The Planar Codex (5e) - Pre-Order Store

Hey Plane Hoppers! 

We are delighted to share the upcoming developments for The Planar Codex project!  

Our schedule beyond the Kickstarter phase outlines important dates to keep in mind leading up to pledge fulfillment, beginning in June 2025. While we'll consistently remind everyone of these dates, we suggest marking some key points on your calendars. Without further delay, here is the Post-Kickstarter Schedule! 

Key Dates and Events: 

• Check your pledge: NOW! 
• BackerKit Surveys sent: Week of April 1st, 2024 
• Lock orders (continuous): Week of July 1, 2024 
• Charge cards (continuous): Week of July 8, 2024 
• Playtest/Alpha Release period: Weeks of August 5, 2024 - September 30, 2024 
• Lock addresses: February 2025 
• Fulfilment Begins: Shipping in or before March 2025 

Check your Kickstarter Pledge: Now! 

We strongly recommend backers ensure their pledge was successfully charged by Kickstarter, as only successful pledges can be fulfilled. While payment issues may arise, unfortunately, we are not able to assist in payment matters with your pledge. If you encounter difficulties and believe we could provide additional insights, please feel free to reach out to us via the Kickstarter inbox. 

BackerKit Surveys Sent: Week of April 1st 

This is a critical date for backers to remember. During the week of April 1st, 2024, BackerKit surveys will be distributed, providing backers with updated and accurate shipping costs and allowing backers to include additional items in their pledges. As indicated in our Kickstarter details, your pledge receipt on Kickstarter will display "$0.00 for shipping" since shipping charges are not collected via Kickstarter for this project, but are determined during the survey phase through BackerKit. It's essential to note that your shipping costs will be finalized upon receipt of your BackerKit survey. 

We plan to conduct a "smoke test" by sending out surveys to a select group of backers before the general survey distribution. This early release aims to assess our process and gather feedback from those who receive the survey in advance. 

Furthermore, any extra funds pledged on Kickstarter will be reflected as credit in BackerKit. This credit can be utilized to acquire add-ons during the survey phase. 

For backers who are new to Kickstarter, BackerKit serves as a third-party pledge management service closely aligned with Kickstarter. We understand that this might be a bit confusing for those unfamiliar with the process. If you're new to BackerKit, please follow these steps: 

1. Upon receiving survey invitations (week of April 1st, 2024), you'll get an email from '[email protected]' titled 'Response Needed – Get your reward from The Planar Codex.' Click the link in the email to access your survey. 

2. Complete the survey, including any additional add-ons you wish to purchase, and proceed to the shipping payment section. 

3. The shipping payment section is where we collect charges for shipping, especially crucial if your pledge includes physical items like a hardcover book. 

If you don't have a BackerKit account, use this link to create one. Ensure that you use the same email used for your Kickstarter pledge to link your pledge to your BackerKit account. It's important to note that completing the BackerKit survey is mandatory for all backers to receive their items. Orders without a completed survey cannot be fulfilled, so please ensure its completion to receive your items. 

VAT Note for CA/EU/UK backers: Value Added Tax (VAT) is applicable to CA, EU, and UK backers, and the amounts depend on each country's VAT laws. Whether VAT is charged for digital products varies by country. If you notice a VAT charge for our PDF or other electronic products, it is due to legal requirements in your country of residence, and we are obligated to comply with these laws. For any VAT-related queries, please contact us via the Kickstarter inbox. 

Playtest/Alpha Release Period 

We plan to unveil an Alpha/Playtest PDF for The Planar Codex in or around August this year. Following the release of this early access version, we will be seeking your feedback to allow for any necessary adjustments before finalizing the book. We will collect this feedback through a Google Form or similar platform. To ensure your feedback is seen, kindly submit it through the official form rather than via email, comments, or any alternative method. Thank you to everyone who participates in playtesting! 

BackerKit Lock Orders (continuous): Starting Week of July 1st 

This is the date that we will lock down all orders and changes through BackerKit. Don’t worry, you can still change and update your shipping addresses. 

BackerKit Charge Cards (continuous): Starting Week of July 8th 

Card charges for add-ons, pre-orders, and late pledge payments made within Backerkit surveys will be processed through BackerKit during this week. In the event you miss the initial card charge, there's no need for concern. We will make successive attempts to charge failed or missed cards on a weekly basis until all orders are successfully paid and confirmed. 

Orders cannot be dispatched to backers with failed charges when fulfillment begins. We strongly advise all backers to confirm the availability of funds during the week of July 8th 2024 to ensure timely delivery of your pledge. 

BackerKit Lock Addresses: February 2025 

We will lock in all shipping addresses in February 2025. Up until this date you’ll be able to log into BackerKit and change your address. The process of changing addresses once you’ve submitted your Kickstarter pledge will be dependent on where in the production and fulfilment process we are. We encourage all backers to use an address (if possible to the individual) that you’re as certain as you can be, will be secure in 12 months’ time as changing addresses after we've locked does present a number of challenges. 

