That Time D&D Had a Whole Planet You Could Fight – Allabar, Opener of the Way
Excited about Spelljammer: Adventures in Space? Just remember the time they wanted you to fight a planet in D&D: Allabar, Opener of the Way.
D&D and space seem like two great flavors that mix well together. Like chocolate and peanut butter. Like fish and chips. Or like capitalism and the dawning realization that the whole system depends on your boss keeping you from realizing the true value of your labor.
And you’d be right. Over the years, there have been several iterations of D&D in space. From the official Spelljammer campaign setting to the unofficial conversions for 3rd and 4th Editions.
To 3rd party campaign settings like Dragonstar. Which was literally D&D in space, right down to space kobolds, space elves, and space paladins.
But you might not be so eager to combine the two if you knew what horrors awaited you. Because in Space, in D&D, many things can hear you scream. Including and especially the enemy planet known as Allabar, Opener of the Way.
D&D’s Monster Planet, Allabar, Opener of the Way
As you might expect for a monster that feels as much fever dream as a capable combatant, D&D’s Allabar, Opener of the Way originated in 4th Edition.
Ahh, 4th Edition. When all you needed were seven different kinds of goblins and a battlemat and adventure was yours. Whatever your opinions on the game system might be, there’s no denying that 4th Edition saw some of D&D’s most creative monsters. Taking cues from the world of gaming, there were monsters who had constant abilities. You had monsters with auras and area attacks, monsters who fought in phases.
A lot of very “game-y” encounters, sure, but they were fun. Or terrifying. This is how 4th Edition D&D ended up with a planet you could fight: Allabar, Opener of the Way. Allabar was one of 13 baleful stars, though, star was a bit of a misnomer.
In the early days of creation, the primordials created Allabar as a planet like the mortal world. The gods noticed the primordials’ new creation and experimented with it, attempting to create a thinking, living planet. The gods managed to ignite a spark of life within the planet, but they feared the power that their creation possessed. Thus, they cast away the planet, Allabar, into the Far Realm.
The Far Realm, in D&D, is better known as the place where all the aberrations and tentacled eldritch horrors come from. As you might expect, things weren’t great for the living planet.
The Far Realm transformed it into a calamitous being with cunning and malevolence and a hatred for the mortal world.
A Planet-Sized Stat Block
D&D being what D&D is, Allabar, Opener of the Way was absolutely intended as a combat encounter though. Allabar, Opener of the Way appeared in the 4th Edition D&D book Monster Manual 3.
There, with a CR of 30, Allabar stands tall as the biggest creature in all of D&D. It is so big, in fact, that you couldn’t actually draw it on the map. But WotC was way ahead of the game:
You might fight an avatar. The planet could shrink itself. Or maybe you just fly to the planet and do your best. But out in the inky depths of D&D’s starry void, lurked the Opener of the Way. And for 4th Edition, a game notorious for having extremely powerful player characters, Allabar was still a beast. Take a look:
Allabar continually pulls all things close to it. It makes three attacks per turn, with tentacles (best not to think too much about a planet with tentacles). And it has some extremely well-named attacks, like Wrath of the Forsaken World, which let it blast a group of enemies, damaging them and giving affected targets a bonus tentacle to attack anyone nearby them.
Allabar isn’t Canon Anymore, Right? Right?
Does that mean the starry night of D&D’s space is dark and full of terrors? Yes. Absolutely. Though Allabar hasn’t been updated to 5th Edition stats officially, the legacy of the wrathful planet lives on in the form of Star Spawn. These monsters carry on the “far realm intruding on the prime material” narrative that 4th Edition emphasized.
And there are more and more of them lurking in new books. Spelljammer: Adventures in Space will be an interesting one, for sure. And even if Spelljammer doesn’t recreate Allabar, there’s already a fan adaptation that brings the creature up to 5th Edition standards.
So now, everyone can fight a planet if they want to.
Happy adventuring
