Liquidsabre
Explorer
Note, for stability (i.e. so the ship doesn't tip over) you would need another set of stabilizing sails just below the hull of the ship in order to sail the ship in the sky. But way cooler than flying, agreed.
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Folding boats, pirate ships and how to make them fly
- Thread starter Piratecat
- Start date
There are a few problems with that. The ship would be unable to land anywhere with sails in the way. Rigging the underside sails would be difficult and dangerous for the crew. And the most serious problem of all: it would look dorky.Liquidsabre said:
We're talking about a magical flying boat here. Leave the real-world physics at home.
Liquidsabre
Explorer
Oops sorry 'bout that, actually I was referring to the levitating ship that Kid Charlemagne was speaking of, that uses wind energy for locomotion rather than magical flight. The levitation spells has rules for lack of stability a caster has while making attacks, naturally, stability is a problem for levitating things.
Airships of this nature look great if you've seen artwork depictions, plus since they levitate these ships have no problems levitating 30 ft above the ground and using a service tower to dock for loading/unloading). I imagine much of the under rigging can be worked from the top of the ship or even from the bottom levels.
Lol, if I completely left the real-world physics at home my PCs wouldn't have to traipse through mountainous wilderness, be encumbered by the sloping and vegetated terrain, and ranged weapons wouldn't suffer penalties to hit in the high winds of the passes.
Airships of this nature look great if you've seen artwork depictions, plus since they levitate these ships have no problems levitating 30 ft above the ground and using a service tower to dock for loading/unloading). I imagine much of the under rigging can be worked from the top of the ship or even from the bottom levels.
Lol, if I completely left the real-world physics at home my PCs wouldn't have to traipse through mountainous wilderness, be encumbered by the sloping and vegetated terrain, and ranged weapons wouldn't suffer penalties to hit in the high winds of the passes.
Pbartender
First Post
Liquidsabre said:
Nope, all you'd need is enough cargo and ballast properly distributed to bring the ship's center of gravity low enough so that it doesn't tip over... Ship captains had to do that anyway with 'regular' ship that sail on water. I can't imagine it to be much more difficult than that for a ship sailing through air... Bouyancy is bouyancy and air is as good as water to 200 tons of enchanted wood, rope, canvas and tar, eh?
I would only worry about spellcaster Concentration checks during rough weather, as you would in a normal ship.
tauton_ikhnos
First Post
1 & 2. A 50 ft keelboat in D&D is 3,000 gp, has a crew of 8, and can carry up to 40 tons of cargo OR 100 soldiers. On water, it moves about 1 mph.
A 75 ft keelboat in D&D is 3,000 gp, has a crew of 15, and can carry up to 50 tons of cargo OR 100 soldiers. On water, it moves about 1 mph.
A warship costs 25,000 gp, but is 100 ft long. It moves 2.5 mph.
At a guess, a faster, smaller (50 ft) warship would cost around 15,000 gp, and move 3.5 mph.
3 & 4. For a 50 ft version, I would charge 28,800 gp. However, if you want to leave it at 7,200 gp, there are other things you can do to balance things out...
a. A folding boat is made of thin, magically hardened wood. It has a high hardness (maybe equivalent to iron?), but it has the hit points of 1 inch of wood. So hardness 10, hp 10.
b. It can be dispelled, temporarily suppressing its magic. Whether this locks it in boat form, or returns it to its native form, is up to you.
5. If they worked together, I would increase the cost of the cheaper item by 50%. So 7,200 + 7,200 + 3,600 = 18,000 gp total, plus the cost of the air keel itself.
6. The best protection against Dispel Magic is a high caster level on the item.
A 75 ft keelboat in D&D is 3,000 gp, has a crew of 15, and can carry up to 50 tons of cargo OR 100 soldiers. On water, it moves about 1 mph.
A warship costs 25,000 gp, but is 100 ft long. It moves 2.5 mph.
At a guess, a faster, smaller (50 ft) warship would cost around 15,000 gp, and move 3.5 mph.
3 & 4. For a 50 ft version, I would charge 28,800 gp. However, if you want to leave it at 7,200 gp, there are other things you can do to balance things out...
a. A folding boat is made of thin, magically hardened wood. It has a high hardness (maybe equivalent to iron?), but it has the hit points of 1 inch of wood. So hardness 10, hp 10.
b. It can be dispelled, temporarily suppressing its magic. Whether this locks it in boat form, or returns it to its native form, is up to you.
5. If they worked together, I would increase the cost of the cheaper item by 50%. So 7,200 + 7,200 + 3,600 = 18,000 gp total, plus the cost of the air keel itself.
6. The best protection against Dispel Magic is a high caster level on the item.
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
5. That sounds kind of like the Wild armor ability, which is rated at +3.
6. You could make the Air Keel be a collection several keels that you add to a single vessel - sort of like the ships in The Matrix. Enemies would need to dispel most or all of them in order to make the ship fall.
-blarg
6. You could make the Air Keel be a collection several keels that you add to a single vessel - sort of like the ships in The Matrix. Enemies would need to dispel most or all of them in order to make the ship fall.
-blarg
Liquidsabre
Explorer
blargney the second said:
Lol, sweet idea blarg. This way if one or two of the keels were dispelled/damaged the ship would actually "list" in the air from damage.
That's cool.
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
Liquidsabre said:
I'm feeling inspired... let's take it up another notch or two!
Each keel adds to the air speed - let's say 10'/keel for starters. Maneuverability is some function of the ship's size and the number of keels on the hull. Bigger boat, less maneuverable; more keels, more maneuverable.
Whenever keels are destroyed or dispelled, the ship drops speed and some aspect of maneuverability. If they're at the front or back, then the altitude-changing capacity is lowered. If they're on one side, then a direction-altering capacity is lowered. Lose enough keels, and the ship goes down an entire category. I'd suggest that a vessel can always hover (0' speed) if there is at least one functioning keel. Maybe 2 to 4 keels/category, depending on size?
Give a base air speed (by weight) and maximum air speed (by streamlinedness) for any given boat.
- a fat merchanter has a base air speed of -30', max 50', 3/maneuvre
- a little skiff has a base air speed of 0', max 100', 2/maneuvre
- a galleon has a base air speed of -40', max 60', 4/maneuvre
- a sailboat has a base air speed of -20, max 80', 3/maneuvre
A skiff with 10 keels would do 100' with perfect maneuverability.
A merchanter with 9 keels would do 50' with average maneuverability.
A merchanter with 7 keels would do 40' with average maneuverability, but with some aspects of poor.
A galleon with 8 keels does 40' with poor maneuverability.
A galleon with 16 keels does 60' with good maneuverability.
-blarg the airshipwright
