Travel options at lower levels for campaign setting

[calam]

I am making a high magic flavored campaign setting so I am trying to get ideas for extranormal travel that can be created/tamed/captured by level 6 or lower NPCs since that's the highest level that would be considered common enough to produce a steady stream of whatever people are using for travel. Beyond that I'm pretty open to suggestions but I'd prefer options that have an associated cost but I can always mock up a cost for any mount or anything else.

[Elkad]

Like Hippogriffs? 3HD Animals, so taming them and maintaining stables shouldn't be hard.

Or an allied tribe of Pegasi? (or other intelligent flyers. Giant Owls, Giant Eagles, etc)

I'm not aware of anything low level that has at-will teleport and can take creatures. There are creatures with at-will teleport with objects only (like lantern archons), people could always crawl in bags of holding...

[Incorrect]

Horse-like creatures. Raised in captivity perhaps, so they are pretty tame.
You could have a quick, and a strong variety.
Also they have cool colors..
Cost: 5x warhorse price (for novelty)

Something like a giant, furry, flying manta-ray. They soar slowly through the sky and are great for transporting groups of people.
Its a bit of a luxury transport, as they are semi-rare and eats something exotic.
They are steered with slight nudges, in order to not upset the beast.
All but the rarest of these creatures flee from the first sign of conflict.
Cost: 20.000gp?

Engineering mountain people (like dwarves) have used the fire in the heart of the mountain to power a system of gondolas. They take road tolls to transport people and goods across the mountains.
Cost to produce: Dwarven hard work
Ticket cost: 10-500gp depending on distance

[SirNibbles]

I am making a high magic flavored campaign setting so I am trying to get ideas for extranormal travel that can be created/tamed/captured by level 6 or lower NPCs since that's the highest level that would be considered common enough to produce a steady stream of whatever people are using for travel. Beyond that I'm pretty open to suggestions but I'd prefer options that have an associated cost but I can always mock up a cost for any mount or anything else.

For 12,000 gp (less with crafting cost reductions), you can have a continuous item of Gust of Wind (which generates 16.14 horsepower). You could use that power directly or contain it within an engine. It wouldn't be difficult to make an enclosure with a turbine attached to a shaft which is connected to the axle of a cart, so that the rear axle spins when powered. The Model T could do 45 MPH with 20 horsepower, so this would be a big improvement over a simple horse-drawn cart in terms of both speed and range; even assuming only 20% efficiency, it's better than a horse.

People used to travel by boat a lot for good reason: you can load boats with stuff and then you don't have to carry that stuff because boats float. Combine that with on-board propulsion and you're doing quite well.

__

Paying for a casting of Phantom Steed would be another option. That would cost 150 gp for a 5 hour casting and give you a mount with a speed of 100 (11.4 MPH), allowing you to travel 57 miles. It's kind of expensive for what you're getting. 180 gp for 6 hours and a land speed of 120 feet gives you 13.6 MPH, for 81.9 miles; more expensive, but more efficient in terms of miles/gp. Either way, it's prohibitively expensive for most people.

[NontheistCleric]

A level 5 nomad can manifest Astral Caravan, which allows for interplanar travel that is admittedly only available to psionic characters.

However, once the nomad (or other psionic character they took along) can get to the Outlands, they have a chance of finding some Ur'Epona, which they might be able to tame or negotiate with to facilitate planar travel on a larger scale, especially if they could establish a population on the Material Plane.

[Psyren]

If it's a high-magic setting, maybe there's something there from a previous civilization that people could use? I'm thinking of things like the Waygates and Portal Stones from Wheel of Time. You might need magic to power them, or they could be dangerous in other ways that mean they aren't a particularly common thoroughfare, but they could exist.

[Falontani]

Tenser's Floating Disk Train!

500 gp/Talisman of the Disc
Each disc lasts for three hours
Commoners only make 1 sp/day, so labor is cheap.
If we assume that each disc can carry 1-2 people, and each disc is used ten times to create the chain, and that 1 disc is required per talisman holder, then we get an initial cost of 37.5k gold for 1k individual train. Common labor to create and maintain this runway. And either one item, or mage capable of moving quickly at the head of the train. If the head is using only a fly spell, then it is as fast as a horse. If they use the smoky bottle spell from above then we're twice as fast. If it's a monk with continuous expeditious retreat? Etc

[RNightstalker]

Have an NPC inherit a Halruuan Skyship?

[Chainguy]

Soarwhales (A&G p.89) look pretty tame at DC18 to train youngs - which is easily within the capabilities of lvl 2 or 3 experts. Have a guild raise them, build gondolas and use as dirigibles for massive transportation of peoples and goods between cities.

For a more magicky approach, Living spell (Teleport) Gelatinous cubes might be bred and used as mounts with Amulets of ooze riding (28k gp a popthough, but only CL7th, A&G p.85). Imagine, if you will, the rider encased in a force bubble inside the cube, prodding it to teleport 900 miles in whichever direction by poking its inside. Okay there's a lot of loose ends with this idea, but would make for a fun wonky type NPC.

Half-Dragon warhorses can fly and would have very decent carry capacity.

