A flying city? Are there rules anywhere?

[qwertyu63]

I am making a flying city as a "setting in a bottle", and I want to know if there are rules for making a city that can fly. Thank you in advance.

EDIT: I should note that, in setting, it is being built by a level 14 party containing a Wizard, a Cleric, a Bard, A Fighter/(archery) Ranger, a Expert/Craftsman (homebrew PrC, can't help here), and lead by a Factotum. They have money way above their level, and so built a flying city.

[gomipile]

Well, Levitate came to mind first. An optimally designed auto resetting trap can cast Levitate once per round, each casting lifting 300lb, and each casting lasting 3 minutes. That lets the trap handle 30 objects if it rotates between them each round. So, the total lifting capacity is 30*300=> 9000 lb. The trap will cost 2*3*1000g = 6000 g.

A more economical alternative would probably be to recruit some colossal quadrupedal constructs, attach them to the structure of your city, and permanently cast Fly and augmented Expansion on them somehow.

[Runestar]

Look up the city of shade.

Basically, some epic spellcaster used a spell to shear off the top of a mountain and invert it. The city was then built on top.

[Wookie-ranger]

I am making a flying city as a "setting in a bottle", and I want to know if there are rules for making a city that can fly. Thank you in advance.

There are rules in the "Stronghold Builder's Guide" of how to make a flying castle. You could extend that to ever building.
Its on page 48 and costs 15000 per 'stronghold space' (aka a big room) it would be rather expensive for a none-cheese player, but a a DM its fair game.

I also think that there is/was a Epic spell somewhere called "Sever Mountain top", "Floating Island" or something like that. That basically cut of the top of a mountain, turned it upside down, and let it float in the air. I will edit as soon as i find it.

EDIT:
OK found your Spell.
Proctiv's Move Mountain "Player's guide to Faerun" p.137
you cut of the top of a mountain (1 mile across and 1 mile tall) move it up in the air and turn it upside down. as a huge bonus you can control all movement of the floating island! It is mentioned that this gives an excellent surface for construction and that the ancient Netheril used this spell to make their floating cities.
Wizard: There is a spell for that! :smallbiggrin:

[qwertyu63]

There are rules in the "Stronghold Builder's Guide" of how to make a flying castle. You could extend that to ever building.
Its on page 48 and costs 15000 per 'stronghold space' (aka a big room) it would be rather expensive for a none-cheese player, but a a DM its fair game.

Well, given that they are level 14 builders, with the wealth of a much higher level I don't want to pin down yet so I don't corner myself, that should work. Thank you.

EDIT: Wildly off-topic (I'm building the party that made this), but are there any good PrC's for a dual-range character (Longsword/Lowbow user)?

EDIT 2: Thank you for the spell, however they do not have any epic casters.

[gomipile]

EDIT:
OK found your Spell.
Proctiv's Move Mountain "Player's guide to Faerun" p.137
you cut of the top of a mountain (1 mile across and 1 mile tall) move it up in the air and turn it upside down. as a huge bonus you can control all movement of the floating island! It is mentioned that this gives an excellent surface for construction and that the ancient Netheril used this spell to make their floating cities.
Wizard: There is a spell for that! :smallbiggrin:

It's not one mile across, it's one mile in radius! That gives you 4 times the area to build! :D

[docnessuno]

Outside of epic spells, you could build a flying city using the rules presented in the Stronghold builder's handbook, but the GP cost would be icredibly high (i think somewhere between several millions and several billions GP, depending by the size of the city).

[Eldan]

A bit cheesy, but:

Walls of Force can float in mid air and can be permanencied. So if you don't want ot move your city, you can use several walls of force as your foundation. They have to be vertical, but you can build something like this:

______
¦ ¦ ¦

With several walls of force and a horizontal structure on top.

[qwertyu63]

Outside of epic spells, you could build a flying city using the rules presented in the Stronghold builder's handbook, but the GP cost would be icredibly high (i think somewhere between several millions and several billions GP, depending by the size of the city).

Money is no object, as they have arbitrarily large funds (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount) (warning: link will steal the rest of your day). I am currently doing the math for using the SBG.

Also, Eldan, I need it to be moving. I'll keep that trick in mind for later things though.

