Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Ehtiar 03-08-07, 11:10 AM	So who out there has thought of using some of the funky options of Wondrous Architecture from the Stronghold Builder's Guide to kit out the latest Airship? Since some of the "wondrous architecture" are geared towards working on a single stronghold space..which is roughly 4,000 cubic foot..I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to convert to fitting them in an Airship. Something just screams out to me to modify the main cargo hold as a Platform of Greater Levitation (or the added expense of Greater Telekinesis..)... Of course, a Platform of Jaunting is too much like a one-way Transporter...I'd be getting flashbacks to Blake 7 or Star Trek... Having one or two of the weather controlling orbs built into the prow might make an interesting moment..
The_Robot 03-08-07, 10:15 PM	Having one or two of the weather controlling orbs built into the prow might make an interesting moment.. that seems particularly relevent, given House Lyrandar's weather abilities. in truth, i haven't taken a look at the Stronghold Builder's guide...but now i might have to...hmmmm...
Ayrmeth 03-09-07, 08:26 AM	Yep, thought of it and done it :D only thing to watch for is the price, so far it's cost about half a million gp :eek: Magically augmenting the hull to double hardness and HP is a good choice as Airships can be a bit vulnerable (especially when you've got Giants throwing boulders at them). And if you add Airtight you can make a spaceship too :D Arms and equipment guide has some good bits too, eldritch exhaust, charts of certainty, and lightning turbine are my recommendations.
JeckAndon 03-10-07, 04:53 PM	This is one of the best ideas that I've heard in a while (I captain an airship in our current campaign). Thanks!
mightyix 03-13-07, 04:16 PM	Yep, thought of it and done it :D only thing to watch for is the price, so far it's cost about half a million gp :eek: Magically augmenting the hull to double hardness and HP is a good choice as Airships can be a bit vulnerable (especially when you've got Giants throwing boulders at them). And if you add Airtight you can make a spaceship too :D Arms and equipment guide has some good bits too, eldritch exhaust, charts of certainty, and lightning turbine are my recommendations. Prices in Stronghold Builder's guidebook are stupid cheap for the most part, and as much as I loved and abused the book in 3.0 games, It's now relegated to reference material with no game play value because of the stupid cheap stuff. The same thing for the Arms and Equipment Guide. Stuff isn't balanced to 3.5 standards. And as far as avoiding giants... just fly 10 range increments up in the air. :)
Witchcraft 03-13-07, 07:23 PM	Maybe have some Unseen Servants to clean and whatnot. Mabye use a movement thingy and make it beable to fly through the earth! Oh, and you GOTS to had some kinda of weapon on it. ~~~Witchcraft~~~
Ehtiar 03-14-07, 07:38 AM	I always like the idea of a couple of Permanent Rope Trick's used to create the officer quarters.. Sure, it might be a touch blatant stealing of imagery from Firefly to have the central corridor to the bridge and helm positioned with the perm. Rope Trick's set alternately on either side of the corridor... Doorway/Hatches set at slight angle in the upper wall/ceiling of the corridor, open the hatch and have a sliding ladder drop down (with the rope cunningly attached to the back of one leg of the ladder..) and with the "window" of the portal overlapping the hatch to give whoever's in the "Quarters" a peer out before they open up from the inside.. or positioned to give a nice view outside the airship... Not to mention the fun of "smuggler's holds" set up that way....
Cifer 03-14-07, 02:43 PM	@Mightyx I think a good deal of the balancing is done by the fact the components are not able to move quite well, meaning that while you can buy them rather cheaply, they're available only when you have access to your stronghold (you're not too far away, you don't need the effects right where you are, you have the time to go back to your castle,...).
mightyix 03-14-07, 06:13 PM	@Mightyx I think a good deal of the balancing is done by the fact the components are not able to move quite well, meaning that while you can buy them rather cheaply, they're available only when you have access to your stronghold (you're not too far away, you don't need the effects right where you are, you have the time to go back to your castle,...). If you start attaching components to an airship, you lose much of that problem. Additionally, nothing in the SHBGB says that you have to create a single building. You create one, really tough to crack fortress where the folks from your leadership feat stay to defend all of your wondrous archetecture. It doesn't move. You create a 1 Stronghold Space moving thing with whatever movement capactity you want to give it. I gave it plane shift 2x/day and greater teleport 2 or 3x/day. That stronghold space has a gateway that leads directly to wherever your main stronghold is and requires you to be a very specific handful of individuals to use it. Buy all of the elemental resistances and whatnots to make it able to survive on most planes and you've got yourself a very cheap and truly potent base of operations wherever you want it. Just park it, go adventuring from it during the day, and return home to your castle with all the wondrous architecture to sleep and recharge before the next day instead of camping in the dungeon. And if you take the feat from SHBGB that gives you money each level for your stronghold, you never even really have to pay for anything directly, it all sort of happens. Trust me, I've abused the crap out of that book to the point that even I'm disgusted with myself.
