Tricking Out An Automated Party Carriage

[BlackOnyx]

What do you get when you combine a skeletal brown bear, haunt shift, and the classy purple carriage of the vampire lord your party just defeated?


Introducing The Bearavan (trademark pending).


Long story short, our party has recently acquired a self-propelled carriage thanks to some divine tinkering on the part of our cleric. Given the description for haunting presences (Libris Mortis), we've determined it to play like a large animated object with a few small differences based on the undead essence that powers it.


Some basic "bearriage" stats for reference:

Large Sized
Seating for 6 (4 enclosed, 2 in driver's seat)
Base Speed: 40'
Max Standard Load: 690lbs
Max Drag: 3450lbs
Material: Wood (Hardness 5)


Those numbers in mind, what additional spells, items, or modifications would be useful for improving said vehicle's general adventuring performance? Permanent, temporary, or situation-dependent: all suggestions are welcome.


As far as restrictions go, I will say that we aren't looking to make an obvious war-wagon (with mounted ballista, armor plating, etc.) but rather something more low key (if a little on the fancier side). The cleric who animated it is himself of noble birth, so preserving the vehicle's overall sense of class is preferred. There is a chance it may see some battle, but, as of now, basic travel/utility is the main intent.


As for caster resources, the party includes a Bard, a Sea Witch Wizard, a Sea Witch Sorcerer, and the Cloistered Cleric that animated the carriage (all four are 11th level). At the moment, we have maybe 6-10k gp to play around with, though additional funds will probably be made available soon enough.


(In lieu of improvement suggestions, elaborate bear/vehicle puns & wordplay are always welcome.)

[Quarian Rex]

Interesting way to go. Though, using just the Str 16 of the large object means that you have a carriage that cannot travel at full speed when it has all of its intended passengers. I might suggest altering the weight limits to be based on the brown bear skeleton instead of just a large animated object. That would give you...

Max Standard Load: 3,120lbs
Max Drag: 15,600lbs

... which might seem excessive. How about averaging the Str between the bear and the carriage? With a Str 21 you would have ...

Max Standard Load: 1,380lbs
Max Drag: 6,900lbs

Which seems a little more reasonable. You now have enough weight to load up the entire party, their kit, and some loot. Way more worth the effort.

Other than that, just remembering that it is now a creature, and so can be directly buffed with Haste and such will be a huge boost as well. Lining the interior with lead might be an idea as well, to prevent scrying attempts while on the move and such.

[Goaty14]

Mount a siege engine on top and hire an expert to man it.

That is all.

[BlackOnyx]

Interesting way to go. Though, using just the Str 16 of the large object means that you have a carriage that cannot travel at full speed when it has all of its intended passengers. I might suggest altering the weight limits to be based on the brown bear skeleton instead of just a large animated object. That would give you...

Max Standard Load: 3,120lbs
Max Drag: 15,600lbs



As awesome as that would be (especially given the +4 strength the bear has from the corpsecrafter feat), we are going to be sticking with the base numbers provided in the monster manual entry.


Now that you mention it, though, a belt of giant's strength could easily boost that number up to 20. (As three of our six party members are small sized, it could definitely make a difference.)


As far as base speed goes, even in "max drag" territory, I believe we'll still be able to attain the 20' base land speed listed in the SRD for a "mount pulling a cart/carriage."


Given that the bearavan itself is a construct powered by an undead (both with constitution --), it should be able to keep up a hustle or full run (4mph and 8mph respectively) pretty much indefinitely. 64miles in an eight hour period isn't too bad, all things considered. (We're willing to work with it.)



You now have enough weight to load up the entire party, their kit, and some loot. Way more worth the effort.


Interesting thing I forgot to mention: another item we managed to glean off the vampire lord's estate was an extradimensional storage coffin he'd used to store his undead thralls.


Seeing as it fits inside the storage space under the carriage's seats, we do have access to some extra capacity for our gear and guests.



Other than that, just remembering that it is now a creature, and so can be directly buffed with Haste and such will be a huge boost as well.


Ooh. Haste. I like. I can hear the Dukes of Hazzard horn blaring as we speak.

Jumps will be had.



Lining the interior with lead might be an idea as well, to prevent scrying attempts while on the move and such.


I like the idea. I wonder if there's any supplements for determining how much that would cost/weigh.


Maybe the stronghold builder's guide? I'll have to look around.