[nedz]

Illusory Wall is permanent and only 4th level, so armed with a fly spell the wizard could build a city out of these in only a few weeks. Ever one who lives there would need some means of permanent flight, but that's not too hard.

[Archmage1]

You are the DM. Just handwave it. if the players are questioning how the city is being made, they should be supporting it mostly, so sit back, and look wise. Not everything needs to be by raw.
If really pushed for time, make it a unique spell, and act of a god that sort of thing.

[docnessuno]

Money is no object, as they have arbitrarily large funds (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount) (warning: link will steal the rest of your day). I am currently doing the math for using the SBG.

Also, Eldan, I need it to be moving. I'll keep that trick in mind for later things though.

Then check the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook. And think BIG.

[Wookie-ranger]

A bit cheesy, but:
Walls of Force can float in mid air and can be permanencied. So if you don't want ot move your city, you can use several walls of force as your foundation. They have to be vertical, but you can build something like this

not all that Cheesy if you ask me. It is a viable use of the spell. Permanent Wall[s] of Force are even mentioned in the "stronghold builder's guide" as a building material and they even mention the great advantages of it.

Also from the SBG. You could use 'immovable rods' embedded in the floors. You might need a few of them, as each one supports 'only' 8000 lbs.


It's not one mile across, it's one mile in radius! That gives you 4 times the area to build! :D

Right! thanks for pointing that out.

[qwertyu63]

Then check the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook. And think BIG.

It's not a really big place. City isn't really the right word. You could count everyone on your hands and feet and still have toes left. I've laid it out and it is covering around 22400 square feet. I still need to do the math on costs though.

[Sewercop]

You could do that with stronghold builders book. It aint to big.

22400\3.14= 7133.757.... Then squared=84.46...

round it off to 84.5 feet in radius and you have your city :) Very doable, and not to costly. Might even use the landlord feat to further diminish the cost.

[qwertyu63]

You could do that with stronghold builders book. It aint to big.

22400\3.14= 7133.757.... Then squared=84.46...

round it off to 84.5 feet in radius and you have your city :) Very doable, and not to costly. Might even use the landlord feat to further diminish the cost.

Uh... my number was from a rectangle that is 140 by 160. Total area 22400.

[hamishspence]

4E takes it to an extreme with Raise Land from Forgotten Realms Player's Guide- which can raise a slice of land 10 miles in radius- and 5 miles deep.

[Sewercop]

I guess i thought about the sliced mountain and got stuck with the circle shape :smallamused:

Sometimes my mind does stuff that makes no sense to others or myself..

[qwertyu63]

I'm up to a cost of 23100 gp and 70 ss. Now to make it take off (both the city and the price).

EDIT 1: Feeling the need for speed, I'm going for top speed. 10 MPH. 1,750,000 gp added to the price, and we're not in the air yet.

EDIT 2: Going airbone has added another 1,125,000 gp.

EDIT 3: And that is all (At least until I stock places and build resetting spell traps). Total cost: 2,898,100 gp. Cost split among the founders: 483,016.66 gp each, with someone chipping in an extra 4 copper pieces :smallbiggrin:. This is while their WBL should be about 200,000 each. :smalleek: Well, good thing money isn't a problem.

[Clistenes]

The cheesiest way to do it:

1º-Gather a group of mages able to do Circle Magic.
2º-Use Circle Magic to prop your Caster Level up to the stratosfere (you could make it even higher using Divine Spell Power, if you have access to a high level cleric as main spellcaster).
3º-Animate a hill.
4º-Make the spell Animate permanenent.
5º-Now the hill is a Construct. Give it an item (like a pin, for example) that allows it to levitate, fly, overland-fly or whatever.
6º-Profit!

I humbly suggest to carve the hill into a giant stone turtle shape before all that, for flavor reasons.

Less cheesy:

Make a variant Weirdstone that makes a 1-mile radius area of Reverse Gravity (spell level 7) instead of a 6-miles radius area of Dimensional Lock (spell level 8).
The only problem of the anti-gravity weirdstone is that you should protect the inhabitants of the city from the spell effect so they don't float away...maybe doing it that the spell effect ends just below the floor of the city.

