Teleport Ship spell?

[ffone]

Stormwrack has 'Planar Navigation', a 9th level spell that 'ports a ship and willing creatures on it to another plane. The spell text suggests it's to a random place on that plane (albeit one that can host a ship, if any).

Is there a 'Teleport Ship' type spell, for more precise teleporting (even if just within a plane)? Sort of like how a party might use Plane Shift (which is always 5-500 miles off target) followed by (Greater) Teleport? Or did I misread the spell? I'm not even sure how one would pick a random point on some planes.

[Tetrasodium]

Stormwrack has 'Planar Navigation', a 9th level spell that 'ports a ship and willing creatures on it to another plane. The spell text suggests it's to a random place on that plane (albeit one that can host a ship, if any).

Is there a 'Teleport Ship' type spell, for more precise teleporting (even if just within a plane)? Sort of like how a party might use Plane Shift (which is always 5-500 miles off target) followed by (Greater) Teleport? Or did I misread the spell? I'm not even sure how one would pick a random point on some planes.

what level are you? I figured I'd ask since your casting a 9th level spell and the epic transport seed could do what you are looking for without even stretching the rules.

[ffone]

what level are you? I figured I'd ask since your casting a 9th level spell and the epic transport seed could do what you are looking for without even stretching the rules.

Hmm, if only I could 'take a page', so to speak, from Varsuvius's spellbook.

16th. The spell would be from an item (there's not even a wiz or sorc on the team); I was going to make the ship's wheel be able to cast it 2/day and then saw exactly that item is in Stormwrack anyway (costs 63K or so).

It's actually not even something the PCs (I'm DMing) need, but rather I had planar pirate baddies, and need to be able to explain how the baddies were getting around to do their planar pirate pillaging. The PCs will be smart enough to either use the ship for their own later traveling purposes, or at least ransack or sell it (and buy plane shift / teleport magics with the proceeds).

I *could* handwave and say Planar Navigation is like Plane Shift, with a well-defined amount of inaccuracy which amounts to some distribution of time required to sail to the desired destination (assuming they can divine the way once the ship plane hops). It's not even clear to me how to pick a 'random point' on an infinitely sized plane.

A Gate is 20' in diameter. Maybe if the ship can shrink or something...

[JeminiZero]

One possible trick:
1. Your ship should ideally be Gargantuan or smaller.
2. You need a Cleric/Archivist/Other that can cast Animate Object at CL 16 for a Gargantuan Ship, to turn it into a Gargantuan Animaged Object (Or CL 8 for a Huge Ship/Animated Object).
3. The ship now counts as a Creature and can be targetted by Greater Teleport, in which case it counts as 8 medium creatures. However, your Teleporting Caster needs to hit a CL of 24 to take a single Gargantuan Creature along. (Or CL 12 for a Huge Ship/Animated Object).

You'll need some CL boosting shenanigans to be able to pull this off. But its not impossible. The list of tricks to boost Caster Level can be found here.

[ffone]

One possible trick:
1. Your ship should ideally be Gargantuan or smaller.
2. You need a Cleric/Archivist/Other that can cast Animate Object at CL 16 for a Gargantuan Ship, to turn it into a Gargantuan Animaged Object (Or CL 8 for a Huge Ship/Animated Object).
3. The ship now counts as a Creature and can be targetted by Greater Teleport, in which case it counts as 8 medium creatures. However, your Teleporting Caster needs to hit a CL of 24 to take a single Gargantuan Creature along. (Or CL 12 for a Huge Ship/Animated Object).

You'll need some CL boosting shenanigans to be able to pull this off. But its not impossible. The list of tricks to boost Caster Level can be found here.

lol a nice trick. Though I wonder if all the objects on the ship would be counted as the same 'object' as the ship.

Also this particular ship is probably colossal or more.

For my 'story' purposes I need something like Gate or Planar Navigation in that it has a high or no hard limit on # of creatures, since the pirates had a crew of a score or so Medium creatures.

