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Being the crossroads of the multiverse, Sigil and the Outlands are chock-full of strange creatures and mystical energies. If your adventurer hails from this multiversal microcosm, they may have been shaped by the mysterious forces that ebb and flow from the surrounding Outer Planes, so much so that they have developed otherworldly abilities.
Let’s take a look at the two backgrounds introduced in Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse, along with their corresponding feat, and talk about how we can use these features to flesh out our interplanar characters! When Adventures in the Multiverse releases on October 17, we’ll update this article to show off additional feats from the book set!
Welcome to the Center of the Multiverse: Sigil and the Outlands
Sigil and the Outlands are a place of neutrality, true neutrality, unburdened by allegiances to good or evil, order or chaos.
Of course, you can play any alignment. Perhaps your character wants their hometown to be absorbed by an Outer Plane or wants to establish a brand new church in Sigil itself. With the new backgrounds and feats presented in Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse, you can create a character who knows their way around the multiverse and might have some thoughts about their place within it.
Gate Warden Background
A Gate Warden has been highly influenced by planar forces, likely by growing up near a portal to another plane of existence. Anybody growing up in Sigil or its Outlands’ border towns would fit this description, but you might also choose this background if your character was raised near a fey crossing or a tunnel to the Plane of Earth.
As a result of this experience, you’ve become accustomed to even the stranger aspects of interplanar relations. You might chat with genies or demons as easily as you would a bartender, and you’ve learned to ignore the occasional rain of frogs or influx of unicorns. You might even run errands in Elysium before making dinner reservations in Pandemonium (though I hear the service there is terrible). The grand wonders and impossibilities of the multiverse are commonplace to you.
Benefits of the Gate Warden Background
When you select the Gate Warden background, you gain proficiency in Persuasion and Survival, two languages of your choice, plus the Scion of the Outer Planes feat (covered below).
Who Should Build a Gate Warden
On its face, the Gate Warden background is a perfect fit for a Horizon Walker ranger or Oath of the Watchers paladin. But because there’s an Outer Plane for each alignment and several wild Inner Planes to boot, this background could reasonably fit any class, lineage, or alignment. This background is perfect for players who want to invest in their character’s backstory and explore how the circumstances of their upbringing might have deeply affected their worldview.
Planar Philosopher Background
As a Planar Philosopher, you seek to understand a truth about the universe—perhaps the truth, if there is one. In Sigil and its Outlands, you have seen this universe’s interstitial spaces, its veins and arteries, and you must know more, understand more. You are ready for your adventures to challenge and sharpen your view of the world and to allow you to share all that you’ve learned.
A Planar Philosopher has probably found like minds and close friends among at least one of Sigil’s 12 ascendant factions. Whether you believe that there is no greater truth to the universe or that all of existence is governed by laws we must understand, a faction in Sigil awaits with open arms and a network of allies. Though you may have friends or acquaintances in many factions, Planar Philosophers who dedicate themselves to one faction will be rewarded with its connections, shelter, and support.
Benefits of the Planar Philosopher Background
When you select the Planar Philosopher background, you gain proficiency in Arcana plus one other skill associated with your faction (or of your choice), two languages of your choice, and the Scion of the Outer Planes feat (covered below).
Who Should Build a Planar Philosopher
While wizards, bards, and some rangers make for obvious Planar Philosophers, any character with a strong innate sense of curiosity or conviction should consider this background.
Scion of the Outer Planes Feat
Exposure to the far reaches of the multiverse often leaves a mark on a character—and thankfully, not just horns or a tail. This feat represents your connection to one of the Outer Planes:
- Chaotic Outer Plane: In planes of chaos, danger is deceptive. You become resistant to poison damage and you learn the minor illusion cantrip.
- Evil Outer Plane: Touched by evil, you find yourself unbothered by death magic. You become resistant to necrotic damage, and you learn the chill touch cantrip.
- Good Outer Plane: Years spent near the shimmering plains of Elysium, the shining peaks of Mount Celestia, or another good plane have touched your soul. You become resistant to radiant damage, and you learn the sacred flame cantrip.
- Lawful Outer Plane: You have become so orderly and put-together that you no longer pile clothes on top of a chair in the corner of the room, and you have cleaned your junk drawer. You become resistant to force damage, and you learn the guidance cantrip.
- The Outlands: After a lifetime in the Outlands, nothing can phase you anymore. You’ve been there, you’ve done that, you went on that blind date with the aberration. You become resistant to psychic damage, and you learn the mage hand cantrip.
Adventures in Planescape
Interplanar adventure awaits! Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse will give you everything you need to run multiversal adventures, including the new character options we discussed above. Where will your characters travel in the vast and infinite expanse of the multiverse?
Damen Cook (@damen_joseph) is a lifelong fantasy reader, writer, and gamer. If he woke up tomorrow in Faerun, he would bolt through the nearest fey crossing and drink from every stream and eat fruit from every tree in the Feywild until he found that sweet, sweet wild magic.
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