Intelligent Items: Sailboat

[OmniArcanus]

I'm starting an ocean based campaign in about a week, and one of my players proposed the question; Can the ship we sail in be an intelligent item?

I thought long and hard about this, but i'm having trouble of coming to a conclusion, i really like the idea and i have a few ideas on how to incorporate it into the game, i'm just not sure how i would do the rules for it.

Any suggestions?

[Hiro Protagonest]

http://images.wikia.com/zelda/images/7/70/Link_and_the_King_of_Red_Lions_Artwork.png
Yes. Yes it can.

[Chess435]

http://images.wikia.com/zelda/images/7/70/Link_and_the_King_of_Red_Lions_Artwork.png
Yes. Yes it can.

Dang, you beat me to it!

[OmniArcanus]

Haha Exactly why i like the idea.

[Drelua]

http://images.wikia.com/zelda/images/7/70/Link_and_the_King_of_Red_Lions_Artwork.png
Yes. Yes it can.

For some reason, I was expecting something more along these (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74gUGT1yJIc&feature=related) lines when I opened that spoiler. I couldn't tell you why.

[Elfinor]

If you've read the Liveship Traders (or even if you haven't, I suppose) there are rules for Liveships, under the name 'Guardian Ships', in Dragon 333. I was going to post the stats up on my Homebrew thread to recreate the universe but I've been cautioned against that. Using that as a base, I'll be throwing out ideas and loose guidelines (I will sound like Captain Obvious for some of them, I apologise in advance but it's mostly for loophole closure) for a living ship or 'liveship'. This isn't for a faithful rehash of Robin Hobb's (or anyone else's) particular boat:

A liveship is most suited to the construct or living construct types. A plant type would be interesting. Anything else is less a 'ship' and more an alternate means of aquatic conveyance - though it's probably kickass.
Gargantuan size for the crew, carrying capacity, cargo and armaments of a keelboat (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#keelboat)
All creatures aboard a liveship are not treated as though on a mount
Although a liveship has a swim speed, it cannot go underwater
Blindsense within 60 ft due to being able to sense air/water vibrations
16+HD
27+ STR, relatively humanish for the rest of the stats
Either a slam attack and/or the ability for an animated figurehead to make attacks as appropriate to its size. The animated figurehead could have a separate HP total.
Telepathic ability with owner/captain and family.
High natural armor
Ability to stabilise dying people on board at will.
Boat may contain an ancient spirit (a la Windwaker suggestion, above) Figurehead may be an actual preserved human or some other race - possibly carved into a different form from its old self.
Savage Species also has rules for turning constructs into smart things, see Chapter 6 for the spells Awaken Construct and Incarnate Construct.

[TheRinni]

The campaign I'm currently playing in is based on an intelligent ship. My DM originally described it as "Hogwarts." There are so many little nooks, crannies, and magical goodies that my crew is only beginning to discover. It's a lot of fun.

It's also an extremely large Warship, and having an intelligent ship that can telepathically announce all my orders, and tell me where each crew member is, is absolutely wonderful.

[ClothedInVelvet]

The campaign I'm currently playing in is based on an intelligent ship. My DM originally described it as "Hogwarts." There are so many little nooks, crannies, and magical goodies that my crew is only beginning to discover. It's a lot of fun.

It's also an extremely large Warship, and having an intelligent ship that can telepathically announce all my orders, and tell me where each crew member is, is absolutely wonderful.

Should be called the USS Enterprise. And have 200+ Int so it can calculate all the data it encounters.

[deuxhero]

Note that while such a vessel is great for sailing, it's terrible for privacy.

[Feytalist]

The Rashemi in the FR setting have witchboats (I think that's what they're called), which are essentially magical ships sailing under their own power. Their stats are in Unapproachable East. It shouldn't be too hard to slap the intelligent template on them.

[Hanuman]

How about something like the Lexx or the ship from Farscape?
For a plant ship you could always druid it up with the house from habitat (1997) feel.

As far as modding ships, I've heard a haunt is one of the best things you can do.

[GoatBoy]

Intelligent vessels? What could go wrong!?

http://www.drucker.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/hal9000.gif

[Anderlith]

It could be intelligent & have a special purpose in the way that the TARDIS is intelligent & has a special purpose (exploring the universe & stopping interuniversal evil), yet never be able to speak (unless there happens to be a really weird plane jumping adventure where the PC meet a planet sized NPC named "The House") Heck you could even come up with a really witty name/acronym.

[Hanuman]

It could be intelligent & have a special purpose in the way that the TARDIS is intelligent & has a special purpose (exploring the universe & stopping interuniversal evil), yet never be able to speak (unless there happens to be a really weird plane jumping adventure where the PC meet a planet sized NPC named "The House") Heck you could even come up with a really witty name/acronym.
Or both, the Lexx is organic and therefor has helpful autonomic systems as well as systems that require conscious effort on the ships part.

[marcielle]

Off topic but by level 5 it should be easy enough to zombify, hollow out and waterproof a whale to the point it could be used as a submersible. IIRC there was a spell for awakening undead.

On point - using a gargantuan sea creature as the base(whales are only CR6), build a boat around and on top of the whale and use it as locomotion. Forget things like windspeed and weather. If the whole party doesn't need to breathe(Necropolitan, Sea-elf, Warforged, etc.), you could surprise enemies by submerging even though the ship isn't waterproof. Or, if you are boarded by airbreathers, just submerge and watch em drown.

[Hanuman]

If you are going to use a whale as a boat use an elsewhale.

[Heliomance]

Make a ship out of livewood, give it a dryad.

[Piggy Knowles]

Have a regular ship, haunted by a curious explorer who died before he'd completed his mission to (explore the four corners of the world // find the MacGuffin that he'd sworn to find // discovered what lies beyond the eternal waterfall // whatever other plot reason you want to put in), and came back as a ghost.

Use the Haunting Presence rules from the beginning of Libris Mortis. The ghost will be tied to the ship, and can control it and make it move any way it would be capable of moving normally. It will also have the ability to animate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/animateObjects.htm) the ship as per the spell, which is a very cool ability. Ships are good things to animate, because they've got sails (qualify as sheetlike, for the blinding ability), ropes (constrict ability), are big enough to trample, and can potentially even clumsily fly.

The ghost itself could occasionally manifest himself, in limited circumstances.

Really, read up on the Haunting Presence rules - they're surprisingly cool, and would work perfectly for something like this!

[Stegyre]

Make a ship out of livewood, give it a dryad.
Awaken (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/awaken.htm) it, and make it a Folding Boat (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#boatFolding), just to really do it up right.

(Heliomance, you've been reading my mind again.)

[Hanuman]

You could also build traps on the ship and haunt the traps.

[Necroticplague]

Use the haunt shift spell to make a haunting prescence out of some undead, than control the undead. You now have a thinking boat that will follow every command to the lettter. Do, however, note that this means your boat can be turned back against you. Depending on level, you could try being a fiend of possession and animate it yourself.

[Piggy Knowles]

If you're using Haunt Shift tricks, why not just haunt it yourself? No chance of losing control that way. Veil of Undeath, temporarily level drain yourself to below 10 HD, Haunt Shift into the ship, and then restore your levels.

But while Haunt Shift the spell only works on creatures below 10 HD, if you're doing this as a DM, any undead can be a Haunting Presence. Hence the "boat animated by the soul of a dead explorer" idea that I posted earlier.

[Darrin]

I'm starting an ocean based campaign in about a week, and one of my players proposed the question; Can the ship we sail in be an intelligent item?


Yes. Take a look at the Living Figurehead, Stormwrack p. 132.