Need to create complex flying castles.

[Game_Bot]

There are 9 counts in my campaign, each wielding powerful constructs that devastates entire armies. They also each own a castle that can lift off the ground, fly through the clouds, and drop back to the surface like a missile, ready to deploy soldiers to the newly flattened landing zone.

That's the goal, I could simply say they fly because of ancient magic that current scholars don't understand and just use the "The DM says so" excuse, but I hate doing that. Instead I want to create a working castle (can be as complicated and expensive as necessary) that can be explored and recreated by players (as long as they have the resources to create such monsters.)

I've looked around but couldn't find anything solid, these have to be made by mortals, no godly support or wish granting help.

They can use:
primitive machinery (what you'd normally see in a D&D campaign with some gnome breakthroughs if not too extreme.)
Magic up to level 9 (no epic spells)
Trapped monsters (elementals, golems, anything that can be captured and controlled to gain some sort of effect. No epic monsters, they have to be contained by non-epic NPCs.)
Anything else is fine as long as it's believable.

 

[GameDaddy]

Like this?

 

[GameDaddy]

...or this?

 

[Game_Bot]

I can't post a link since I'm new, but I'm basically just looking for a general mechanic so I can apply it to different types of castles, keeps, fortresses, etc.
It's not an airship, it's a castle that can lift off, slowly float to where it needs to go, and then drop to the ground at high speeds, causing a kinetic blast that destroys nearby structures. Then unload ground units.
It's a mobile fortress for ground support, not for aerial dogfights.

 

[GameDaddy]

or this?

 

[GameDaddy]

This?

 

[GameDaddy]

One more...

 

[ccs]

You say you want a BELIEVABLE means of making a whole castle FLY, then slam into the ground at high speed - without breaking apart??
And then there's going to be ground troops that are in any condition to charge out of it.....

Sorry, the best I can give you without using WISH is the crashing into the ground at high speed.
It's called gravity.

 

[Dandu]

How crazy can I get?

I'm thinking using Wall of Stone to create the Castle, then Polymorph Any Object to turn it into an adamantine castle. The Stronghold Builder's Guide might offer advice on how to make it fly, but I'm too lazy to read it. So how about we abuse an item casting Reverse Gravity to get it off the ground, and engines using Gust of Wind to provide propulsion?

 

[Illithidbix]

I've looked around but couldn't find anything solid, these have to be made by mortals, no godly support or wish granting help.

They can use:
primitive machinery (what you'd normally see in a D&D campaign with some gnome breakthroughs if not too extreme.)
Magic up to level 9 (no epic spells)
Trapped monsters (elementals, golems, anything that can be captured and controlled to gain some sort of effect. No epic monsters, they have to be contained by non-epic NPCs.)
Anything else is fine as long as it's believable.

I think that sadly, D&D has had a persistent hole in characters abilities to create awesome things like this.

... Despite the fact that Dragonlance *has* flying castles!

Things of this nature are normally described as the result of cabals of powerful spellcasters combining their power over a very long time, which is kinda outside the scope of most D&D games. It mostly requires your worlds magics not to be limited by the spell lists and spell slots.


Spells I can find that are going in the right direction:

Stoneshape to help create the castle, if you can't be bothered building it the normal way.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/stoneShape.htm


Buoyancy
Reverse Gravity, Levitate, Floating Disk, Repel Metal or Stone
Sadly the scale of all these spells are far, far too small to affect the area and mass of a castle.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/reverseGravity.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/levitate.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/floatingDisk.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/repelMetalOrStone.htm

Permanency to make spells last
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/permanency.htm

- However a lot of the spells we want to use aren't in the list. Gust of Wind being the noticeable useful one.


Propulsion:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/gustOfWind.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/telekinesis.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/windWall.htm


Maybe using Heat Metal for a steam engine like contraption?
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/heatMetal.htm

Weather Control
Or on a larger scale, controlling weather to influence the winds.
It wouldn't keep you in the air, but if you're already got the castle to float.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/controlWeather.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/controlWinds.htm