Magical Items (PWH)

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As a general rule, a planewalker's magical items are affected just like her spells — in all the same ways and degrees. If she takes a ring of invisibility into a place where illusions don't work (like Mechanus), the ring won't work either, since it's based on the illusion school just like the invisibility spell. It'll just be a piece of jewelry, and even a spell key won't let it function properly. A canny blood can figure out the magical school equivalents of most items just by thinking about it, as they're pretty straightforward. Dungeon Masters have access to a table in A DM Guide to the Planes in the Planescape Campaign Setting boxed set, and are the final arbiters on the subject. Likewise, magical items (whether based on wizardly or clerical magic) are subject to the planar pathway restrictions listed in tables 1, 3, and 5. And, of course, spell keys and power keys have no effect on magical items whatsoever.
The same goes for clerical spells recorded on scrolls. It's a handy way for priests to retain their high-up spells far away from their deity's home plane (since the scrolls aren't subject to the level-loss rule), but if the spell requires a planar pathway connection in a place that doesn't have one, the scroll's useless. Clerical spells that require such pathways are listed below.
More than any other type of item, magical weapons, armor, and items with bonuses (pluses) of any kind are bound to the magic of their plane of origin. Such creations are attuned to the energies of that plane, and diminish in power if they're taken from it. The further the item moves from its plane of origin, the less powerful its enchantment, at least for the duration of the separation.
For each plane removed, the item subtracts one from its bonus. For example, if a battle-axe +3 forged in Sigil is taken from Sigil to Elysium, it becomes a battle-axe +2, being one plane removed. (Sigil is not exempt from this rule as it is with priest spells; it's considered part of the Outlands for magical items.) If the same axe is then taken to the Ethereal Plane, it becomes a battle-axe +O, tracing three steps from Sigil through the Astral to the Prime to the Ethereal. If it is then taken to the plane of Steam (one more step) it remains an axe +O, for the bonus cannot become a penalty.
Items trace the shortest path between the planes, unlike a priest's lost levels. If a magical item's origin lies on one of the Outer Planes and it's taken to another plane on the Great Ring, the count almost always goes through the Astral rather than counting planes around the Ring. Conduits, portals, demiplanes, and so on have no effect. That's just the way it works.
 Table 6: Magical Item Bonus Loss by Plane (Quick Reference)
Where Forged	Where used 	Loss
Astral 	Outer Planes or Prime 	-1
Astral 	Ethereal Plane 	-2
Astral 	Inner Planes 	-3
Ethereal 	Inner Planes or Prime 	-1
Ethereal 	Astral Plane 	-2
Ethereal 	Outer Planes 	-3
Inner Plane 	Ethereal Plane 	-1
Inner Plane 	adjacent Inner Plane 	-1
Inner Plane 	other Inner Plane or Prime	-2
Inner Plane 	Astral Plane 	-3
Inner Plane 	Outer Planes 	-4
Outer Plane 	Astral Plane 	-1
Outer Plane 	adjacent Outer Plane 	-1
Outer Plane 	other Outer Plane or Prime	-2
Outer Plane 	Ethereal Plane 	-3
Outer Plane 	Inner Planes 	-4
Prime 	Ethereal or Astral 	-1
Prime 	Outer or Inner Planes 	-2
Note that items forged on the Astral or the Outlands lose only -1 on all the Outer Planes (since they're adjacent to all of those planes), making them some of the most useful items around when adventuring on the Great Ring. For a complete chart of all planar changes to magical items, see page 157.
Items reduced to +0 bonuses are still magical and can strike creatures vulnerable only to magical weapons. They register as magical when subjected to detect magic spells, and are still generally extremely sturdy and finely crafted. Items that have additional powers lose such powers when the item's bonus falls to +0, so a defender sword +4 with the special ability to detect sloping passages loses the defender ability and the power to detect sloping passages at this point. A weapon with two sets of bonuses, such as a sword +1, +4 vs. lycanthropes, uses the higher bonus to determine the loss of additional powers. As a final note, cursed items with negative bonuses aren't affected in any way by planar travel.