9th level characters, an airship, and an unlimited supply of lava...

[Were-Sandwich]

My brother is planning to run a D&D campaign in his homemade world, starting at 9th level. His world is a system of islands, not unlike Earthsea, but the seas are made of lava. What started off as a joke way to stop us straying off the map he'd made has become a really important part of the world. We're startign off an an island the size of England. Transport between islands is accomplished by various forms of airship, but is really risky because of essentially random lava flares that reach several hundred meeters into the air, which can be predicted and avoided using Survival.

Knowing the way by bro's mind works, we're probably going to ahve to engage in a lot of airship related activities, and I'm trying to think of as many ways we can fight effectively between airships. The unlimited supply of lava is just screaming out to be abused somehow, but I can't figure out anything.

Some of the airships are big dirigible affairs, some of them are aeronef type designs, with some othe wierd and wonderful things flying around.

Best idea I can think of is telekinetically flinging lumps of lava at people.

[Dalboz of Gurth]

I really suggest reading some old spell jammer material for good ideas if you can :D

Even though the setting wasn't great, the rules for ship to ship combat were pretty solid. You definitely need some automated arcane weaponry.

[averagejoe]

You definitely need some automated arcane weaponry.

They have rules for "spell turrets" in the DMGII.

I agree, this definitely seems abusable. I can imagine a tornado (if you have a druid aboard) would do something good, or at least spectacular, in ship to ship battles (you get control weather by that level, yeah?) I'd test that one out first, though. Preferably in the middle of nothing.

Also, if the enemy ship is in pursuit, and you can predict where one of those lava flares will be, control winds may equal good times. (Blow the lava at the enemy ship.)

[Mike_Lemmer]

See if there's a way you can make it flare up. Abuse as needed.

[Lemur]

Reverse Gravity comes to mind.


Airship
^
|
|
|
Lava goes up

[Alex12]

Wait, the oceans are lava? There's vary little about that that isn't wrong. If the surface is hot enough to keep the oceans from cooling, the landmasses would have melted. Also, the atmosphere would quite probably be a) too hot for anything to survive and b) poisonous.

[Ecalsneerg]

Wait, the oceans are lava? There's vary little about that that isn't wrong. If the surface is hot enough to keep the oceans from cooling, the landmasses would have melted. Also, the atmosphere would quite probably be a) too hot for anything to survive and b) poisonous.

A Wizard Did It (note caps)

Anyway, if you have protection from fire of some sort, you could try grappling/overrunning people into the lava, leaving them to die while you dimension door or fly back outta there. Sound fun?

[Thane of Fife]

Well, dirigibles tend to be really flammable (sp?), so Lightning Bolts, Fireballs, or even just ballista bolts dipped in Alchemist's Fire could be very effective.

If you're close enough to the lava, casting Grease on something could cause it to erupt into flames.

And of course, summoning things onto other people's ships is always fun.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

Something tells me that profession (airship) sailor or something similar would be a good skill for you, or someone else in your party to have.

[Blanks]

air ship? like in a giant balloon? over lava?

nobody said "giant needle" yet? FIRST!

anything that can pop their balloon is your friend. Ballistas are the first thing that come to mind seeing as arrows will probably do too little damage. If i was the DM those balloons would also be fireproof, otherwise fireball is way too easy

[martyboy74]

Summon an Earth Elemental so it's standing on top of the craft. A druid can summon large elementals with Summon Nature's Ally V. A large earth elemental weighs 6000 pounds. Odds are that that will be enough to screw up their flight path.

[leperkhaun]

I would recomend Stormwrack. It has various add ons for ships. Also the ebberon campgain setting makes use of airships and has various things you can do with that........ including an airship captian PrC which could be easily adapated.

For the most part until you can get into boarding range - the "spell turrets" are your best bet along with spell casters and summons.

I could see a modified dimensinal door that would teleport someone touched rather than the caster....allowing melee to get to the enemy faster and suprise them.

[MCerberus]

I highly recommend Improved Bull Rush

[Prometheus]

Boiling Hot LABAVABA!

If you want to avoid air to air combat, find a flying means of fire resistance (Cloudwalk/Fly/Phantom Steed/Tenser's Floating Disk/Whatever + Resist Energy/Protection from Energy/Magic Items/Whatever). All you have to do is skim closer to the lava (and the accompanying heat radiating off) than your opponents are willing to do (or they will burst into flames, lose control etc).

Of course, a DM could twart this with lava-sea monster or extremly poisonous gas radiating from the surface. And of course, the duration of your magic would have to be longer than the duration of your flight.

[Lord Tataraus]

Wait, the oceans are lava? There's vary little about that that isn't wrong. If the surface is hot enough to keep the oceans from cooling, the landmasses would have melted. Also, the atmosphere would quite probably be a) too hot for anything to survive and b) poisonous.

Wait, there are people able to bend the very fabric of reality? People who can create great explosions of energy out of nothing, cause things to fly through the air or even instantly disappear from one location to be transport hundreds of miles away in a matter of seconds? You say that some of these beings wield powers that can return the dead, increase the mental capability and physical capability for up to an hour with excellent results and no drawbacks as well as even call forth creatures from across the planes of existence and force them to fight for you? etc, etc, etc
[/rant]

Well, got that off my chest. Now then.
Stormwrack is a must for great fun in ship-to-ship combat. Otherwise, you might want to get gliders to go on bombing raids over enemy airships. Due to the heat, gliders could stay up forever! Just glide up to the balloon and slice a big hole in it with your sword. Also, you could maybe draw up lava with some custom force spell that creates a bowl, then hover it over the ship and dismiss.

