Spelljammer iconic

[BobVosh]

What is the most iconic type of fight I can throw my players into for spelljammer. I'm trying my first attempt into spelljammer soon and want to know what people think of in terms of fights for the setting?

[Haven]

What level? Iconic evil races in Spelljammer are goblinoids, neogi slavers, mind flayers and beholders. Of course, you can't go wrong with good old fashioned humanoid pirates.

The usual encounter is something like this:

You're in the middle of a meal when, suddenly, the ship decelerates. The more experienced crewmembers jump to their feet and scramble to their positions, for they understand what this means: an object of significant size has entered your vicinity, causing you to drop from spelljamming to tactical speeds. The most likely reason is another ship, bent on killing or enslaving you all.

It starts with exchanging blows from a distance, hammering each other with cannons or spells. Soon, the distance closes (they may realize you're not worth it and attempt to escape, only for the damage you've put in the ship to be enough to reduce it's rating enough for your no doubt stalwart party to run after them; or alternatively they may realize such a toughly defended prize will require them to attend to its crew in person) and close-quarters all-out combat starts.

After repelling them, the party probably follows them back onto their ship, kills all the pirates, takes their loot, frees their slaves, and brings their heads back to the Rock of Bral for the bounty. Then they all go to the tavern to celebrate!

But their revelry is interrupted when a mysterious, heavily wounded and near-insane stranger stumbles in, thrusts a mysterious object into their hands, and dies on the spot...

[BobVosh]

Level 16.

Also only one person on the ship will actually have any knowledge of spelljamming. Although several players should have player knowledge, but only one has ever played.

[Haven]

Level 16.

Also only one person on the ship will actually have any knowledge of spelljamming. Although several players should have player knowledge, but only one has ever played.

Ah, okay. So I'm guessing that means the set up is they're all from some Prime world and they just discovered a spelljamming helm hidden away in some dungeon, someone recognized it for what it was and led an expedition to get it into space?

So that would probably mean there isn't much spelljamming activity in that crystal sphere, or at least that it avoids that planet for whatever reason (or doesn't advertise its nature when it comes--maybe just some flying ships that swoop down on villages and take off into the sky at impossible speeds before they can be retaliated against).

Anyway, more broad advice than I gave you is just think of Pirates of the Carribean but weirder (maybe even Pirates of Dark Water). Lots of swashbuckling, jumping around the rigging, swinging to and from the enemy ships...spells flying, chaotic melees across the deck, occasionally someone gets thrown overboard, and so on.

I don't know 3rd edition very thoroughly (aside from creating characters which never get a chance to be used cause the game shuts down before anything happens :smallfrown:) so I don't know what sort of encounter would be appropriate for level 16. Maybe something like this is a good idea for a first spelljamming adventure:

There have been tales of strange ships, filled with undead, swooping down from the skies, killing villagers and stealing the corpses and then flying back into the skies. A sage who hears of these raids knows a legend of an artifact that converts magical energy into motive power, hidden in some ruins. After the PCs clear out the monsters, they discover this artifact is a throne which must be installed onto a ship. Doing so, the party magic user sits in it and finds his consciousness expanded to encapsulate the entire ship...and that they can use their spells to provide movement for it.

Once they leave the planet behind, they're attacked by the ship of living dead. After defeating them in a harrowing ship-to-ship battle, they investigate the cabin and discover a clue that leads them to realize that, hidden in and/or behind the moon is a fortress ruled by a necromancer (and/or lich) who's been biding his time, raising an undead army to conquer the world and eventually the universe. So they fly towards fortress, which sends out several smaller ships to harry them; they're boarded from multiple directions at once and must fight their way through the horde while still being bombarded by cannonfire (because the undead are supremely expendable).

(Little cliche, but you get the idea hopefully.)

[Kiero]

Attack of the neogi slavers!

[BobVosh]

Ah, okay. So I'm guessing that means the set up is they're all from some Prime world and they just discovered a spelljamming helm hidden away in some dungeon, someone recognized it for what it was and led an expedition to get it into space?
Actually yes and no. Earlier crash, one survivor. The NPC will give them the ship and helm just to get back to X. Probably some minor city where he can get back to his home.


So that would probably mean there isn't much spelljamming activity in that crystal sphere, or at least that it avoids that planet for whatever reason (or doesn't advertise its nature when it comes--maybe just some flying ships that swoop down on villages and take off into the sky at impossible speeds before they can be retaliated against).
Very little, there is new of several other ships that have crashed. Pathfinder game, in the setting for PFCS. It actually lists a few other ships that has crashed in the vicinity.


Anyway, more broad advice than I gave you is just think of Pirates of the Carribean but weirder (maybe even Pirates of Dark Water). Lots of swashbuckling, jumping around the rigging, swinging to and from the enemy ships...spells flying, chaotic melees across the deck, occasionally someone gets thrown overboard, and so on.

I don't know 3rd edition very thoroughly (aside from creating characters which never get a chance to be used cause the game shuts down before anything happens :smallfrown:) so I don't know what sort of encounter would be appropriate for level 16. Maybe something like this is a good idea for a first spelljamming adventure:
I can level stuff up. I mainly want the couple of players who know about the setting to feel it is spelljammer in the first fight. Then I can go along with my plans for them up there.


