Astral Carrack "SS Waking Dream"
The Astral Carrack is an unusually designed warship, more at home flying in the Astral Plane (where it can do so without magic) than on the seas. Nonetheless, it has been built to exacting specifications by Githyanki craftsmen, and is a capable vessel both on the open ocean and in low seas.
Subject to wind speeds and direction, it can sail 48 miles per day, or 2 per hour, as per a normal sailing ship. This can be enhanced with magic as detailed below.
Statistics
Hull Hardness: 10
Hull HP: 90
Crew: 20 required at minimum for efficient running, ignoring actual weapons.
Capacity: 80 tons of cargo, up to 160 passengers.
Armament (all masterwork):
1 Siege Ballista (+1 to hit, 5d8 19-20/x2), Range Increment 120ft, Max range 1,200ft - Each requires 4 crew to man, fires every 2 rounds.
6 Light Ballistae (+1 to hit, 3d8 19-20/x2), Range Increment 100ft, Max Range 1,000ft - Each requires 2 crew to man, fires every 2 rounds.
2 Light Catapults (+1 to hit, 3d6), Range Increment 150ft, Min Range 75ft, Max Range 750ft - Each requires 2 crew to man, fires every 2 rounds.
The Siege Ballista is mounted fore of the ship and the Catapults aft, while the Light Ballistae are arrayed along the sides below deck, 3 on each.
Heartstone
This is effectively the magical core of the ship - without it, it would merely be an ordinary boat. Spells can be cast into the Heartstone so that the entire ship is therefore affected, however, it takes a lot of magical energy to do so. The following are a few common uses and the number of spells required. If multiple casters are used, the Caster Level is averaged between them for resolving the effect.
The total required spells must be cast within 1 hour, otherwise any currently held spells are lost.
Plane Shift: To make the Carrack shift planes, the Plane Shift spell must be cast into it 3 times. After which the ship and everything aboard it are shifted to the destination plane as per the spell.
Flight: For the Carrack to fly, either 3 Overland Flight spells, or 6 Fly spells (these can be mixed, treat 2 Fly spells as equal to 1 Overland Flight) must be spent. The Carrack can then fly for 1 hour per caster level - its speed and direction are at the mercy of the winds, although it can rise or fall at a speed of 45 feet.
Repair: To repair any damage to the ship's hull, a single Make Whole spell cast into the heartstone will fully repair the vessel. This does not fix anything attached to the vessel, such as weapons or cargo.
Invisibility: To render the ship invisible, either 6 Invisibility or 3 Greater Invisibility spells must be cast into the Heartstone (can be mixed as per the Flight description). Invisibility lasts for 10 minutes per caster level, although the ship's outline will still be visible where it depresses the surrounding water.
Burst of Speed: Regardless of wind conditions, a single Haste spell cast into the heartstone will give it a speed of 80 for 1 minute per caster level.
Energy Resistance: 2 Resist Energy spells cast into the Heartstone will give the ship's hull energy resistance as per said spell.
Nondetection: A single Nondetection spell will render the Ship and all aboard it immune to Divinations as per the spell.
Entropic Shield: 2 Entropic Shield spells will make all ranged attacks sent at the ship or those aboard have a 20% miss chance for 1 minute/level as per the spell.
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Feel free to ask about other possibilities for spells cast into the Heartstone and what they can do, the above is just to cover the basics. Also I'm sure you'll want to pimp the boat out, so by all means post here with any boat relevant purchases.
Spells that interest me...
-Fire Shield
-Resist Energy/Protection From Energy
-Illusions
-Nondetection
-Contingency
-Permanency
I'd like to enquire if we can get someone in to enchant the weapons- OR if we can have specific bolts and rocks custom-crafted for us.
Furthermore, I intend to try and negotiate with the head people in Silverymoon- perhaps we can offer our services in return for their support in maintaining and configuring the ship.
Whether that's successful or not, I'd hope we get to RP out hiring at least the important crewmen.
Also, I want to attach some kind of giant magical cannon to the ship at some point. Details can come later. Let's make it a Wondrous Item~
I've updated how Resist Energy and Nondetection interact with the ship.
Illusions, Contingency, and Fire Shield can't function through the Heartstone.
You can't Permancy any spell cast through the Heartstone, but you could Permancy random spells throughout the actual ship.
Edit for more content:
Siege Weapons and ammunition can be enchanted for the same prices as normal weapons.
We'll RP out the other stuff later on.
What may be relevant: Estimated cost to hire a crew for 'x days'.
