Beginner's Guide to Planeswalking

Welcome to Sigil: Planar Legends!

This server is set in the Planescape setting as it was in 2E (Pre-Faction War). If you're new, check the below sections for useful information, and remember to join the discord ( https://discord.gg/NFFX2XU3uu ) if you have any additional questions. Shoot us a message and we'll try to help!

If you are entirely new to Neverwinter Nights or new to Roleplay, please read this Guide to SPL for NWN Newbies.

Character Creation & Mechanics

Sigil: Planar Legends has a large variety of Races and Classes for players to choose from, there is no special set up required for races and nearly all of the classes do not require applications, though lore-appropriate roleplay is expected. As a forewarning, Paladins, Clerics, Blackguards and Divine Champions will face more challenges than other settings due to the lore of Planescape, but make no mistake, it is an opportunity for character growth and interactions, as well as the large part of Sigil: faction roleplay.

The Lore

While Planescape is an incredibly lore-rich setting, it is not required that you go through all the 2E books to understand it. Sigil is the City at the Center of the Multiverse, with portals that go almost everywhere. It is commonplace for 'Clueless', denizens of Prime Materials like Abeir-Toril (Forgotten Realms) and Krynn (Dragonlance) to end up there with no knowledge of where they are or what surrounds them. Making a Clueless of a setting you're more comfortable with for a first character is entirely acceptable, as you will be able to learn about both the server and the setting in character and out of character in tandem. It's just a matter of finding that first planeswalker who will get you up to speed.

Remember to check Rules before you make your character! Some settings, like Ravenloft and Athas (Dark Sun), are by nature inaccessible. Characters cannot be from those settings!

Roleplay Skills

As a note, we have a Roleplay Skills system, which gives the PCs more skills orientated towards Roleplay; this allows the players to choose their level-up skills more for mechanics, while allowing nuanced approach to roleplay. Additionally, if you have a Profession skill (do not confuse this with craft skills), you gain gold with each RPXP tick (gained from roleplaying). For more info on the Profession gold, see Roleplay Skills.

It is highly suggested that you do not use the predefined skill sets (character packages). Also, it is suggested that you read your intended class's page. Eg. Druids cannot use the vanilla NWN animal companions, they have to be planar or they won't work, something that isn't obvious until you read about it.

Feats, Systems & Spell Changes

We have many changes to feats, abilities, systems and spells, as well as custom mechanics not found in D&D normally. If you have experience in Neverwinter Nights, you're advised to read them to understand the changes. If you are completely new, are not good at character building, or want to learn along the way, you should probably ask for help in #class-builds on the Discord, our community has many members who love theorycrafting the mechanical side of NWN and would gladly help you design a build that would suit your desired roleplay concept.

SPL is a level 7 start server. If you make a level 1 mistake during character creation, feel free to delete and remake the character; however, if you make a mistake during your first 7 levels in the Character Creation area, you can always use the Releveller orb to be dropped back to level 1 to undo your mistake.

Appearance & Description Modification

When choosing appearance in character selection, do not worry about making the ideal character. Some races even automatically change your appearance, which you might want to undo to fit your desired appearance. Our starting area is well equipped to allow you to design your character in many different ways. We have a wide variety of character modifications available in-game, allowing you to change your character's scale (90% to 110%) to represent a varied height and size, special traits for characters and so forth. We also have a built-in description editor. For more details of what we have, please see Character Customisation.

Do note that you have more modifications available in the character creation area, than you would outside of it, so take it slow, design your character as you'd like, because afterwards, you might not be able to change something without DM assistance (eg. scale, skin tone, etc.).

Buying Starting Items

The NPC "A Lingering Memory" offers your character items. Choose them according to your mechanical build, though be sure to grab Lesser Rings of Fate for regeneration in combat (one or two), consumables (potions) to help you in combat and weight reduction bags (if you're not a strong Barbarian). This is a very magic-common setting, and magical wards, potions and such will help you greatly in survival.

Test Characters

New to the server? Have a strange build idea? Not sure how things will end up later down the line?

You can make a test character, allowing you access to level 20 (and beyond, though epic levels are complicated to access on the actual server) as well as rudimentary gear, enemies to test them against and more. The Test Area is slightly dated and currently needs updating, but you can use it to test feat access, skills, mechanics, PRC, etc; much better than blindly guessing, then getting frustrated once your character requires a rebuild.

To access the Test Character Area, you need to make a new character (try to name them something with Test in the name, like "Test Mage"), then in the Character Creation Area, speak to the Gatekeeper and choose the test character option. These characters cannot leave the test area, do not waste time designing their appearance, only their mechanics.

Finishing Character Creation?

Once you've made your character, designed their appearance, bought items from the NPC "A Lingering Memory", you have to speak to the NPC "Gatekeeper" who lets you into the server after a conversation. You might see other choices in there, but choose "I am a beginner". Later in this guide, you will be explained why you should choose this for now.