There have been tales of strange ships, filled with undead, swooping down from the skies, killing villagers and stealing the corpses and then flying back into the skies. A sage who hears of these raids knows a legend of an artifact that converts magical energy into motive power, hidden in some ruins. After the PCs clear out the monsters, they discover this artifact is a throne which must be installed onto a ship. Doing so, the party magic user sits in it and finds his consciousness expanded to encapsulate the entire ship...and that they can use their spells to provide movement for it.

Once they leave the planet behind, they're attacked by the ship of living dead. After defeating them in a harrowing ship-to-ship battle, they investigate the cabin and discover a clue that leads them to realize that, hidden in and/or behind the moon is a fortress ruled by a necromancer (and/or lich) who's been biding his time, raising an undead army to conquer the world and eventually the universe. So they fly towards fortress, which sends out several smaller ships to harry them; they're boarded from multiple directions at once and must fight their way through the horde while still being bombarded by cannonfire (because the undead are supremely expendable).

(Little cliche, but you get the idea hopefully.)

The whole sphere is laid out, and there is an entire planet of undead. Would be easier to send it from there. I mainly want the fluff that people think when they think spelljammer for their first experience. I can easily provide flavor. Although your sky raids may be a better choice for getting them up into the wild blue yonder. I have 5 levels to get around figuring why they are there.

[Haven]

Oh, one more thing. The first encounter or two should be with a regular sailing ship, then after that they should run into something weird. Neogi have giant spider-shaped ships. Gnomes have their weird-technology themed, highly unstable ones (except for illusionist gnomes who are deadly serious and pissed at the tinkerers for giving them a bad name; they cloak their ships to look like asteroids or something and then ambush folks). Elves have giant butterfly ships, while dwarves have giant asteroid fortresses that (IIRC) are fueled by the very act of mining and working in them (it's called a "forge helm" as I recall).

Technically you can slap a helm on anything and get it to move. Though as I recall the exact way gravity works restricts it a little: gravity develops as a plane along the longest axis of whatever you use, and it's bidirectional (so you could, conceivably, walk on the bottom of the ship too--think Super Mario Galaxy, I guess XD)--which will cause some structures to collapse. So you could totally have a spelljamming castle, but hilarity ensues if it's something that's taller than it is wide (that causes the x axis to become the y axis, as it were).

[Dixieboy]

Technically you can slap a helm on anything and get it to move. Though as I recall the exact way gravity works restricts it a little: gravity develops as a plane along the longest axis of whatever you use, and it's bidirectional (so you could, conceivably, walk on the bottom of the ship too--think Super Mario Galaxy, I guess XD)--which will cause some structures to collapse. So you could totally have a spelljamming castle, but hilarity ensues if it's something that's taller than it is wide (that causes the x axis to become the y axis, as it were).

That sorta breaks some of the example Dwarven and Elven ships in the books. :smallconfused:

[bosssmiley]

Neogi or Illithids. Boarding action to take slaves.

Don't introduce them to the ships full of Beholders right away unless you want them to run screaming, return home and dig deep homes in the ground so they never have to look at the merciless emptiness of the outer darkness again. And you might want to do some work on Elven Starfleet...

Oh and definitely don't introduce them to the setting with the Wildspace module (the cliche power of an anchor chain falling from the sky is fun, but the BBEG is something that killed a nation of 10,000 Beholders in one fell swoop :smalleek: ).

That said, level 16 characters are already going to be a pretty big deal. They should be fine...

[dsmiles]

A Pajama-jammy-jam?
Invite the Scro. Possibly working a lich ship made from the bones of a Radiant Dragon, with a mind helm. Evil controlled by evil, powered by evil.

Or gnomes. Can't go wrong with spelljamming gnomes. Not necessarily evil, but funny, in a cliched sort of way.

[Deth Muncher]

You get bonus points for every Firefly reference you can make - I have little knowledge of Spelljammer, but I'm sure you could make Reavers somehow.

[Ormagoden]

Neogi + Umberhulks = classically brutal

[Haven]

That sorta breaks some of the example Dwarven and Elven ships in the books. :smallconfused:

I may be misremembering how exactly it works...I do recall there was an example where some weird mind-flayer design imploded on itself when they tried to take it into space, though.

[rayne_dragon]

Giant Space Hamsters! I seem to recall my DM pointing out their existance to me and will now never forget them.

Of course, if you're looking for something more serious, I'm going to also say Neogi slavers. It's what I'd expect if my DM wasn't mildly insane.

[Ormagoden]

That sorta breaks some of the example Dwarven and Elven ships in the books. :smallconfused:

Not at all.

Dwarven vessels were castles built into giant asteroids.
Elven ships were grown and did indeed have the shape of green butterflies or leaves.

If you really want to get specific and go for classic spell jammer. There is always the Giffs (Huge hippo men) They had a great fascination with firearms. Their standard battleship was mounted with a HUGE forward facing cannon that WRECKED other ships. (Think of a gun crazy British hunter on African safari with a hippo head. They have that style of dress.)

[Dixieboy]

Not at all.

Dwarven vessels were castles built into giant asteroids.
Elven ships were grown and did indeed have the shape of green butterflies or leaves.

If you really want to get specific and go for classic spell jammer. There is always the Giffs (Huge hippo men) They had a great fascination with firearms. Their standard battleship was mounted with a HUGE forward facing cannon that WRECKED other ships. (Think of a gun crazy British hunter on African safari with a hippo head. They have that style of dress.)

How is that relevant?

[Beelzebub1111]

an Iconic fight would be that giant bat-shaped ship where the pilot is bound to the engine until his death.