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Might sound like a strange question but I've got plans for a group of adventurers to be sent to Limbo, though they won't be prepared for a trip through a plane that lacks the basic needs for survival, so they'll probably run out of rations before they can get out of Limbo.

Obviously water is an easy solution, water is an element and a simple Intelligence check can result in the creation of some water they could drink, it's tempting to put some kind of effect, neither good nor bad, when drinking said water but it'll still fulfill that need.

Finding a sheltered area that exists for at least 8 hours can be achievable, from what I can tell even if a PC can't stabilise an area it sounds like not all areas change at the same lightning fast rate and a rock formation could look like a tidal wave in slow motion

But what I'm wondering is how to solve the issue of food, there's not much game in Limbo aside from the Slaadi, no permanent fields to graze on or oceans full of fish and if everything is changing no plants could grow. I get that the Githzerai live in monasteries and those are there to sustain their population which could be chalked down to fields being stabilised by well trained minds and crops planted in said fields, but obviously my party won't have the ability to stabilise areas for long enough to yield crops, even if they carried seeds from the material plane over.

I might be overthinking this but what sounds like a more plausible or interesting way to solve this?

  • Time has no effect on the party. Akin to the astral plane
  • Allow them to create vegetable matter. As part of the variant rule to creating objects in Limbo
  • Add some kinds of game besides Slaadi. Might just be some weird looking fish that's like a proto-Aboleth if it needs water to survive
  • Allow them to create elemental seeds that grow extremely fast.
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Food & Water

There may be food in limbo, and optional rules allow to create it

According to the DMG's description of limbo, p. 61:

Fragments of more ordinary landscapes-bits of forest, meadow, ruined castles, and even burbling streams-drift through the disorder.

So there are pieces of forest and meadows floating around where the characters could possibly forage some food -- berries, roots, etc.

Furthermore, there is this optional rule, same page and following:

A creature can also use an action to make an Intelligence check to alter a nonmagical object that isn't being worn or carried. (...) the DC is based on the object's size: DC 10 for Tiny, DC 15 for Small, DC 20 for Medium, and DC 25 for Large or larger. On a success, the creature changes the object into another nonliving form of the same size, such as turning a boulder into a ball of fire.

This could allow the PCs to turn some other object - some equipment, or a piece of matter from the plane -- into some nonliving food object like a hunk of cheese, solving their food problem easily.

Spells

Magic Items

  • Alchemy Jug (DMG p150) - while a diet of Beer, Honey, Mayonnaise, Oil (assuming vegetable oil - it doesn't say so presumably you can choose what type of oil you want), Vinegar and Wine is not the most diverse, it certainly contains a lot of calories and most if not all of the nutrients required to sustain life.
  • Decanter of Endless Water (Water only)
  • Ioun Stone (Sustenance)
  • Rod of Security

Non-magical alternatives

  • Trade with the Githzerai who call Limbo their home. From Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes:

    Aside from its inhabitants, the most well-defended element of a githzerai fortress is its food supply. Because Limbo provides no sustenance, the githzerai rely on crops and livestock they appropriate from elsewhere. Plants are grown in hydroponic chambers, and livestock are raised in pens where light, temperature, and other conditions are tailored to their needs.

Older editions lore

  • According to the “Planes of Chaos” (ISBN 1560768746), 2nd edition Planescape resource, Slaadi get most of their food by foraging and plunder (page 79). That suggests there is enough food to be plundered or foraged in Limbo, in the wild.

  • From the above book, some characters might just find out they are natural-born Anarchs, able to transform raw chaos soup into things they need. If one or more of your players will try, you can let them randomly determine who is an Anarch. There is, of course, no logic or reason to that determination.

Shelter

Spells

Magic Items

Notes

  • Incomplete list - feel free to add more
  • Does not include Artifacts
  • Does not include things that would allow the PCs to leave Limbo.
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