Primitive Hanglider stats

[Eye Tyrant]

I plan on attacking a town my PCs are currently holed up in with a strike force of Orcs and Kobolds. The kicker is that they will attack by cover of night gliding down from a nearby mountain on hangliders. The Orcs will operate the gliders, while the Kobolds, strapped to the Orcs tandem style, will drop Alchemist's Fire on strategic locations (stables, market tents/stalls, etc). The strategy is to then land, wreak as much havoc as possible and capture as many unsuspecting townsfolk. Backup will be arriving at the town gates in the form of an Ogre band (consisting of 2 fighter7, 1 rogue8, and a druid7). This group is lead by an Ogre Mage/Wizard3 (who will remain behind for now).

My query? I need stats for the gliders... AC, HP, Hardness, Manuverability etc... Is this found anywhere or do I need to just wing it? (no pun intended).

 

[Ferret]

I'm not sure one could be built, but if it was it would use animal skins, use that for hp hardness etc.

The only thing that would have advanced over time is the saftey buckles etc

I'd say clumsy or one better for mauverability, and AC as a large creature (base 6, but that have to aim up a distance to hit you)

 

[DanMcS]

AC for a huge creature, it would need a 20+ foot wingspan to support a hanging orc and kobold. So 8 base, and then I'd let the pilot's Dex modifier apply. Hardness of leather, what's that, 2? I'd do hps as in the recent "From the Bunker" article for d20 modern, which gives hps based on weight. I'd probably call it 8 or 10 hps and, for meanness, give it DR 5/slashing or blunt (little holes from arrows won't bring it down too fast).

Maneuverability, I'd call one worse than Clumsy, something like max flying speed 60 mph (105 squares/round), minimum forward speed 3/4, no hover, backward, or reverse speed; turn of 45 degrees/20 feet, no turn in place, maximum turn 45 degrees, no up angle or up speed, down angle 45 degrees, dive speed 3/2, and minimum drop of 1 foot/round (10 feet per mile, which is rather generous for a primitive glider).

 

[Darklone]

One of the new Faerun books has this drogue glider... do you have that book?

 

[The Forsaken One]

Its races of faerun and its related to the Hippogriff rider dwarven PrC.

 

[Artoomis]

You should include a chance for the gilders to crash on their own. I would think out of every 20 gilders, 5 or 10 would crash out of control - this is what keeps the whole world from using them all the time - too dangerous.

 

[Eye Tyrant]

One of the new Faerun books has this drogue glider... do you have that book?

I don't have Races of Faerun... But really I don't anticipate them staying in the air too long. A few rounds at best (after the initial alarm has been sounded), really I just want to be able to give the town guards something to aim for... I could just wing it, but what then if the PCs want to test one out? That poses a new problem I could make them all Kamikaze pilots...

 

[Artoomis]

... but what then if the PCs want to test one out? That poses a new problem ...

That's why I suggest making them basically unstable - such that at least 25% - 50% of them crash. Plus make them require a new skill - Pilot - that has no other application anywhere.

That should discourage them. Who want to plow skill poiunmts into using a device that will likely fail anyway.

Maybe you'd be better off to have a wizard/shaman with scrolls of fly to get them airborne?

 

[Eye Tyrant]

Maybe you'd be better off to have a wizard/shaman with scrolls of fly to get them airborne?

Thought of that... but I really like the hanglider idea... thinking of just going with the unstable bit.

 

[Scion]

No reason they couldnt be made, and possibly even fairly stable. Just have the orcs and goblins raise a certain kind of giant spider, or something similar.

They can then use its thread to form the glider, so long as someone has sufficient skill of course.

They are fairly slow moving, incredibly bad manuverability, and the person in it is denied their dex bonus. No need to penalize it further, they are already going to die

So say, for a goblin glider, that it is large size, has an effective ac of 5 (can be increased by increasing the difficulty of construction, material cost, and time.. does anyone care enough about goblins to do so though?), hp 20 (losing 10 hp makes it drop by an extra 5' each round, at 0 hp it is destroyed), hardness 2 (hey, spider silk baby!), along with the other factors from above.

Again, all can be improved given time, cost, and ability. So it would be possible to make something like AC 10, average manuverability, hp 30, hardness 5, and faster glider, it would just take an obscenely high craft dc (30 - 35), a long time, and a lot more value of goods.

There is also a magical version in arms and equipment that is interesting, but at 300gp it is probably a bit out of reach for most orcs and goblins

Remember that whoever is flying it will need a few ranks in it!