[Bronk]

The size you're thinking of is really a lot smaller than a regular city... maybe you could make a city themed flying ship? They are mentioned in 'Shining South' and in Eberron. There's a thread about it here:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222208

[demigodus]

I'm up to a cost of 23100 gp and 70 ss. Now to make it take off (both the city and the price).

EDIT 1: Feeling the need for speed, I'm going for top speed. 10 MPH. 1,750,000 gp added to the price, and we're not in the air yet.

EDIT 2: Going airbone has added another 1,125,000 gp.

EDIT 3: And that is all (At least until I stock places and build resetting spell traps). Total cost: 2,898,100 gp. Cost split among the founders: 483,016.66 gp each, with someone chipping in an extra 4 copper pieces :smallbiggrin:. This is while their WBL should be about 200,000 each. :smalleek: Well, good thing money isn't a problem.

Landlord feat. Each of them gets 200k gp to spend. And each gold they spend is matched, gp for gp.

So only costs them 1 feat and 141,508.33gp each. With someone chipping ina n extra 2 copper pieces. Don't even need to step out of WBL guidelines.

[qwertyu63]

Landlord feat. Each of them gets 200k gp to spend. And each gold they spend is matched, gp for gp.

So only costs them 1 feat and 141,508.33gp each. With someone chipping ina n extra 2 copper pieces. Don't even need to step out of WBL guidelines.

Yeah, they don't have any spare feats. What they do have is what is scientifically known as "a metric butt-ton of gold". They robbed someone who was exploiting magic to get all the money they could ever need, but had no clue how to use it.

I'm now looking for map making programs. You know any?

[docnessuno]

Dundjinni (Not free)
Dungeon Demon (Not free)
Dungeonforge (Free)
ProFantasy suite (Not free)
Auto Realm (Free)
Dungeonographer / Hexographer (Not free but usable for free)

[qwertyu63]

Auto Realm (Free)

Thank you. I will be using this one.

[Ravens_cry]

You are the DM. Just handwave it. if the players are questioning how the city is being made, they should be supporting it mostly, so sit back, and look wise. Not everything needs to be by raw.
If really pushed for time, make it a unique spell, and act of a god that sort of thing.
A unique spell is . . .better, but I prefer to not just pull things out of thin air.
That being said, I've always been of the opinion that adventurers learn a very specific kind of magic, designed to deal with adventurers problems.
An act of god could have some interesting repercussions. The Lord giveth and the Lord takest away, and all that, so the inhabitants do their best to be very pious so as not to offend the deity in question.

[TaiLiu]

Why not try Greater Levitate (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/wn/20040225a)?


Levitate, Greater
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 5
Target: You or one willing creature or one object (total weight up to 1,000 lb./level)

As levitate, except as noted above.

[Ravens_cry]

You'd need to boost your caster level to absurd heights to make that work for a city.

[Wookie-ranger]

You'd need [to use Circle Magic] to boost your caster level to absurd heights to make that work for a city.

Fixed that for you :smallwink:

[Ravens_cry]

Fixed that for you :smallwink:
Show your work, please.

[qwertyu63]

I'll bite. What is "Circle Magic", and where can I find it? I don't need it for this project, but it sounds useful.

[snoopy13a]

You are the DM. Just handwave it. if the players are questioning how the city is being made, they should be supporting it mostly, so sit back, and look wise. Not everything needs to be by raw.
If really pushed for time, make it a unique spell, and act of a god that sort of thing.

I agree. If the players try to investigate just have the locals say they have no idea and that the city has always been like that. The players do not--and probably should not--have to know everything.

[Phelix-Mu]

I'm not totally clear on the limits of what can be done with the Eberron rules on elemental binding, but conceptually you could have foundation stones/items that have air elementals bound to them.

Fluff-wise, though, anything is possible since you are the dm designing it. Remember that they will have many levels to exploit anything specific that you give them, and even average-intelligence players will come up with several ideas with little prompting.

1.) Why kill the boss monster when you could just park/crash land the city on it?

2.) Ransom other cities by threatening to land on them. Though the gain here is money, and they seem to have that in hand atm.

3.) Mobile weapons platform. Even just dropping large stones on people hurts, and this flying city could move a lot of stones.

