So i'm looking to make a dying world (plane of existence) that my players get teleported into after losing a fight against one of the BBG's. I'm thinking of having 2 major limitations in this world, first being that players can only regain spells equal to two times their character level per day (EX: A level 6 character would have 12 points to spend, a 3rd level spell would cost 3 of those points.) The second big limitation would be that to regain spells they are literally stripping the primal energies out of the land around them. So basically the land regains a set amount of spell levels per day, if the players over tax the land (fairly easy with multiple casters in the group) that section of land becomes magic barren for 1d10 weeks.
Does anyone have suggestions on a good way to make this work? Like i don't want to cripple the casters, but i also want the party to have to make some hard choices between using spells that make life easier, and having access to those high level power house spells. I also want to be sure that the party can't have a big fight, hunker down for 2-3 days to regain their spell slots, move till they get into a fight, and repeat the process.
To keep them from hunkering down you can always have something chasing them/put them on a time limit. Use whatever they have stakes in on their home plane as an incentive to keep moving and looking for a way back, have natural predators of this plane be attracted to areas where magic is being used/activated etc.
My only question here would be what’s the end goal of being on this plane, this is a great concept (I might lift it for my own) but I am a great believer that you need to be able to sketch out your beginning middle and end of a situation like this, you can sandbox it a little, have them meet people and experience this plane of existence, but how are they going to be able to leave?
If magic is restricted I imagine they will either need to store magic somehow in a device like a battery, or find a way of bringing magic back to the plane. Also how are you going to tell the characters the rules in game, an exposition npc, a series of arcane checks and investigations? Rather then a point buy system that feels a bit meta and requires you to make an out of game explanation maybe there is another way of handling the recovery that can be kept purely in game and also requires less book keeping. Are recovery points kept day to day, so if I don’t use any spells today do I get the 12 points today to store for tomorrow?
But also magic is provided by different beings so will clerics be weakened in the same way (their magic is divine) or will a warlock who’s magic comes directly from a patron struggle? I imagine you can explain it for bards, Wizards and sorcerors a little more.
These are the kind of logical challenges my players would make, not to be difficult but because they ask and would expect me to be able to explain.
My only question here would be what’s the end goal of being on this plane, this is a great concept (I might lift it for my own) but I am a great believer that you need to be able to sketch out your beginning middle and end of a situation like this, you can sandbox it a little, have them meet people and experience this plane of existence, but how are they going to be able to leave?
If magic is restricted I imagine they will either need to store magic somehow in a device like a battery, or find a way of bringing magic back to the plane. Also how are you going to tell the characters the rules in game, an exposition npc, a series of arcane checks and investigations? Rather then a point buy system that feels a bit meta and requires you to make an out of game explanation maybe there is another way of handling the recovery that can be kept purely in game and also requires less book keeping. Are recovery points kept day to day, so if I don’t use any spells today do I get the 12 points today to store for tomorrow?
But also magic is provided by different beings so will clerics be weakened in the same way (their magic is divine) or will a warlock who’s magic comes directly from a patron struggle? I imagine you can explain it for bards, Wizards and sorcerors a little more.
These are the kind of logical challenges my players would make, not to be difficult but because they ask and would expect me to be able to explain.
I like the idea of finding a “battery,” maybe a crystal or something? Maybe they could find, buy, or steal a Ring of Spell Storing?
As for the warlock’s patron, I suppose it would depend on what plane the patron resides on. The Astral Plane, for example, connects with myriad other planes, so a patron residing there could probably get their magic to their warlock without too much trouble. I imagine that deities would follow similar rules; they have always resided on different planes than their clerics, so they might have a way to preserve the flow of magic across many different planes.
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I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
My only question here would be what’s the end goal of being on this plane, this is a great concept (I might lift it for my own) but I am a great believer that you need to be able to sketch out your beginning middle and end of a situation like this, you can sandbox it a little, have them meet people and experience this plane of existence, but how are they going to be able to leave?