Cifer 03-14-07, 11:54 PM	Sounds like a glorified rope trick to me. Plus, there might be the problem of getting out of the dungeon - I doubt you can move your teleport chamber into it.
Ehtiar 03-15-07, 06:56 AM	Sounds like a quick'n'dirty way of modelling a D&D style Tardis to me...:D But that does tend to lose some of the pure style and panache of an Airship...
mightyix 03-15-07, 03:24 PM	Eh, my point is that there's a zillion ways to abuse wondrous architecture if you've got a mobile place to put it. It makes the price break on fixed location items far more broken than it would be otherwise.
Edymnion 03-15-07, 09:14 PM	I've actually been using the Stronghold Builder's Guide to work out the base ship for my stormlord sorcerer. Its coming out fairly well, I'm just not sure about the SIZE of the thing though. The Rooms Armory, Basic – 1 ss Bath, Basic – .5 ss, x2 Bath, Fancy – 1ss Bedrooms, Fancy – 1ss, x3 (each one houses 2 people) Bedroom Suite, Fancy – 1 ss Courtyard, Basic – 1ss, x4 Dining Hall, Basic – 2ss Kitchen, Basic – 1 ss Servants Quarters – 1 ss, x3 (each one houses 6 people) Storage, Fancy – 1ss Throne Room, Basic – 1 ss Total: 19 ss Armaments Ballista, x3 (500 gp each) - Ballista Bolts, x20 per Ballista - Storm Bolts, x5 per Ballista Wondrous Architecture Cloudgathering Orb Overview Deck 1 (6.5 ss): - Main Deck (4 Courtyards, contains Ballistas) - Captain’s Suite (Bedroom Suite, Fancy) - Cohort’s Quarters (.5 Bedroom, Fancy, attached to Captain’s Suite) - Bridge (Throne Room, contains Cloudgathering Orb) Deck 2 (6.5 ss): - Passenger Quarters (2.5 Bedrooms, Fancy) - Galley (Dining Hall, 2 Kitchen) - Bath (Bath, Fancy) Deck 3 (6 ss): - Crew Quarters (3 Servants Quarters) - Crew Head (2 Baths, Basic) - Armory - Storage Bay (Storage, Fancy) Allows for a crew of 16, 6 passangers, the captain, the captain's cohort. Thing is, not counting the courtyards that are being used for the open deck on the top of the ship, this thing is coming out roughly the same size as a mansion (since the book lists a mansion as being 15 ss), and I'm not too sure about how that will play out, size wise. For those that don't have SBG and want to know what we're talking about, a "ss" is a Stronghold Space, the unit of size measure in the SBG. 1 ss is roughly equal to a single room 20' square, 10' ceiling. As is, that means my stormship here comes out as being roughly 40 feet wide by 60 feet long, and 30 feet high.
Cifer 03-15-07, 11:57 PM	Sounds fitting. Compared to a regular airship as listed in the Explorer's handbook, yours is rather small. The normal ones measure 300*90*50 feet. Maybe you should change dimensions a little so it's less wide, but longer. At the moment I picture it as rather blob-shaped, which is probably not the image you want to evoke. However, I'm not quite sure whether the crew would suffice for any larger combat - I guess the ballistae need two persons manning them, leaving 10 people (+captain +cohort) to run the ship and repel boarders - a standard airship has a crew of 150, which of course includes a good deal of service personnel to cater to the wishes of the passengers.
Edymnion 03-16-07, 04:53 PM	Sounds fitting. Compared to a regular airship as listed in the Explorer's handbook, yours is rather small. The normal ones measure 300*90*50 feet.Are they? I couldn't remember and didn't want to dig one out. Sweet, that means I can add in lots more stuff, like the extra storage bays, the library, the worships, etc. I originally had it MUCH bigger than it currently is, but drastically cut it back because I thought I was getting too big.
Subtle Knife 03-22-07, 08:51 PM	I seem to remember a modification that allows your interior to be much greater in volume than the exterior. Any ideas? SK
Ehtiar 03-26-07, 08:37 AM	Well there's the generic "Extra Dimensional Space" which tends to be a Dm centric fluff style... As in.. do you treat it as creating the Extra Dimensional Space in a building as an advanced form of Wondrous Item or whether its more.. finding a way to apply Permanency to Mordenkainen's Mansion...