Largely asking so we try to avoid arriving without the ability to pay.
Dracos
If someone is trying to dispel our hard-wrought enchantments, do they have to target the heartstone to do it?
Also, is the boat capable of getting by in rivers? And, can we combine teleport with plane shift to teleport the boat to a specific destination (and, thusly, not *drop it on a mountain* or something).
Where are we putting the boat in the real plane?
To the group.
Dracos
Depends. I think we're going to have to make some enquires before we try and teleport it over.
Firstly, regarding illusions, I said they won't work, but I also gave an example of invisibility. Clearly I am a retard. To clarify, I was thinking of the Silent Image series of spells when you said illusion - if you have any other ideas on specific illusions, feel free to elaborate.
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Regarding crew, there are obviously different calibers of people available.
At a bare minimum, you can get 20 level 1 commoners with ranks in Profession (Sailor) for 42gp per week. They will crew the ship, and so long as you don't sail into any storms or get into exciting naval battles, they'll do just fine.
You might want to maybe get some level 1 losers for swabbing the poopdeck or whatever, and some higher level and more competent types for tieing the rigging and that sort of stuff. Having more higher level dudes will obviously keep the losers in line when things get tough. To ensure that all of the important jobs have decent quality guys you'd have to spend 94gp per week. The crew still won't fight for you or anything, but they'll at least keep their heads down and not kick up a fuss when things turn a bit rough.
Getting an elite crew (again, they won't fight, but they'll sail the hell out of the ship) will cost 250gp per week.
Regarding gunners, each weapon needs at least 1 Master Gunner, and however many random dudes are needed to run the weapon (So 1 gunner and 3 other dudes for the heavy ballista, and 1 gunner and 1 dude for the other weapons). The gunner is the one who matters, as firing is determined by their bab (you guys are welcome to hop in and try shooting the siege weapons if you like, but you take -4 to hit without a proficiency feat). As a rough guide, gunners will charge their Base Attack Bonus squared per week for their services. So one with a BAB of 5 would cost 25gp. You're not going to find guys above fifth level just loitering around and looking for work, so that's about the best you can get for the moment.
Getting awesome bonus crew NPCs with high levels will really only come about via RPing.
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A dispel magic merely has to target the boat to knock out its enchantments. The Caster Level check DC is increased by 5, however. Still, you might want to look into getting magic items to make the boat do awesome stuff rather than relying on spells cast into the Heartstone.
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The boat can get by in *some* rivers. Generally if a river is big enough to show on the Faerun world map, it's big enough for your boat to navigate.
Can the boat land on, well, land, without a huge risk of accidentally breaking it/knocking it over/etc?
Also, can we cast levitate into it? And can we metamagicify spells cast into the heartstone (particularly extend?)
With regards to cool things to trick the boat out with.. well.. what do you have in mind? What's acceptable, here? Can we even try to afford it?
The thing I can think of offhand is some kind of metamagic field, like from that summoning chamber, which buffs spells cast from the ship of a particular type. I'm obviously thinking fiery envocations- but particular transmutations (such as flight and water breathing!) could use extending, too.
Hmm. Some kind of loudspeaker would also be useful. Ghost Sound can make loud noises, could we use that?
Can we rig up the shipboard weapons to the heartstone and mass-enchant them temprorarily via Greater Magic Weapon?
The boat is fairly flat along the bottom, so it can land on reasonably flat or soft terrain.
Metamagic doesn't help with the heartstone, and levitate itself is no good - it takes a ton of fly spells just to make it ape levitate, after all.
As for what's allowable, Stormwrack has a bunch of boat enhancements. Heroes of Battle has all the seige weapon stuff I'm using for shipboard weaponry. For the most part, heavy duty ship enhancements are expensive. For an Example, a Halruuan Skyship costs 400k, and is basically a shitty little caravel, except it can fly constantly in the same manner as your ship can once a bunch of fly spells are spammed into the heartstone (and can't sink). Getting permanent flight in the same manner on the Carrack would cost in region of 150k. Actual honest to goodness powered flight... hell, I'm not even sure, the cost would be absurd and I'm not sure I want to go there. Basically the heartstone's purpose is to give you guys some flexibility, but with strict time constraints so that the ship won't completely render every single boat in the universe obsolete.
Ventriloquism would be better for an actual loudspeaker, since Ghost Sound doesn't work for actual words.
The Heartstone is bound fully to the hull of the ship and can't be modified to encompass weapons or anything else, so no go on greater magic weapon.
