Rules for paper planes

[BisectedBrioche]

This is just an idea I had from a passing comment in the topic for my Linguamancer prestige class. The following are rules for making and throwing paper planes.

To make a paper plane requires a sheet of paper (1gp or a craft(wood) DC of 5 and 2 hours to make 10 sheets, which weigh 1lb.). The base DC to make a plane is 10, craft(Paper Folding). The following table shows some of the planes which can be made;

{table=head]Plane|Flight Time|AC|Speed Mod|HP|Craft Modifier|Special

Ball|0.5 round|5|1|1d6+1|-10|Free action to create

Box Dart|1 round|4|1|1d6|-5|None

Paper Dart|1 round|5|1.5|1d6|+0|None

Glider|3 rounds|1|0.5|1d6+1|+5|Keeps Flying until -2

Stunt|2 rounds|6|2|1d4|+5|Keeps flying until -2, automatically has flaps enhancement[/table]

A plane may also have any of the following enhancements applied;

Heavy The plane is made using two sheets of paper, reduce flight time by one round and the speed modifier by 0.5 (both to a minimum of 0.5), add 1 to AC and double the hitpoints, the plane may now fly until it reaches -2 (if it couldn't already). The craft DC is increased by 5.

Flaps The plane has flaps added to it, the crafter may make it make a single turn of up to 90 degrees in its flight (at a point decided before throwing it). The craft check for this is increased by 5.

Homing The plane is enchanted to track a target. The plane must have flaps to be able to steer (otherwise it is still only able to move in a strait line). This increases the craft DC by 5 and requires the plane o have someone cast animate objects on it.

Fire Guard The plane has an extra bit of paper which burns slowly, delaying the rest of the plane from catching on fire for 1d4-1 rounds. The extra drag reduces the speed modifier by 0.5 (to a minimum of 0.5). This increases the craft DC by 5.

Once made a plane can be thrown as a free action. Treat the plane as a tiny creature which does nothing but move forward (unless stated otherwise). A plane remains aloft for an amount of rounds equivalent to its flight time. Its movement rate per round is equal to 10 per the amount the roll on the craft check exceeds the craft DC by times the speed modifier (10*(Role-DC*SM)). Roll the appropriate dice to determine how much HP the plane has. If a plane takes 2 points or more damage it falls to the ground, if it drops to 0 hp it automatically becomes a ball, if it drops to -5 hp the paper is destroyed. If a plane falls to the ground it may be picked up and thrown again. A plane on the ground takes 1 point of damage every minute it is not picked up.

If the plane is hit by fire damage it immediately catches on fire and takes 1 point of damage per second (6 points per round) and its destroyed if it reaches 0 hp, a creature which comes in contact with a paper plane takes 1d4 fire damage. Any contact with water reduces a plane to 0 hp immediatly.

If a paper plane is targeted at something then treat it as a thrown weapon to determin whether it hits or not.

[ZeroNumerous]

Turns out that just balling a paper plane up and throwing it flies further than any other paper plane made using a standard college-rule piece of paper. To get better lift and longer flight times you need to make the paper longer and wider.

[JEntropy]

I'd never really thought about paper airplane rules before, though the craft dc for paper seems...low. Certainly modern day paper involves wood pulp and numerous chemicals, though it wasn't done this way in medieval settings. This is what a quick google on medieval paper found:

Medieval paper was made from linen rags. It is much stronger and more durable than modern wood-pulp paper, and fifteenth-century scribes were wrong if they believed that it would not survive. Rag paper is manufactured as follows. White rags are sorted and washed thoroughly in a tub pierced with drainage holes and they are then allowed to ferment for four or five days. Then the wet disintegrating pieces are cut into scraps and beaten for some hours in clean running water, left to fester for a week, beaten again, and so on, several times over, until the mixture disintegrates into a runny water-logged pulp. It is then tipped into a huge vat. A wire frame is scooped into the vat, picking up a film of wet fibres, and it is shaken free of drips and emptied onto a sheet of felt. Another layer of felt is laid over it. As the soggy sheets emerge and are tipped out, they are stacked in a pile of multiple sandwiches of interleaved felt and paper. Then the stack is squeezed in a press to remove excess water and the damp paper can be taken out and hung up to dry. When ready, the sheet is 'sized' by lowering it into an animal glue made from boiling scraps of vellum or other offcuts. The size makes the paper less absorbent and allows it to take ink without running. The sheets may have to be pressed again to make them completely flat. Sometimes, especially in north-east Italy (doubtless under the influence of Islamic paper manufacture) the paper was polished with a smooth stone to give it a luxurious sheen.

http://www.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/MMM/paper.html

Maybe cheaper to buy? I imagine you could still use rag paper to make airplanes.

