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its_all_ogre
2007-07-25, 05:45 PM
any idea how to go about this? a player in my group seems to think that playing around with a levitate spell that has been modified, i have just checked the spell and note a weight limit and its fairly low. he is of the opinion that you would cast it on a few planks and then build the ship onto those planks, hence the planks themselves would be enchanted to levitate, not the entire ship.
any thoughts?
i do not like the above, but am willing to make this an achievable thing, just what process to use is the question. even if i allow the above be a basis it will still require at least craft wondrous feat imo.
i hear that these have been created in FR setting? any idea how those were created?

Skjaldbakka
2007-07-25, 05:49 PM
I don't think a spell would do this, but a magical flying ship should be created as a magic item, not as a spell effect. Require that the crafter cast Overland Flight as part of the crafting everyday. Something that big should probably require a caster level in th 15-20 range.

note- In my last big campaign, there was a flying airship. There was an entire plot arc around getting enough mithral to armor it, as steel was too heavy for it to still fly.

BardicDuelist
2007-07-25, 05:58 PM
I don't have the books on hand, but I seem to remember somthing about creating magic ships in Arms and Equipment Guide, and the FR book....I think it was Shining South.

Demented
2007-07-25, 06:49 PM
If only it were as easy as Craft (Flying Ship). Then again, it's probably in the same boat (as it were) as Craft (Flying Car).

Manave_E_Sulanul
2007-07-25, 06:52 PM
I made a flying vessel using the Stronghold Builders Guide, though, the pricing on flight and a decent speed are not for those with few shiny things.

JackMage666
2007-07-25, 07:30 PM
Doesn't Eberron have airships?

Gralamin
2007-07-25, 07:35 PM
Eberron has airships that work pretty well.

The ship looks exactly like a ship, except with a large ring over the bow of the ship. This ship's wood is Soarwood, a magical type of wood, and acts as wood but is lighter, as well as making boat or ship faster. Inside the ring is bound an elemental, generally a Fire but sometimes an Air, For propulsion.
Image:http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/eb_gallery/82108.jpg

daggaz
2007-07-25, 08:03 PM
i have just checked the spell and note a weight limit and its fairly low. he is of the opinion that you would cast it on a few planks and then build the ship onto those planks, hence the planks themselves would be enchanted to levitate, not the entire ship.
any thoughts?


Not to kill catgirls, but in the name of common sense, this just would NOT work. What is the difference between, say, a wizard with the levitate spell who is carrying too much load... and these planks? None. None at all. If you attach the rest of the ship to those planks, the planks are carrying the entire load of the ship, thus, it is too much for the limits of the spell, and the spell fails.

Now, if you were to cast permanencied levitate onto all of the planks, keeping each batch of planks just under the weight limit, now we have something. But I think then it is easier and safer and cheaper to just build a freaking airship.

PaladinBoy
2007-07-25, 08:22 PM
Personally, I like Eberron's bound elemental airships. The listed price is 92,000 gp, though; it's not exactly cheap.

And making one requires a team of wizards working together to bind the elemental into a special crystal, called a Khyber dragonshard. The wizard in charge of the whole process has to be at least 15th level and possess the Bind Elemental feat. The airship itself is built out of soarwood, as Gralamin said, which is a magical wood that is lighter than air. In Eberron, soarwood is only found in one area, and the people that control that area only export limited amounts of soarwood, which naturally limits airship construction. Since soarwood is lighter than air, the airship floats naturally; the elemental is only there for propulsion. I believe these airships can fly at about 20 miles per hour.

Of course, any of the above can be changed for your campaign.

Also, I don't believe your player's levitate idea would work. All the weight would be resting on those planks, and that would be way too much weight. I can see levitate being a starting point, but you would need a far more powerful, as well as permanent, version.

Faerun does have its airships as well. I believe they are designed much like your player's idea, except as a standard sailing ship with a large number of enchanted plates of metal or something to provide vertical lift. I believe those are called Halruuan skyships, if you want to be technical.

SilverClawShift
2007-07-25, 08:23 PM
This actually came up in my groups last campaign! Well, sorta. We were in a heavy swashbuckler/pirate setting, and our groups leader (captain) found a "legacy" jolly roger flag. With a matching eyepatch.

When the flag was hoisted on a ship, the wearer of the eyepatch could "see" in every direction around the ship, as sharp as an eagle, and the ship (in a non sentient way) considered that person the captain, and would bring bad luck to anyone else calling themselves its captain.
As we leveled, and Cap' became more attuned to the flag/patch, it started giving him more abilities. Let him steer the ship by thought, twice a day the ship could 'call' him to its helm letting him teleport to his ship at will, and eventually (level 15), he could sail the ship right out of the water and into the sky.

But that's probably not what you're looking for? :smalltongue:

As for making a ship that can fly itself, the Levitate spell isn't a bad place to start looking. Let's see.
-2nd level spell
-works on one willing creature or object
-100 lb per level limit
-lasts one minute per level

You also need a way to control the levitation (letting the person steering the ship control the height isn't an unreasonable idea).

Reasonable problems include duration, dispelling, weight limit, object mass and structural integrity.

