Planar traits

The many planes in the cosmology of Toril have traits that greatly differentiate them from the prime Material Plane with which most adventurers are familiar. Depending on your abilities, race and even faith the different planes can be welcoming warm places, or pure manifestations of horror.

The traits generally fall into four categories


 * Physical Traits: These traits set the laws of nature, including gravity and time.
 * Elemental and Energy Traits: These traits determine the dominance of particular elemental or energy forces.
 * Alignment Traits: Powerful entities like deities or demon lords directly affect the alignment traits of the planes they inhabit, and such planes will be inhospitable to travelers of opposing alignments.
 * Magic Traits: Magic works differently from plane to plane, and these traits describe how the weave works on each plane.
 * Faith Trait: Any plane which is inhabited by one or more dieties will recieve either a mild or strong faith trait.

Physical Traits
These traits determine the natural laws by witch the plane abides, for example how gravity works and at what pace time progresses. Other factors like boundaries of the plane (if it has any) and the nature of these boundaries. The final physical trait desribes how much (or little) the plane changes or is capable of change.

Gravity
Normal Gravity Most planes have gravity similar to that of the Material Plane, the usual rules for ability scores, carryping capacity, flight, and encumbrance apply.

Heavy Gravity The gravity of this plane is much more intense than that of the Material Plane. As a result Balance, Climb, Jump, Ride, Swim, and Tumble checks suffer a -2 circumstance penalty, as do all attack rolls. All item weights are effectively doubled, which may lead to encumbrance affecting characters movement speed. Ranged weapons effective range are halved. Characters Strength and Dexterity scores are unaffected, but the work which they can execute is limmited proportionally to the more powerful gravity. Characters falling on a plane with Heavy Gravity take 1d10 points of damage for each 10 foot fallen, to a maximum of 20d10 points of damage.

Light Gravity: The gravity of a plane with the Light Gravity is less powerful compared to that of the Material Plane, and as a result characters find that they can lift and carry more as well as jump higher and farther. But characters unused to the low gravitational force suffer a -2 circumstance penalty on attack rolls and Balance, Ride, Swim, and Tumble checks. Characters gain a +2 circumstance bonus on all Climb and Jump checks, as well as all item weights being halfed. Ranged weapons effective range is doubled. Falling characters take 1d4 points of damage for each 10 feet they fall, to a maximum of 20d4 points of damage.

No Gravity: There is no directional gravity on a plane with this trait, and everything and everyone just floats in space, unable to move unless powered by some mechanism (or spells like fly). One plane with this trait is the Astral Plane where characters move about by simply imagining themselves moving in the desired direction.

Objective Directional Gravity: The strength of gravity is the same as experienced on the Material Plane, but instead of the familiar "down" direction, the direction of gravity can be oriented whichever way, making feats like walking walls, or hanging to ceilings quite possible. On the other hand one may walk through a door into what appears to be a 100-foot corridor, only to find that the gravity inside is different and the corridor is in fact a 100-foot-deep pit. This also allows for floating bits of matter, where travelers find they "stick" to even the underside of such a place.

Subjective Directional Gravity: The pull of gravity that characters experience is the same as on the Material Plane, but each individual being chooses the direction in which gravity pulls. Non-living objects and nonsentient creatures experience no gravity and merely float in space. When moving accross solid surfaces normal movement is possible by characters chosing the direction of gravity's pull to be "down" towards whichever surface is being traversed. If suspended in midair, a character can "fly" merely by chosing a "down" direction, which will cause the character to "fall" in the designated direction. Characters moving in this manner "fall" 150 feet in the first round and 300 feet in subsequent rounds. Unless affected by a fly spell or similar effect, changing direction is not possible, and stopping requires the character to change the direction of gravity (again moving 150 feet in the new direciton in the first round and 300 in each subsequent round). Changing the direction of gravity requires a Wisdom check (DC 16) which is a free action; this check can only be made once per round. Any character failing Wisdom checks in successive rounds recieves a +6 bonus on any subsequent checks until he or she succeeds.

Time
The flow of time can vary greatly from one plane to another, planar travelers may spend years exploring one plane, only to return to their home plane where mere days, or even less, has elapsed since they left. These erratic time flows are most often employed by powerful arcanists of clerics, whom may depart their home plane in preference of another with a more suitable time flow. For example a powerful wizard could depart the Material plane in favor of a plane with the Flowing Time trait could spend years furthering his research, and later return to the Material plane to find that here, no significant amount of time has passed since his depature.

Normal Time: This is the standard rate of time, compared to the Material plane. One hour on any plane with this trait, equals one hour on the Material plane.

Flowing Time: Time on a plane with this trait either flows faster or slower than it does on the Material plane. How different the time flow is from the Material plane can be dramatic, for example the passing of a year on the Material plane may only equal one round on the Flowing Time plane, or vice versa.

Erratic Time: Some planes have time that slows down and speeds up, so an individual may lose or gain time as he moves between the two planes. To the denizens of such a plane, time flows naturally and these shifts in time pass unnoticed.

Timeless: Time still passes on planes with the Timeless trait, but the effects are diminished. Hunger, thirst and aging will not afflict inhabitants, or visitors, to the plane. In the same case, natural healing will not work and wounds suffered will not naturally regenerate, unless magical healing is used. If a plane is timeless with respect to magic, any spell cast with a noninstantaneous duration is permanent until dispelled. Timeless planes are dangerous to the unwary traveler, as effects such as thirst, hunger, and age may strike once the traveler leaves the plane - sometimes retroactively.