Monday, March 24, 2014

Elemental Planes Addendum

I would say I forgot the quasi- and para-elementals in yesterday's post, but I really didn't. I've never felt those were as conceptually pure as the primary elementals and so not as rich for turning into whole planes. Do we really need a whole Plane of Ooze?

After thinking about it a bit, I do think there is a little bit to be said. I do like the idea of elemental mixing; I mean, that is the source of the Prime Material Plane, after all. I just don't think we need whole plans of them. Maybe they're just the phase boundaries between the elements? I suppose you could still call them "planes" if you wanted, but they would really be the overlap between planes.

In any case, I'm pretty sure this is what the area of  Quasi-Elemental Mineral looks like:


I'm not convinced that currently list of para-elementals is complete either. It would seem to me that the more watery side of a water/earth mixing might be silt or sediment rather than ooze. The airy end of the air/water boundary would be mist (perhaps freezing mist) rather than ice.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the Positive and Negative Planes that finish out the Inner Planes, check out this post from exactly 3 years ago.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree the para-elements are a bit too specific, but I do feel that, yes, we absolutely need a Plane of Ooze because I grew up in the 80's and slime rules.

Trey said...

@Booberry - I can see that. The para-elements are, in a way, more evocative than the classical elements.

Anonymous said...

I'm reminded of this comic:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0423.html

"I fired five Titanium Elementals at them. They're just as strong and 40% lighter."

garrisonjames said...

The presentation of the Para-elemental Planes has always been clumsy and inelegant. Treating them as codified phase boundaries between the big four elements is a decent approach that then would unlock a plethora of other, similar, smaller-scale boundary/interface-planes, which could be interesting for adventuring purposes.