As souls travel away from the Material Plane after death, they either dwell in the Astral Plane as spirits or are pulled toward one of the Outer Planes to continue their journey. But some entities find ways to travel beyond the Outer Planes to dwell in the Far Realm. There they transform over eons into abominations or elder evils, seething in a reality with its own laws. All who stay in the Far Realm are eventually twisted into alien shapes by the realm's eldritch forces.
The Far Realm's pernicious influence is often subtle, leaking into the Material Plane through thin places in reality or as invasive thoughts that inspire life to propagate along alien paths.
Consider rolling on the Far Realm Effects table when the following circumstances occur in a region touched by the Far Realm:
| Far Realm Effects | |
| d100 | Effect |
| 01-09 | A structure in the region whispers faintly. Any creature within 60 feet of the structure that can hear it must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed. While charmed in this way, the creature must move toward the source of the whispering, avoiding obvious hazards. When it reaches the source, it is incapacitated. The creature can repeat the saving throw when it takes damage and at the end of every hour, ending the effect on itself on a success. |
| 10-18 | An elder evil turns its attention to the region, imposing the pressure of its unfathomable presence upon the place. Any creature that finishes a rest in the region must succeed on a DC 12 Charisma Saving Throw, or it gains no benefit from finishing the rest. It instead finds strange scrawls, stacked stones, or its belongings arranged in intricate, abstruse patterns nearby. |
| 19-27 | Local plants and animals share a malevolent intelligence. Roll a d6. On a 1–2, an insect plague spell is centered on one random creature in the region. On a 3–4, 1d4 swarms of ravens and 1d4 swarms of rats gather and attack any other creatures in the region. On a 5–6, a treant (in forested terrain) or a galeb duhr (in rockier terrain) attacks. |
| 28-36 | Distance no longer functions in a comprehensible manner within the region. Creatures make ranged attack rolls with disadvantage, and the range of those attacks is halved. |
| 37-45 | The landscape melts into a mass of writhing flesh, eyes, and fanged mouths. From an unoccupied space in the fleshy ground arise 1d4 + 5 gibbering mouthers that attack anyone in sight. |
| 46-54 | Unintelligible murmurings threaten to overcome the mind of one random creature within the region. At the start of the creature's turn, it must succeed on a DC 13 Intelligence Saving Throw or use its action to make one melee attack against the nearest creature it can see. If there are no other creatures within reach, the target spends its action babbling. |
| 55-63 | Bizarre appendages squirm beneath the ground and around trees or other structures within this region. Dozens of limbs burst forth, entangling anyone within a 30-foot sphere surrounding one random creature. Each creature in the sphere must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity Saving Throw or take 3d6 bludgeoning damage and be restrained. Any creature that ends its turn in the area takes 3d6 bludgeoning damage. A creature can free itself or someone else within reach from being restrained in this way by using an action to make a successful DC 14 Strength or Dexterity Test (its choice). |
| 64-72 | Creatures in the region can't leave it and find themselves covering the same ground over and over. By the time they realize this, 2d10 hours have passed, during which they have made no progress in their effort to leave. The effect then ends, and each creature must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain 1 level of exhaustion. |
| 73-79 | One random creature in the region hears strange whispers and must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom Saving Throw or become charmed. While charmed in this way, the creature focuses on copying the blasphemous designs that appear in its mind using whatever medium it has available (ink, charcoal, mud, or its own blood). Unless restrained, the creature completes the designs in 1 hour of work. When the creature finishes its work, it is no longer charmed, and a death slaad appears within 30 feet of it and attacks anyone in sight. |
| 80-85 | Natural features and structures in this region writhe to spell out words and form strange symbols. Any creature that tries to read the messages must make a DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check. On a success, the creature gains insight as if it had cast the Contact Other Plane spell. On a failure, the creature is affected as if it failed a saving throw against the Confusion spell. This effect ends at the end of the creature's next turn. |
| 86-90 | In this region, circular things (such as buttons, crystal balls, the sun, and so on) seem appallingly wrong. One random creature that starts its turn in this region must succeed on a DC 14 Intelligence Saving Throw or spend their turn loudly trying to destroy these objects. |
| 91-95 | Glaring eyes, which weep viscid tears, appear on inanimate objects throughout the region. These eyes watch the characters, and creatures within the region can't be surprised by the characters for as long as the eyes exist. An eye closes and disappears if it takes any damage. Reroll if you've already rolled this effect. |
| 96-00 | A tear in reality creates a rift in the region, similar to the spell Gate, that passes through the Far Realm and connects with a random plane. Any creature that enters the rift takes 10d10 psychic damage from the horrors of the Far Realm and appears in an empty space closest to the rift's opening on another random plane. The rift vanishes after 2d10 + 2 hours. |