(Editor’s note: The article which follows is a condensed version of two letters to E. Gary Gygax, publisher of
DRAGON magazine and president of TSR Hobbies, Inc. Although Mr. Gygax’s introduction pertains only to the first letter
that follows it, Steven Kienle’s second letter was received by Mr.
Gygax in time to be included in this article. Although Steven
admits that some of his ideas are undeveloped, these letters
offer a wealth of suggestions for playing on the other planes of
existence. We look forward to receiving more articles on the other
planes from writers who are motivated by agreement, or disagreement, with the ideas presented below. — KM)

INTRODUCTION
BY . GARY GYGAX

The following letter from Steven Kienle was sent to me in
response to a past article (DRAGON magazine #32) regarding
play on the Elemental Planes. After reading it, I was so impressed as to wish to share his thoughts with all readers, and ask
their opinions as to what is right, wrong or incomplete regarding
this matter. The Elemental Planes have many possibilities for
AD&D™ adventuring. I would like to share the development of these areas with all interested players. Please read
Steven’s comments, so that you will be able to make contributions of your own. I hope you enjoy what he has to say as
much as I did and will be motivated thereafter to make such
substantial contributions yourself.

by Steven Kienle

Dear Mr. Gygax,
In your Sorcerer’s Scroll in DRAGON #32 you asked people to
send in any suggestions for the other planes of existence. What
follows is not a complete treatment of the outer planes nor the
elemental planes, but it does cover some ideas for play on the
elemental planes and a little on the outer planes.

The first point to be considered is that humans and other
creatures that live on the land in the prime material rely primarily
on air for their existence, whereas fish and other aquatic organisms
are primarily “water-based.” Our “air-based” nature is
demonstrated by our ability to move through air without trouble.
By the same standard, Xorn and Earth Elementals, for instance,
are earth-based, because they move through the earth with the
same ease we move through the air. Since we are air-based, the
plane of air will be the least hostile to us of all the elemental
planes — but a prolonged stay on any elemental plane will cause
some damage to any foreign life form because of the plane’s
innate hostility to creatures from the prime material.
Each character or creature visiting the planes of earth, fire or water will
take 1-2 points of damage each day from this general hostility;
on the plane of air, the damage is always 1 point per day. This
damage is recorded regardless of any magical protection the
visitors may have which enables them to withstand the elements
of the plane in the first place — a Ring of Fire Resistance on the
plane of fire, for example, or a Helm of Underwater Action on the
plane of water. No protection created by an object or spell
originating on the prime material is perfectly effective on the
elemental planes; in fact, some spells don’t work at all on certain
planes.

Among the spells that won’t work on the elemental planes are
those that employ an element not found on that plane— such as
an Earthquake spell on the plane of water. Some spells would
work, but should be outlawed anyway, such as a Cone of Cold
on the plane of fire. The spell might do double or even triple
damage if employed, but the casting would also attract every
creature in that plane toward the caster, bent on his destruction.
An indication of which spells are not usable on the plane of
water can be gotten from the Dungeon Masters Guide, page 57,
The Adventure (Underwater adventures). A specific list of spells
which would not work on the elemental plane of water is given
below, along with lists for the other elemental planes. The list
includes only those spells which simply will not function; other
spells might actually be able to be cast, but would have no effect
in any event.

                                                                                                          Unable to be cast on plane of:

Magic-User spell (level)	Fire	Water	Earth	Air
Burning Hands (1)	-	x	x	x
Pyrotechnics (2)	-	x	x	x
Fireball (3)	-	x	x	x
Flame Arrow (3)	-	x	x	x
Gust of Wind (3)	x	x	x	-
Water Breathing (3)	x	-	x	x
Fire Charm (4)	-	x	x	x
Fire Shield (4)	-	x	x	x
Fire Trap (4)	-	x	x	x
Wall of Fire (4)	-	x	x	x
Airy Water (5)	x	-	x	x
Conjure Elemental (5)	x	x	x	x
Wall of Stone (5)	x	x	x	x
Invisible Stalker (6)	x	x	x	-
Lower Water (6)	x	-	x	x
Move Earth (6)	x	x	-	x
Part Water (6)	x	-	x	x
Delayed Blast Fireball (7)	-	x	x	x
Incenriary Cloud (8)	-	x	x	x
Meteor Swarm (9)	-	x	x	x

                                                                                                           Unable to be cast on plane of:

Cleric spell (level)	Fire	Water	Earth	Air
Create Water (1)	x	-	x	x
Create Food & Water* (3)	x	-	x	x
Lower Water (4)	x	-	x	x
Flame Strike (5)	-	x	x	x
Aerial Servant (6)	x	x	x	-
Part Water (6)	x	-	x	x
Stone Tell (6)	x	x	-	x
Earthquake (7)	x	x	-	x
Wind Walk (7)	x	x	x	-

                                                                                                               Unable to be cast on plane of:

Druid Spell (Level)	Fire	Water	Earth	Air
Faerie Fire (1)	-	x	x	x
Purify Water (1)	x	-	x	x
Create Water (2)	x	-	x	x
Fire Trap (2)	-	x	x	x
Heat Metal (2)	-	x	x	x
Produce Flame (2)	-	x	x	x
Pyrotechnics (3)	-	x	x	x
Water Breathing (3)	x	-	x	x
Produce Fire (4)	-	x	x	x
Wall of Fire (5)	-	x	x	x
Conjure Fire Elemental (6)	x	x	x	x
Fire Seeds (6)	-	x	x	x
Conjure Earth Elemental (7)	x	x	x	x
Fire Storm (7)	-	x	-	-

In addition to those spells which are simply not able to be cast
and those which have no effect even if they are cast, certain
other spells might have their particulars changed on one of the
elemental planes. Also, for all spell-casters except Clerics, the
spell(s) would become less effective the farther the caster travels from the prime material plane. Clerics are an exception to
this rule; the closer a Cleric gets to the home plane of his/her deity, the more powerful and potent the Cleric’s magic becomes.

