[RPG] Can you Plane Shift to a specific layer of the Nine Hells

dnd-5eplanesspellsteleportation

The description of the plane shift spell (PHB, pg. 266) says:

You and up to eight willing creatures who link hands in a circle are transported to a different plane of existence. You can specify a target destination in general terms, such as the City of Brass on the Elemental Plane of Fire or the palace of Dispater on the second level of the Nine Hells, and you appear in or near that destination. If you are trying to reach the City of Brass, for example, you might arrive in its Streets of Steel, before its Gate of Ashes, or looking at the city from across the Sea of Fire, at the DM's discretion.

The spell's description singles out a location on a layer of the Nine Hells that is not the first (Avernus), which implies that you can use plane shift to teleport from another plane (i.e. not the Nine Hells) directly to a specific layer of the Nine Hells.

However, in the DMG (pg. 64), under the heading "The Nine Layers", it describes Avernus as follows:

No planar portals connect directly to the lower layers of the Nine Hells, by Asmodeus's orders. As such, the first layer of Avernus is the arrival point for visitors to the plane.

This implies that you cannot go directly to any layer of the Nine Hells other than Avernus. In the plane shift description, it says "you appear in or near that destination", which given this quote from the DMG, might mean that, because you might not be able to get directly to the second layer of the Hells, you arrive "near", meaning Avernus. The last sentence of my plane shift quote expands on the City of Brass example, but not the palace of Dispater example.

However, the DMG quote also describes portals specifically, so this might not apply to plane shift since it doesn't explicitly mention a portal.

Can you plane shift to any layer of the Nine Hells besides Avernus? In other words, does this DMG quote prevent you from plane shifting to, say, "the palace of Dispater on the second level of the Nine Hells"?

Best Answer

Yes, Plane Shift can bring you to any layer of the 9 hells

Evidence from the Plane Shift spell

The spell Plane Shift specifically says that it can transport the party directly to the palace of Dispater, which is located in Dis, the second layer of Hell. Thus it can clearly bring you directly to the lower layers of Hell.

Getting the material components to enable this transition, however, will be difficult. To utilise the spell you require a tuning fork specifically attuned to the layer of Hell you want to plane shift to.

Finally, Plane Shift doesn't create a portal, it transports the people affected by the spell to a different plane of existence.

Contrast this with the 9th level Gate spell which specifically states:

You conjure a portal [...]

Even if Plane Shift did create a portal, the fact the spell text specifically says it can transport creatures to Layers other than the 1st Layer of Hell would be a perfect example of the specific beats general rule.

Evidence from the DMG

The DMG section on the Outer Planes has two big caveats that we can drive our caravans through down to the lower levels of the Nine Hells:

  1. It states (emphasis mine):

    Planar portals don't connect to the lower levels of the Nine Hells by Asmodeus' orders

    • If planar portals couldn't connect to the lower layers, there would be no reason for Asmodeus to make this order. As a result we infer two things:
      1. Asmodeus has told the other lords that they are not to allow the creation of planar portals on their layers (aside from Avernus).
      2. Planar portals can be connected to the lower layers...they just aren't created by the native denziens, who would likely work very hard to permanently close/guard any that did exist due to the aforementioned orders.

  2. The Infinite Staircase section states

    [...] on any given plane, there can be multiple doors to the Infinite Staircase, though entrances aren't common knowledge and are occasionally guarded by devas, sphinxes, yugoloths, and other powerful monsters

    • This is certainly one type of portal (using the literal meaning of the word portal to mean door) that connects different planes, which is explicitly designed to connect to every plane of existence.

The DMG also has a specific section on the Plane Shift spell (under Planar Travel), discussing it's limitations.

Related Topic