Really, there's a ton of stuff you could do with the boat, but you can't afford to do them all right now. I expect it'll be an ongoing process of improvement as the game goes on. Which is as it should be.
Stuff I've been meaning to ask before....
What about using the following spells on the heartstone?
-Bless
-Dimension Door
-Displacement
-Divine Favor
-Light/Daylight or Darkness
-Sanctuary
-Shield/Shield of Faith/Entropic Shield
Some could be nice buff effects on our Manly Dudes, others could help the ship hide or evade attacks better. Or Glow in the Dark.
And Dimension Door would be cool by letting the ship beam us up in bulk, because we really need to have someone beam us up with a spaceship. Which it so is.
I've updated how Entropic Shield can work on the ship. None of the other spells listed will have any effect.
Notable Crew Members/Passengers
Marjorie Lohngram - Neutral Good Human Sorcerer 9
Amarysa Lohngram - True Neutral Human Enchantress 9
Virgil Lohngram - True Neutral Human Expert 5
Marjorie's family doesn't really know much about sailing, but two of them are powerful spellcasters, while the third is fairly knowledgable on a wide variety of subjects. Marjorie is eager to help in any capacity she can while on board, while her parents are less inclined to do much to aid in the running of the ship besides cast a few spells as and when needed.
The family do not require any recompense besides your assistance in dealing with their Drow problem, but may request a share of treasure when taken on adventures or pressed into defending the ship from pirates.
Katrina Valiele - Chaotic Neutral Half-Elf Evoker 4
Henrietta Valielle - True Neutral Half-Elf Illusionist 4
Alveria's two apprentices are likewise ignorant of the sea, but both profess to being fully trained chefs, and are willing to at least do some cooking to earn their keep inbetween receiving lessons in Wild Magic.
All they ask is Alveria's tutelage and the odd spell scroll.
Kiln Ignatius - Chaotic Good Fire Genasai Cleric 5
The ship's resident cleric of Lathandar has made an effort to learn about nautical matters in preparation for the journey, but will mostly concern himself with seeing to the spiritual and physical wellbeing of the crew.
As he serves at Lathander's behest, no compensation is required.
Gorkam - Chaotic Neutral Orc Monk 2/Barbarian 2
Grumdul - True Neutral Orc Monk 2/Barbarian 2
Lograk - True Neutral Orc Monk 2/Barbarian 2
Mapesta - Neutral Evil Orc Monk 2/Barbarian 2
Indna - Chaotic Evil Orc Bard 3
Gourash's elite orc assault squad all look like they've never even seen the sea, before. Efforts to get them to do any work aboard ship are likely to be met with surly recalcitrance and insistent demands that they kill something. Soon. Indna does seem to enjoy 'inspiring' the rest of the crew with Orcish war songs, if nothing else.
They don't care much about receiving a regular salary, but will insist on getting a share of booty from all the ships you terrorise upon the journey.
Keylin's Very Kind People - Various low level Commoners and Experts.
These hearty souls do most of the day to day running of the ship. I'm going with the assumption that you're getting the cheapest crew available, so you can replace them with proper manly dudes in Mulhorand. Let me know if I'm wrong.
Paying for all of them for the journey to Mulhorand will cost 1,400gp.
Let me know if you want to hire gunners for the outgoing journey, as they'll need to be added seperately.
I think we need to hire a decent crew to make up for our total lack of any shipwise PCs. Unless Keylin sunk a bunch of points into sailing when she leveled up?
Well, I'll do it when I scrape together another few hundred points.
I made a slight mistake, since I was working out as if the cost was daily, not weekly for the crew.
For the journey to Mulhorand, expect to pay the following:
280gp for scrubs
620gp for regular crew with decent officers
1,700gp for elite crew
Let me know if you want gunners. As a rough guide, expect to pay the following based on attack mod (before weapon modifiers) to man all weapons:
+4 to hit : 235gp
+6 to hit : 530gp
+9 to hit : 1,500gp
Huh.
I think we can afford getting the best we can afford. 3,200gp for that. We can afford it- I have a lot of gold that I'm just saving up to get the rod of wonder with later, so we have the cash in hand (though I obviously expect us to split it up between us.)
I'm willing (and now have money again, yay) to pay a share for the best.
Of course, being a bloodthirsty orc, I expect we are going to raid something on our way. It doesn't even have to be a bad something. We can totally raid something good too. Equal opportunity privateering. Pirates, Ghouls, Helpless Villagers. Its all good =D
Dracos
Nobody ever plays true neutral.