Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Rhade 07-29-07, 07:46 PM	I just thought I'd throw out this suggestion for players or DMs looking for more flavor to add to their ship or their campaigns. In my campaign the Valenar have adapted the buoyant properties of Soarwood to naval combat. The ballista itself is actually unchanged, it is the missiles it fires that are changed. Instead of normal wood, Soarwood is used and its natural properties are enhanced by magic so that it not just neutrally buoyant in air but rises like a balloon if not weighted down properly. To make sure that it shoot strait the missile is built around a metal core. Upon impact (or being struck with sufficient force) a mechanical device allows the metal core to drop out of the bottom. The whole purpose of this missile is to fire a volley or two into a ships side. The missiles strike the hull and are anchored in its side by its relatively normal head. The impact activates the mechanism which allows the metal core to fall into the ocean. When enough of these Soarwood missiles are attached on one side the boat will be flipped on its side. Once the sea is able to get in boat will capsize as any other vessel wood. Another option is to fire enough of these missiles into both sides towards the back and take its rudder out of the water. This weapon would have two advantages. First it does not have to puncture the hull of the ship to work. Once the Soarwood missiles strike, they do their job, weather it is on a one inch or a two foot thick hull. Secondly, if the attackers so wished through the use of magic or more Soarwood, they could easily raise and use the attacked boat as the use of these missiles doesn't require the destruction of the hull (or the various masts) to be effective.
ZappoHisbane 07-29-07, 09:33 PM	While it's a novel idea, I don't think the physics work if mechanical effects alone are going to do the trick. It'd require an awful lot of weight on the one side of the ship to pull it over. Using them as anchors gives the attacker a great tactical advantage though. What could be done to make this work is to use magic to a greater degree and spontaneously create the weight to pull the ship over. Either prefabricated stuff pulled from a dimensional pocket or unshrunk (ala Shrink Item spell), or using a Minor Creation spell. Note that Minor Creation only specifies a volume/level limit, not a weight limit. How much does 7 cubic feet of lead weigh anyway? Of course, if you're going to use magic of that scale, there's probably more efficient ways of disabling a ship intact with other spells anyway. :P
Rhade 07-29-07, 11:21 PM	Um I think you misread me. It's not weighing down one side of a ship to tip it over, its lifting one side of a ship to flip it the other way. Soarwood is neutrally buoyant in air according to the Eberron rules and its not inconceivable that this property could be amplified for this specialty purpose. One could use magic to outright disable or destroy a ship at see but I see that as more of a Forgotten Realms solution where 20th level casters are as numerous as the sands in the sea. With this device magewrights simply amplify the normal properties of Soarwood to get the desired effect of overturning/disabling an enemy ship. Not every ship on the high seas has a high-level caster on board, but everyone with a ballista could use these missiles.
Ryoden_Anariavas 07-30-07, 03:41 PM	While it sounds neat where are the mechanics that the people playing the game need to have in order for it to work? by the way going from neutral buyant to buyant enugh to pick up a 20 ton ship is going to require alot of work/soarwood
OctaviusIII 08-01-07, 12:02 AM	I don't know about this implementation, but I do like the idea of soarwood ballista bolts. It would increase the range at the expense of power, but in the right circumstance it might be useful: aflame, perhaps, or delivering a payload.
Belkar 08-02-07, 02:55 PM	I don't know about this implementation, but I do like the idea of soarwood ballista bolts. It would increase the range at the expense of power, but in the right circumstance it might be useful: aflame, perhaps, or delivering a payload. I think that's a great idea, Octavius! It makes sense that soarwood ballista bolts would fly much, much further (unhindered by gravity and all). My gears even got turning about a flat soarwood ballista bolt with buckled straps attached to it. You add weight to the bolt and it should perform the same way as a normal bolt. Easy way to do ship to ship transport? The "recieving" ship could have a huge wooden target on the port or starboard gunwall to catch the incoming bolts. You could transport goods at high speed, mid-air, or even a daring adventurer or two! ;)
ZappoHisbane 08-04-07, 03:36 PM	Um I think you misread me. It's not weighing down one side of a ship to tip it over, its lifting one side of a ship to flip it the other way. Soarwood is neutrally buoyant in air according to the Eberron rules and its not inconceivable that this property could be amplified for this specialty purpose. Ah yes, I did misread you. The part about dropping the metal cores into the sea had me picturing them as anchors. Sorry about that. Even sorrier to say however that using this method seems even more unlikely than before. First, soarwood is not naturally buoyant, it's just lighter than normal wood (by only 25%). Soarwood used in the construction of airships and the like is magically treated to make it neutrally buoyant. To go further than that, I think you're getting into the 'high magic' area that you were trying to avoid. Second, and as already posted, you'll need so many of these things to lift even half of a large galleon that it's probably not even worth look. Compare the amount of lighter-than-air gas that is required to lift a small gondola & engines on the Goodyear Blimp. To get that kind of lifting power in such a small package as a ballista bolt (or 12) would require a pretty heavy expenditure of arcane energy, in my opinion. I say work with gravity, not against it. :P
OctaviusIII 08-05-07, 12:09 AM	I think that's a great idea, Octavius! It makes sense that soarwood ballista bolts would fly much, much further (unhindered by gravity and all). My gears even got turning about a flat soarwood ballista bolt with buckled straps attached to it. You add weight to the bolt and it should perform the same way as a normal bolt. Easy way to do ship to ship transport? The "recieving" ship could have a huge wooden target on the port or starboard gunwall to catch the incoming bolts. You could transport goods at high speed, mid-air, or even a daring adventurer or two! ;) That sort of delivery system would certainly be interesting, although I was thinking that, rather than delivering goods it would deliver something that would explode on impact or otherwise magnify the damage. Perhaps a fireball seed?
yossarius 08-05-07, 08:29 AM	If you've seen the episode of mythbusters where they filled a bunch of footballs helium, they discovered that they actually went less far than those footballs with normal air. Of course, you're welcome to decide your game world physics don't work this way. Just thought I'd interject the thought that soarwood might not make your bolts go further.
OctaviusIII 08-05-07, 02:31 PM	Craptastic Yossarius, you're right! I've seen that episode, too... bloody counter-intuitive physics...