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psilontech
2012-12-17, 10:20 PM
I'm playing an Artificer in a primarily naval-based Pathfinder game. (A link to the class for the curious (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/adamant-entertainment/artificer), it's broken as all hell but I've self-nerfed it to the point of lagging slightly behind the party average). Well into level six and in the possession of our own fully crewed Galley.

Due to the nature of what we've doing (Primarily fulfilling contracts to deliver goods, deal with pirates in an area, and the likes) there's been a fair amount of downtime for my Artificer to build things between monster attacks on long voyages.

The first enhancement that we've added to our ship was a series of Decanters of Endless Water linked to a control panel on the bridge (What we're calling the area immediately next to the steering wheel.) Initially installed so we wouldn't lose time sitting out storms so we wouldn't damage our sails, a little ad-hoc match later we came to the general consensus that we've essentially doubled out previous top speed. Quite useful, being the Millennium Falcon of the high-seas. The array of decanters secured to the ship with Sovereign's Glue and a little Adamantine forged into bracers.

The second enhancement we added to the ship was during a mission of mercy, transporting refugees out of a besieged and soon to fall city. On the way in we encountered our first batch of magical naval mines (invisible, damn near impossible to detect at our level) which did some serious damage to the hull. While waiting for the limited remaining military assets of the city to get ready to break us a hole to run like hell with our refugees through, as payment for our actions, we were given enough Adamantine to plate the front of the hull. It served as enough armor to basically negate the mines littered across the surrounding areas. Now we're terrifyingly efficient at ramming other ships.

First project not directly related to enhancing the ship was the construction of tiny 'Fantasy Roomba' constructs to clean (Prestidigitation) and perform minor repairs (Mending) to the ship. The crew was quite pleased they no longer had to swab the top or lower decks anymore. As soon as I have a small swarm of them and the extra cash I'll start equipping them with scorching rays for... emergency situations.



My DM recently pointed out to me the existence of Gliders (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/vehicles#TOC-Glider) that a Golem Master was fiddling with that we have regular contact with. Thinking about modifying the Decanter of Endless Water into a connection to the Plane of Air instead of Water for a flyer with constant, 'free' propulsion. Oh my, converting the ship into a carrier with Fighters (the airplanes, not class, silly!) equipped with silly sums of Alchemist's Fire.

So. Any ideas on how much thrust such a decanter would provide? Alternate ideas on what my Artificer's next project should be? I'm all ears and would love to hear some neat projects to make our naval adventures even more awesome!

AWiz_Abroad
2012-12-17, 11:42 PM
Naval combat hmmmmm

Well, what about a converting your galley into a sub. Any of the level appro humanoid encounters are probably not prepared for undersea warfare. Your gliders, while probably horrifically effective, are vulnerable to a couple well placed fire arrows.

Other random thoughts, and please keep in mind that I am a 3.5 Neanderthal so take it with a grain of sand. What about rigging your ship with an AI? I am thinking utilizing your current galley's materials, taking a level in effigy master(complete arcane) and building an elder eidolon template construct to give it sentience, and fast healing. . .

As far as thrust, a decanter puts out 300 gallons a minute. A bit scant for jet power, but Somewhere there is stats for a steam engine powered by a permancied magma wall and some fairly advanced physics. I think it could propel a fairly sizable heavier than air craft if I recall. Frankly I should be asleep, but I am sure someone else can find the discussion(wizards board I think about applying real world physics to d&d)

Lessee, torpedoes? A couple glyphs on the front end of a decanter might provide you some deniability if you have to blow up something in a harbor that you care about not being chased out of.

If there is an epic caster who owes you, he might be able to animate your ship, giving it some ability to resist being grappled by a kraken. Just scattered musings at this point.

I'd also suggest some significant fire protections on the upper decks, as fire sucks on a boat, and is the favored tactic of people who aren't particularly caring about loot(any non pirate NPC)

Soren Hero
2012-12-18, 03:42 PM
So. Any ideas on how much thrust such a decanter would provide? Alternate ideas on what my Artificer's next project should be? I'm all ears and would love to hear some neat projects to make our naval adventures even more awesome!

this thread has some rough numbers on thrust per decanter: (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-236190.html)

as far as projects go:
this is a tippy thread on spaceships, http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86964

i'd second making it an elder eidolon, in order to toughen it up, and add some extra bang for your buck. you could then make an intelligent item that controls the effigy (like an advanced AI or something) and make sure to key it to your commands (as a master subroutine, so that way if someone takes over the ship, you can still command it).

Idea 1: you can make tons of effigies out of enemies you find. you can become a completely autonomous navy. grab a whale, give it flying somehow, construct effigy, hollow it out for cargo space, and boom, Carriers with space for fighters. without flying, you now have an attack submarine. make some sharks into effigies (they only need 1 or 2 HD), and you have launch-able torpedoes, which have DR/Adamantium, meaning they can tear through even the toughest ship's armor.
Idea 2: pathfinder has rules for making constructs able to be used as armor. construct 5 HD elder eidolons out of fallen enemies (or special ones you find) and voila, you now have mobile suits for ship to ship combat, boarding parties, raids, etc. or better yet, make elder eidolons instead of effigies for Idea 1.
Idea 3: try to not fully destroy ships that you encounter. this way you can make them join your fleet of ships. now you have your own navy. you can have support ships who make supply runs. you have carriers, with all manner of air-borne creatures, shark torpedoes, and mobile suits. You can have scout ships that fly ahead of your position/gather intelligence.

psilontech
2012-12-19, 07:37 PM
Hmm... I can't really seem to find anything on elder effigies. How are they any different from normal ones?

Also having trouble finding information on wearable constructs in Pathfinder. What book are they from?

RFLS
2012-12-19, 07:54 PM
Hmm... I can't really seem to find anything on elder effigies. How are they any different from normal ones?

Also having trouble finding information on wearable constructs in Pathfinder. What book are they from?

Is this what you're looking for? (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/building-and-modifying-constructs)

EDIT: ctrl+f for "construct armor"

AWiz_Abroad
2012-12-19, 08:03 PM
http://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/templates/eldereidolan.shtml

For elder eidolon

Vaz
2012-12-19, 10:28 PM
I don't know Pathfinder all that well, but... Using 3.5 PHB as the base;

Perhaps a self resetting Heroes Feast Trap/Table to make your crew that bit better in a fight?

Plus no need to carry Food, reducing spoilage and cost, providing more
space for Smuggling runs/jailbreaks/ammunition.

Weaponry? Perhaps making magical ammunition for your Defenses - Explosive Runes could be faintly humourous "cool just dodged this flying boulder, wait it says something here; if you are reading this, you are too cl... #shaboom#"; while trapped portals to Plane of Fire/Water would easily sink a ship.

Perhaps a Permanent Gust of Wind effect on the sails to your chosen direction, Lowlight and Darkvision enchantment Crowsnests, etc?

Astral Avenger
2012-12-19, 11:16 PM
Endless Decanter missiles:
set up a Decanter of Endless Water in a shell of Adamantium (sp?) that has a nozzle to increase thrust. Barrel of Alchemist's Fire on the end without the nozzle. Throw on a couple of fins and you have some (hard to aim) scud rockets.
Point, shoot, KABLAM!!!