The Ethereal Planes

From the wizard's perspective, the key features of the Ethereal planes include the following:

· The effects of time occur 10 times slower than on the Prime Material plane. For instance, for every 10 turns that pass on the Ethereal planes, only a single turn has passed. Therefore, the subjective time for the wizard to memorize and cast spells is 10 times as long as the actual time required.

· The thick soup of ethereal matter restricts clear vision to about 100 yards.

· Because of the semi-solid nature of the ethereal matter, spells that create restraining effects, such as web and wall of stone, are easily circumvented by the victim-- he must only move the ethereal matter out of the way. Restraining spells that inflict damage, such as wall of fire, are equally easy to circumvent, but still cause harm to the victim.

The schools of magic are affected as follows:

Abjuration: Spells of 5th level and above will not function.

Alteration: All spells of this school function normally, subject to the special laws of the Ethereal planes.

Conjuration/Summoning: Entities from the Prime Material, Astral, and outer planes cannot be summoned. Leomund's secret chest places the conjured chest in a location in the Ethereal plane different from that of the caster.

Divination: These spells function only if the wizard is in the area between the Prime Material plane and the Ethereal planes (called the Border Ethereal) and is casting the spells into one of the adjacent planes. For instance, detect magic will not work in the Ethereal plane, but it functions normally if cast from the Border Ethereal into the Ethereal planes. Contact other plane, however, functions everywhere in the Ethereal planes.

Enchantment/Charm: All spells of this school function normally, subject to the special laws of the Ethereal planes.

Invocation/Evocation: All spells of this school function normally, subject to the special laws of the Ethereal planes, except that materials created by evocation spells are made of ethereal matter and have the properties of that matter. Bigby's forceful hand, for instance, will not stop an opponent.

Illusion/Phantasm: All spells of this school function normally, subject to the special laws of the Ethereal planes. However, illusionary images and items do not disappear at the end of the spell's duration, or when the wizard stops concentrating, or when the illusion is touched. Instead, the images and items gradually fade away. Invisibility, change self, and fear are not subject to fading and function normally.

Necromancy: All spells of this school function normally, subject to the special laws of the Ethereal planes.

· Magical Items: Pluses on weapons are reduced by one to attack and damage rolls (a sword +2 effectively becomes a sword +1 ). Armor and protective devices are likewise reduced by one plus. Magical items that duplicate specific types of spells operate under the same restrictions as described above.

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