Cool ways of Travelling

[Frog Dragon]

This is a thread for all the cool ways of travelling you've seen in a game. Be it from the position of DM or player.
My players have three submarines and they recently got another addition to the party (actually a replacement for the players dead old character) who was a halfling. He had a rowing boat. Well the rowing boat wasn't nearly as fast as their magitech submarines so they tied the rowing boat into one of the submarines. I thought that was pretty cool though it might have been because magitech submarines are inherently cool.

[kamikasei]

Figurine of wondrous power: obsidian steed. One day a week, at-will plane shift and overland flight. You can straight-up hellride.

In a similar vein, a phantom steed is pretty gorram badass.

[quick_comment]

Lightning Leap, in CM. Not only is it one of the only ways I know of to teleport without really teleporting, but you teleport as lighting. Also, firestride exhalation - you breathe fire, and reappear somewhere in the cone.

Too bad they are both short range. Still, an item of lightning leap at will is affordable, and basically gives you 60ft move speed.

[arguskos]

I've seen players manage to use a combination of Gate and Plane Shift to do some hilarious jumps. Basically, they shifted to Limbo (subjective gravity), and waited until they got going nice and fast, then opened a Gate in their path and used the momentum to fling themselves to where they needed to go. The landing was... painful, but funny as hell.

[Kylarra]

Lightning Leap, in CM. Not only is it one of the only ways I know of to teleport without really teleporting, but you teleport as lighting. Also, firestride exhalation - you breathe fire, and reappear somewhere in the cone.

Too bad they are both short range. Still, an item of lightning leap at will is affordable, and basically gives you 60ft move speed.

... haha that's hilarious. I need to make a beguiler (race) that can use lightning leap now.

[woodenbandman]

Riding a Roc or an Elsewhale has always been my favorite. Also, a Dwarven Digger form the AEG.

[Kurald Galain]

The suck-u-bus from Barry Trotter.

[Crow]

A Darkwood Longship propelled by weather-controlling Druids is pretty damn cool.

[thegurullamen]

Had a fighter who built a clockwork horse once. (Magical training background if you're curious.) When he got sick of it getting stuck in the mud, he tore the legs off and replaced them with all-terrain wheels. All terrain. He eventually had a mustang motorcycle that could drive up the wrong side of a 60 degree incline. When he rode anywhere with the wizard (typical scouting duo for some odd reason), the wizard made sure to bring a parachute (read: ring of Feather Fall).

[Grumman]

Lightning Leap, in CM. Not only is it one of the only ways I know of to teleport without really teleporting, but you teleport as lighting. Also, firestride exhalation - you breathe fire, and reappear somewhere in the cone.

An Arcane Archer or Eldritch Theurge can put an area-effect spell on an arrow or an eldritch blast, respectively. Thus letting you shoot someone, hit them with a blast of fire, and appear next to them. I'm rather disappointed that you can't fit Swiftblade 9, Arcane Archer 2 and Telflammar Shadowlord 4 into the same build, because that would be hilarious fun.

Too bad they are both short range. Still, an item of lightning leap at will is affordable, and basically gives you 60ft move speed.

A DM that lets you buy such custom items is asking for trouble.

[quick_comment]

A DM that lets you buy such custom items is asking for trouble.

Party artificer. Done.

[kamikasei]

Party artificer. Done.

See above, but replace "buy" with "craft".

[Admiral Squish]

A couple of my favorites:
Wagon caravan pulled by were-elephants. They were guarding the prince of an india-based nation where everyone was a lycanthrope. The prince was a white tiger.

Turtleboat. A dragon turtle kept dominated and used to take travellers across a dangerous straight. They had a wooden/metal carrieage strapped onto it with a huge rope belt sorta-thing, and a Wall of Force bubble that kept them from drowning when the turtle went under to avoid pirates and suchlike.

Turtlecarriage. A dire tortoise saddled much like the turtleboat, but less magic involved.

Earth sled. From ebberon. A nice alternative to airships, and allowed some cool scenes with lizardfolk leaping out of the swamp they were floating over onto the deck, and the party had to fight them off.

Tumbler. Also ebberon. Basically an inverted airship with earth glide.

Gustav's Throne. Riding in style. Because who messes with you when you're in a massive, adamantine, animated throne?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

13 posts and no mention of the Blood Magus? For shame.

You get the ability to teleport and appear inside someone, ripping out of their blood. It's pretty nice.

Also, Tippy(IIRC) once stated out a spaceship using various spells to fly, shoot, and teleport. Too bad that PBP never got off the ground.

[PId6]

... haha that's hilarious. I need to make a beguiler (race) that can use lightning leap now.

Beguiler! Volt Tackle!

[sofawall]

... haha that's hilarious. I need to make a beguiler (race) that can use lightning leap now.

You win.

You know what? I have a Beguiler Factotum. I win.Arcane Dilettante ftw.

[Lycanthromancer]

For my player(s) in my homebrew...do not read. (That means you, "Zenith"...)

Spoiler

Show

I plan on having the spirit of a TN shadow dragon permanently haunt shifting a minor artifact.

The artifact in question? A ship-in-a-bottle. (Think "Pokemon," except with a pinnace instead of a Pikachu.)

Also, I had a blue goblin shaper/constructor at one point that rode around on his astral constructs most times. Both for fights (with flight) or for long-distance travel.

[LurkerInPlayground]

I remember meeting a group that with a player that was playing a bard. Somehow, the topic of a boat made of gold came up.

The obvious question was:
"What would you do with a boat made of gold?"

His reply:
"We'd go on adventures!"

Me:
"But why?"

His reply:
Something to the effect that it was essentially a badass thing to do. Because it would really leave behind some distinctive legends about their band.