[Radar]

One possible trick:
1. Your ship should ideally be Gargantuan or smaller.
2. You need a Cleric/Archivist/Other that can cast Animate Object at CL 16 for a Gargantuan Ship, to turn it into a Gargantuan Animaged Object (Or CL 8 for a Huge Ship/Animated Object).
3. The ship now counts as a Creature and can be targetted by Greater Teleport, in which case it counts as 8 medium creatures. However, your Teleporting Caster needs to hit a CL of 24 to take a single Gargantuan Creature along. (Or CL 12 for a Huge Ship/Animated Object).

You'll need some CL boosting shenanigans to be able to pull this off. But its not impossible. The list of tricks to boost Caster Level can be found here.

Would it be possible to give the ship the ability to follow a teleport spell cast nearby? There is something like that somewhere.

[JeminiZero]

lol a nice trick. Though I wonder if all the objects on the ship would be counted as the same 'object' as the ship.

Even if it does not, the ship as a Gargantuan/Collosal Creature should have enough carrying capacity, so that all the stuff on it counts as its belongings, which can be taken along during teleport.

Also this particular ship is probably colossal or more.

Then you'd need a CL 32 Animate Objects (its possible, but you'd need a rather specific build, or a team of mutual buffing casters to pull this off). Once its a creature, you'd need a bunch of other shenanigans to get it to fit through a 20' diameter gate. The easiest way is for the Pirates to commission some custom item that has Compression as a constant effect. You'll want the Augmented version that can reduce 2 size categories so thats an ML of 7. When the animated ship equips this item, it will shrink from a Colossal Animated Ship (along with its "possessions" ie. cargo) into a Huge Animated Ship that should be able to fit through the gate, although the Crew (which do not count as possessions) will likely have to get off and walk/swim.

Would it be possible to give the ship the ability to follow a teleport spell cast nearby? There is something like that somewhere.

Only way of following a Teleport I'm aware of is Trace Teleport, but that only tells you where the teleporter went. You need to be able to teleport yourself to follow through.

[Tetrasodium]

lol a nice trick. Though I wonder if all the objects on the ship would be counted as the same 'object' as the ship.

Also this particular ship is probably colossal or more.

For my 'story' purposes I need something like Gate or Planar Navigation in that it has a high or no hard limit on # of creatures, since the pirates had a crew of a score or so Medium creatures.

There is a belt in book of vile darkness that lets you use people as batteries for casting spells. You could probably modify it into a cage or bunch of shackles attached to a device that lets a not quite epic level caster cast epic teleport and fit nicely with pirates taking prisoners. Assuming it's not an evil game, the idea of turning a bunch of humanoids into ash with epic backlash damage* is probably not going to go over too well with your players. If you eventually plan to go into epic levels it has the added benefit of possibly getting some of them to flip through the epic level handbook early :)


*

The caster cannot somehow avoid or make himself immune to backlash damage. For spells with durations longer than instantaneous, the backlash damage is per round. If backlash damage kills a caster, no spell or method exists that will return life to the caster’s body without costing the caster a level—not even wish, true resurrection, miracle, or epic spells that return life to the deceased. Spells that normally penalize the recipient one level when they return him to life, such as raise dead, penalize a caster killed by backlash two levels.
- Page 91 of epic level handbook

[Radar]

Only way of following a Teleport I'm aware of is Trace Teleport, but that only tells you where the teleporter went. You need to be able to teleport yourself to follow through.

I just remembered, what I had in mind: Spell Stowaway. Unfortunately it's an epic feat - it would be tricky to tack this onto a ship.

[Ravens_cry]

Research a spell to specifically teleport a ship and it's contents on the same plane? Greater Teleport is the same level as plane shift, so if you want it to work like shift-a-ship, it should be the same level. On the other hand, it could be two levels lower if it works like teleport.