On the other hand, having a headquarters for the player characters is also good fun for the DM.:smallsmile:

[Kelb_Panthera]

Fixed that for you :smallwink:

Yeah........ no. Circle magic is capped at boosting your CL to 40. 40,000lbs is a drop in the bucket when you're talking about just the weight of a city's foundations, nevermind the buildings on top of them.

The last time this came up, I suggested using elemental binding ala Magic of Eberron. There's no listed limit to the size of an airship, so there's no reason you couldn't build one big enough to house a city. Ciphering the cost for such an endeavor is something I never got around to.

Edit: did not notice the second page. :smallredface:

Circle magic is described in a side-bar next to the red wizard prestige class in the DMG. That or a similar prestige class is necessary to perform circle magic (or a feat out of ghostwalk, but good luck getting that one.)

In exchange for getting underlings to give up spellslots for the day the red wizard can boost his own magic for that day in several ways, one of which is boosting his caster level up to as much as double his actual CL or 40, whichever is less.

Also, ninja'd on the elemental binding comment.

[Clistenes]

Is my flying permanently animated giant stone turtle idea feasible? I would like some imput.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Is my flying permanently animated giant stone turtle idea feasible? I would like some imput.

I don't see why not. It does have the notable vulnerability of being a single succesful dispel check from plummeting to the ground, but otherwise should work. That and the turtle has rather a limited pool of HP's since it would get hp's as a collosal animated object and -not- the full total hp's for an object of its actual size and composition.

[Ravens_cry]

Yeah........ no. Circle magic is capped at boosting your CL to 40. 40,000lbs is a drop in the bucket when you're talking about just the weight of a city's foundations, nevermind the buildings on top of them.

It still might work if the buildings were very lightweight, basically straw and reed, and the city was comprised of many objects, and hence many individual casting, connected together by, say, rope bridges. Think of the reed villages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uru_people) on Lake Titicaca, but flying and on a more massive scale.

[Chilingsworth]

Is my flying permanently animated giant stone turtle idea feasible? I would like some imput.

Well, considering that animating a colossal object requires a caster level of 32, that a colossal animated object has a measily strength of 28, and that even a colossal qadruped with that strength has 28,800 lbs as its maximum load (9,600 lbs as its light load)... I'd say no. Oh, also the listed size of a colossal animated object is 30x30, so you probably couldn't carve an entire city out of rock and animate it, either.

Still, the idea might be good for smallish airships, though.

[Kelb_Panthera]

It still might work if the buildings were very lightweight, basically straw and reed, and the city was comprised of many objects, and hence many individual casting, connected together by, say, rope bridges. Think of the reed villages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uru_people) on Lake Titicaca, but flying and on a more massive scale.

That's true, but a somewhat dubious idea IMO. For comparison, a loaded van trailer like you see being toed by 18-wheelers weighs more than the 40,000lbs that a single casting could lift. Just the trailer, not the whole rig. I'd also imagine that such structures aren't what one generally has in mind when they hear "city." I'd have a hard time thinking of it as anything but a massive floating villiage.

It's certainly an interesting concept (I might even borrow it next time I do a campaign), but it's not what I'd be looking for if I had made the OP.

[Clistenes]

I don't see why not. It does have the notable vulnerability of being a single succesful dispel check from plummeting to the ground, but otherwise should work. That and the turtle has rather a limited pool of HP's since it would get hp's as a collosal animated object and -not- the full total hp's for an object of its actual size and composition.

Mmmm....if you raise the caster DC to 40 AND add the Empower Spell Metamagic feat seven times (spell level 20), you would be animating 40x4,5 = 180 HD, which is far above two size categories over Colossal (Colossal = 32, Colossal +=64, Colossal ++=128).

A stone platform with a diameter of 128 ft would be Colossal, so a Colossal++ platform could very well be far above 4x128 = 512 ft = 156 m diameter, maybe as much as 600 ft = 182 m diameter.

Not quite enough for a city, but would make a great castle or a little village. Some D&D villages and towns whose maps I have seen aren't much bigger than that. The real-life medieval walled village of Monteriggioni is smaller thant that.

Add a few towers and you could fit quite a lot of people. And you could also repeat it several times, bind the animated hills one to another and create a real city.