[Fizban]

In addition to Stormwrack, the Arms and Equipment Guide has some air vehicles based off the same maneuvering rules, requiring only minor updates (sectioning, face size, and ramming rules IIRC). Note that the air vehicles presented treat the balloons as rigging, and thus the balloons have considerable hp, and multiple sections for redundancy.

And what's with all these mentions of spell turrets? Those are supposed to be stationary traps, and are already crazy underpriced. A better way would be 1/2 standard at will or charged cost, since it's a bulky item. It would be 1/4 for immobility, but when the price of weapons for the ship matters, chances are the characters are going to be bringing it with them anyway (the 1/2 and 1/4 rules come from the Stronghold Builders Guidebook, and you'll notice several items in the DMG follow them almost exactly).

As for heat and poison: DnD lava stops damaging after 20 feet or so IIRC, and has no innate poisonous qualities. Anything more is homebrew

[Were-Sandwich]

Stormwrack is a must for great fun in ship-to-ship combat. Otherwise, you might want to get gliders to go on bombing raids over enemy airships. Due to the heat, gliders could stay up forever! Just glide up to the balloon and slice a big hole in it with your sword. Also, you could maybe draw up lava with some custom force spell that creates a bowl, then hover it over the ship and dismiss.

That glider idea is a good one, Must remember that.

I got the DM to elaborate on airship tech. Firstly, there are cannons, but they don't use gunpowder, they use some other substance which won't work in smaller weapons (neatly sidestepping the firearms issue). Also, some ships have 'wards' which are like Walls of Force. Basically they're shields. THey have an amount of hp they can soak up before going down, and they stretch all the way round the ship, meaning you cna't go after stuff until you've taken the shields down.

All the ideas you guys have come up with are good.

Ideas I've had:
I don't have DMG II, but I had considered the traps rules. Surely if you can build rapid-fire dart launchers that fire on a complex pressure pad system, you can build one with a trigger, right? He's still deciding on that one. But if he says yes, we've got some cool machine guns. Could also be used to create fire-ball cannons.

Are there any object protecting spells that cause an explosion when the protected object is destroyed? Putting that on ammo could be interesting.

Some kind of Alchemists Fire launcher could be useful for setting other ships on fire.

[Bryn]

Firstly, it sounds like an amazing campaign (but of course I say that, I love airships )

Does the lifting gas in the airships burn or not? I'd assume not, since flying flammable gas over lava would be not the most sensible thing to do, and the same goes for other elements of the airship. I also remember reading somewhere that a damaged airship would not burst like a balloon but rather slowly sink to the ground- the pressure of the gas inside the cells would not be sufficient to push it out fast. So, piercing airships and setting them on fire might not be particularly effective, although if you made a very big hole it would be a lot more problematic for the enemy as the gas would leak out a lot faster. A guy gliding over with a sword probably wouldn't be a lot of help though, unless he went inside the airship and killed everyone.

[nonsens]

Look into the Windwright Captain from the Explorer's Handbook Excerpt
that's handy if you're the captain

[Belteshazzar]

Find a way to manupulate weather. Then simply make land bringes using sleet storms or similar magic. It will probaly not be permenate but it will almost definatly make a crust thick enough to walk on. However, always remember that heat rises and if something goes wrong you would almost always have amazing thermals above the lava to ride up into the upper atmosphere. Hell I am suprised gliders arn't used more than balloons in that case. In that case try to build some Nausicca Valley of the Wind Gliders, arm them with darts and grenades then create the entire fighter pilot genre merged with the surfer genre as dozens of ham fisted air gliders launch to counter the oncomming dreadnaughts. Trench run the cannon slots and windows with flame, gas, or tanglefoot grenades. Ramming speed is a must as you use major image and invisability to preform the modified Picard Maneuver on enemy vessels.

[Indon]

A Wizard Did It (note caps)

Actually, I feel Convection Schmonvection would be a more accurate descriptor of the circumstance.

[Mr. Moogle]

Have a bull-rush'er shove people screaming into a (rather unpleasant) firey demise. Also use Shatter to break the bladders of lifting gas (helium? heated air?). Those are all my current suggestions i might be back with more later...

[Indon]

For defenses; set up items of Antimagic Field around vulnerable equipment. Have them deactivatable so that you can drop a Mending on them if neccessary.

[Goumindong]

I highly recommend Improved Bull Rush

And the various incarnations of "Devastating Throw" from the Tome of Battle.

[Megafly]

I can't help but imagine all the havoc you could wreak with some well place magic items. A Quall's feather token (tree) could create a 50 foot oak on the deck of your opponents airship.

A ballista harpoon with an immovable rod incorporated into it would do...interesting things to an airship.

swarms of vermin, seem obvious

earthbind on any flying troops that may be attempting to board your craft.

if you go overboard, in these circumstances and don't have a potion of fly, that ring of featherfall becomes a rather cruel torture, you would hit the lava and burn rather than die on impact.

[Citizen Joe]

Desert of Desolation series (which may have been 1st edition?) had a 'sea of glass' at one point. The sun was reflected so strongly that in some places it produced the same effect as lava. They did have nice 'glass boats' which moved about on the glass sea on skates. The hull itself protected passengers, while a sail caught the reflected heat to allow propulsion.

So you could have ships that sail through the lava, using the convective currents for motive power and some means to protect the passengers.