If magic is restricted I imagine they will either need to store magic somehow in a device like a battery, or find a way of bringing magic back to the plane. Also how are you going to tell the characters the rules in game, an exposition npc, a series of arcane checks and investigations? Rather then a point buy system that feels a bit meta and requires you to make an out of game explanation maybe there is another way of handling the recovery that can be kept purely in game and also requires less book keeping. Are recovery points kept day to day, so if I don’t use any spells today do I get the 12 points today to store for tomorrow?
But also magic is provided by different beings so will clerics be weakened in the same way (their magic is divine) or will a warlock who’s magic comes directly from a patron struggle? I imagine you can explain it for bards, Wizards and sorcerors a little more.
These are the kind of logical challenges my players would make, not to be difficult but because they ask and would expect me to be able to explain.
I like the idea of finding a “battery,” maybe a crystal or something? Maybe they could find, buy, or steal a Ring of Spell Storing?
As for the warlock’s patron, I suppose it would depend on what plane the patron resides on. The Astral Plane, for example, connects with myriad other planes, so a patron residing there could probably get their magic to their warlock without too much trouble. I imagine that deities would follow similar rules; they have always resided on different planes than their clerics, so they might have a way to preserve the flow of magic across many different planes.
For a campaign like this i would create home brew magic items specific to the campaign. But any magic item that stores magic would be much more powerful, and therefore expensive
Ki is also magical, at least its described that way in the PHB, ("a magical energy that most monastic traditions call ki") so you'll need to sort out getting back ki points for any monks in the party. I'd suggest reviewing all of the classes and subclasses in your party beforehand to decide how it will impact each of them.
It kind of screws warlocks, since they're balanced around having fewer spell slots, but getting them back on a short rest, instead of a long. If this puts them in the same boat as other casters, its a real disadvantage. Speaking of, how will their invocations work, in particular the ones that let them cast spells without using a slot.
Will there be any impact on magic items? Seems like they would be incredibly rare and put a big target on the character's backs. (You could even allow them to use magic items as those batteries others are talking about. I love forcing players to make a decision like, would I rather have this potion of healing or a 1st level spell slot.)
As far as stopping them from hunkering down, as others said, there's really two ways (probably there's more, just to that occurred to me quickly). A ticking clock -- the portal out of this place opens in three days, and it only stays open for an hour, so we'd better be there -- or an obviously hostile place, where players quickly realize that if they stop to rest, they'll be attacked, so keeping moving is really the best bet.
And finally, depending on their level, something like magnificent mansion or demiplane trivializes it, since it opens up a portal to an alternate dimension where they can rest easily and avoid the restrictions. Also, the cleric (or other folks) can just banishment everyone home one at a time (the target is "a creature you can see," which I read as being able to use on yourself, but I can see an argument against it) if they have that. It might take a day or two, and then the party will be scattered around, since you can pick where someone is being banished to, but its a quick way out.
Short term goal, is to get off the plane. To achieve this, they will have to find someone on the plane who either knows magic strong enough to travel the planes, or perhaps has an item that allows them to teleport to a different plane of existence. More long term, would be coming back to the plane once the party is much much stronger, and pour there collective magical might into terraforming the plane into something more hospitable. I have this whole side path where they find magical sanctuaries with orbs at the center. If the party dumps a set amount of spell levels into the orbs, it causes them to reactivate and begin healing the surrounding area. Provided the party can find enough orbs and have enough spare magic to power them, they could literally save this entire world from slowly crumbling to dust.
My ticking clock will probably be some combo of "shits going down back on your home plane, and you are stuck here unable to do ANYTHING to help" with a side of wild beasts that feed on magic hunting the party. Perhaps have them run into one of the many groups of people who loath casters. I also like the idea that the party will have to make some tough choices; like choosing how to split 35 spell levels across 3 (level 7) characters.