However, staying on the topic of forest products, wouldn't it be neat to employ wood shape somehow?

Wood Shape
Transmutation
Level: Drd 2
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: One touched piece of wood no larger than 10 cu. ft. + 1 cu. ft./level
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates (object)
Spell Resistance: Yes (object)

Wood shape enables you to form one existing piece of wood into any shape that suits your purpose. While it is possible to make crude coffers, doors, and so forth, fine detail isn’t possible. There is a 30% chance that any shape that includes moving parts simply doesn’t work.

[BisectedBrioche]

Turns out that just balling a paper plane up and throwing it flies further than any other paper plane made using a standard college-rule piece of paper. To get better lift and longer flight times you need to make the paper longer and wider.

I reject your reality and substitute one which is optimised for play.

[Zoraciel Ivtel]

Now if a character is a Linguamancer and inscribes his/her spells on a paper airplane, would it do anything special? Like, would the spell be delayed until the airplane hits the ground or something?

[Maldraugedhen]

Darn, another misread--and so soon after the last! I was dead certain this was going to be a ruleset for the Elemental Plane of Paper. Oh well. Probably already been done.

I think damaging the planes should cause them to stop flying--as a tiny object, basically any impact is going to, at the very least, throw them off course, and the most likely direction is down, not to mention what a tear does to paper airplanes anyway.

Water should not destroy them instantly (the sheet vanishing into the ether of the Elemental Plane from whence it came), but should instead prevent it from flying, or turn it from whatever type of plane it was into a ball of paper-equivalent.

[Slartibartfast]

Shouldn't it be Craft(Oragami)? That's basically the art of paper-folding anyways, and plus any Linguamancer worth a noun would say that anyways. Besides that, I think it's great!

Zoraciel: I think that if a Linguamancer writes his spell on a plane it doesn't go off until the plane hits something. There's only a few variables possible. Lemme make a table:

{table]Event|Reaction1|Reaction2|Reaction3
Contact with Object|Spell is Cast|Spell is Not Cast|Plane Wounded and/or Set on Fire
Plane is Hit|Spell is Cast|Spell is Not Cast; Plane Destroyed|Spell is Not Cast; Plane Survives
Timer|After X rounds Spell is Cast|After X rounds No Effect|After X rounds Plane Wounded and/or Set on Fire
Spell is Cast|Plane Destroyed|Plane Unharmed|Plane Wounded and/or Set on Fire
[/table]

Some of those options are really dumb. There are some possibilities I did not look at, but for the most part mix-and-matching that table will give you all the stuff you need to make the Plane Spells work. Heh, Plane Spells. As in, Elemental Plane Spells. Storm of Papercuts! Hope that answers your question. I know I didn't make up the Linguamancer, but this table was vague enough to encompass nearly all reasonable choices.

Bisected8, I would also like feedback on further rules for Linguamancer spells cast upon paper planes.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Do you have rules for planes surviving temperatures of about 600F and travelling at about 360 000 feet per round?

[thevorpalbunny]

Turns out that just balling a paper plane up and throwing it flies further than any other paper plane made using a standard college-rule piece of paper. To get better lift and longer flight times you need to make the paper longer and wider.

This is not true at all. A plane can be made with a stanard piece of paper that can fly across a full-size football stadium (the short way) and only lose about 5 ft of altitude. The design was called a Nakamura Lock

Also, the whole idea of rules for paper planes and a class that could legitimately use them was too awesome to not cast raise dead on.

[Slartibartfast]

Interesting Note:
The PHB lists paper as costing 4 sp per sheet.
Just wanted to throw that out there.

[vartan]

The price of parchment varies from 3.0 to 3.5 interestingly enough (my group has PHBs of both versions and we noticed this while we were all running around the markets).

I like this idea.

How has no one made an MIA reference in this thread yet?
... "I fly like paper get high like planes."
Anyone?