Making a Galleon Fly

[darthkilmor]

Always. I hate the idea of magic item shops and not being able to piss in a circle without hitting an archmage. If there are that many high level casters in the world, there's no need for adventurers.

If there aren't any high level casters, where do the low level casters learn anything?
FR has oodles of high lvl casters and they still have adventurererereres.
It still mostly makes sense, what do most high lvl casters do? Study in their towers while rightly telling everything from cr 1-16 to sod off and let the up-and-coming handle that. But anyway, digressing.

What about making a very small flying ship and lots of bags of holding? say a special cargo-bag of holding, holds 1 ton of material. Shipping crate of holding, something like that.

 

[Krelios]

If there aren't any high level casters, where do the low level casters learn anything?

They research it themselves.

FR has oodles of high lvl casters and they still have adventurererereres.

Yeah, but there's no reason why they should. IMO, the fact that FR has adventurers is silly.

What about making a very small flying ship and lots of bags of holding? say a special cargo-bag of holding, holds 1 ton of material. Shipping crate of holding, something like that.

Now that, sir, is a very good idea. That would reduce the weight of the ship itself to between 25 and 100 tons and make the weight of the cargo nearly negligible. It would still be really expensive and take a lot of experience from the casters enchanting them, but it might be doable.

 

[darthkilmor]

Now that, sir, is a very good idea. That would reduce the weight of the ship itself to between 25 and 100 tons and make the weight of the cargo nearly negligible. It would still be really expensive and take a lot of experience from the casters enchanting them, but it might be doable.

Is this cargo thats going back and forth to the same two cities? or a ship for going all over? if its just between two places have you considered using a portal instead of a flying ship?

I'm not sure if there are specific rules around for making one, but what about a small pocket dimension, say 100mx100mx100m , and the one gate to get into it is on a ship. or even, IS the ship. small ship comes up, opens its cargo hold directly into pocket dimension.

Edit: I guess thats really just a big bag of holding though. hrmmmm.

 

[Delemental]

Always. I hate the idea of magic item shops and not being able to piss in a circle without hitting an archmage. If there are that many high level casters in the world, there's no need for adventurers.

In my opinion, the concepts 'low-magic setting' and 'magical flying ships' don't really mesh well together...

Your best bet might be to approach this from a purely mechanical standpoint, as has been suggested. You've already suggested that you tend to incorporate real-world physics into your world-view; a zeppelin-like craft may fit your needs better than an enchanted ship. I believe that A&EG has statistics for zeppelins.

If you want the magical elements, then spells like lesser planar ally and lesser planar binding are within the reach of your nation's casters. Rather than a permanent enchantment, perhaps the mages bind air and/or fire elementals to power the ship for the duration of a particular voyage. So the ship itself doesn't cost any more than a normal ocean-going vessel, but extra costs would be in either the payment required for the service (using planar ally) or in risking the bound elemental breaking free (using planar binding). In this situation, the nation would probably only authorize the use of the flying ships at times of great need, and for as little time as possible.

 

[Delemental]

What about making a very small flying ship and lots of bags of holding? say a special cargo-bag of holding, holds 1 ton of material. Shipping crate of holding, something like that.

A&EG has something like this, essentially a super-large bag of holding meant for cargo. Can't recall the name of the item, but it's pre-reqs are the same as for a bag of holding, and thus within the capacity of his world's mages. I've never done a comparison on cost effectiveness of this item vs. a whole bunch of bags of holding, but I'd be willing to bet the extradimensional cargo locker comes out ahead.

 

[AuraSeer]

This new web excerpt from the Explorer's Handbook has a little more information on Eberron airships. Market price is 92k gp, which makes it an expensive but reasonable possession for a high-level adventuring party, or any nation that cares to build it.

Construction does require greater planar binding, which means it needs at least one 15th-level caster. In a standard gameworlds that will be no problem for a government, but unfortunately it's out of reach of the low-powered nation described in the OP.

 

[Sledge]

Sounds like spelljammer. (And holds of holding)

 

[IcyCool]

This new web excerpt from the Explorer's Handbook has a little more information on Eberron airships. Market price is 92k gp, which makes it an expensive but reasonable possession for a high-level adventuring party, or any nation that cares to build it.

You know, part of the description states that it is the soarwood hull that makes the ship lighter than air. Is there a price anywhere for such a vessel, without the bound elemental?

 

[Hairfoot]

I seen a horsefly, and I seen a housefly, but I dun' never seen a galleon fly.

With apologies to Disney (lest they sue me).

 

[AuraSeer]

You know, part of the description states that it is the soarwood hull that makes the ship lighter than air. Is there a price anywhere for such a vessel, without the bound elemental?

Not as such, but I believe soarwood is detailed with the other special materials in the main Eberron book. You could check the rules there to figure out the cost for building a regular ship out of soarwood.