I want them to feel like they have to leave, but at the same time i don't want them to magically find "1 of the 5 people on the whole plane with 7th level magic" as they are stumbling around a magical wasteland.
1. How long do you expect the group to be on that plane?
2. Is there a specific task they need to do before they go back, and do they know what that task is?
3. Do they know how to get back to their home plane?
I like the idea of recovering spell slots causing the land around them to wither and die. That feels like a cool throwback to Dark Sun. However, your mechanics for determining how many slots they can recover may end up being a bit of a crunchy math headache. Maybe each day spent on that plane causes each caster to lose access to their highest level spell slots. Or maybe at the start of each day each caster has to make a saving throw or lose that access. And if they need a spell slot of a certain level to get back home, they'll know how quickly they need to get the job done and still be able to get home. A ticking clock is a great motivator!
Or maybe each caster automatically loses access to their highest level spell slots each morning - BUT - they can choose to lose physical health to recharge those slots. Like maybe each spell slot level costs one hit point per spell level to recover. So let's say they're Level 10, so their highest spell slots are 5th level spells. They wake up and find those 5th level spell slots empty, but you can sacrifice 5 hp to recharge each slot. After a few days each caster will need to be sacrificing a huge amount of hit points just to recharge all their spell slots. So they'll have to decide each morning what the best balance is between the spells they need to cast and the hit points they need to survive. (A 10th level character would have to sacrifice 41 hit points to recharge all their spell slots.)
Either way, they will inevitably reach a point where all their slots are gone and they lack the power to recharge them. Then what? It's good to give players a difficult situation, but players generally resent being thrown into a Kobiyashi Maru. You have to (or at least you should) give them some clues as to a path they can take to get back home. Maybe they need to find a portal, or kill a monster, or something. Whatever it is, they'll need clues to guide them or they'll feel stuck and that's no fun.
i figure they will likely be stuck on the plane for a couple weeks if not a few months. I mean they have to find either find a power relic of old that will allow them to pierce the veil and travel the planes, or carry favor with an arch caster strong enough to ferry them back to their home plane.
I figure if they are going the route of getting help, they would probably have to deal with a couple nests of anti magic creatures that pose a risk of destablizing the already failing flow of mana across the plane.
And to answer the third question, no. They will not go in knowing how to get back, but it shouldn't be too hard to bread crumb them into finding clues that lead them to the answers.
So they have to find some powerful spellcaster who knows how to pierce the veil between planes, and they need to convince him/her to send them home. That's good, because it doesn't necessarily require outright combat but rather can be done as purely RP with skill checks, or that plus a favor (side quest) they need to do for that person.
One question that stands out to me there is - if the plane sucks away your magical energies, how is that guy still powerful enough to do that stuff? So maybe that person's castle or whatever is located at the exact center of the plane where there's some kind of focusing effect. Like maybe a Stonehenge type thing, but made of giant crystals instead of rocks, and those crystals can harness and focus magical energies to the spot in the center, so you only need a little bit of magic to do big things.
So you'll just need to lay some clues to enable the party to find him/her. Probably by interacting with the native people of the plane and asking questions. Of course there'll be random encounters along the way which will tax the party's magical energies. By the time they find the Powerful Caster they'll likely be very weakened and empty of spell slots. So you'll need to prepare a side quest favor that they can accomplish with little to no magic.
Of course, the spellcasters in the party will hate all this. Sure, it'll be challenging at first, but after a few sessions they'll start to get frustrated at not having their primary powers available to them. So when it's complete and they manage to get home (if they do) it might be nice to allow them to get a little something extra for the effort. Like maybe the side quest was that the Powerful Caster depends on those huge crystals to channel and focus his magic, but those crystals only last so long, and the miners in the mines where the crystals are found can be an unruly bunch, so maybe he asks the party to go into the mines and maybe negotiate for more crystals. Or maybe there's a labor dispute in the mines that the party has to resolve. Or maybe a monster has scared the miners away and the party has to kill it so crystal mining can resume. And of course, in the process, maybe the casters each manage to pocket a few small pieces of these crystals. And when they get back home they discover that these crystals can be used to amplify the power of their spells. That might be a nice little balance. They lost a bunch of spellcasting power for a while, and now they get a nice little spellcasting boost for a while. Of course, the crystals will run out of energy after a certain number of spell levels have been boosted, but it might be a nice way to reward them.