*Please note, we can’t ship to PO, APO, FPO, CPO Boxes and/or Parcel Lockers. If you do enter this type of address, we will not be able to deliver your pledge. So please ensure you enter a street address in BackerKit. 

Fulfillment: Shipping Begins March 2025 

What we’re all here for: the much-anticipated fulfillment time! We are committed to meeting this deadline to the best of our abilities, but we kindly ask for your understanding as unforeseen global events beyond our control may impact this date. We sincerely appreciate your patience as we navigate any challenges together. 

If you have any questions about the fulfillment process, please feel free to reach out to us via the Kickstarter inbox. We are always ready to assist! We recognize that this information might be overwhelming, and we encourage everyone to connect with us if you have any questions or concerns about the details provided above. 

Once again, a heartfelt thank you to all who have supported us during our Kickstarter period. We look forward to sharing more exciting updates as we approach fulfillment and having you all join us on this journey! 

Chris, Cody, and Phil

The Planar Codex Team

The funding portion for The Planar Codex has officially ended, and we want to thank all of you, the backers, for making it such a resounding success. Truly, we couldn’t have done it without you. 

We finished at 643% funded, which is a staggering number. We also hit all but one stretch goal — more than we had thought possible. You’ve surprised and humbled all of us here on The Planar Codex team. Your outpouring of support made this book possible, and not only do we appreciate it, but we take your trust in us very seriously. You’ve spent your hard-earned money to help us bring our vision to life. We understand and appreciate that responsibility. We have our work cut out for us to make sure we deliver the best, most outstanding book we possibly can. You deserve it, though, so it’s a task we all very much look forward to. Besides, once it’s out, everyone — including us — will get to use all of this content in their games, which is the most exciting part of all of this for us. We can’t wait for you to see everything we’ve been working on for you. 

We’d also like to extend a huge thank you to our friends and family who supported us along the way, put up with us gushing about the project and our amazing backers. 

To celebrate, we have one more surprise in store for you all. In the coming weeks, you can expect to receive a PDF from us containing an early release version of The Iron Hells chapter. This PDF will be content/feature complete, but with partial art and preliminary layout. In other words, you’ll be able to use that entire chapter’s worth of subclasses, species, spells, and feats in your game in about a month, and it will give you a solid sample of what you can expect in the full book. 

So now what happens? We will post a ‘Post-Kickstarter Schedule’ in the next week which will give you all something of a roadmap of what to expect from us going forward, including important upcoming dates that you’ll need to mark in your calendars as we continue on the path to getting The Planar Codex into your hands. 

You can also join us in the P.B. Publishing Discord server to talk with us, the creators, as well as other folks who have put their support behind The Planar Codex. We’d love to see you there. https://discord.com/invite/mJNTDUU4Qe 

Before signing off here, we’d also like to let you know about another Kickstarter you might enjoy: Zander’s Guide to Zombie Hunting, which is a 5E tome focused on the shambling dead. Perfect for zombie apocalypse settings, the book comes with a wide range of thematic player options, including: 

- 12+ new subclasses 
- The transformative new Animist class 
- 1 new lineage: The Bitten  
- 20+ apocalyptic magical items 
- 40 thematic spells  
- All-new graft magic system 
- Fully illustrated zombie bestiary Worldbuilding guidance for pre- and post-apocalyptic settings 

Thank you again, everyone. We’ll be in touch. See you all out in the planes! 
 

You’ve learned to weaponize your armor by grinding your foes into its unyielding surfaces, spikes, or jagged edges.  

Your Strength score increases by 1, to a maximum of 20. 

While you are wearing heavy armor, you can use your bonus action to damage a creature within 5 feet of you that is grappled by you. The damage is equal to 1d4 plus your Strength modifier, and you can choose to deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.

Have a question for the team or want to chat with other fans of the planes? Join us on Discord!

Looks like we aren’t taking weekends off after all. 
 
You all have kept the campaign chugging along since the launch less than a week ago. With just over four days since launch, you’ve funded The Planar Codex well past 250% of our goal. 

If you want to chat with the team or other plane-hopping adventurers, join us on our Discord! We’ve been sharing some GMing stories and what brought us all to TTRPGs. 

So, what did you all unlock this time? Another 9 new spells! With this final spell stretch goal unlocked, The Planar Codex will contain more than 30 new spells, and the spell card deck for Conquerors of the Planes is getting thicker.

Here’s a look at some of what we have planned! 

Fey Courts: Prickling Burrs – a cantrip that allows you to throw stinging nettles to harass and hinder your foes. 

The Shadowscape: Shadow Meld – merge your body into shadows, becoming nearly intangible and nigh invisible. 

