Lyre of building, what can i build in an hour?

[Sir Draconion]

so maybe build a stock pile of wood and clear the land with 14,400 people in one hour
i wonder what the range is

 

[Sir Draconion]

i know these are all hypothectical
but what can 24 people do in 6 seconds?
how far can someone dig a mine in 8 hours? 1'
the price is pretty cheap to make your own way in to a dungeon

 

[BSF]

You have a few options.

• Use the Stronghold Builders Guide which includes how a Lyre of Building reduces your costs. If your campaign uses the rules from the Stronghold Builders guide, then you need to keep it all in line with each other.
• Use the rules from a Magical Medeival Society: Western Europe by Expeditious Retreat Press. It's available as PDF or paper. It includes alternate rules for building stuff and includes guidance on the Lyre of Building.
• Wing it.

I generally consider the Lyre of Building to be broken because there are no rules for fatigue while playing. My high level Bard could play until he became fatigued from lack of sleep. Once your perform is high enough, it's easy. Instead I created some general fatigue rules -2 to perform each hour after the first. These are house rules. These could be improved by considering the Con of the musician and whether the musician has Endurance as a feat.

BTW - How do you get 14,400 man hours. 100 men x 3 days = 300 x [hours worked per day] 8-10 hours would be reasonable but tops out at 3000 man hours. Even working them 20 hours a day would still only get you 6000 man hours of work for each 1/2 hour played.

 

[Sir Draconion]

it states 100 men working for three days(72 hours), not 24 hours thats per 1/2 hour the first hour is free(no perform check the first hour)

 

[Sir Draconion]

your #s are wrong 100 x per half hour x8 hours or 16 1/2 hours x 3 = 4,800

 

[BSF]

OK, if you are assuming a full 72 hours, then you have a base of 21,600 (100 x 3 x 72) man hours per half hour you play.

Yeah, I suppose you could interpret it that way. I guess I am just too old school where the 1st Ed AD&D DMG states 100 men labouring for 3 days. Since men don't labour for 72 hours, I always interpreted it as a work day. *shrug* Whatever floats your boat.

While I love the concept of this item, and indeed my Bard is making one, it is an item that needs to be carefully discussed between DM & player before it is used in a campaign. It is _so_ cheap and the language used to describe it's affects is so vague that it is very easily abusable. Why wouldn't every kingdom with a Bard and a wizard have a couple fo these sitting around?

 

[Sir Draconion]

so true, basic low income housing, build a dam, clear the local swamp, instant garrisons and out posts
so does anyone out there have numbers?

 

[Starglim]

Assuming that the lyre simulates the work of men, as it states, not robots, an hour of playing equates to 6 days of work for normal workers. Say, a week.

The costs and wages given in the 1e DMG work out to a crew of 30 to 40 men - say 33 - labouring on a building.

Thus, the amount of labour done by the lyre in an hour is three times the amount of construction that would be expected from normal workmen in a week - three 10' cubes of stonework or six 10' cubes of timber construction.

edit: It can provide a truly impressive amount of ditch-digging, if the GM chooses to count that as building.

 

[Eolin]

i have no idea what your talking about must be someone else
post a link so maybe i can read it too

Sorry, it was a thread that had nearly the same question -- or so I thought last night, when I'd been drinking. Here it is:
http://www.kenzerco.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=661356&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

Hopefully that link will work.

Through both these thread, I still don't have the answer to my question -- how long/much will it take to build a 14 story (13 + 1 underground) Wizard's tower? What I'd really like to see is just a straight-up rule for how much it takes to build each square foot. I could easily extrapolate from there.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

You could just house rule that the quality isn't on par with that of normal crafting. Perhaps the structure falls apart after a while, or is of a very generic make with little ability for customization.

It could be like the create food & water spell. Sure it's nourishing, but it also tastes like wet cardboard and consuming it will slowly drive you insane!