Mmm... I'd be super cautious about bringing in a mechanic that seems to just target certain character types... I mean it could leave some players feeling bummed out and thinking you could have said you didn't like magic users in your games I would have chosen a cleric, barberian, rogue or whatever...
I guess I'm getting at what's your reason behind the mechanic is it purely the aesthetic of a dying world or is the entire point of the world...
...I also want the party to have to make some hard choices between using spells that make life easier, and having access to those high level power house spells.... ...I also want to be sure that the party can't have a big fight, hunker down for 2-3 days to regain their spell slots, move till they get into a fight, and repeat the process.
I mean if this is your way of dealing with a player group whose magic use just has them breezing through whatever you throw at them then I'd not sure that this is going to solve the problem your having
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Here's an alternative option which kind of works the way you're after:
The plane is dying and its death is related to the use of magic.
Whenever the players recover any magical abilities (spell slots, ki points, magical weapon charges) the world dies more. The occupants of the plane have stopped using magic whilst they try to save their home. The arrival of the party has led to their desperate attempts to steal any magic items they have to try and power a machine to save their world. Every time the players use magic, the locals are enraged as it is killing their plane.
The players need to work out that they are causing the death of the world (drop some hints, like specifically asking the players how many magical abilities they are recharging when they rest, and then having all the plants, which were already diseased looking, be completely dead around their camp after their rest). Then they need to decide on their two options - bail, or try to save it. Saving it will require the sacrificing of several of their magical items to power the machine to cure the plane. Bailing would require stealing the current power source of the machine to power a interplanar portal for them to escape.
The locals don't speak common and so cannot explain their needs. The party will have to try and work out the best course of action without any handholding. Have an obvious portal to the material plane (perhaps where they enter) and a clear slot for a magic crystal to power it. Then feed them some encounters so they use some spells and enrage the natives, and then offer them their options. They might never ask what the machine does, but then again they might, and be moved to save the natives. The artificer who has been making the machine might use message to talk to them, asking for their help, or just terrifiedly asking them who they are and what they want.
For keeping the party from waiting out their recharge, you need to keep the world moving around them. If you stop in a dungeon, bad things happen. If you hide for 3 days, the people you were tracking are long gone.
Mmm... I'd be super cautious about bringing in a mechanic that seems to just target certain character types... I mean it could leave some players feeling bummed out and thinking you could have said you didn't like magic users in your games I would have chosen a cleric, barberian, rogue or whatever...
I guess I'm getting at what's your reason behind the mechanic is it purely the aesthetic of a dying world or is the entire point of the world...
...I also want the party to have to make some hard choices between using spells that make life easier, and having access to those high level power house spells.... ...I also want to be sure that the party can't have a big fight, hunker down for 2-3 days to regain their spell slots, move till they get into a fight, and repeat the process.
I mean if this is your way of dealing with a player group whose magic use just has them breezing through whatever you throw at them then I'd not sure that this is going to solve the problem your having
This makes me think about some of the stories I've read on r/RPGHorrorstories. Something that comes up sometimes is a DM who sets their campaign in a setting where magic doesn't work, or just specific magic doesn't work. One that stuck out to me was one where a player recounted playing a game as a Warlock where none of her magical abilities worked... not just spells, but even Eldritch Invocations, and without all that she basically became just a terrible melee fighter, and anyone else who played a caster class just stopped showing up at the table.