Dispel magic wouldn't be such a great danger. The caster level to beat to dispel the construct turtle would be enormous, and even if you dispelled the item powering flight, most flight and levitation spells make it that you fall slowly, as per Feather Fall, when dispelled.

Also, you could build anti-dispelling defenses, like a permanent Greater Spell Immunity effect.


Well, considering that animating a colossal object requires a caster level of 32, that a colossal animated object has a measily strength of 28, and that even a colossal qadruped with that strength has 28,800 lbs as its maximum load (9,600 lbs as its light load)... I'd say no. Oh, also the listed size of a colossal animated object is 30x30, so you probably couldn't carve an entire city out of rock and animate it, either.

Still, the idea might be good for smallish airships, though.

The strength level would be a problem, yes. It could be reduced making the buildings part of the animated object, since your own weight doesn't count as load (you would have to carve the buildings from the beginning).

I'm not sure about the 30x30 rule...a Colossal Stone Elemental would be in between 64 and 128 ft tall, so something like a sheet of stone would very well be 128 ft in diameter and still remain Colossal.

EDITED FOR CLARITY

[Chilingsworth]

Item the First:

Empower Spell [Metamagic]

Benefit

All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by one-half.

Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables. An empowered spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

Unfortunately, the number of objects you can animate is not a qualifying effect. The only qualifying effects are those based on die rolls (e.g. damage from a fireball, number of summoned creatures from a summon monster spell [when you summon from a lower-level list])

Item the Second:

There are no stats for animated objects greater than colossal size, therefore by RAW they don't exist.

On the other hand, at CL 40, you'd already be nearly immune to non epic dispelling attempts. This is because the dispelling DC would be 51 and the highest any non-epic caster can normally get for a dispel check is 40.

*rereads above posts* Oh, the anti-dispelling defenses would be to protect against loss of the flying effect. Well, if you use an item, and fly high enough that you wont hit the ground in 4 rounds under featherfall, you should be ok. (Incidentally, a good minimum hieght for this is 250ft.)

Edit: in addition to this, you could protect your fly-enabling item by having it mounted inside the city. No line of sight/effect means it can't be targeted by anything or even be caught in a disjunction. Of course, someone who wanted to drop your city could just get to the item's mounting place and remove it... but to do that, they should have to sneak/fight their way past most if not all of the city and some decent defenses.

[Clistenes]

Item the First:

Empower Spell [Metamagic]

Benefit

All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by one-half.

Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables. An empowered spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

Unfortunately, the number of objects you can animate is not a qualifying effect. The only qualifying effects are those based on die rolls (e.g. damage from a fireball, number of summoned creatures from a summon monster spell [when you summon from a lower-level list])

Yes...the number of HD animated aren't a variable numeric value...f**k!

Well, time to develope a wizardly version of Animate that animates CLd6 HD of objects! I think it should be spell level 7.

As for the not existence of size categories above Colossal...that's true, but that doesn't mean there aren't things bigger than 30x30. I think it is reasonable to assume that each time you double the number of HD you double the size of the object too.

[Phelix-Mu]

Oh, a new idea.

Quaal's feather token, tree: Cheap. Makes colossal trees.

Wood shape: Out of combat spam on the trees. Shape them into basket shapes or beams.

Awaken: I'm new to the forum, so I'm expecting that I've missed past discussions about how this can be exploited. In short, it can, though they may need to hire a druid to be able to make the Will DC necessary to awaken a colossal tree (HD as per colossal animated object in MM). Might not want to tell the druid what you are intending to use the trees for either. But, with out of combat buffs and party support, this isn't impossible even at mid levels. Gonna need to burn some experience depending on how much spellspamming is needed. Awaken makes the trees (objects) into creatures, intelligent ones at that.

If there is lots of time, apprentice the trees to a wizard or druid, or maybe engineer some UMD for them. If in more of a hurry, equip them with flight items and strength buffs.

Might need to enslave them somehow. Nothing is coming to mind, but you could always mind switch them with something stupid and easy to control.

Anyway, use the animated trees as the building blocks of the city.