I'm not sure how much a ship weighs, but I'd go out on a limb and say "a lot". A ship is designed to float in water, which isn't very stressfull on the integrity of the vessel. Applying a lot of energy (the weight of the ship versus gravity) directly to the bottom of the ship by making the planks levitate? Seems like a bad idea to me. I'm picturing planks cracking, wood warping, and maybe the non levitating parts of the ship being torn away from the levitating planks. Mithril nails connecting the levitating planks might help, otherwise, you're looking at a mid-air Titanic situation, where the ship cracks open like a peanut shell and the screaming passengers go falling.
The mithril nails gives me an idea though. What about mithril supports? Broad, flat, mithril "U" shapes that go along the bottom of the ship every 10 feet or so, giving it a 'base' to cast the levitation onto. In water, the mithril is probably light enough not to destroy the ships bouyancy (though the ridges would probably slow the ship down from water resistance), and in flight, making the mithril "u" shapes levitate and carry the whole darn ship with them.
It wouldn't be too unreasonable for some higher level spells designed for the goal, and some dedicated crafting, to turn the U shapes into permanent floating half-rings that resist dispelling. With a high level crafter, you could hit the ships weight, and the crew memebers, and the captain would have to be aware of the weight limitation on the cargo they could accept.

That's a solution that isn't cheap or easy, which explains why there aren't mithril rimmed ships floating above every castle, but is still realistic for powerful characters to conceive of and create at an appropriate level. It's also reasonably safe.
Just make sure all your ship-mates carry a potion of feather fall at all times, to avoid wrongful death lawsuits :smallbiggrin:

Matthew
2007-07-26, 09:14 PM
I think that this is the third Thread about this in the last month. Nobody mentioned Spelljammer this time round, so I will: Spelljammer.

Fireball.Man.Guy.
2007-07-26, 10:17 PM
Arms and equipment guide and (I think) stormwrack. The item is called the Cloud keel. making one requires wish, but they don't cost too too much. it allows you to fly at a speed of 60 ft/round or your normal sailing speed, whichever is faster.

CASTLEMIKE
2007-07-27, 07:02 AM
An ECS Elemental Galleon is the cheapest it costs 92,000 GP with a CL 15. It has a crew of 15, flies 20 mph with poor maneuverability and can carry 30 tons of cargo.

A FRCS halruaan Skyship costs 400,000GP it flies with a MV of 45. CL 15 Fly and Suspension for 10 magical plates for a standard sailing ship, larger ships need more plates.

Swooper
2007-07-27, 07:37 AM
In a campaign that ran from 1-27 with the intention of PCs ending up as national leaders, my character (a human transmuter, elected king of a medium-sized, rather high-magic human nation) commissioned the research and building of an airship (dubbed 'The Griffon'). I wasn't involved in the design process per se, I just ordered it built and got result some months later. Also, it's the kind of DM who doesn't care all that much about rules and has on occasion given us magical longswords that do 1d20 damage and so on. It was never really statted out in terms of top velocity or carrying capacity. If I recall correctly, I payed 100.000gp for each ship, which is remarkably close to ECS's 92k. I built several of those before a rival somehow got the blueprints and built an improved, super version that could go invisible and greater teleport (cloak&warpdrive). Naturally, the PCs managed to hijack his ship and reverse-engineer it.

Now my nation is somewhat of a superpower, with an airfleet of Banshee-class super-airships backed up by the smaller Griffon-class.


...Yeah, that DM likes anachronisms, why do you ask? :smalltongue:

factotum
2007-07-27, 08:36 AM
I agree with Matthew--isn't flying ships what Spelljammer is all about? There's even an official freebie website where they've updated the Spelljammer rules to 3rd edition:

www.spelljammer.org

Belial_the_Leveler
2007-07-27, 09:52 AM
Get a gargantuan-sized ship (60 ft or less). 10.000 gp.
Permanent Animate Object. 12.000 gp.
Flag of Flying (custom item-60.000 gp)
Ring of Invisibility on rear mast (20.000 gp)



Now you have a flying ship that will respond to your commands that also has a cloaking device and can "wear" other magical items as well. If you also want it to self-load, give it a ring of telekinesis. :smallcool:

Premier
2007-07-27, 09:55 AM
I agree with Swooper's approach - it's what you want to do that's important, not how exactly you do it. In this case, the central issue is that the player wants to have a flying ship. There's only one really relevant question at this point the DM has to answer: does he want the player to have a flying ship, or not?

If not, then the PC won't have a flying ship, if yes, then he will. It's that simple. Depending on the hoops the DM wants the player to jump across for it, maybe it's the product of a long-lost civilisation who built it with magics beyond memory. Or maybe it has to be commissioned from the world's greatest artificer whose knowledge of enchantment is beyond the character's ken. Or maybe it's a gift from a god for some great service rendered. Or maybe the character quests for and comes across the fabled Airship Builder's Handbook which describes all the spells and procedures you need.

The point is, if the DM wants the character to have that ship, then he just lets him have that ship, simply because the DM is the creator, director and ultimate deity of the game's world. The fact that no splat book has Officially Mandated Canonical Procedure On Building Airships shouldn't (and cannot) stop him. Coversely if the DM doesn't want that airship, then no amount of rules-lawyering and juggling of spell descriptions and physics handbooks will get the player that ship. It's that simple.

Sir Giacomo
2007-07-27, 12:16 PM
Get a gargantuan-sized ship (60 ft or less). 10.000 gp.
Permanent Animate Object. 12.000 gp.
Flag of Flying (custom item-60.000 gp)
Ring of Invisibility on rear mast (20.000 gp)

Now you have a flying ship that will respond to your commands that also has a cloaking device and can "wear" other magical items as well. If you also want it to self-load, give it a ring of telekinesis. :smallcool:

This, sir, is awesome.

- Giacomo

EDIT: the best thing: it can also fight as a gargantuan animated object...you could try this on small fortresses, chariots, coaches, catapults, whatever...