Personally... I really like the roleplay idea that the world itself is drained by your players recovering spell slots. If your players take roleplay seriously, that will be enough. There's no need to mechanically punish them for their character class, but if they can see that there's a real cost to this place and the innocent people there then they'll be hesitant to rely on magic. I know I would, at least.
Mmm... I'd be super cautious about bringing in a mechanic that seems to just target certain character types... I mean it could leave some players feeling bummed out and thinking you could have said you didn't like magic users in your games I would have chosen a cleric, barberian, rogue or whatever...
I guess I'm getting at what's your reason behind the mechanic is it purely the aesthetic of a dying world or is the entire point of the world...
...I also want the party to have to make some hard choices between using spells that make life easier, and having access to those high level power house spells.... ...I also want to be sure that the party can't have a big fight, hunker down for 2-3 days to regain their spell slots, move till they get into a fight, and repeat the process.
I mean if this is your way of dealing with a player group whose magic use just has them breezing through whatever you throw at them then I'd not sure that this is going to solve the problem your having
This makes me think about some of the stories I've read on r/RPGHorrorstories. Something that comes up sometimes is a DM who sets their campaign in a setting where magic doesn't work, or just specific magic doesn't work. One that stuck out to me was one where a player recounted playing a game as a Warlock where none of her magical abilities worked... not just spells, but even Eldritch Invocations, and without all that she basically became just a terrible melee fighter, and anyone else who played a caster class just stopped showing up at the table.
Personally... I really like the roleplay idea that the world itself is drained by your players recovering spell slots. If your players take roleplay seriously, that will be enough. There's no need to mechanically punish them for their character class, but if they can see that there's a real cost to this place and the innocent people there then they'll be hesitant to rely on magic. I know I would, at least.
Mine would refuse to use their magic, period. Some of them would regard that as an awesome challenge, but some would be so stressed out that they would probably have to leave the game temporarily.
All of my players, including myself, struggle with mental health occasionally, and 3 of my 5 (four out of six if you count me) have escaped severe domestic abuse situations. It makes our game very rich and realistic, and the PCs interesting and complex, and the atmosphere at the table is one of tolerance, compromise, creativity, and lots of other good adjectives! It also means, however, that I have to pay attention to whether a given situation or topic is a sensitive one, and having one’s power taken away is a major real-life struggle for everyone at the table.
All of that is to say, keep an eye on the stress level of your players. From your description, it sounds like your table will enjoy the challenge, which is awesome! Just keep an eye on the stress level of the group.
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So i'm looking to make a dying world (plane of existence) that my players get teleported into after losing a fight against one of the BBG's. I'm thinking of having 2 major limitations in this world, first being that players can only regain spells equal to two times their character level per day (EX: A level 6 character would have 12 points to spend, a 3rd level spell would cost 3 of those points.) The second big limitation would be that to regain spells they are literally stripping the primal energies out of the land around them. So basically the land regains a set amount of spell levels per day, if the players over tax the land (fairly easy with multiple casters in the group) that section of land becomes magic barren for 1d10 weeks.
Does anyone have suggestions on a good way to make this work? Like i don't want to cripple the casters, but i also want the party to have to make some hard choices between using spells that make life easier, and having access to those high level power house spells. I also want to be sure that the party can't have a big fight, hunker down for 2-3 days to regain their spell slots, move till they get into a fight, and repeat the process.
To keep them from hunkering down you can always have something chasing them/put them on a time limit. Use whatever they have stakes in on their home plane as an incentive to keep moving and looking for a way back, have natural predators of this plane be attracted to areas where magic is being used/activated etc.
My only question here would be what’s the end goal of being on this plane, this is a great concept (I might lift it for my own) but I am a great believer that you need to be able to sketch out your beginning middle and end of a situation like this, you can sandbox it a little, have them meet people and experience this plane of existence, but how are they going to be able to leave?