:SELF EDIT: ooh, actually leveling something with 40HD might be difficult. I had a posse of these for an epic druid I had a while back, but I seem to have forgotten most of the tricks for how to optimize colossal awakened trees.:smallwink:

[Clistenes]

Your puny trees won't defeat the mighty Great Flying Stone Turtle Empire!

[Zilzmaer]

You'd need to (ab)use Greater Consumptive Field to boost your caster level to absurd heights to make that work for a city.

Fixed that better. Circle Magic only goes up to CL40, if memory serves.

[Chilingsworth]

Your puny trees won't defeat the mighty Great Flying Stone Turtle Empire!

http://www.pxleyes.com/images/contests/single%20tree/fullsize/single%20tree_4c1e196885cce.jpg
Why can't we be friends? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTqQcNPE41Q)

(Sorry)

[Phelix-Mu]

Ah, but they are quite intelligent if you don't have to feeblemind them or whatever. They also have a ton of feats, so they are not too hard to trick out. It would be SUPER awesome if you could have them be like treant versions of MACROSS or voltron; separately, they are warriors of justice (or flavor of the month), but combined they form ULTIMATE TREANT SKYFORTRESS (tm). You could have a combination animation and music, too.

Sorry, wandered off-meme there for a bit. Now returning to fantasy-ville.:smallcool:

[Clistenes]

http://www.pxleyes.com/images/contests/single%20tree/fullsize/single%20tree_4c1e196885cce.jpg
Why can't we be friends? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTqQcNPE41Q)

(Sorry)

That evil tree is obviously sexually abusing that poor turtle.

[Ravens_cry]

That's true, but a somewhat dubious idea IMO. For comparison, a loaded van trailer like you see being toed by 18-wheelers weighs more than the 40,000lbs that a single casting could lift. Just the trailer, not the whole rig. I'd also imagine that such structures aren't what one generally has in mind when they hear "city." I'd have a hard time thinking of it as anything but a massive floating villiage.

It's certainly an interesting concept (I might even borrow it next time I do a campaign), but it's not what I'd be looking for if I had made the OP.
I agree, I rather like it. Instead of some shining metropolis, you have a creaking, swaying thing, connected together only tenuously.

[Sewercop]

There are ways to raise CL to the insane, but it depends if you want that kind of insane stuff in your world.

I think its easier to just use the stronghold builders rules. Exspensiv?yes, gamebreaking no..

Breaking caps on spells and caster levels in the tens of millions?exspensiv?no, gamebreaking?yes

[nedz]

That's true, but a somewhat dubious idea IMO. For comparison, a loaded van trailer like you see being toed by 18-wheelers weighs more than the 40,000lbs that a single casting could lift. Just the trailer, not the whole rig. I'd also imagine that such structures aren't what one generally has in mind when they hear "city." I'd have a hard time thinking of it as anything but a massive floating villiage.

It's certainly an interesting concept (I might even borrow it next time I do a campaign), but it's not what I'd be looking for if I had made the OP.

Rome wasn't built in a Day, and neither will our flying city be either.
No: we build our city one 40,000 lb flying stone turtle at a time.

Actually I prefer flying stone flatfish.
Not only are they easier to build on, but we can say "We built the city on Rock and Sole", well Rock and Sole and very bad puns.

[Clistenes]

If we develope a level 7 wizardly spell that animates CLd6 HD per casting, and use Circle Magic to raise the Caster Level up to 40, and add the Maximize Spell Metamagic and add t times the Maximize Spell Metamagic (total spell level 20), we will end animating 2,5x40x6 = 600 HD.

A Colossal Earth Elemental is 64 ft tall at a minimum.
A Colossal Animated Object has 32 HD at a minimum.
Lets say a Colossal Animated Stone Turtle has a shell 64 ft in diameter, and every time you double the HD you double the diameter too.

32x2x2x2x2 = 512, so with 600 HD you have doubled the size more than four times.

600/32 = 18.75, you have increased the HD 18.75 times
64x18.75 = 1200 feet, almost a quarter of mile of diameter. You have your flying turtle city now.

