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Hmm, you could also make Portal Sense a function of a trained Arcana skill check, like Detect Magic is. That would seem to be well within the current rules.

Degausser wrote:

Uh, who is steely_dan, and would he mind if I just randomly PMed him?

The greatest band ever!

…Well, not really a band, more of a concept realized my two amazing musicians/songwriters who hire the best session players to play their material.

Okay, sorry, enough of that – just got to work (very late) and received your PM, and I have emailed you back about sharing Scaping juiciness, so hope to hear from you soon.

P.S. If there is a delay in my reply it is because I only visit these boards and my email when I'm at work.

Ramses III wrote:

Looks good to me. I would give it a fixed component cost to keep it consistent with the rest of the rituals in the game, say 10gp flat. It holds to the idea of the 2E spell pretty well, and I like the arcana check for the key (instead of either automatically knowing the key or automatically having to guess at it). I would require even creatures native to the planes to use the ritual to detect portals; there was supposed to be a big underground trade in portal information in Sigil and if people can just go around and find them with no effort then it undermines this idea.

If I recall my 2nd ed Planescape (and it's been ten years, so I may not be accurate) Planars could FIND portals, no problem, but no one could figure out the key except by trial and error. The big reason for the 'portals chant' trade was because some portal keys were nasty. Like all the money off a berk, or even a live human being (consumed key.) It could be dangerous to go into portals that you didn't know the key for.

The cool part about this spell is that ANYONE who has ritual casting can get it. You don't need to be a mage or a cleric, a rogue with the ritual casting feat (and the arcana skill) could use this ritual too. Kinda gives it more variaty, I think.

World_Slider wrote:

You are correct. You needed a key for the portals...with one exception. The portals on the outlands were great arches that you could just walk through...

Anywho I can tell you this much...the new planar is going to be divided like...

Heroic Tier - Feywild, Prime, Shadowfell
Para Tier - Elemental Chaos
Epic - Astral/Deep Elemental Chaos (Abyss)

It may be a neat idea to divide the campaign up in a similar manner, if your seeking a good mix of philosophy and diplomacy, with combat.

First off: There are a couple more portals that don't need keys. The portals on the Tree Yigdrassil, and the infinate staircase don't require keys, neither do elemental conduits (though these aren't, specifically, portals)

The idea of devision seems like a good idea: but I'm dividing it differently:

That seems like a good idea, though I'm pretty much chucking out the 4th ed cosmology and using 2nd ed DnD cosmology (except for one thing: The shadowfell and Feywild are now Demiplanes in the astral, large ones, larger than Ravenloft.)

Heroic Tier: Sigil, Outlands, Infinate staircase
Para Tier: Some outer planes
Epic: Lower planes, confrontation with big bad.

Comming up with a few more things, I'll be posting them as I finish them.

Baatorian Green Steel:
Originally exclusivly found on the evil planes of Baator, this strange metal with a slight greenish hue first found it's way to the planes as left-over weapons forged for the never-ending blood war. Enterprising berks could find these weapons from old battle sites and re-forge them with the proper skill. At first, the only place to buy them was the Severed Head, a shop in the market ward of Sigil, but the Doomguard quickly found out about, and began using the stuff. Rumor has it that the Baatazu have even started trading the ore, hoping to get money or magic items for their war.

Baatorian Green steel is lighter, stronger, and sharper than normal steel. Despite being non-magical, his has an almost inherent viciousness to it. Trying to forge one is a task, and it is as if the metal BEGS to be forged into cruel shapes with barbs or long prongs.

(Technical Stuff)
Greensteel, if you can get ahold of it, is a hard metal to work with. It requires more intense heat, and is more difficult to work. A weapon made of greensteel is 3/4 the weight of the normal item. Because of this, it is unsuitable for items that require mass behind their swing (such as a Maul or warhammer.)

Greensteel armor weighs half as much as normal armor, and can be fasioned into chainmail, scalemail, or Plate. It can also be fasioned into metal shields.

Where greensteel truely shines is in the creation of blades. Greensteel almost never dulls, and edges are almost supernaturally sharp. In addition to greensteel bladed weapons weighing only 3/4 normal weight, they also deal +1 damage. This is considered basic weapon damage, so it is added again to weapons with the high crit property.

Working with greensteel adds 5 to the craft DC when working with it, is counted as a +1 magic item when determining ease of destruction, and usually costs quadruple to buy (if you can find it.)