Building an Airship

[Glade Riven]

One of the "missing" things about Eberron is a distinct lack of how to build custom elemental vessels. Sure, there's a few pre-made ones, but where's the fun in that?

So, next best thing to ascertain the cost of custom airships, etc.: The Stronghold Builder's Guidebook + Stormwracked (or another book with base ships, such as Arms and Equipment Guide). Treat the spaces on the ship like a Stronghold Space.

For instance, a Pinnace is about the size of a single stronghold space (30 by 10 by 10 verse 20 by 20 by 10). Consult the stronghold mobility charts, and for 44,500 gp (totaled from those charts and the base price of a pinnace) your player, too, can own a ship that can fly 10 miles per hour.

Okay, it's not possible to match the official Eberron examples through this method, but some of those are a little arbitrary (Like how the ECS has a relativly small airship for 90K gc and Explorer's Guide has a similar ship exponentially larger for the same price). Using the SBGB also would have the airships running at half the speed of the Eberron example ship - but it works well enough.

 

[Sigurd]

A lot would depend on how formulaic airship making was in your game world. Do you bind a fire elemental? Are they all the same power?

Do you have a lighter than air material? Soarwood? Airstone? etc...

In the absence of a system I think DM's should wing it with found\rescued\taken ingredients etc.... At least if you do it that way the airship is guaranteed to produce adventure.


Sigurd

Don't forget that one of the most important questions for an airship is "What's already in the air that we have to defend against?"

 

[Glade Riven]

Well, some DMs are better at that sort of thing than others, and at least this grants a starting point. Calling the propulsion a bound Fire or Air elemental, a series of eldric magics, or some other thing is more fluff than crunch. Unfortunatly, the bound elemental thing isn't very clear compared to other mechanics (Stronghold Builders, or IK's Liber Mechanika for example).

 

[Dandu]

Permanancied Gust of Wind from a tube.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Permanancied Gust of Wind from a tube.

...with a reed stuck in it, so it traverses the skies with a mighty *pthtthththththththththhththththhtt*

 

[Skavvan]

Elemental Vessels 101

This is just my take on elemental vessels in general with airships as the focus.

The first thing you need to know about an elemental airship, as well as an elemental galleon and the lightning rail coach, is that the cost given in the Eberron Campaign Setting (ECS) is only the cost to enchant the ship not including the cost of the ship itself (if you don't believe me compare the cost of an airship to the whirlwind armor property ECS pg266). The next thing you need to know about an elemental airship is that it is a construct similar to a golem in that an elemental is the animating force as such it can hustle continuesly allowing the speed of 100ft given in the Explorers Handbook to translate to roughly 20 miles per hour (more accuretly 22 and 24/33 mph). It can also run but the soarwood hull can't take the stress and would quickly tear itself apart. The third thing you need to know is that soarwood is not lighter than air (because the ECS pg127 states that it has 75% of the wieght of normal wood as opposed to the Explorers Handbook) but has a sympathietic/synergistic property with Air element based magics I.E. Air Walk (which is probably why airships cost 28,000gp more than elemental galleons). Like I said the vessel is a Costruct and the fact that it's made out of soarwood allows it to be a legal target for air walk but doing this has the negetive effect of making it carry weight as opposed to pushing the weight like a galleon does. Now we get into carrying capacity and speed effects. As stated in the ECS an airship has a carrying capacity of roughly 30 tons and 15 crew. Ignoring the crew for now it still carries 30 tons which is 60,000 pounds. The airship is treated as a colossal quadruped for the purpose of carrying capacity so 60,000/24=2,500. Now looknig at pg162 in the Players Handbook we compare that to Table 9-1. The closest without going under is a strength score of 34 with a heavy load being 1,865-2,800 lbs. But lets not forget the weight of the crew and just to be nice their belongings as well which we'll say is 300 lbs. So 15 crew at 300 lbs. each is 4,500 lbs. Divide that by the colossal quadruped multiplier of 24 and we get 187.5+2,500=2,687.5 lbs. which is still under the max weight for a strength score of 34. You could attempt to carry more than this but you risk both stagger speed (5ft per round or 1/2 mph) and hull breaches. Next is speed affected by wieght. Consulting pg162 of the PH, pg20 of the DMG, and pgs146-7 of Secrets of Xen'drik we see that it maintains speed and maneuverability while carrying a light load (22,368 lbs. or less [11 tons]). While carrying a medium (22,369-44,736 lbs. [11-22 tons]) or heavy (44,737-67,200 lbs. [22-33 tons]) load its speed is reduced to 70ft per round or roughly 14 mph (more accuretly 15 and 10/11 mph). If carrying a heavy load its maneuverability is reduced to clumsy but can still hover thanks to the air walk effect.