Strength troubles? Make the buildings part of the shell, and they won't count as load.
A Colossal Animated Object has strength 28, add four size increases, and you have a 44 strength creature, increase its strengt with wishes and you are at 49 strength, add an item that gives +6 to strength, and you have 55 strength.
A light load for a 55 strength creature is 266x4x4x4 = 17024 lbs. But this is a Colossal Quadruped, so 17024x24 = 408576 lbs

Quadrupeds can carry heavier loads than characters can. Instead of the multipliers given above, multiply the value corresponding to the creature’s Strength score from Table: Carrying Capacity by the appropriate modifier, as follows: Fine ×1/4, Diminutive ×1/2, Tiny ×3/4, Small ×1, Medium ×1-1/2, Large ×3, Huge ×6, Gargantuan ×12, Colossal ×24.

But this creature is four size categories above Colossal, so you should multiply its carrying capacity by 16, so 408576x16 = 6537216 lbs

But Heroes of Battle has Easy Traveling an Armor Property that allows to treat Medium Loads as Heavy Loads for +1500 gp. Lets create a wondrous magic item that allows to treat Heavy loads as Light Loads.

Our flying turtle can carry 19660800 lbs = 8918 tons. And remember, buildings don't count, and you can carve the shelves, tables and beds as part of the structure.

And of course, you could also create another item that uses a weaker form of Reverse Gravity to make everything weigh less (lets say everything weighs 20 % of its real weight)...you are speaking of a 44590 tons carrying capacity now.

And most important of all, you can repeat it many times, and create an aerial fleet of flying towns with a diameter of quarter mile each.

Dispelling the stone turtle would be impossible without Epic Magic, due to the enormous Caster Level Check. You can conceal and protect the magic items allowing flight and increasing carrying capacity.

Communication between the stone turtles could be done with the smaller flying ships described at the beginning of the thread.

[nedz]

Dispelling the stone turtle would be impossible without Epic Magic, due to the enormous Caster Level Check. You can conceal and protect the magic items allowing flight and increasing carrying capacity.

Mordenkainen would like a word — Disjunction.
Still it's a ninth level spell, so not that common.

[Twilightwyrm]

As already mentioned, Stronghold Builder's Guide could help.
Additionally, Cityscape as further information on how such a city might function.
One thing though: Unless you anticipate someone(-thing) actually trying to make it crash, you probably don't need specific rules for it. Sure, they exist, but as a DM you can just say "There is a flying city" and that should generally be enough, unless the players really want to know the technical details of how it happened. Otherwise, establishing the mechanics of how this came to pass removed some of the wonder of the setting. Just as monsters generally become less scary the more you know about them, wondrous cities become more mundane the more you know about how they work. El Derado loses some of its mystic when you know that a wizard just case the "Transmute City to Gold" spell, found on pg. X of Named Supplement (Most likely Forgotten Realms - Unnamed Supplement).

[Clistenes]

Mordenkainen would like a word — Disjunction.
Still it's a ninth level spell, so not that common.

Disjunction's effect has a fixed radius of 40 ft, the turtle conch has a diameter of 1200 ft. There is no way you can envelope the city into the effect of the Disjunction without Circle Magic or some Epic stuff.

Maybe the chunk of the turtle affected by the 40 ft radius will explode or something, but I doubt that will "kill" the turtle.

[Ravens_cry]

Disjunction's effect has a fixed radius of 40 ft, the turtle conch has a diameter of 1200 ft. There is no way you can envelope the city into the effect of the Disjunction without Circle Magic or some Epic stuff.

Maybe the chunk of the turtle affected by the 40 ft radius will explode or something, but I doubt that will "kill" the turtle.
It would add to the weight it has to carry though, assuming it doesn't explode but simply becomes magically inert matter.

[roguemetal]

Uh... my number was from a rectangle that is 140 by 160. Total area 22400.

140 by 160 is not a city, it's not even a football field.

[qwertyu63]

140 by 160 is not a city, it's not even a football field.

Yeah, calling it a city isn't quite the right word. The population of the "city" hovers around 18 people. What should I call it.

[Ravens_cry]

Yeah, calling it a city isn't quite the right word. The population of the "city" hovers around 18 people. What should I call it.
Commune?Words words words.

[Kelb_Panthera]

A settlement with only 18 people would be a (small) thorpe.

[Norin]

Maybe use some artifact that resembles this?

