From my reading, 5e uses the "Great Wheel" interpretation of cosmology by default, but I'm having a hard time understanding what this means. Under this model, are the planes physically connected, and could a Githyanki pirate bring an airship to the Material Plane (without the use of teleportation magic or astral projection) to rob people?
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2\$\begingroup\$ There was a ship in the Forgotten realms chronology that was made of white bones and piloted by demons that was found in a lake in the underdark that might fit your description that could cross planar boundries. \$\endgroup\$– SandwichCommented Oct 23, 2015 at 3:07
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2 Answers
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No and no:
No, 5e does not use the Great Wheel cosmology — not by default. It's one of the many options available for a DM, but 5e presents only ingredients for a homebrewed cosmology, and very few pieces that are assumed as defaults (usually in things like magic item descriptions, such as the bag of holding).
In the Great Wheel cosmology, the Astral is entirely separate from the Prime Material. It is only accessible via magic, either more powerful magic that directly moves one to/from it, or via smaller magic that can get you into the Ethereal, through which you can travel to get near its border with the Astral and then use other magic or portals to hop from it to the Astral.
This means that, no, a Githyanki ship can't raid outside the Astral without very powerful magic that can essentially Gate the entire thing. Even then, an Astral ship only works in the Astral Sea anyway, and would need entirely different magic to operate in a Material atmosphere/space/crystal sphere/whatever arrangement that particular world in the Prime has.
Basically, the planes are physically separate and can't be traversed by mundane means. There are some exceptions (such as the borders between the Outlands and the Outer Planes, but even that's complicated, since how the “border” works between those infinite planes is quite strange in practice), but as a rule: no, you can't just walk, fly, sail, crawl, or trebuchet between the planes.
On the plus side, this means that you don't have to figure out why Githyanki don't constantly raid the Forgotten Realms or somesuch.
But on a completely different plus side, the lack of a default cosmology means you can trivially say that the Planes are contiguously connected in a useful way to allow Githyanki raiders to bother the Realms, if that is the campaign you wish to construct!
answered Oct 23, 2015 at 1:18
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2\$\begingroup\$ @nitsua60 I mentioned crystal spheres. :) The thing about Spelljammers is that they never leave the Prime; they just move among and between different crystal spheres within the same plane. They have the same difficulty: crossing planes, and then operating in a foreign plane, would require immense magic. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Oct 23, 2015 at 1:21
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1\$\begingroup\$ honestly, I didn't really remember the mechanics of the phlogiston+crystal spheres enough... just vague thirty year-old memories of notebooks full of ships' drawings under the bed. And gith. Lots of gith. \$\endgroup\$– nitsua60Commented Oct 23, 2015 at 1:28
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1\$\begingroup\$ Perhaps the OP was confused because of the wording in the DMG page 44 under "Great Wheel": "The default cosmological arrangement presented in the Player's Handbook visualizes the planes as a group of concentric wheels," \$\endgroup\$– daze413Commented Oct 23, 2015 at 4:26
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\$\begingroup\$ @daze413 Yes, that was my misconception \$\endgroup\$– aebabisCommented Oct 23, 2015 at 15:52
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The planes are separate, independent and infinite. There are connections between the planes but, in general, they are not spacial connections that you can walk, sail or otherwise move between by physical means.
The DMG describes planar travel starting on p. 44:
- Planar portals - these can connect any plane to any other plane as decided by the DM. Sail your airship through a portal (assuming it is big enough) and there you are. Portals can (and should be) weird and wonderful: random destination, random times, only usable by certain races, on certain phases of the moon, permanent and stable, shrinking, growing etc.
- Spells
- Plane Shift - from here to any plane you have the right fork for. This is, of course, the origin of the often used expression "fork you" meaning, in essence, "I hope that you are sent to another plane which is not to your liking." It only moves up to 9 creatures so you have to leave your airship behind.
- Gate - this creates a portal from here to any plane you like, it can be from 5 to 20 feet in diameter - you could fit a small airship through this.
- Astral Projection - from any plane to the Astral plane and from there through portals to any other plane. Again, only 9 creatures so no airship for you. In some cosmologies not all planes touch the Astral plane so it doesn't work from those planes.
- Etherealness - from the plane you are on to the border Ethereal but no further.
The particular cosmology is relevant only to the extent that it determines what planes there are and which planes touch.