If magic is restricted I imagine they will either need to store magic somehow in a device like a battery, or find a way of bringing magic back to the plane. Also how are you going to tell the characters the rules in game, an exposition npc, a series of arcane checks and investigations? Rather then a point buy system that feels a bit meta and requires you to make an out of game explanation maybe there is another way of handling the recovery that can be kept purely in game and also requires less book keeping. Are recovery points kept day to day, so if I don’t use any spells today do I get the 12 points today to store for tomorrow?
But also magic is provided by different beings so will clerics be weakened in the same way (their magic is divine) or will a warlock who’s magic comes directly from a patron struggle? I imagine you can explain it for bards, Wizards and sorcerors a little more.
These are the kind of logical challenges my players would make, not to be difficult but because they ask and would expect me to be able to explain.
It reminds me a little of the Dark Sun game setting: Appendix C: Adapting to Other Worlds - Princes of the Apocalypse - Sources - D&D Beyond (dndbeyond.com) may prove useful to you.
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I like the idea of finding a “battery,” maybe a crystal or something? Maybe they could find, buy, or steal a Ring of Spell Storing?
As for the warlock’s patron, I suppose it would depend on what plane the patron resides on. The Astral Plane, for example, connects with myriad other planes, so a patron residing there could probably get their magic to their warlock without too much trouble. I imagine that deities would follow similar rules; they have always resided on different planes than their clerics, so they might have a way to preserve the flow of magic across many different planes.
I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
For a campaign like this i would create home brew magic items specific to the campaign. But any magic item that stores magic would be much more powerful, and therefore expensive
Ki is also magical, at least its described that way in the PHB, ("a magical energy that most monastic traditions call ki") so you'll need to sort out getting back ki points for any monks in the party. I'd suggest reviewing all of the classes and subclasses in your party beforehand to decide how it will impact each of them.
It kind of screws warlocks, since they're balanced around having fewer spell slots, but getting them back on a short rest, instead of a long. If this puts them in the same boat as other casters, its a real disadvantage. Speaking of, how will their invocations work, in particular the ones that let them cast spells without using a slot.
Will there be any impact on magic items? Seems like they would be incredibly rare and put a big target on the character's backs. (You could even allow them to use magic items as those batteries others are talking about. I love forcing players to make a decision like, would I rather have this potion of healing or a 1st level spell slot.)
As far as stopping them from hunkering down, as others said, there's really two ways (probably there's more, just to that occurred to me quickly). A ticking clock -- the portal out of this place opens in three days, and it only stays open for an hour, so we'd better be there -- or an obviously hostile place, where players quickly realize that if they stop to rest, they'll be attacked, so keeping moving is really the best bet.
And finally, depending on their level, something like magnificent mansion or demiplane trivializes it, since it opens up a portal to an alternate dimension where they can rest easily and avoid the restrictions. Also, the cleric (or other folks) can just banishment everyone home one at a time (the target is "a creature you can see," which I read as being able to use on yourself, but I can see an argument against it) if they have that. It might take a day or two, and then the party will be scattered around, since you can pick where someone is being banished to, but its a quick way out.
Short term goal, is to get off the plane. To achieve this, they will have to find someone on the plane who either knows magic strong enough to travel the planes, or perhaps has an item that allows them to teleport to a different plane of existence. More long term, would be coming back to the plane once the party is much much stronger, and pour there collective magical might into terraforming the plane into something more hospitable. I have this whole side path where they find magical sanctuaries with orbs at the center. If the party dumps a set amount of spell levels into the orbs, it causes them to reactivate and begin healing the surrounding area. Provided the party can find enough orbs and have enough spare magic to power them, they could literally save this entire world from slowly crumbling to dust.
My ticking clock will probably be some combo of "shits going down back on your home plane, and you are stuck here unable to do ANYTHING to help" with a side of wild beasts that feed on magic hunting the party. Perhaps have them run into one of the many groups of people who loath casters. I also like the idea that the party will have to make some tough choices; like choosing how to split 35 spell levels across 3 (level 7) characters.