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Mythallar

It's what the Netherese arcanists used to make the cities float.

Not sure what exactly the stats or rules are on Mythallars though.

[demigodus]

Yeah, calling it a city isn't quite the right word. The population of the "city" hovers around 18 people. What should I call it.

A flying mansion, or a flying castle?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the animated turtle plan, if you are making a custom spell that doesn't expire, why not make the duration Instantaneous? There is precedent (Awaken Sand) for making animated objects with duration: instantaneous.

Now you don't have to worry about dispelling/disjunction/AMF. Given it freaking wings, and you could even have it radiate an AMF if you felt like it.

"Yes, our flying, quarter mile radius, rock turtle is completely mundane. No magic what so ever"

[Wookie-ranger]

Yeah, calling it a city isn't quite the right word. The population of the "city" hovers around 18 people. What should I call it.

"The Floating Fortress" would be an adequate if somewhat uncreative name.

For size reference look at the "Stronghold Builders Guide" page 105. The Cheap Keep. It is a simple structure, but it is inhabited be 1 people, not including the PCs (which would make it 18 or so). It is 28 'Stronghold spaces' big and costs 70,000gp.
Sounds like you want something a little bit more elaborate. Look on Page. 116. The Floating Tower; 27 Stronghold spaces, 2,800,000gp and around 25 staff and guards, not including the PCs.

[qwertyu63]

"The Floating Fortress" would be an adequate if somewhat uncreative name.

For size reference look at the "Stronghold Builders Guide" page 105. The Cheap Keep. It is a simple structure, but it is inhabited be 1 people, not including the PCs (which would make it 18 or so). It is 28 'Stronghold spaces' big and costs 70,000gp.
Sounds like you want something a little bit more elaborate. Look on Page. 116. The Floating Tower; 27 Stronghold spaces, 2,800,000gp and around 25 staff and guards, not including the PCs.

I already have a layout now. If you are curious, take a look.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e33/qwertyu63/Map-2.jpg

For the most part, everyone lives in their place of work.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Do you realize that your buildings are only about 20' X 20' ?

Your buildings are probably smaller than the living room in your house. Given the necessary space taken up by the actual structure itself, your buildings are likely smaller than the room you're in right now.

Was this intentional?

[Ravens_cry]

Yeah, a lot of wasted space there. At that size, I'd call it a Flying House.

[Arcanist]

Look up the city of shade.

Basically, some epic spellcaster used a spell to shear off the top of a mountain and invert it. The city was then built on top.

The city of Thultanthar was merely, but a taste of Netherese Archwizardy. It's true uniqueness is that of it's Mythallar, which conjures forth a mysterious Darkness around the city which earned it the name "Thultanthar", the City of Shade (or as it was known during the Age of Netheril, simply "Shadow").

Seriously, making Mythallars at Epic level is so easy, that the Epic spell in my signature is idiotically over complicated. I'll give you two hint: The Mythal Seed and 50,000gp (+50 DC).


That evil tree is obviously sexually abusing that poor turtle.

I laughed so hard at the idea of that...


Maybe use some artifact that resembles this?

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Mythallar

It's what the Netherese arcanists used to make the cities float.

Not sure what exactly the stats or rules are on Mythallars though.

Ah, yes. The Netherese. I am such a fan boy for them and I will put it bluntly. I am still waiting for the True Heirs of Netheril to finally step out of hiding and just go postal on the realm. Something I hope for in 5th edition... And by "True" I mean SOMEONE THAT ISN'T FROM SHADE!

NOW THEN! With Epic magic, making an Enclave is simply to easy. I'm shocked Kelb hasn't patented the idea for using Bind Elemental to an entire mound of earth to create a Netherese Flying Enclave pre-Epic. :smallconfused:

[Gavinfoxx]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257984

There are a few ways. You generally want to combine as many of these as possible!

-Walls of Force
-Suspension spell, shining south (+repeating traps or spell clocks)
-Find a Skyberg
-Soarwood components
-Reverse Gravity spell, (+repeating traps or spell clocks)
-Wondrous Architecture (per Stronghold Builder's Guide)
-Stone Trap spell, shining south (with impossible trigger conditions, and building off of those stones)