Elemental galleons are esentially the same but they push their load's and according pg162 of the PH this allows them to adjust weight capacities by a factor of 5 thus a light load is 111,840 lbs. or less (56 tons or less), a medium load is 111,841-223,680 lbs. (56-111 tons), and a heavy load is 223,681-336,000 lbs. (111-168 tons).

Lightning rail coaches follow the same rules as elemental galleons but are built sturdier and ride along conductor stones. This serves a dual purpose of increasing its load capacity by a factor of 8 and allows the coach to run instead of hustle. This means carrying a light load it can move up to 45 mph, carring a medium load it can move up to 32 mph, and carrying a heavy load it move up to 24 mph. or if you want you can clean it up a bit so that it encompasses the ECS speed refferences (pg126 & pg267) 30 mph for a medium load and 25 mph for a heavy load.

As I said though this is just my take on elemental vessels and you can feel free to change whatever aspects you like.

P.S. For vessel construction for airships and galleons find a vessel in Stormrack or something similar and multiply the cost by 4 for soarwood construction. As for lightning rail coaches you're kind of on your own.

 

[Glade Riven]

Huh. Makes sense.

 

[Sigurd]

The absolute best you can do for free is to use the Talislantia stuff. Talislantia was a big RPG that had several editions, including a D20 version.

At some stage the author decided that he wasn't making the money he wanted and allowed everything on a web page for free. Legally.

There is a pdf about windships that is fairly good. It really is worth a look.


Talislanta | Still No Elves!


The windships are among the pdfs listed here.

Talislanta Library

 

[Drowbane]

The Party's airship. Sources: Stormwrack, Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, Dungeon/Polyhedron #62, Eberron Campaign Setting, Arms & Equipment, Complete Scoundrel (for the com-links, aka Aspect Mirrors).

Taken from one player's notes:
Costs Mosts items 1/2 off, due to cohort construction.
Soarwood Crafted Dromond: ; x2 base ship speed; Cost: 50k - Stormwrack pg 99, Eberron CS pg127
Adamantine Plating: 3 inch layer of adamantine plating bolted right into the beams of the ship. Cost: 270k - Stronghold Builder's Guide (as exterior walls, 60%)
Spelljammer Helm, Major: Flight; 120 (poor) [STRIKE]60 (poor)[/STRIKE]; Cost: 25k - Dungeon Mag#62
Charts of Certainty: Cost: 23760 - Arms & Equipment pg 49
Map of Tactics, Greater: Cost: 18k - Stronghold Builder's Guidebook
Planar Sails x2: Cost: 72k (2 sets) - Arms & Equipment pg
Tornado's Eye: (2) 5ft spheres that projects Tornado force winds around up to 12 Stronghold spaces (and a Dromond volumetrically takes up 15 stronghold spaces). Cost: 90k
Lightning Turbines: Doubles ship speed or improves to 90, whichever is greater. The vehicle ignores any weather-related penalties to speed. (Fly 240 - poor) Cost: 45k - Arms and Equipment pg 50
Float Anchor: Allows a spelljammer to levitate in place up to 500ft above the ground without fear of crashing. Cost: 5k
Com-Links: (8) Aspect Mirrors (one per party-member); Cost: 16k
Veil of Obscurity: makes the vessel appear to be part of the surrounding terrain. Cost: 12.5k - Arms & Equipment pg 51
Armament: 6 Lightning Ballista Cost: 7500gp x6 (45k)

Total: 672,260gp

Paid for by everybody in the party, and their cohorts having the Landlord feat.

~
Later they found the Planar Sailer from Planar Handbook, they would have saved some gp.

In most situations, a planar sailer seems no different from
a common sailing ship. Measuring some 80 feet in length,
this three-masted ship requires a crew of 20 when sailing
on water and using the wind for locomotion. A planar sailer
has a special ability that allows it to sail celestial seas, following
the commands of the captain of the vessel as he stands
at the wheel. A planar sailer has enough room on deck for
two light catapults or ballistas. It usually uses a launch as a
lifeboat (not included in the price).
Planar Sailer: Colossal vehicle; Profession (sailor) +4;
Spd wind × 20 ft. (nautical average); Overall AC –3; Section
hp 50 (hardness 5); Section AC 3; Rigging 80 hp (hardness
0), AC 1; Ram 12d6; Face 80 ft. by 20 ft.; Height 10
ft. (draft 10 ft.); SA ram; SQ steering mechanism triggers
special plane shift effect on vehicle and contents; Crew 20;
Cargo 150 tons (Spd wind × 15 ft. if 75 tons or more); Cost
25,000 gp.

 

[TanisFrey]

If you don't mind 3rd party books, you can try Airships by Bastion Press is avaiable as a PDF. It was written for 3.0 so it may need some tweeking.