I was wondering if anybody scaled this drain. Instead of losing all the spells in a one shot deal, have them absorb by the Helm gradualy, along the voyage. This way more powerful casters could power a Helm longer and a character powering a Helm wouldn't be unarmed when a battle happens.
Shure, the caster can't power a ship and cast on a opponent's ship, but if his ship gets boarded, he is in alot of trouble.
I was thinking one spell level per hour, but it seems to easy. Any math wiz with a complecated, but viable, alternative system?
Spend a spell of level X to give the ship a Spelljamming Rating (SR) of X (Major Helm) or 2/3 X (Minor Helm) for (say) 1 hour per level per spell. (The helmsman gets to choose which spell they 'spend').
If multiple spells are spent SR is based on the highest level of spell spent. (So if you spend a low level spell for Cruising, then get into a battle, you can 'top up' the helm to get a higher SR.
Quick Analysis: (using 2nd edition values)
Caster Level Max. Duration
1 1 hour (2 for specialists)
2 4 hours (6 for specialists)
3 9 hours (15 for specialists)
4 16 hours (24 for specialists)
5 25 hours (40 for specialists)
Duration needs tweaking I think!
Charles
That life draining Helm (what it's name) (one level/HD = 2 spell levels? Maybe 3? Necromancy is so powerful
and it would compensate the fact that not alot of the slaves/prisonners on those ships have alot of HD).
a direct translation would be 1 SR/3 levels, iirc. it did power the ship for a full day though.
the advantage to lifejammers, however, was not so much in their speed... it was that you didn't need to use a spellcaster (also, it was cheap, and it could power a 100 ton ship... that was nice too). it took a fairly high HD monster to get a decent SR out of a lifejamming helm, ultimately. in any case, the lifejammer helm has plenty of power imo, simply based on the fact it doesn't use spell levels at all.
the idea of the original post seems to be that the way helms works makes it not very fun to be a spellcaster who's had to man a helm in the last 24 hours, not that we need to totally revamp everything.... which i can agree with (unless you hand out wands, scrolls, and staffs like they're halloween candy, that is). this is somewhat mitigated in 3rd edition, (you no longer have to be level 10 and go on a quest in order to make something) but it is equally problematic because now you're basically relying on burning your XP to be useful 100% of the time (and especially since you probably need at least 2, maybe 3 spellcasters who are going to be totally useless in terms of spellcasting).
in the interest of fun, i agree that the standard helms should work differently, but the other helm types work just fine as far as allowing helmsman PCs to be useful (and therefore allowing them to have fun). the rest of them, it seems to me that it's only adding work to change anything. work should be avoided unless it is going to provide some benefit, imo, and changing *all* of the helms doesn't really provide much benefit from the standpoint of fun if you ask me.
someone made up a psionic power that allows you to power a standard helm psionically, iirc, and that can be found on BtM somewhere =P
if we're talking 2e (and it appears we are), there is a power that lets you pretend to be someone else. i might consider allowing said power to fool certain helm types (the ones that require you to be a certain race, such as the thri-kreen crystal throne, the insectare's helm, and i think a few others) as well as possibly allowing psionic characters to generate some chi (assuming the chi helm was de-realmified into the region of not being totally and horribly overpowered, that is), but both of those would be house rules really.
alternately, psionic types could also use one of several other types of helms that don't require a spellcaster (other than the pool and series helm, there's dominated orbi, pump helms, lifejammers/death helms, furnace helms etc). in fact, psionicists could also use the wormhole power to achieve more-or-less instant travel anywhere within the same sphere, and just use these other helm types for travelling through the phlogiston only (obviously not an option with the furnace helm though =P )
So Nerik, if I understand, with a Major Helm, if I spend a 3rd level spell, the ship would get a SR of 3 for 3 hours. For a Minor Helm it would be a SR of 2 for 3 hours with that same 3rd level spell.
Hummm, I like the idea, alot
Actually, my idea was that speed (SR) would be dependent on spell level (and helm type) while duration would be based on caster level. So if your mage was 5th level, a 3rd level spell would give you SR 3 for 5 hours on a major helm, or SR 2 for 5 hours on a minor helm. I hope that clears it up a bit.
On the subject of other helms - I hadn't considered any change (but basing the SR of a furnace helm on the power of its 'fuel' is an interesting idea. I've always considered that the series helms/pool helms used by illithids were psionically powered, but kept the stats as written for simplicity.
Charles