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The Banishment spell states the following two things:

If the target is native to the plane of existence you’re on, you banish the target to a harmless demiplane.

If the target is native to a different plane of existence that the one you’re on, the target is banished with a faint popping noise, returning to its home plane.

But what if Banishment is cast within a demiplane?

My guesses are the following:

  • Native: only the creator of the demiplane is considered native and is temporarily banished to another demiplane for the duration of the spell.
  • Non-native: anyone not the creator of the demiplane is considered non-native and is sent back to their original plane of existence.

I should clarify that I do not just mean demiplanes created by the Demiplane spell, but also demiplanes that are far more vast and actual campaign settings in their own right.

Am I to believe that under RAW, anyone and everyone would be kicked out of such demiplane settings, including their creators and inhabitants who were born there? It seems rather game-breaking.

Ultimately, the question is, under which circumstances, if any, can someone be considered native to a demiplane?

Nadim Hussami
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2 Answers2

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Based on the ordinary English sense of the word "native", only creatures that actually originated in a demiplane are natives of that plane. In most cases (e.g., when the demiplane spell is used), the demiplane has no inhabitants, and thus no creature is native to that demiplane. Certainly there's no reason to conclude that the caster of a spell that creates or accesses a given demiplane is a "native" of that plane.

But this is a corner case, and individual DMs might have specific ideas about how they would like it to be handled. There's no real game balance issue here.

Marq
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  • But demiplanes can exist outside of the Demiplane spell. Entire campaign settings can exist within a demiplane. Are we to believe that targets of a banishment spell, including are ejected from such a world? I'll edit my original post to reflect this. – Nadim Hussami Apr 13 '17 at 14:20
  • Can you point out where my answer excludes this possibility? – Marq Apr 13 '17 at 14:46
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Actually the question you should ask is: "Is the target native from another demiplane?" Note that it doesn't ask for whether it is native from this very demiplane, just if there is an other plane from which it is native.

If such a plane exists, the creature is sent there, otherwise it is sent to a harmless demiplane. There is no precision on the case where the creature would be native from more than one plane, like a creature with the ability to be considered native in every plane. I would personally read "his home plane" as "the plane where this creature feels the most at home in" and make the DM decide it on a case-by-case basis but letting the caster of banishment or the creature choose seem fair readings too.

Anyway the creator of this plane is probably native from at least one other plane, so he will be sent there. The only ones who will be sent to the harmless demiplane are those who are native from nowhere beside the plane they are actually in.

Anne Aunyme
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  • "Anyway the creator of this plane is probably native from at least one other plane, so he will be sent there. The only ones who will be sent to the harmless demiplane are those who are native from nowhere beside the plane they are actually in." This makes the most sense to me at the moment. I'll clarify my original post to help get to the bottom of this. – Nadim Hussami Apr 13 '17 at 14:23