[Thrawn183]

Could you make the ship itself intelligent? In that case, it could cast plane shift and teleport on itself, neatly solving the problem.

[ffone]

Could you make the ship itself intelligent? In that case, it could cast plane shift and teleport on itself, neatly solving the problem.

Genius! Since the teleport/plane-shifter has no size restrictions on themselves!

This is the way I'll go, I think. It has two other nice attributes:

- Uses L5-7 spells instead of L9, and I always like to use technically-less-powerful/expensive things when possible (the Planar Navigation 2/day ship's wheel item is worth more if sold than I wanted the PCs to get on top of the encounter) - though I suppose an intelligent ship itself is pretty 'up there'.

- The item which casts the spells (which the intelligent ship will have been 'using') will be more useful to the PCs if they do 'detach' it from the ship, since those spells are not ship-specific.

-It gives the ship "memory", the interesting property that it can teleport you to places you aren't familiar with, but which the ship itself is, since it's the caster and thus the 'creature' which needs the familiarity knowledge. This may actually be an excellent plot device (the PCs' quest is going to involve backtracking the pirates' previous travels to the other villains bankrolling them.)

[El Dorado]

Intelligent ship with its own agenda would be awesome.

[AvatarZero]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/teleport.htm

"You can bring along objects as long as their weight doesn’t exceed your maximum load. You may also bring one additional willing Medium or smaller creature (carrying gear or objects up to its maximum load) or its equivalent (see below) per three caster levels."

If you've got a total crew of four or so (ie. your party) then I've got a trick for using plain old Teleport to get the job done. Assuming a crew of four, your ship can't be that large, so all you need to do is be able to pick it up. Use Polymorph, Bull's Strength and Enlarge Person on yourself. The form you assume should be quadrupedal to increase your carrying capacity by 50%, and each size increase from Medium doubles your carrying capacity. Make sure you're doing this on yourself if you're casting the Teleport, because Large passengers take up more "space" on the spell. You don't actually need to pick up the ship; you can take the ship with you if you are physically capable of lifting it, whether you actually are or not.

You might be tempted to do similar things to the people you're teleporting with in order to share the load with them, but I don't know if your DM would let you do that. Too subtle a joke? Hopefully not.

[Ravens_cry]

Does Polymorph change your type? Because if so, Enlarge Person wouldn't work on you when you turn into that quadruped.

[Dralnu]

Intelligent ship with its own agenda would be awesome.

It was the true pirate captain and now silently plots revenge on the adventurers? Teleports them into an ambush just off Pirate's Cove? Yarrr!

[Mando Knight]

Shapechange into a fairly large monster, then cast Bull's Strength. Unfortunately, you'd need to go up at least one level.

A Huge Cloud Giant (17 HD) has 35 Strength. With Bull's Strength, that goes up to 39. According to the carrying capacity tables, this means that it can carry up to 22400 lbs (11.2 tons). I think that should be enough to carry a sloop or cutter-sized ship. (Which should be roughly the right size for the largest kind of ship a group of 4 people could sail without problems, methinks...)

[Forged Fury]

Could you make the ship itself intelligent? In that case, it could cast plane shift and teleport on itself, neatly solving the problem.

Makes me think of Stargate: Universe or a myriad of other Sci-Fi movies/shows of the past. I think it's a great formula for doing short "Monster of the Week" style game sessions based on the new location of the teleporting ship.

[Kobold-Bard]

How accurate is Gate? Will it fit a ship through?

[Mando Knight]

How accurate is Gate? Will it fit a ship through?

Probably not: a sloop is roughly 50+ feet long and probably has a mast about that height from the keel, and the maximum diameter of a Gate is only 20 feet.

[Hague]

Erm... can't you just make it so that the ship uses planar navigation to go to the Astral Plane and then you sail through there to end up at your location by heading through a color pool? The timeless trait of the Astral Plane allows you to functionally teleport, since no time passes on the Material Plane.