Navigating Sigil - A Guide to the Clueless

Sigil's Layout - Arrival

It can be overwhelming stepping into the server for the first time. This section is here to help give you some starting direction.

NOTE! Because there's much to see, this section of the page will only have the map and annotations. For a detailed, visual guide, please see the Visual Guide for the Clueless. You can then return to this page after seeing the visual guides.

After stepping out of the character setup area, you will be dropped into Sigil's Market Ward, specifically the Great Bazaar. This is the largest place of trade within Sigil, and where you will be able to buy most supplies you'll need to operate within the planes. From potions and healing kits, to better starter equipment than what you can buy at character creation.

You should speak to the Planeswalker Guild Recruiter, giving you the writ system: a quest system that will help you level and find dungeons, to a degree. If you care little about dungeoning, and wish to focus primarily on roleplay, there is a system called Heavy Roleplayer, explained later. Immediately after signing up, you should head through the nearby transition that will lead to the Market Ward, commonly known as the "Fulcrum" area due to the structure in the middle. This map is one of the main RP hubs of the server, and while you're getting started, everything you need to play is within one area transition, as well as in-character assistance from other PCs.

B: Great Bazaar, the northern transition leads to the Great Bazaar, from where you came from.

A: Airion's Boarding House, an inn, near the center of the area will allow you to rest if you pay for a room to recover spell slots and heal - additionally, resting in a proper inn will give a bonus of +1 to all saves and +1 to regen until the character dies or rests again.

DNG: Sigil's Sewers and Newt Street, both of these are beginner dungeons, with the sewers being the easier of the two, and will be your source of gold and XP in your character's early progression. You can turn in the heads of more dangerous denizens for gold and XP to the NPC near the two dungeons.

BB: The Bronze Bezants, a shop opposite of Airion's Inn will allow you to sell any items you have found while dungeon delving with the exception of gems - Rek the Kenku, found in the Great Bazaar, will buy gems.

F: The Fulcrum at the center of the area is where PCs will usually gather for general RP and to gather groups for expeditions out into the planes.

LW & MW: The Eastern and Western transitions will lead to the other Wards (Districts) of Sigil. Sigil is a city that exists within the inside of a ring. If you were to look up, you could see a district of the city in the opposite end of the ring. This also means, that if you go in one direction for long enough, you will eventually end up where you started. Feel free to explore the other Wards (Districts) that Sigil has to offer. All of them, with the exception of the Hive, are safe. To get through the portal towards the Lady's Ward (LW), you will need to buy a portal key. There are other ways to get around the Cage, without using the portals, such as the Ubiquitous Wayfarer, a strange inn that is simultaneously in three Wards.

PWG: Planeswalkers' Guild Recruiter, the quest giver for Planeswalkers. 

Past this, you should explore and learn from other Planeswalkers. There are many Touts (Sigil guides) and helpful Planeswalkers who are willing to help you explore, or find something. Remember, if a sign says that whatever's past it is dangerous, you should probably not go there, or risk it.

Remember, dying (mechanically) and selecting Respawn doesn't mean you have died IC, but rather that you've somehow found your way out and escaped. Mechanical dying is annoying, but do not be afraid to explore. Or find some allies to guide you through the way.

Once you've gotten a grasp of the Market Ward, did a dungeon or two, you might want to explore the safer parts of Sigil. If you have the coin, you can buy a Portal Key from the Overseers and explore other Wards. Do not go to the Hive yet. If you do not have the coin, you can instead use the Wayfarer to go to the other Wards (except the Hive, it doesn't access the Hive). Happy exploring.

Portals and You

In Sigil, any arch can house a portal. Portals in Sigil are gateways to other places, sometimes other planes of existence altogether, that remain invisible until activated.

From a gameplay perspective, there are three kinds of portals, and all three of them can be either two-way or one-way.

• Key-Activated: These portals won't even reveal themselves unless you cross the arch they inhabit while holding the suitable Portal key. Portal Keys can be anything - from a thought, or a smell, to a piece of junk. An example of a Key-Activated Portal, are the portals between Wards. In the Market Ward's western end, there is an arch that leads to the Lady's Ward that houses one of these. These can be activated by a Planar Transit Keystone that can be purchased from the Planar Transit Overseer standing next to it. Many other key-activated portals exist, and planeswalkers will often carry all sorts of junk on them because any such miscellaneous item might turn out to be a key. Explore to find them, or ask a veteran in-game!

• Clickable Placeables: Some placeables, when clicked, will reveal that they actually house a portal. A key is sometimes not required to use these, as it is accepted in-universe that the key is something insubstantial, or the act of interacting with the placeable itself.

• Doorways: Since any arch can house a portal, it shouldn't be surprising that any door transition you take might not lead you where you expect. Should you cross a door in the city, and end up in a cave, or a completely different ward, don't be confused. You have just stepped through a portal!

Beware of arches! Most locations in the outer and inner planes aren't suitable for mortal life!

