Post/Author/DateTime	Post
OracleYori 11-02-05, 01:43 PM	Are there any faster airships that don't require as large a crew as the base airship from the EB book?
shadowpavement 11-02-05, 02:03 PM	There are rules for an Elemental Cutter in Dragon #329, which is used in Matt Forbeck's book "Marked for Death"
OracleYori 11-02-05, 03:38 PM	No other information? Crew size needed? Max Speed? Maneuverability? Price? I don't have the mag, and only a bit of info is needed.
DragonWatcher 11-02-05, 11:51 PM	I'm guessing that publishing that stuff here without the written permission of Paizo or WotC would be a breach of copyright. You'll likely either have to find the mag, or just make it up. Sorry.
OracleYori 11-03-05, 08:07 AM	yeah- I guess thats the tricky part about not having game shoppes around- oh well, I guess i'll have to make it up! Any ideas?
LuciferNietzsche 11-04-05, 03:15 AM	I always wondered if applying the elemental to the airship in a different way could make it faster...possibly also using multiple elementals... Using an air or fire elemental in a very small...5 or 10 foot diameter ring with wing-like structures radiating from center to edge as close as half a handspan at the center. The elemental would spin this much lighter structure instead which would, I think, generate more thrust than an elemental spread out so broadly around the ship both holding it up and pushing it forward...perhaps a permanent expeditious retreat and/or haste could provide further benefit. Maybe this way, these makeshift elementally powered turbines could be mechanically steered instead of directly manipulating the elemental for control...putting airships within the piloting reach of just about anyone. This isn't so much meant to be a legitimate, stand-alone idea, but I'm hoping it gets some creative juices flowing for everyone. If it turns out to be interesting and workable, cool, I love it when that happens. If not, oh well, hopefully it'll still give people some thoughts.
LuciferNietzsche 11-04-05, 03:25 AM	I just thought of a fluffy reason that it would be neat whether it would actually work or not... Lyrander would absolutely go nuts at the news of such an airship. They'd probably go to great lengths to sabotage it mechanically, magically, and commercially. Maybe an artificer of Cannith who had a fascination with both sea life and birds (for the freedom to go anywhere that they each possess) designed the airship to let air flow past more smoothly, so that it barely resembles a normal airship at all. The makeshift turbines could be inspired by a variation on a bird's wings and windmills which would both be easily enough known. Such an airship could be unique, but might have one or two more later, and cost twice as much as a normal airship. Somehow a party could come across one a little later than they'd normally gain access to an airship through a windwright captain, say 2 or 3 levels after a windwright captain could get an airship at the earliest. Ok, I'm done rambling. That's all my input, you guys can do what you want now.
Tzarevitch 11-04-05, 03:43 PM	No other information? Crew size needed? Max Speed? Maneuverability? Price? I don't have the mag, and only a bit of info is needed. I think it was the same speed as a regular airship (30mph). From the story it came from, it could operate with just the helmsman. The downside as I recall was that it could only carry 2 tons maximum. In my game, House Cannith gave one to the PCs and they have since discovered that it is not the wonder item that they thought it to be. It can only carry the PCs, and their gear with about 400lbs of spare cargo space left. If you have the Stormwrack book, use the "pinnace" statistics (that is what I did) and otherwise convert it using the same format as the Lyrandar Airship in the Explorer's Handbook. That is what I did. Tzarevitch
lukelightning 11-04-05, 04:01 PM	I would think that smaller airships can certainly be built (and probably have been), but Lyrandar wants big ships, as they would be more useful and profitable. I'm surprised the Explorer's Handbook didn't list a PC-party suitable airship that doesn't require 30 people to operate.
13x13 11-04-05, 04:15 PM	Hmm, how about this from an experimental ship Inside a Adamantium container about 1ft by 1ft, sealed with the spell Force Cage there is contained a Huge Air Elemental bound to a small dragonshard. Surrounding that cage is another Adamantium container bound with a Large Fire Elemental and a large fan facing to the back of the device. Air container has a small opening that can be opened at will to release air in small amounts. Now the Fire elemental heats the main cage, which heats the air elemental causing it to expand into a tightly sealed space become compressed. The hole in the cage is opened, causing the turbine to spin at incredibly speeds and providing powerful thrust toward the rear of the device. Stick two of these on an air ship and you have a jet. As sticking a huge elemental inside such a small space/Dragonshard is a dangerous predicament increasing the DR of the build by the gnomes. So this would be experimental, and very difficult to create. Perhaps it can be stolen by it's test pilot Stringfellow Eagle, and hidden in a mountain, springing up when needed to travel Eberron to fight evil.
darkthought 11-04-05, 05:03 PM	I would think that smaller airships can certainly be built (and probably have been), but Lyrandar wants big ships, as they would be more useful and profitable. I'm surprised the Explorer's Handbook didn't list a PC-party suitable airship that doesn't require 30 people to operate. Nevermind the PrC that gives you an airship WITH crew for nothing but a cut of your loot...
AmishLuvah 11-04-05, 06:03 PM	The Air Cutter that's listed in Dragon 329. Is the price listed the market price or the cost to create?
Gantores 11-04-05, 06:36 PM	What I have done for my campaign is create an Air elemental Air ship which utilizes a Star Trek style design. I have placed two long oval "pods" off of each side of the ship which each contain their own Huge Air Elemental. These pods more resemble Outriggers in style. They are spread very far fro the ship and the Air ship relies more on the bouyance of the Soar wood for lift rather than the elementals so they can be entirely utilized for speed. I also designed the layout of the ship as a troop transport, i.e. there is no real cargo hold, but there is a large barracks area running the length of the ship in the middle deck. The bottom deck has a row of drop shoots for the troops to deploy from. The idea is that troops out fitted and trained to use Feather fall tokens (richly abundant in Sharn for 25gp each) could deploy on a battelfield rapidly. The back story was a High ranking memeber of the Tinkerers guild, but not a family member of Cannith was creating the airship as a new design to gain him favor in the house and possibly a station in sharn rather than the outlying community he was posted in. There was a great deal of security involved all paid for by this baron, but the baron also had a tendancy of hiring Artificers, and they never leaving his tower. I had my group hired by another local artificer of the Tinkerers guild and some of his associates to kill the baron. They found his special project and made off with it. There were some tense moments when the person with the highest charisma attempted to fly the ship off, but it just added to the excitment. Now I am having the group attacked on a semi-frequent basis by people who want to get their hands on this extra fast airship, designed for war. It's led to some interesting adventures. :D