dream-like astral plane.
K well, you gotta start every Ep with "Hello, Indigo Children..." from now on
Best opening so far
He spoke about some really good astral plane ideas. Nice episode
Awesome show. Do the Ethereal Plane next please, guys.
Populate the Astral Sea with dreams, wild spells, and then dead gods and dead ideas. Make parts of it trash heap island *wastelands* of dead ideas and dead spells.
Don’t get hung up and overthink things in the Astral.
I like the idea of the astral sea being the stuff of creation, so you don’t just get dead gods you get failed planets and planes of existence drifting in the astral
Out of curiosity has anyone ever played the opposite end of the spectrum to the planes. A game were you never even get to level 1 and just have cantrips. Just asking because I was always a fan of the slingshot and rusty pocket knife levels in computer rpgs and I was wondering if it could work with the 5E rule set.
It could be set in a training school for fledgling adventurers or a gang of orphaned street kids trying to get by. You'd finally earn your level 1 skills and spells and would move out into the greater world.
Brandon Sanderson's Cognitive Realm in his Cosmere universe seems like the best cognate to the Astral Realm. Worth looking into.
Imagine a wizard dragging a barbarian into the astral plane and then pummeling him to death with his fists since he has better attacks, damage, and hit points there.
B. J. Boyd dude thank you. I was struggling with ideas for a cool mechanic for my big bad to throw curveballs at my martially-heavy party... thank you so much this is awesome
kadoj
Side note, raging barbarians should be terrifying in the astral plane
True. But there’s just something so underhanded about that shady kidnapping trick... I dunno. I almost feel bad, but a villains a villain, y’know? Besides they don’t have a barbarian. Fighter, cleric, shadow sorcerer, Tabaxi ninja XD
Around 24:00 definitely talking about the stay puft marshmallow man
Thanks for the Barbara Tuchmann recommendation! I'm working my way through Jared Diamond's Collapse, and I need something waiting for me on the other end!
Yes, planar level depth has a cumulative effect with magic weapons. For good or bad.
an Arena oneshot for 2 players turned into a mini campaign where new characters help a character from the eberron oneshot build a gauntlet that allows the artificer arena champ navigate the astral plane ... which will then prompt another oneshot where the party get pulled into the astral plane only to run into this artificer NPC again lol.
Never Ending Story upon an Astral Dragon!
I would love to see someone take on other systems with the passion and general like of open discussion that you guys have. The Crown Royal bag in the previous video I saw made me respect you, this made me a subscriber.
18:35 Big Trouble in Little China, Egg Shen Vs. Lo-Pan.
Tibetan Buddhism has something called the Bardo which could be cool inspiration for Astral Planes.
I'm only 7 minutes in but I hope to hear some kind of reference to FX's LEGION.
God that was a good show, made me a Noah Hawley fan for life.
Am I right that the Astral Plane is where all the DnD extra-dimensional spaces are located too? Traveling thru the Astral would you be bumping into a wizards Magnificent Mansion or Demiplane (the spell)? Maybe see someone's Handy Haversack just bobbing along?
Rick Thompson
I don’t think so. I mean Demiplane makes, well, a demiplane. Which is just a plane onto itself.
The two best on screen depictions of the Astral Plane are in Poltergeist 2, and Akira.
You guys should make a second video that's updated on the new books that just came out.
Cuz it sounds similar to what you're talking about but I think it defines it a lot more clearly
just gave my players a robe of stars. this couldn't be more timely
Thank you oh wise ones
I would consider doing it like this:
Int = Str
Wis = Con (ability to compose yourself)
Cha = Dex (ability to navigate around obstacles)
It's very easy to confuse/conflate the astral sea with outer space and the phlogiston space between crystal spheres.
What I''m most curious about is the relationship between the Far Realms and the overall D&D universe.