The group of spells which allows communication with nonhumanoid life (Speak with Animals, Speak with Plants, Animal
Friendship, Animal Summoning, Monster Summoning and others) would generally still operate on the elemental planes, but in
some cases the definitions of plant, animal and monster will
have to be considered with respect to the plane. In rough form,
these definitions are:

Plant: Any form of life native to a plane of existence that can
exist on that plant away from and apart from other life on that
plane.

Animal: Any form of life native to a plane that is neutral in
alignment (with respect to the native plane) and will kill only in
self-defense || for food.

Monster: Any form of life native to a plane which does not
meet the above definitions, or any form of life not native to a
plane which is residing on or visiting the plane in question.

Visitors to the plane of water and the plane of earth will be
slowed to a maximum movement of one-half and one-third,
respectively, of their normal rates. Exceptions to this rule for the
plane of water would be fish and other creatures which normally
move underwater, and creatures (such as nixies) who have
specified swimming movement rates in addition to land movement. Exceptions to the movement restriction on the plane of
earth would be few, but would include creatures such as the
purple worm, whose normal means of locomotion is burrowing
through the earth. Movement restrictions would be negated by a
Ring of Free Action or similar magic.

Communication by speech with natives of the elemental
planes would be all but impossible. Some types of elemental
creatures which have visited the prime material plane (i.e., the
ones in the Monster Manual) might know the common tongue,
but creatures native to the plane and unable to travel from it
would have an entirely foreign means of communicating. Unless
communication is established by magical methods, it will take
some time for a visitor to the plane to learn the plane’s common
tongue, either through study and observation of the natives or
from being tutored by a creature which knows both the elemental speech and our common tongue.

Any character or creatures that travel to other planes through
an interplanar or interdimensional gate would be immune to the
general effects of hostility and the restriction of movement on
the elemental planes — as long as they stayed within the area of
the gate’s effects, A gate is where two planes coexist, so the
travellers would still be “connected” enough to the prime material to withstand the hostile environment of the other plane.

Second letter

Dear Mr. Gygax,
I read through Mr. Lakofka’s article “The Inner Planes” (Leomund’s Tiny Hut, DRAGON issue #42) with not an
uninterested eye. The article is very good for some of the mechanics
of ethereal travel.

While the encounter chart could be
expanded with more monsters and intelligent creatures from
every plane, the article is well designed. I will not touch on the
subjects he has, but I’d like to start with some points about
magic and magic items on other planes.

Special effects, special purposes, and bonuses of a magic
item or weapon should be carefully reviewed by the DM if it’s in a
party traveling to another plane. For example, a sword which is
+1, +2 against Magic-Users and enchanted monsters would only
be a +1 weapon against an earth elemental on the elemental
plane of earth, but the same sword would be +2 against any of
the visiting party, since they were enchanted in some form to get
to that plane.

Many spells must be carefully examined by the player and the
DM to determine whether their characteristics and effects would
change on another plane. A Phantasmal force of a monster from
the prime material plane might seem totally ludicrous to a creature from another plane, unless that creature travels the prime
material or the real form of the illusionary monster travels to the
other plane. A creature confronted by such a ludicrous illusion
might get a +1 or +2 bonus on its disbelief roll.

Play on other planes gives the DM a chance to introduoe new
magic items into the campaign without “overloading” the prime
material world, perhaps altering their characteristics or their
effects to conform with how they would operate in the alien
environment.

Because of the strangeness of our appearance to natives of
other planes, a character’s Charisma would be reduced by from
1-3 points in attempts to communicate or deal with the creature
(but never going below 3). The amount of the reduction depends
on how dissimilar the two creature types are; for instance, it
might be -1 on the elemental plane of earth, because both life
forms have solid bodies, but it would be greater on the elemental

plane of air, where the native life form does not have a solid body.

Creatures native to other planes and of average or higher
Intelligence would most likely consider themselves superior to
creatures or characters from the prime, material — at least until
something happens to change their minds. A creature of another plane would never underestimate a potential threat, however,
and would always be wary.

If a party encounters a non-player character on the inner
planes, all of the NPC trait rolls (Dungeon Masters Guide, page
100) are conducted as usual. On the outer planes, alignment of
an encountered NPC is limited to three possibilities: The alignment of the plane itself, or the alignment one removed from that
alignment in either direction (see Character Alignment Graph,
Players Handbook, page 119, and The Known Planes of Existence, PH, pages 120-121), The only exception to this is absolute
neutral creatures, who can be found on any of the outer planes.

Natives of the elemental planes need not be entirely alien and
original; but might be adaptations of creatures found on the
prime material. For example, a spider native to the plane of fire
would appear as a ball of fire with eight tongues of flame sticking
out of it. Most undead creatures would appear different on an
elemental plane, since they would be the undead form of a
creature native to that plane. For instance, a skeleton on the
plane of fire would appear as a network of flames instead of a
structure of bones. Demons, devils, gods and demigods can be
encountered on any of the inner planes, or on any outer plane
 not more than one removed from their alignment.

Odds and ends: The use of a protection from good/evil spell
on an evil/good plane would be easily noticed by inhabitants of
that plane — and the act would probably antagonize them. It is
possible for a Cleric going to a plane of opposing alignment
from his deity to be endowed with more powerfuI spells than he
would normally receive, because his god looks kindly on such a
crusade. Hirelings will never go to another plane, and henchmen
must make their morale throw to accompany a party willingly.
Thank you, and keep your sword high.
Steven Kienle