Outer Planes
If the Inner Planes are the raw matter and energy that makes up the multiverse, the Outer Planes provide the direction, thought, and purpose for its construction. Accordingly, many sages refer to the Outer Planes as divine planes, spiritual planes, or godly planes, for the Outer Planes are best known as the homes of deities.
When discussing anything to do with deities, the language used must be highly metaphorical. Their actual homes aren’t literally places at all, but exemplify the idea that the Outer Planes are realms of thought and spirit. As with the Elemental Planes, one can imagine the perceptible part of the Outer Planes as a border region, while extensive spiritual regions lie beyond ordinary sensory experience.
Even in perceptible regions, appearances can be deceptive. Initially, many of the Outer Planes appear hospitable and familiar to natives of the Material Plane. But the landscape can change at a whim of the powerful forces that dwell on these planes, which can remake them completely, effectively erasing and rebuilding existence to better fulfil their divine needs.
Distance is a virtually meaningless concept on the Outer Planes. The perceptible regions of the planes can seem quite small, but they can also stretch on to what seems like infinity. Adventurers could take a guided tour of the Nine Hells, from the first layer to the ninth, in a single day — if the powers of the Hells desire it. Or it could take weeks for travellers to make a gruelling trek across a single layer.
The default Outer Planes are a group of sixteen planes that correspond to the eight alignments (excluding neutrality, which is represented by the Outlands, described in the section on “Other Planes”) and the shades of distinction between them.
The planes with an element of good in their nature are called the Upper Planes, while those with an element of evil are the Lower Planes. A plane’s alignment is its essence, and a character whose alignment doesn’t match the plane’s alignment experiences a sense of dissonance there. When a good creature visits Elysium, for example, it feels in tune with the plane, but an evil creature feels out of tune and more than a little uncomfortable.
The Upper Planes are the home of celestial creatures, including angels, couatls, and pegasi. The Lower Planes are the home of fiends: demons, devils, yugoloths, and their ilk. The planes in between host their own unique denizens: the construct race of modrons inhabit Mechanus, and the aberrations called slaadi thrive in Limbo.
Layers of the Outer Planes:
Most of the Outer Planes include a number of distinct environments or realms. These realms are often imagined and depicted as a stack of related parts of the same plane, so travellers refer to them as layers. For example, Mount Celestia resembles a seven-tiered layer cake, the Nine Hells has nine layers, and the Abyss has a seemingly endless number of layers. Most portals from elsewhere reach the first layer of a multi-layered plane. This layer is variously depicted as the top or bottom layer, depending on the plane. As the arrival point for most visitors, the first layer functions like a city gate for that plane. Traveling the Outer Planes:
Traveling between the Outer Planes isn’t dissimilar from reaching the Outer Planes in the first place. Characters traveling by means of the astral projection spell can go from one plane into the Astral Plane, and there search out a colour pool leading to the desired destination. Characters can also use plane shift to reach a different plane more directly. Most often, though, characters use portals — either a portal that links the two planes directly or a portal leading to Sigil, City of Doors, which holds portals to all the planes. Two planar features connect multiple Outer Planes together: the River Styx and the Infinite Staircase. Other planar crossings might exist in your campaign, such as a World Tree whose roots touch the Lower Planes and whose branches reach to the Upper Planes, or it might be possible to walk from one plane to another in your cosmology. The River Styx:
This river bubbles with grease, foul flotsam, and the putrid remains of battles along its banks. Any creature other than a fiend that tastes or touches the water is affected by a feeblemind spell. The DC of the Intelligence saving throw to resist the effect is 15. The Styx churns through the top layers of Acheron, the Nine Hells, Gehenna, Hades, Carceri, the Abyss, and Pandemonium. Tributaries of the Styx snake onto lower layers of these planes. For example, a tendril of the Styx winds through every layer of the Nine Hells, allowing passage from one layer of that plane to the next. Sinister ferries float on the waters of the Styx, crewed by pilots skilled in negotiating the unpredictable currents and eddies of the river. For a price, these pilots are willing to carry passengers from plane to plane. Some of them are fiends, while others are the souls of dead creatures from the Material Plane. The Infinite Staircase:
The Infinite Staircase is an extradimensional spiral staircase that connects the planes. An entrance to the Infinite Staircase usually appears as a nondescript door. Beyond the portal lies a small landing with an equally nondescript stairway leading up and down. The Infinite Staircase changes appearance as it climbs and descends, going from simple stairs of wood or stone to a chaotic jumble of stairs hanging in radiant space, where no two steps share the same gravitational orientation. It is said that one can find one’s heart’s desire on the Infinite Staircase through diligent searching of each landing. Doors to the Infinite Staircase are often tucked away in dusty, half-forgotten places that no one frequents or pays any attention to. On any given plane, there can be multiple doors to the Infinite Staircase, though entrances aren’t common knowledge and are occasionally guarded by devas, sphinxes, yugoloths, and other powerful monsters. Optional Rules:
