Brilliant energy and naval combat

[martixy]

I'm prepping a naval campaign for my players and therefore thinking a lot about ships.

Here's an odd idea I had:
1. Get a colossal greatsword. Enchant with brilliant energy.
2. Install pivoting mechanism on ship. Place huge-a$$ sword inside, length-wise.
3. During close naval battles, pivot sword, revealing secret weapon. Brilliant energy weapon passes through non-living material and therefore hull.
4. You now have a giant blade sticking out of the side of your ship which can scythe through the insides of the enemy ship at will.

Perhaps a relevant question is, does a brilliant weapon pass through living material, just as it does for non-living, only it also deals damage? Or does it meet resistance with living material? I imagine the former would be significantly more deadly for anyone caught in its path, given the momentum an entire ship behind it. Or at least until the mechanism that holds it breaks. Though making it strong enough to bisect the poor unfortunate sods on the other side without breaking should not be too hard.
Also, how long is a Colossal greatsword anyway? And how much does it cost?

Any reason why this shouldn't work?

Also, anyone got any other brilliant(eh?) ideas for unconventional weaponry or spell use?

[SangoProduction]

I'm prepping a naval campaign for my players and therefore thinking a lot about ships.

Here's an odd idea I had:
1. Get a colossal greatsword. Enchant with brilliant energy.
2. Install pivoting mechanism on ship. Place huge-a$$ sword inside, length-wise.
3. During close naval battles, pivot sword, revealing secret weapon. Brilliant energy weapon passes through non-living material and therefore hull.
4. You now have a giant blade sticking out of the side of your ship which can scythe through the insides of the enemy ship at will.

Perhaps a relevant question is, does a brilliant weapon pass through living material, just as it does for non-living, only it also deals damage? Or does it meet resistance with living material? I imagine the former would be significantly more deadly for anyone caught in its path, given the momentum an entire ship behind it. Or at least until the mechanism that holds it breaks. Though making it strong enough to bisect the poor unfortunate sods on the other side without breaking should not be too hard.
Also, how long is a Colossal greatsword anyway? And how much does it cost?

Any reason why this shouldn't work?

Also, anyone got any other brilliant(eh?) ideas for unconventional weaponry or spell use?

Now that's a cool way to think about things.

[Graysire]

This is an amazing idea, you get an internet cookie

I see no reason it should n't work, but I'd also say, even if it technically doesn't work, houserule it, this is too awesome to be defeated by mere RAW

[Karl Aegis]

It shouldn't work because objects like boats don't make attack rolls.

[Bronk]

It shouldn't work because objects like boats don't make attack rolls.

But they do when they have rams... This could be a ram, and not even have to swing around or be hidden inside the ship, since it could presumably be activated and deactivated with a command word.

[Malroth]

Brilliant Energy enchanted cannon shooting grapeshot that ignores the cover provided by the hull.

[Telonius]

Unfortunately you can't have a brilliant energy cannon; brilliant energy can only be applied to melee weapons, thrown weapons, or ammunition. A brilliant energy cannonball should be fine though.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Unfortunately you can't have a brilliant energy cannon; brilliant energy can only be applied to melee weapons, thrown weapons, or ammunition. A brilliant energy cannonball should be fine though.

I wonder how you'd load it. Since the cannonball would fall through the cannon (and the boat). You'd have to have cannon's made out of living organic matter, and a storage bin that is also living organic matter.

[SangoProduction]

I wonder how you'd load it. Since the cannonball would fall through the cannon (and the boat). You'd have to have cannon's made out of living organic matter, and a storage bin that is also living organic matter.

If that was an issue, then even arrows would have the same problem. But there is that elvish wood material. Forget what it is called. It's living wood

[Inevitability]

If that was an issue, then even arrows would have the same problem. But there is that elvish wood material. Forget what it is called. It's living wood

Livewood, from the ECS, may be what you're talking about. 150% of the normal price, though.

[SangoProduction]

Livewood, from the ECS, may be what you're talking about. 150% of the normal price, though.

Not that cannons or crates are too expensive to someone kitting out a brilliant energy war ship.

[Celestia]

Wood, even living wood, tends not to be the best material to make a cannon out of, however. That's still got to be some flavor of metal. Is there a way to craft a cannon-shaped living construct? That would work. Plus, it could load itself.

