Can creatures from the Material Plane survive being sucked into the Astral Plane?

Question

I was looking through this article, reading about a portable hole + bag of holding combination as a projectile weapon and I was thinking about the end effect.

Placing a bag of holding inside an extradimensional space [...] instantly destroys both items and opens a gate to the Astral Plane. The gate originates where the one item was placed inside the other. Any creature within 10 feet of the gate is sucked through it to a random location on the Astral Plane. The gate then closes. The gate is one-way only and can't be reopened.

Things and creatures are obviously sucked into the Astral Plane, but are they necessarily killed or destroyed? If this was used as a weapon to throw a human sized enemy into the Astral plane would they survive?

Normal spells can safely send people and things to the Astral Plane but what if they're forcibly sent there by a bag of holding + portable hole combination? The Gith can survive there so I assume it is at least somewhat hospitable to humanoid life.

rpgstar · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-06T21:12:52.400

16

Though the PC's in the situation described won’t die straight away, the astral plane is a very dangerous place. I would refer to the DMG on pg: 47

A character who travels bodily to the Astral Plane (by means of the plane shift spell or one of the rare portals that leads directly there) has no silver cord.

and when using astral projection

Only the severing of a character’s silver cord while on the Astral Plane (or the death of his or her helpless physical body on the Material Plane) can result in the character’s true death. Thus, high-level characters sometimes travel to the Outer Planes by way of astral projection rather than eek out a portal or use a more direct spell.

Basically this means that they will be transported “bodily” and therefore are at the mercy of everything the astral plane can throw at them such as psychic wind and githyanki.

So though they don't die en route, they will likely die there unless they find a colour pool for the prime material plane

(spoiler alert)

The colour for the prime material plane is silver as stated on pg 47 of the DMG.

edited Mar 06 '18 at 21:12

answered Mar 06 '18 at 10:37

rpgstar

3,325
2
21
56

Can they move or defend themselves in this case? Not sure how movement in a space-like realm works. – Legion Daeth Mar 06 '18 at 10:53
@LegionDaeth basicaly all the info on Astral plane are on pgs: 46-47 of the DMG. also a creature can move 3 x int score in ft every turn. – rpgstar Mar 06 '18 at 11:00
Well, going by just the two rules stated, a character physically on the Astral Plane CAN'T die, as they have no cord to sever and their body isn't on the Material Plane to be killed. – sirjonsnow Mar 06 '18 at 18:09
7

The second quote only applies to people using the [Astral Projection] spell, and need to be pointed out in the Answer. – Mindwin Remember Monica Mar 06 '18 at 18:23
@sirjonsnow the second quote does not apply if you are not using astral projection, i think it is misleading. – Mindwin Remember Monica Mar 06 '18 at 18:29
@Mindwin I see what you mean and have adjusted the answer accordingly. – rpgstar Mar 06 '18 at 22:30

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 06 '18 at 19:12

Yes: if the effect of getting sucked into the astral does not deal damage or cause death, then the victims lives.

The effect of combining those magical items states nothing about dealing damage, it just describes the planar travel. Therefore, in the light of "effects only do what they say", creatures are not killed by being sucked into the astral plane.

The astral plane is not inherently hostile to living creatures. You won't burn, freeze or suffocate just from being there.

One can reach the Astral Plane through Plane Shift while taking their physical bodies with them. It can also be used to transport back into the Prime.

The encounters in the astral plane are supposed to be scarce, but deadly. Without a spell or effect to transport through planes, you will need to find a color pool to travel back.

As @rpgstar stated, the rules are in pages 46~47 of the DMG.

Can creatures from the Material Plane survive being sucked into the Astral Plane?

2 Answers2

Linked