3.5 Airship Rules

[CTLC]

So, are there any good ones, brewed or not, anywhere? The rules will need to allow airship vs airship combat.

hawlp?

[Ormur]

You could try the ship to ship combat rules in Stormwrack and replace water currents for wind. I'm sure someone else can point you to other airships but I think Arms and Equipment guide has a few.

[BRC]

Stormwrack's rules are good, the only problem with them is that only one player really does much, it's why even though I'm running a nautical campaign, I havn't done much in the way of naval combat.

[Vizzerdrix]

Arms and Equipment guide should have them.

[Irreverent Fool]

You could adjust the 3.0 spelljammer rules, but I'd vote for using the water-based ship rules from Stormwrack. They're mostly designed around getting the ships into boarding range fairly quickly to allow PCs too do their stuff.

obnoxious
sig

[Warpwolf16]

Im surprised, no one suggested AirshipsD20 >w>!

[Oslecamo]

Eberron books have plenty of airships.

[AslanCross]

Eberron's complete, Stormwrack-stype airship stats are found in the Eberron Explorer's Handbook (as are the stats for all the other vessels in Eberron; mind you, the airship is the only one that flies. The Wind Galleon and Stormship are simply elemental-assisted naval vessels). The airship is much faster than any other flying vessel, but its biggest problem is its prohibitive cost (95,000 GP). If you're actually playing in Eberron, House Lyrandar won't let you get one either.

Arms and Equipment Guide has the dirigible and zeppelin, but these are extremely slow and are highly dependent on wind.

Shining South (Forgotten Realms) also has a flying ship, but it's more than four times the cost of the Eberron Airship and also nowhere as fast.

[Bibliomancer]

Eberron's complete, Stormwrack-stype airship stats are found in the Eberron Explorer's Handbook (as are the stats for all the other vessels in Eberron; mind you, the airship is the only one that flies. The Wind Galleon and Stormship are simply elemental-assisted naval vessels). The airship is much faster than any other flying vessel, but its biggest problem is its prohibitive cost (95,000 GP). If you're actually playing in Eberron, House Lyrandar won't let you get one either.

However, there is a prestige class from the same book called the Windwright Captain which can borrow an airship from the House free of charge (in exchange for the House getting a 10% cut of any profits). You have to have the Mark of Storm, though.

[AslanCross]

However, there is a prestige class from the same book called the Windwright Captain which can borrow an airship from the House free of charge (in exchange for the House getting a 10% cut of any profits). You have to have the Mark of Storm, though.

Yeah, was about to add that if you actually work for House Lyrandar, then they might let you use one.

[Bibliomancer]

Yeah, was about to add that if you actually work for House Lyrandar, then they might let you use one.

It would be fairly easy to go rogue after you get to the second level in the class, especially since by definition you're flying the fastest thing in the sky so they can't catch up to you. Change the interior layout to deter teleporters and presto, you're off the grid.

[Ormur]

Stormwrack's rules are good, the only problem with them is that only one player really does much, it's why even though I'm running a nautical campaign, I havn't done much in the way of naval combat.

While the ships are manoeuvring around each other the other players can engage in ranged combat. I've also only used the rules once but the party sorceress killed half the crew of the enemy ship with fireballs before they even managed to board the ship. The swordsage used his searing charge to fly over to the enemy ship once it came within 80 ft. and the rest of the party spotted a rowing boat that was trying to sneak up on them and fired arrows at them.

So there's plenty they can do before boarding and I don't see why any of this shouldn't apply to airships.

[lightningcat]

I'm currently using the flying combat rules from the Dragonlance Campaign Setting book, it works with airships with very little adjustment. As long as you use a single hp value for airships, rather then the A&E section rules.

[Triaxx]

Airships + Wizards means that some kind of magical shielding is not optional.

Most rules can be snagged from elsewhere, but a half-DC check for steering for adjusting heights. That's what I do.

[ericgrau]

I'd use water-based ship rules. From there you give the airship a constant speed that it is able to travel at. Add the wind speed to this speed to get your actual speed. Or subtract it if flying directly against the wind, etc., etc. As a rough conversion you could use 1 mph = 10 feet per round. Though in reality it's 1 mph = 8.8 feet per round.

At low altitudes use the normal weather rules. At high altitudes the winds may be up to 2.5 times faster; enough to bump it up up to 2 categories.

[bosssmiley]

• Spelljammer
• Champions of Mystara (BECMI airships)
• Sky Pirates of Mars (aerial gunboats vs airskiffs)
• Use naval or starship combat rules of choice, replacing islands/planets and fogbanks/nebulae with Earth Nodes and clouds.