There are planets within the crystal sphere, with potentially innumerable spheres within the greater phlogiston space. I also understand that those spheres all share the same outer planes, but what you experience when you visit the outer planes depends on which crystal sphere you access them from. That's because the outer planes are constructs of thought and emotion, and the environment you encounter in one of those planes would likely be heavily influenced (if not outright shaped) by the ambient beliefs and expectations of the crystal sphere nearest to where you opened the portal to the outer planes. If you go really deep into a plane, you might even reach an area where the greater proximity (abstractly) to a different crystal sphere causes the plane change due to the greater influence of that sphere's different belief structure, i.e. if you access Mount Celestia via Toril and go really deep into it, you might reach a point where it stops being Mt. Celestia according to Toril and instead becomes Mt. Celestia according to Tal'Dorei.
Still, that brings me to the Far Realms. I've always imagined the Far Realms being outside the greater universe just as phlogiston space is outside the crystal spheres. Meaning there were entirely separate universes, each one with innumerable crystal spheres, out there beyond the madness of the Far Realms. That was the premise of a previous campaign reboot of mine. My group accidentally allowed the planar barrier between the material realm and an outer plane to be dissolved, pulling the entire material plane into the outer planes. The result was like pulling a key stone out of a stone doorway, with the outer planes and the inner planes collapsing in together, which in-turn set off a cascading chain reaction where all sphere's followed suit. We escaped to a new universe across the far realms (like the obyrith), with its chaotic influence warped our bodies, starting us over at level 1 and letting us re-roll our stats. I can still hear the screams...
why aren't the Quori from the Astral Plane or nods of "reality" within it?
I know that Eberron has its own planar structure, but, as WotC always says: if something exists in one 5E setting, it can exist in all 5E settings.
JoaoG R I was just thinking about that! I think having them in a player-accessible realm makes them far more compelling and impactful.
Something weird I was thinking of too. I didn’t grow up playing d&d (although I played a 3.5 box set once) so I’ve been trying to wrap my head around literally this specific concept for so long. If the astral plane here can be treated as a dream realm, could the quori exist in other settings as beings that have been dreamt up as bad dreams, gaining somewhat of a physicality over thousands of years? How do the Kalashtar play into all of it in another setting? Are they potentially guardians of gateways to the astral plane in homebrew settings? Maybe it’s one of these Kalashtar that’s simultaneously the guardian of a specific gateway and the head chef of Flavortown.
I use speed factor in 5e. I'll keep this in mind in case a game I'm DMing ends up in the Astral plane.
Amazing intro, and this is from a show that offers great intros.
The intro budget has risen! Whauw.
Now I'm picturing the Astral tundra. It's just a never ending ice and snow and there is a blizzard that is circling around you in a radius of 200ft.
I had an idea for an adventure where the characters would need to go into the Astral plane for something but wouldn’t know that, they would come to an old “haunted” house to find something to end a curse but they would find certain aspects of the house was really weird. For instance entering the necessary would give you the instant effect of a short rest (because it’s a rest room) nothing can die in the living room, you experience the compulsion to eat in the dining room, and the compulsion to sleep in the bedroom. Eventually they find out that the astral plane has been seeping into the house from a portal in the basement, and their perceptions of words and houses have been creating physical effects, they solve it and then need to enter the astral plane for what they originally wanted from this place.
Not only that but out of character joking would have an effect so if they said “and then skeletons suddenly appeared” I would say “all of a sudden a small group of skeletons appear out of nowhere” and it’s not that they have control over things it’s just that their expectations and errant thoughts are given life
Kind of similar to how beholders can create their dreams on accident but without the control beholders have when they’re awake
I'm so confused, I thought the Astral Sea was literally space. What is the "area" called when leaving Toril's atmosphere? It'd make more sense to me, personally, for the Githyanki to be literal space pirates as opposed to... mind pirates? Soul pirates? Why do they even need ships? Seems more like a Spell Jammer thing to me.
MrRhex has a few videos explaining it pretty well the difference between the actual space like we have in dnd and the astral plane
So, the mind part is sort of secondary, as the Githyanki were not actually native to the astral planes. They just went to the Astral Plane because it connected all the worlds, as the original Githyanki desired to wage war on every species that could possibly enslave them.