The Liminal Plane of Spirits: Spaces Between – a subtle spell that allows you to stow an object in the space between a creature and the reality it occupies, causing the item to stay with the creature without its knowledge. 

The High Heavens: Condemn – a powerful spell of judgement, removing a creature’s ability to protect or heal itself.  

The Bright Wylds: Deliverance – a protective spell that allows you to rapidly trade places with other creatures, sweeping them out of harm’s way.  

The Iron Hells: Entropic Bolt – shape the inexorable force of entropy into a bolt of predictable destruction. 

The Pit: Dance of Ruin – a dangerous dance that seduces the ruinous power of the demonic plane to destroy your foes. 

The Immutable City of Cogs: Gravity Well – an area of effect spell that pulls creatures inward toward a single point. 

And here’s the full version of disruptive mote, a chaotic conjuration from the Discordant Expanse: 

Disruptive Mote 
3rd-level conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Spell List: bard, cleric, sorcerer, warlock, wizard 

You conjure a mote of pseudo-sentient chaos, anchoring it to orbit protectively around you. For the duration, when a creature within 5 feet of you attacks you, the mote lashes out with discordant energy. Roll 1d6 (before the attack roll is made) to determine the effect. 

1d6 – Effect
1 – The attacker makes a Strength saving throw. On a failure, it is restrained until the start of its next turn. 
2 – The attacker makes a Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, it takes 3d12 force damage, or half as much on a success. 
3 – The attacker makes a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, it is blinded until the start of its next turn. 
4 – The attacker makes an Intelligence saving throw. On a failure, it falls prone, and its speed becomes 0 until the start of its next turn. 
5 – The attacker makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it is stunned until the start of its next turn. 
6 – The attacker makes a Charisma saving throw. On a failure, it is frightened of you until the start of its next turn. 

Before the spell ends, you can use your reaction when you are hit by an attack to gain resistance to the attack’s damage. If you do so, the spell ends immediately. 

Well, it happened again. Y’all have driven The Planar Codex to smash through yet another stretch goal! Reaching this second stretch goal unlocks 6 new planar-themed feats to help add flavor and useful abilities to your characters. Feats are one of 5e’s best ways to make interesting, customized characters, so we’re extremely excited to have the chance to add more of them to the book.

We can’t thank everyone enough for all of the support thus far, but we can certainly try.

THANK YOU!
...how was that?

Ok, that was lame, but we can do better. How about a sneak preview of the new feats, plus one in full that you can use at your table right away?

Corporal Optimization: The rigorous energies of the Immutable City of Cogs resist invasive forces that would interfere with your body’s normal function.

Defiant Spirit: The Bright Wylds’ rebellious nature burns deep in your soul, allowing you to shrug off effects that would curtail your freedom.

Fleeting Presence: Your identity is awash with the memory-eroding nature of the Shadowscape, causing memories of you to bleed away from those who meet you.

Riotous Combatant: Master the art of moving quickly through the chaos of the Discordant Wastes while harassing your foes.

Thunderous Decree: Make your foes cower before the overwhelming power of the High Heavens’ inviolable truth.

Maddening Tongue
Prerequisite: The ability to cast a spell of 1st level or higher with verbal components
You can infuse your spoken spellcasting with maddening power siphoned from The Pit. When you cast a spell of 1st level or higher with verbal components, you can force each creature that can hear you within 30 feet of you (excluding yourself) to make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. You can choose any number of creatures you can see to make the saving throw with advantage. Each creature that fails the saving throw takes psychic damage equal to the spell’s level.
A creature that suffers psychic damage in this way must also roll 1d12 at the start of its next turn to determine how madness grips the creature.

1d12 - Effect
1 - The creature can’t move or take actions this turn.
2 - The creature can’t move this turn but can otherwise act normally.
3 - The creature can speak only gibberish this turn, making it impossible to cast spells with verbal components or be understood in any way.
4 - The creature can’t take bonus actions this turn but can otherwise act normally. 
5 - The creature loses concentration if it was maintaining its concentration, and it can’t use spells or effects that require concentration this turn. 
6 - The creature becomes frightened of you until the end of its turn.
7 - The creature becomes charmed by you until the end of its turn.
8 - The creature howls in agony, taking 1d4 psychic damage.
9 - The creature becomes deaf until the end of its turn.
10 - The creature falls prone, and its movement becomes 0 until the end of its turn.
11 - The creature becomes blind until the end of its turn.
12 - Ability checks and attack rolls the creature makes this turn are made with disadvantage. 

Don’t mind the Wasteling. He’s like Clippy, just from The Pit... and actually somewhat useful. 

So, thanks again, but we’re just getting started! We’re 208% funded as of now, and it’s not stopping there. As soon as we knock out Stretch Goal 3, you’ll unlock ANOTHER nine spells beyond the ones from Stretch Goal 1. Who doesn’t like new spells? Nobody, that’s who.