[Radar]

Erm... can't you just make it so that the ship uses planar navigation to go to the Astral Plane and then you sail through there to end up at your location by heading through a color pool? The timeless trait of the Astral Plane allows you to functionally teleport, since no time passes on the Material Plane.

Timless planes don't work that way.

[ffone]

I've had a stumbling block on the 'make the ship intelligent and have IT cast the spell / use the command-word item so that its own size doesn't count'. Namely, the pirates' crew was too large (about 20 Mediums) for Plane Shift (8), or for Teleport (1/3 caster levels and I don't want to make a CL 60th item!)

Another approach would be to somehow shrink the ship to be within a Gate's radius (20'), which would require reducing its dimensions by a factor of 4 or so (2 size categories - it's probably about 80' from the base of its hall to the top of its mainmast), and doing so without crushing everyone on board.

[JeminiZero]

Because noone ever pays attention to anything I say.

Once its a creature, you'd need a bunch of other shenanigans to get it to fit through a 20' diameter gate. The easiest way is for the Pirates to commission some custom item that has Compression as a constant effect. You'll want the Augmented version that can reduce 2 size categories so thats an ML of 7. When the animated ship equips this item, it will shrink from a Colossal Animated Ship (along with its "possessions" ie. cargo) into a Huge Animated Ship that should be able to fit through the gate, although the Crew (which do not count as possessions) will likely have to get off and walk/swim.

[ffone]

Oh, that was quite clever (psionics always seems to have an answer for everything), but I likely won't use it b/c

1. I already said no psionics for this game.
2. I'm reluctant to use custom continuous-effect items b/c then players clamor for them.
3. The crew all having to shrink themselves simultaneously is inelegant.

btw, if I do do this, what's the pricing formula for psionic items? It's based on power points used somehow I assume?

[JeminiZero]

Well, then quick and dirty trick #2: Its a DC 30 Escape Artist check to squeeze through a tight space (big enough for your head but not your shoulders). I believe a collosal animated ship going though a 20' gate should count as such.

If the ship is intelligent, it can start investing skill points in Escape Artist. As long as it has a bonus of +10 or higher, it should be able to squeeze through eventually by taking 20.

But since Gate has a limited duration, you might want to give it a much higher rank, so that it can automatically succeeds to with just a single 1 minute check. If necessary add custom items that boost skill checks (for which there are clear guidelines and which are usually less game breaking).

[Radar]

Well, then quick and dirty trick #2: Its a DC 30 Escape Artist check to squeeze through a tight space (big enough for your head but not your shoulders). I believe a collosal animated ship going though a 20' gate should count as such.

If the ship is intelligent, it can start investing skill points in Escape Artist. As long as it has a bonus of +10 or higher, it should be able to squeeze through eventually by taking 20.

But since Gate has a limited duration, you might want to give it a much higher rank, so that it can automatically succeeds to with just a single 1 minute check. If necessary add custom items that boost skill checks (for which there are clear guidelines and which are usually less game breaking).

Even faster: all capable people on board use Aid Another. This should push the Escape Artist check through the stratosphere considering a typical crew on board.

[ericgrau]

Give the ship masts that are bolted to the deck and unbolt them. Now does it fit in a 20' gate?

[aquaticrna]

you should have the ship duplicate the elsewale's (from the planar handbook) abilities. It gets plane shift once per day, and it has the "carry passengers" ability which states that any creatures its carrying or in its bite grapple are automatically brought with it when it plane shifts, and can carry up to 16 small creatures, 4 mediums, or one large. Since its able to carry more than 8 creatures its ability is already superseding the normal plane shift ability. So i would say copy that ability and make it suit the needs of your intelligent ship.

[Androgeus]

Could you make the ship itself intelligent? In that case, it could cast plane shift and teleport on itself, neatly solving the problem.

That's just asking for mutiny on your own ship....by your own ship