I want them to feel like they have to leave, but at the same time i don't want them to magically find "1 of the 5 people on the whole plane with 7th level magic" as they are stumbling around a magical wasteland.
It's a neat idea. Couple of questions:
1. How long do you expect the group to be on that plane?
2. Is there a specific task they need to do before they go back, and do they know what that task is?
3. Do they know how to get back to their home plane?
I like the idea of recovering spell slots causing the land around them to wither and die. That feels like a cool throwback to Dark Sun. However, your mechanics for determining how many slots they can recover may end up being a bit of a crunchy math headache. Maybe each day spent on that plane causes each caster to lose access to their highest level spell slots. Or maybe at the start of each day each caster has to make a saving throw or lose that access. And if they need a spell slot of a certain level to get back home, they'll know how quickly they need to get the job done and still be able to get home. A ticking clock is a great motivator!
Or maybe each caster automatically loses access to their highest level spell slots each morning - BUT - they can choose to lose physical health to recharge those slots. Like maybe each spell slot level costs one hit point per spell level to recover. So let's say they're Level 10, so their highest spell slots are 5th level spells. They wake up and find those 5th level spell slots empty, but you can sacrifice 5 hp to recharge each slot. After a few days each caster will need to be sacrificing a huge amount of hit points just to recharge all their spell slots. So they'll have to decide each morning what the best balance is between the spells they need to cast and the hit points they need to survive. (A 10th level character would have to sacrifice 41 hit points to recharge all their spell slots.)
Either way, they will inevitably reach a point where all their slots are gone and they lack the power to recharge them. Then what? It's good to give players a difficult situation, but players generally resent being thrown into a Kobiyashi Maru. You have to (or at least you should) give them some clues as to a path they can take to get back home. Maybe they need to find a portal, or kill a monster, or something. Whatever it is, they'll need clues to guide them or they'll feel stuck and that's no fun.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
i figure they will likely be stuck on the plane for a couple weeks if not a few months. I mean they have to find either find a power relic of old that will allow them to pierce the veil and travel the planes, or carry favor with an arch caster strong enough to ferry them back to their home plane.
I figure if they are going the route of getting help, they would probably have to deal with a couple nests of anti magic creatures that pose a risk of destablizing the already failing flow of mana across the plane.
And to answer the third question, no. They will not go in knowing how to get back, but it shouldn't be too hard to bread crumb them into finding clues that lead them to the answers.
So they have to find some powerful spellcaster who knows how to pierce the veil between planes, and they need to convince him/her to send them home. That's good, because it doesn't necessarily require outright combat but rather can be done as purely RP with skill checks, or that plus a favor (side quest) they need to do for that person.
One question that stands out to me there is - if the plane sucks away your magical energies, how is that guy still powerful enough to do that stuff? So maybe that person's castle or whatever is located at the exact center of the plane where there's some kind of focusing effect. Like maybe a Stonehenge type thing, but made of giant crystals instead of rocks, and those crystals can harness and focus magical energies to the spot in the center, so you only need a little bit of magic to do big things.
So you'll just need to lay some clues to enable the party to find him/her. Probably by interacting with the native people of the plane and asking questions. Of course there'll be random encounters along the way which will tax the party's magical energies. By the time they find the Powerful Caster they'll likely be very weakened and empty of spell slots. So you'll need to prepare a side quest favor that they can accomplish with little to no magic.
Of course, the spellcasters in the party will hate all this. Sure, it'll be challenging at first, but after a few sessions they'll start to get frustrated at not having their primary powers available to them. So when it's complete and they manage to get home (if they do) it might be nice to allow them to get a little something extra for the effort. Like maybe the side quest was that the Powerful Caster depends on those huge crystals to channel and focus his magic, but those crystals only last so long, and the miners in the mines where the crystals are found can be an unruly bunch, so maybe he asks the party to go into the mines and maybe negotiate for more crystals. Or maybe there's a labor dispute in the mines that the party has to resolve. Or maybe a monster has scared the miners away and the party has to kill it so crystal mining can resume. And of course, in the process, maybe the casters each manage to pocket a few small pieces of these crystals. And when they get back home they discover that these crystals can be used to amplify the power of their spells. That might be a nice little balance. They lost a bunch of spellcasting power for a while, and now they get a nice little spellcasting boost for a while. Of course, the crystals will run out of energy after a certain number of spell levels have been boosted, but it might be a nice way to reward them.