Animated ornithopters could serve as "mount" in that way that the rider wouldn't rely on its profession(pilot) skill, although Animate object becomes mainstream only at lvl 11th.

Animate dead can make a lot of durable transport beasts starting at lvl 5.

[calam]

For 12,000 gp (less with crafting cost reductions), you can have a continuous item of Gust of Wind (which generates 16.14 horsepower). You could use that power directly or contain it within an engine. It wouldn't be difficult to make an enclosure with a turbine attached to a shaft which is connected to the axle of a cart, so that the rear axle spins when powered. The Model T could do 45 MPH with 20 horsepower, so this would be a big improvement over a simple horse-drawn cart in terms of both speed and range; even assuming only 20% efficiency, it's better than a horse.

People used to travel by boat a lot for good reason: you can load boats with stuff and then you don't have to carry that stuff because boats float. Combine that with on-board propulsion and you're doing quite well.

__

Paying for a casting of Phantom Steed would be another option. That would cost 150 gp for a 5 hour casting and give you a mount with a speed of 100 (11.4 MPH), allowing you to travel 57 miles. It's kind of expensive for what you're getting. 180 gp for 6 hours and a land speed of 120 feet gives you 13.6 MPH, for 81.9 miles; more expensive, but more efficient in terms of miles/gp. Either way, it's prohibitively expensive for most people.

I always imagined gust of would being able to somehow be used for transit. Thanks for the idea.

Also animate dead besides eliminating the need for food would also mean that they can hustle forever right so a skeletal horse would be twice as fast as a living horse for overland travel right?

[Angrith]

If you don't mind the ick, zombies are a source of infinite labor. You could create caravans pulled by zombies that never need to stop for rest. They would basically be a slower train engine.

[NontheistCleric]

Also animate dead besides eliminating the need for food would also mean that they can hustle forever right so a skeletal horse would be twice as fast as a living horse for overland travel right?

Faster than that, as it could even run.


A creature with no Constitution cannot tire and thus can run indefinitely without tiring (unless the creature’s description says it cannot run).

[Alhallor]

Bind an Earth Elemental into a carriage (I think this is from Eberron). That let's it ignore difficult terrain and it can pretty much drive infinitely.

I guess the cost could be something like 8000 Gold, I can't really tell (the only examples are way more expensive.)

[Gnaeus]

Normal humans can create balloons and dirigibles without magic. Seems a lot easier with a small fire elemental and a gust of wind item. Maybe some levitate enchantments the like for heavy stuff, and feather tokens for parachutes.

[Quertus]

Once you have your Ur'Epona, you can establish mining operations on the elemental plane of earth, to collect those 5k GP gems adventurers need. One of the random encounters there is, IIRC, blue dragons. Have your Diplomacer befriend them all. Start a dragon breeding grounds, and create all those Half-Dragon war horses, war rhinos, etc. Also, dragons.

Get a necromancer to breed the Ur'Epona to have a single horn. Use awaken animal on regular horses, Ur'Epona, Half-Dragon horses as necessary, and have your own equestria.

Personally, I just prefer for air elementals to enslave humans to build them ships with which they can dominate the other elements, moving them around at their whim. The air elementals just enjoy exercising their dominance, and don't really care what gets moved where. It has been found that the human slaves are much more accepting of their enslavement when they get to choose what gets moved where. So long as the human slaves meet their quotas of ship-building, and the ships only remain idle while crew / cargo is being transferred, the elemental overlords are fairly content.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I'm a big fan of the elemental vehicles from Eberron Campaign Setting (though the fact that it's basically enslaving the elementals creeps me out enough I tend to refluff that bit).

[Tiktakkat]

Have you checked my Travel Magic handbook at Min/Max?
I cover most spell and magic item options in 3.5.

[Falontani]

I'm a big fan of the elemental vehicles from Eberron Campaign Setting (though the fact that it's basically enslaving the elementals creeps me out enough I tend to refluff that bit).

Generally elementals don't desire much. A fire elemental just wants to eat everything by burning it. Being fed a constant supply of food makes it just as much a slave as say, a horse. Just gotta treat them right. Sure, they are sentient, but only just barely. If they are happy with the arrangement, why change the arrangement.

[Saint-Just]

Generally elementals don't desire much. A fire elemental just wants to eat everything by burning it. Being fed a constant supply of food makes it just as much a slave as say, a horse. Just gotta treat them right. Sure, they are sentient, but only just barely. If they are happy with the arrangement, why change the arrangement.

Player's Guide to Eberron says

"...all existing warforged were granted the full rights of citizenship in the nations of Khorvaire, rather than being deemed objects to be possessed by other citizens. (Interestingly, the delegates also neglected to address the question of whether elementals that had been bound to service should receive the same rights.)"

which hints at something else. I do not think any published source gives a conclusive answer, but the point is that it's purposefully left up to DM instead of having clear-cut answer like "no different from owning a horse".

[Bohandas]

I'm certain you could make a perpetual motion engine from a Spool of Endless Rope (Magic Item Compendium page 186, 1400gp), but the exact design is going to depend on whether reeling out rope and severing rope changes the item's weight, and possibly also some other some other table-specific rulings.