Ok, for this example I will be building a standard spelljamming ship. The goal here is to show how the system works. I have not finilized it tottaly yet, and I've still got to balence the movement/manuvering/power/lift information for each item and hull.
This system is kind of a cross between making a character of a set level, and making a magic item. Its a bit complex while working on it, but once you finish picking the parts, you add up all the modifiers to everything, and you get your vehicle stats.
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Step one: The hull.
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The hull is the frame work of the vehicle. It determines the size, type of vehicle, and Hit Dice. The hit dice in turn, define the number of components a vehicle can hold.
This vehicle is like most human spelljamming ships: it was built like a naval vessel of a late mideval world. It's hull is an object or standard hull.
Quote:
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OBJECT: Immunity to sneak attack, subdual, sleep, critical hits, negative and positive energy, mind-influencing effects, poison, disease, ability damage, ability drain, stunning, death effects, paralysis, or similar effects. As an object it is immune to nearly any effect that requires a Fortitude save unless it can specifically affect objects. Unless the weapon is designed to do full damage against objects, it takes half damage from ranged attacks, acid, fire and lightning. Hardness applies to the remaining damage. Note that siege weapons and nearly all vehicle weapons do full damage against objects. Objects vehicles use a d10 for hit dice.
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The type of hull is easy, but the size is not. This vehicle would need to be large enough to hold a decent crew, and supplies to last for long trips. I'll go with a "Small vessel," which would be a Gargantuan Creature by normal sizes. That's 32’ - 64’ feet of vehicle. This also means the vehicle has a Hardness of 15, and could have Hit Dice between 16 and 31. In this case I'll take 28 Hit Dice. That' a lot of space for components. It also gives and average of 140 hitpoints.
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Step two: Under the hood
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While the hull is nice, it's still just a skeleton. It's a lot like deciding to make a character at level 13. you still need classes, skills, feats, etc, to pick out.
In the case of a vehicle, you need to pick parts, componenets, systems, weapons, etc. Diffrent components are larger or smaller then others, and a vehicle can only hold so many parts. A rich character could only put so many guns on his tiny fighter craft after all. Each component has a size in component slots. A hull has as many component slots as it has hit dice.
Lets start with the power source:
(3) 1 Arcane jammer: A magic device that drains spells from a caster, in this case the pilot, to power the vehicle. I'm taking a standard 3 slot jammer. they also come in 6, 9, 12, etc. larger ones get more power per spell level. This standard jammer provides plenty of power per hour per spell level. in this case, 6 units of magical power.
Next we need the life support:
(1) 1 Air envelope seals: These magical seals, built into or added latter, to a vehicle wraps the entire vehicle in a large magically or psionicaly maintained air bubble complete with a form of gravity.
(2) 2 Food Stores: These store rooms contain extra food, water, etc. In this case enough for the crew to last about 100 days.
(1) 1 Life support: this basic component, in this case magic enchantments, keeps the vehicle's air supply clean, fresh, and at constant temperatures. -1 power to keep operating.
Now we need engines, or forward motion:
(4) 2 Force drives: Magical devices and vary widely depending on the nature of the magical orders that design and build them. this one is in the form of enchanted versions of sails. This is a double sized force drive to make the vehicle extra fast. It provides +4 lfit, +12 speed, +2 manuvering, but uses 4 magic power.
Crew space:
(3) 3 Crew Quarters: space for 15 small rooms.
(2) 2 Cargo Bay of Holding: these two magic cargo spaces provide plent of cargo space for trade goods, supplies for repairs, etc. -2 lift due to magicaly constant weight, like a bag of holding.
(1) 1 Passenger Space: This one unit is intended to provide a library space for the pilot/wizards of the ship.
Weapons:
(8) 4 Ballista: 4 standard ballista weapons mounted across the vehicle facing to the sides in a classice naval layout.
(3) 1 Open Deck: this space allows spellcasters or archers to stand in the open on the deck, which is safe in space because of the air envelope.
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Step three: the vehicle
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Tottal: 28 units to 28 HD.
Speed: +12 speed
Manuvering: +4
Lift: +2
Power: 5/6 (one extra unit could latter be used to replace some ballistas with a magic energy cannon... maybe an enchanted catapult that tosses chunks of magic fire, or a ballista that forms ice spikes for attacks)
<I have not set the tables for looking up these speed, lift, and manuvering speed VS vehicle size for actual manuvering classes and speed scores>
It's armor class and attacks are -4 do to size, but it has X8 to its lift score (standard rules for larger creatuers and their lifting powers as found in the
DMG) and it does (and suffers) 16d10 damage in a ram attack.
The price for vehicle (I have not yet determined prices) would be set by the hull type ( an object) X # Hit dice (28) + price of all components.
This vehicle will be fast, but not that manuverable and will have to stay in constant motion when not in the 0 gravity of space. It holds more cargo then it looks like, and has the stores for long range travel. It has some weapons, and the space for it to depend on its crew for combat (when you have spellcasters for crew, why not?) but no special defensive features, like armor.
Linear Mode