[Inevitability]

Wood, even living wood, tends not to be the best material to make a cannon out of, however. That's still got to be some flavor of metal. Is there a way to craft a cannon-shaped living construct? That would work. Plus, it could load itself.

Alternatively, cast Ironwood on the wooden cannon. Still alive, still wooden, but no less sturdy than a steel cannon.

[remetagross]

...the awesomeness produced by the mastery of RAW of GitPers amazes me time and again :D

[Inevitability]

...the awesomeness produced by the mastery of RAW of GitPers amazes me time and again :D

Brilliant Energy is very abusable in general. If you can somehow bestow it on a monk's body (Sun Soul Monk should work), you get what's essentially incorporeality++.

[Celestia]

Alternatively, cast Ironwood on the wooden cannon. Still alive, still wooden, but no less sturdy than a steel cannon.
...Yeah, that would work. If you want to be practical.

[ericgrau]

Great idea, but make sure you have a backup plan against pesky stereotypical undead crewed ships.

[daremetoidareyo]

Wouldn't the sword sink through the ship?

If not, any position other than outside of the front of the ship will weigh the boat to one side, and then gravity takes over, dumping the sword in the drink.

If you had two colossal brilliant energy greatswords, you could deploy them to balance each other out like big stiff wings.

[martixy]

2 swords is one option.

Assuming weight doubles per category(as the footnote here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/weapons.htm#tableWeapons) seems to imply), a colossal greatsword would be 128 lb. This is a low enough as to be no problem even for the lightest warship.
And even if you go with the more physically sensible figure, beyond large you have 3 categories till colossal, that's 16 * 83, which is 8192 lbs(or ~3720 kg). This is equal to roughly 2 to 3 naval artillery cannons [1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannon#18th_and_19th_centuries) [2] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_artillery_in_the_Age_of_Sail) [3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demi-cannon), twice that with whatever counterweight. A dedicated warship could easily skip 4-5 out of the dozens of cannons it could carry to equip one of these. You can also halve the weight by making it from mithral.

Besides, this wouldn't be the only armament of the ship. Just a secret weapon of sorts. One that could potentially deal with pesky (living) spellcasters bombarding you from behind the improved cover of gunports for example. If you are being bombarded by undead spellcasters, then you suddenly have a problem. :)

[druid zook]

If a brilliant energy sword passes through nonliving matter, does that mean you have to have a living scabbard, or that a construct or undead can't wield it? I say no, that would be absurd. A brilliant energy crossbow bolt can be shot from any crossbow, so a brilliant energy bullet or cannonball can be used as well.

[martixy]

If a brilliant energy sword passes through nonliving matter, does that mean you have to have a living scabbard, or that a construct or undead can't wield it? I say no, that would be absurd. A brilliant energy crossbow bolt can be shot from any crossbow, so a brilliant energy bullet or cannonball can be used as well.

It can be all of it, or some of it. For ease of normal use, of course it wouldn't be the entirety of a piece of ammunition. But it is required for our purposes here. Therefore, for ranged weapons you require a launching mechanism that is capable of holding it.

[PhoenixPhyre]

It can be all of it, or some of it. For ease of normal use, of course it wouldn't be the entirety of a piece of ammunition. But it is required for our purposes here. Therefore, for ranged weapons you require a launching mechanism that is capable of holding it.

I'm not so much for the 3.X rules, but wouldn't a discarding sabot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armour-piercing_discarding_sabot) design work? Make the sabot out of Ironwood-ed livewood, the projectile is what's enchanted. Allows using regular cannons (if a bit higher on the tech spectrum than a cannonball).

[Vogie]

Wood, even living wood, tends not to be the best material to make a cannon out of, however. That's still got to be some flavor of metal. Is there a way to craft a cannon-shaped living construct? That would work. Plus, it could load itself.

Couldn't you also process it as a trebuchet instead of a cannon? I know PF has stats for Light & heavy catapults, as well as ballistae.

[The_Jette]

1. Get a colossal greatsword. Enchant with brilliant energy.

Why not, instead of a colossal great sword, you make it a colossal halberd? That way, you can make a free trip attack against the opposing ship, and you can set it against a charge to do double damage!