Now THAT was an intro!
So if the Astral is the realm of thought and dreams and the space between the planes. Then what the actual crap are the Etherial and border etherial plane?
the astral is the space between the outer planes the ethereal is the space between the inner planes. that's why they're both called transitive planes.
the way i picture it is they're the same plane, like, if you've ever heard the theory that blackholes form bubble universes inside them. that space gets sucked into the blackhole and inflates on the other side as another universe. like pulling fabric through a hole, you've got the flat fabric outside the hole and the nub that's gotten pulled through. in both analogies the astral would be our universe or the flat fabric and the ethereal would be the bubble or the nub of fabric stuck through the hole. the hole would be sigil and looking at it from the astral side would look like an actual blackhole on the astral sea or the infinite mountain on the outlands.
i like that model because gives a concrete structure to the planes, there's the astral/ethereal and everything else is pocket dimensions inside that floating on one side or the other of the hole/sigil.
i have a dream that i could run a campaign one day that ends with the party near level 20 assaulting the campaign bbeg's fortress that orbits the astral blackhole. complete with the interstellar movie's soundtrack in the background the whole time of course.
Just gonna say that charisma wasn't exactly a dump stat in 2e; it affected the number of followers you were allowed to have. More charisma, more followers. And followers were really important for some stuff.
Great timing.
Wanna see Jim blow Pruitt's mind? 11:09
Another excellent planar primer, beardlings!
Wow guys your productions have really progressed since ya'll started this channel!
I always had issue with the "timeless" nature of the Astral plane. Just determining what things did behave as if time passes (like the action economy) always felt troublesome to me on a theoretical level. I did liked the lore that astral dreadnaughts were created by (or are still being created by) the imprisoned god Tharizdun.
Personally, I do a lot of study of astrophysics, so I set up the astral plane to basically be 4th dimensional space.
To me it makes sense for it to be a mental realm in that regard, because a 3rd dimensional being can only really think of 4 dimensions, they cannot actually live in them.
It also makes sense, because it allows players to move from one 3rd dimensional place to another.
If anyone's seen the whole "this is what the universe looks like when you're in a black hole" image, I use that as the different planes and how you get to them.
For those that haven't seen it, it's basically like if you took everything you could see in every direction and turned into a little bubble.
Astral plane as a tesseract? Cool!
lol like a square peg in a round hole, planar types can't just wander into the material plane as they are. you got to adopt some kind of form there. kinda like your digital form in the matrix, which may vary, presumably.
I'm planning a campaign that heavily involves the planes and magic being stopped in certain places of the material plane and planes colliding. I was just watching the psionics episode before this and I quite like the the connection of psionics and the far realm. And my image of the far realm is very similar to the astral and ethereal planes, I see them all as being part of the same realm but they get thinner the closer to the material realm they get, protected by the positive and negative planes. So the far realm is reduced to the astral realm and the astral realm is reduced to the etheral realm. If you think about the planes like a planet then the far realm is space and the positive and negative planes are the magnetosphere and the astral realm is the atmosphere.
Also how I see psionic and magic abilities is that with magic you are bending the weave with psionics you are accessing the power of the astral plane (and therefore the far realm) in this way i would personally count ethereal abilities as psionic rather than magic, or at least related to it
Very ‘thought’ provoking video! Thanks.
Without a doubt the coolest damn thumbnail you guys have ever done. Jim, your...many arms are both terrifying and awesome. Imagine how many spells you could cast at once... all those somatic components....suck one, spellweavers! And Pruitt, the way your eye just... consumes your whole face.. oh my sides. XD
I think I may to write up a campaign centered around a version of Lloth. She lives in the astral, hunting travelers and stealing their silver cords to make her Web. Those her survive and are willing to serve her, rather than be unutterably destroyed become her 'Drow'.
Best intro yet
Hey Jim! Grow fat mutton chops with a connecting mustache!
I've seen that referred to as "friendly mutton chops."
Yeah it's friendly mutton chops!