Just my 2 c.p.
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Mmm... I'd be super cautious about bringing in a mechanic that seems to just target certain character types... I mean it could leave some players feeling bummed out and thinking you could have said you didn't like magic users in your games I would have chosen a cleric, barberian, rogue or whatever...
I guess I'm getting at what's your reason behind the mechanic is it purely the aesthetic of a dying world or is the entire point of the world...
I mean if this is your way of dealing with a player group whose magic use just has them breezing through whatever you throw at them then I'd not sure that this is going to solve the problem your having
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Here's an alternative option which kind of works the way you're after:
The plane is dying and its death is related to the use of magic.
Whenever the players recover any magical abilities (spell slots, ki points, magical weapon charges) the world dies more. The occupants of the plane have stopped using magic whilst they try to save their home. The arrival of the party has led to their desperate attempts to steal any magic items they have to try and power a machine to save their world. Every time the players use magic, the locals are enraged as it is killing their plane.
The players need to work out that they are causing the death of the world (drop some hints, like specifically asking the players how many magical abilities they are recharging when they rest, and then having all the plants, which were already diseased looking, be completely dead around their camp after their rest). Then they need to decide on their two options - bail, or try to save it. Saving it will require the sacrificing of several of their magical items to power the machine to cure the plane. Bailing would require stealing the current power source of the machine to power a interplanar portal for them to escape.
The locals don't speak common and so cannot explain their needs. The party will have to try and work out the best course of action without any handholding. Have an obvious portal to the material plane (perhaps where they enter) and a clear slot for a magic crystal to power it. Then feed them some encounters so they use some spells and enrage the natives, and then offer them their options. They might never ask what the machine does, but then again they might, and be moved to save the natives. The artificer who has been making the machine might use message to talk to them, asking for their help, or just terrifiedly asking them who they are and what they want.
For keeping the party from waiting out their recharge, you need to keep the world moving around them. If you stop in a dungeon, bad things happen. If you hide for 3 days, the people you were tracking are long gone.
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This makes me think about some of the stories I've read on r/RPGHorrorstories. Something that comes up sometimes is a DM who sets their campaign in a setting where magic doesn't work, or just specific magic doesn't work. One that stuck out to me was one where a player recounted playing a game as a Warlock where none of her magical abilities worked... not just spells, but even Eldritch Invocations, and without all that she basically became just a terrible melee fighter, and anyone else who played a caster class just stopped showing up at the table.
Personally... I really like the roleplay idea that the world itself is drained by your players recovering spell slots. If your players take roleplay seriously, that will be enough. There's no need to mechanically punish them for their character class, but if they can see that there's a real cost to this place and the innocent people there then they'll be hesitant to rely on magic. I know I would, at least.
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Mine would refuse to use their magic, period. Some of them would regard that as an awesome challenge, but some would be so stressed out that they would probably have to leave the game temporarily.
All of my players, including myself, struggle with mental health occasionally, and 3 of my 5 (four out of six if you count me) have escaped severe domestic abuse situations. It makes our game very rich and realistic, and the PCs interesting and complex, and the atmosphere at the table is one of tolerance, compromise, creativity, and lots of other good adjectives! It also means, however, that I have to pay attention to whether a given situation or topic is a sensitive one, and having one’s power taken away is a major real-life struggle for everyone at the table.
All of that is to say, keep an eye on the stress level of your players. From your description, it sounds like your table will enjoy the challenge, which is awesome! Just keep an eye on the stress level of the group.
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