Each of the Outer Planes has peculiar characteristics that make traveling through it a unique experience. A plane’s influence can affect visitors in various ways, such as causing them to take on personality traits or flaws that reflect the disposition of the plane, or even shift alignment to more closely match the native inhabitants of the plane. Each plane’s description includes one or more optional rules that you can use to help make the adventurers’ experiences on that plane memorable. Optional Rule: Psychic Dissonance:
Each of the Outer Planes emanates a psychic dissonance that affects visitors of an incompatible alignment — good creatures on the Lower Planes, evil ones on the Upper Planes — if they spend too much time on the plane. You can reflect this dissonance with this optional rule. At the end of a long rest spent on an incompatible plane, a visitor must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature gains one level of exhaustion. Incompatibility between lawful and chaotic alignments doesn’t have the same effect, so Mechanus and Limbo lack this quality. (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/creating-a-multiverse#PlanarTravel)
Most of the Outer Planes include a number of distinct environments or realms. These realms are often imagined and depicted as a stack of related parts of the same plane, so travellers refer to them as layers. For example, Mount Celestia resembles a seven-tiered layer cake, the Nine Hells has nine layers, and the Abyss has a seemingly endless number of layers. Most portals from elsewhere reach the first layer of a multi-layered plane. This layer is variously depicted as the top or bottom layer, depending on the plane. As the arrival point for most visitors, the first layer functions like a city gate for that plane. Traveling the Outer Planes:
Traveling between the Outer Planes isn’t dissimilar from reaching the Outer Planes in the first place. Characters traveling by means of the astral projection spell can go from one plane into the Astral Plane, and there search out a colour pool leading to the desired destination. Characters can also use plane shift to reach a different plane more directly. Most often, though, characters use portals — either a portal that links the two planes directly or a portal leading to Sigil, City of Doors, which holds portals to all the planes. Two planar features connect multiple Outer Planes together: the River Styx and the Infinite Staircase. Other planar crossings might exist in your campaign, such as a World Tree whose roots touch the Lower Planes and whose branches reach to the Upper Planes, or it might be possible to walk from one plane to another in your cosmology. The River Styx:
This river bubbles with grease, foul flotsam, and the putrid remains of battles along its banks. Any creature other than a fiend that tastes or touches the water is affected by a feeblemind spell. The DC of the Intelligence saving throw to resist the effect is 15. The Styx churns through the top layers of Acheron, the Nine Hells, Gehenna, Hades, Carceri, the Abyss, and Pandemonium. Tributaries of the Styx snake onto lower layers of these planes. For example, a tendril of the Styx winds through every layer of the Nine Hells, allowing passage from one layer of that plane to the next. Sinister ferries float on the waters of the Styx, crewed by pilots skilled in negotiating the unpredictable currents and eddies of the river. For a price, these pilots are willing to carry passengers from plane to plane. Some of them are fiends, while others are the souls of dead creatures from the Material Plane. The Infinite Staircase:
The Infinite Staircase is an extradimensional spiral staircase that connects the planes. An entrance to the Infinite Staircase usually appears as a nondescript door. Beyond the portal lies a small landing with an equally nondescript stairway leading up and down. The Infinite Staircase changes appearance as it climbs and descends, going from simple stairs of wood or stone to a chaotic jumble of stairs hanging in radiant space, where no two steps share the same gravitational orientation. It is said that one can find one’s heart’s desire on the Infinite Staircase through diligent searching of each landing. Doors to the Infinite Staircase are often tucked away in dusty, half-forgotten places that no one frequents or pays any attention to. On any given plane, there can be multiple doors to the Infinite Staircase, though entrances aren’t common knowledge and are occasionally guarded by devas, sphinxes, yugoloths, and other powerful monsters. Optional Rules:
Each of the Outer Planes has peculiar characteristics that make traveling through it a unique experience. A plane’s influence can affect visitors in various ways, such as causing them to take on personality traits or flaws that reflect the disposition of the plane, or even shift alignment to more closely match the native inhabitants of the plane. Each plane’s description includes one or more optional rules that you can use to help make the adventurers’ experiences on that plane memorable. Optional Rule: Psychic Dissonance:
Each of the Outer Planes emanates a psychic dissonance that affects visitors of an incompatible alignment — good creatures on the Lower Planes, evil ones on the Upper Planes — if they spend too much time on the plane. You can reflect this dissonance with this optional rule. At the end of a long rest spent on an incompatible plane, a visitor must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature gains one level of exhaustion. Incompatibility between lawful and chaotic alignments doesn’t have the same effect, so Mechanus and Limbo lack this quality. (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/creating-a-multiverse#PlanarTravel)
Maps
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The Outer Planes
The outer planes!
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Dimensional plane
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