I also asked if the boat would be magical. But no. Just a boat of gold that you go on adventures in. Like something out of a myth.

[JadedDM]

Wouldn't a boat of gold...sink?

[LurkerInPlayground]

Wouldn't a boat of gold...sink?

Well, details aren't quite so important. It could be gold over wood or something.

The point is, that it seems like the sort of thing that pops out of something like Arthurian legend.

Why does the scabbard make King Arthur invulnerable? Why is there a Lady in the Lake? Or a wizardly mentor? Or a magical charm on Lancelot that makes him invincible in combat as long as he remains pure?

Why do the adventurers seek danger and excitement in a golden boat?

Just because.

[Doc Roc]

You win.

You know what? I have a Beguiler Factotum. I win.Arcane Dilettante ftw.

Damn but I miss that character. I'm going to restart that campaign sometime.

[Kylarra]

Beguiler! Volt Tackle!

Exactly!

You win.

You know what? I have a Beguiler Factotum. I win.Arcane Dilettante ftw.

Haha. That is impressive. Factotum isn't quite the effect I'd be going for though.

[Fizban]

Argh, forum died right before I had to go to work. Here's my post from 8 hours ago:

Wind Walk's pretty great: 60mph is faster than any airship I've seen printed. Shadow Walk get's up to 50mph and has limited planar travel, but you appear slightly off target and you can't save it for later. Phantom Steed and the druid's more badass Phantom Stag are great. Wings of the Dragon is for when you want to be able to respond instantly without worrying about your magical mount, especially the original Dracononmicon version.

Airships are of course awesome, but unless you buy a really expensive straight Airship, they're difficult to wrangle up. The Arms and Equipment Guide has the cheapest with Zepplins and Dirigibles, and they're a lot friendlier to the ship rules by still needing their rigging and such (or the balloon pops and you go splat). Failing that, making a boat fly is pretty standard, but most of the boat enhancements to do that cost more than an airship would have. The spell Suspension in Shining South can levitate several tons for a week or two, but a big ship weighs a lot more than that. I'd go with a tricked out Zepplin or Dirigble myself.

There's also the giant animal or giant animal pulling something route. SilverClawShift recently did a campaign journal where they zombified a huge blue dragon, and proceeded to have it pull their ship at crazy speed. When the ship got attacked and couldn't sail anymore, they had it tear off the deck and carry it around. You could also have something pull a Suspend'ed platform, by air or ground.

Good ways of getting nifty awesome creatures under your command without 9th level spells for Dominate Monster: Animate Dead to zombify (retains fly speeds), Effigy Creature Template (too expensive for high HD creatures, but effective for one-man bombers), and Simulacrum. Simulacrum is by far the easiest, since all you need is a tiny piece of the target. It costs xp but it's not dispellable like Permanency, so that's a win over Permanent Animate Objects. Awesome creatures to emulate: True Dragons, Dragon Turtles, Dire Tortises, Archelons (sea Dire Tortise), Zaratans (island sized turtle, cast Fly for lulz), Soarwhales (flying whales, increase speed for lulz), Giant Eagle/Owl/Raven (mounts or tie fighers), and Griffon/Hippogriff/Pegasus (same). Things with few HD are easy to craft Effigies of, or you could hunt them down and zombify them for slower versions. The big stuff will require Simulacrum and some CL enhancers, or zombify, but that's too slow for me. Remember that dragon scales are a material component in many spells without a listed price, and thus come in all spell component pouches, or failing that, buy some dragoncraft weapons to ensure bigger dragon results.

[Ichneumon]

Flying on a giant infernal goldfish.

[Jade_Tarem]

Wouldn't a boat of gold...sink?

Not if it displaced enough water relative to its mass. Weight isn't the issue - Aircraft carriers are heavier than just about everything, but they float just fine.

The real problem with the gold boat is the fact that gold isn't a very good building/armor material - it's too maleable and soft.

This is assuming that you aren't in some kind of JRPG, where gold makes perfectly dandy armor, weapons, and shields. They're generally slightly less effective than mithral.

[Kylarra]

Not if displaced enough water relative to its mass. Weight isn't the issue - Aircraft carriers are heavier than just about everything, but they float just fine.

The real problem with the gold boat is the fact that gold isn't a very good building/armor material - it's too maleable and soft.

This is assuming that you aren't in some kind of JRPG, where gold makes perfectly dandy armor, weapons, and shields. They're generally slightly less effective than mithral.

Sometimes it costs a bit extra though.

[sofawall]

Exactly!


Haha. That is impressive. Factotum isn't quite the effect I'd be going for though.

Arcane Dilettante, it wins. I can Volt Tackle, then ****ing Thunder your ass.

[Bayar]

Read this thread: http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...of?num=10&pg=1

It has all kinds of cool stuff, like making giganitc battlecruisers powered by a adamantium bar that is halfway through 2 ring gates placed one in front of each other. Cast a spell to bond the 2 ends of the bar and cover it in Quintensence. Congradulations ! You have a indestructible metal pole that travels through the planes as an infinite loop. Singularity ensues or something.

[Doc Roc]

Read this thread: http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...of?num=10&pg=1

It has all kinds of cool stuff, like making giganitc battlecruisers powered by a adamantium bar that is halfway through 2 ring gates placed one in front of each other. Cast a spell to bond the 2 ends of the bar and cover it in Quintensence. Congradulations ! You have a indestructible metal pole that travels through the planes as an infinite loop. Singularity ensues or something.

Heheh, so I'm Doc Roc, by the way. :)

[Aken0008]

One of my favorite ways of traveling is in Morrowind, where you can find a scroll that gives you +200 to jump, so that you can just jump incredible distances ( landing is a bit hard though)