Character Progression

Leveling up in SPL can be achieved by killing monsters, roleplaying, exploring, and doing quests. There are, therefore, 4 different types of XP.

• Combat XP: Subdivided into two types - solo and party XP. This is the only form of XP that is capped on a daily basis, but the two caps are separate.
  • Solo XP - Gained from killing hostile enemies relatively near to your level's appropriate CR. Kill enough hostiles, and you will eventually hit the cap and any kill on a mob that would grant experience will only grant 1 XP from that point onwards.
  • Party XP: - Gained from killing hostile enemies with party members. The more party members, the more XP you gain per kill; but the cap is the same.
• Exploration XP: By simply traveling through the areas in the server, you may sometimes stumble on one-time XP rewards for visiting a new location for the first time, or on randomly placed 'exploration nodes' that will grant you an XP boost.
• Roleplaying XP: By roleplaying around other people, you will be able to earn ticks of roleplay XP. You gain more XP when using the Heavy Roleplayer mode.
• Quest XP: Awarded by completing quests at early levels, and through the Planeswalker's Guild. You do not get this XP when using the Heavy Roleplayer mode.

Early Questing

Outside of the entrance to most beginner dungeons, there will be a marked NPC on your map. This NPC will tell you about what you should expect in those dungeons, and offer gold and XP for trophy items dropped by powerful enemies within the dungeon.

At the very start of your character's career, this would be Inquisitor Ogder outside of Newt Street and Sigil's Sewers.

At level 12, you will be outside of the level range to receive XP from turning in these boss trophies, but you will also be at a point where most of the server is open for you to explore.

The Planeswalker's Guild

In the Market Ward, there is a Planeswalker's Guild representative. He will give you a daily quest for you to complete.

While in the early game these will only provide a bonus XP reward that doesn't count toward the daily cap, as you get closer to Level 20, you will start receiving quests that reward substantial gold rewards and writ marks, which can be used to trade for exceedingly rare and useful items.

Most quests early on will be to kill 30 of a creature type. If you don't know where to find that creature type, reach out to a player in-character, or ask around on the discord if you need help and we'll help you IC.

Later on, it is common to see players on the discord using the #looking-for-bashers in character channel to organize parties for some of the harder quests.

You can check a list of what quests you have been given by the Planeswalker's Guild through the crafting menu by right-clicking your character, and navigating to the option under "Special abilities".

Heavy Roleplayer

For those who dislike dungeoning and favor RPing, there exists the Heavy Roleplayer Mode. This disables Quest XP rewards, stops giving you writ marks from Writs, and allows you go get more RPXP per tick. This also increases the gold gained from Profession skills.

Renown

Once a character has joined a faction or a sect, they will receive a badge for their membership and begin to gain Renown. Renown is accumulated through roleplay based around factions, taking part in some events, and impacting the multiverse through their actions.

Renown is a measure of how experienced and famed a character has become during their stay in Sigil. Renown extends beyond just the planewalker community, as it depicts how Sigil and the rest of the multiverse view a character. Once a person's Renown has reached 3,000, they may request a token from a DM that will allow them to opt into the process of leveling into epic levels.

Once a character reaches level 20, they will be unable to gain experience until they have reached 3,000 renown. Renown can be viewed once per day using the /renown chat command.

It is highly suggested that a character become involved in a faction or sect within the first couple of weeks of being made. There is no hard requirement to join a faction and most content is designed with a level range of 18 to 21 in mind, but factions and Renown frequently make up a lot of the ongoing RP on the server - factions are the driving source of most of Sigil's politics and have a large impact on the setting as a whole, and answer only to one another and the Lady of Pain.

It is recommended to a new player to check with Wilfred the Bookwyrm in the Market Ward for an in-module overview of the different factions and to read the Factions and Sects pages for a more thorough overview.

Hardcore Mode

Extremely not recommended for beginners to the server or to NWN.

For more, detailed info, see Hardcore Characters.

You have been warned.

Other Useful Tidbits

Be sure to use the /help chat command in-game for a list of all commands that are available in the module. SPL has a lot of commands from changing the way your character's animations are portrayed to helpful HUD additions like /spelltimers to let you know exactly how long your buffs will be up for.

Languages

Languages: The /language command will let you know what languages are available in the module, as well as how many you can learn. The number of languages you can learn is directly tied to your intelligence modifier. You will always know Common (Planar Trade) and can learn 1 additional language per intelligence modifier.

If you see a player speaking gibberish, either they're using planar cant (Sigil Cant and Additional Cant) and nothing can help you, or they may be speaking an unknown language. If you don't know that language, you won't even know what language they are speaking, but the Comprehend Languages spell will let you understand them.

Appearance

Character Customisation: While there are tailoring models in the character creation menu and the OOC room, you can access a much more advanced system for changing your character's armor, cloak and helmet appearance through the Crafting Menu.

Per-Part coloring is implemented on the server and is usable through this menu only.

You are also able to save an item's appearance (Armor, Helmet, Cloak) to be easily cycled back to through here.