Engineering challenges for a magical sailing fortress


Advice

Lantern Lodge

In one of my old DnD 3.0 games, I (as a player) created a castle that floated and sank everything by using the stronghold builder's guidebook. I'm updating it for use in pathfinder game, though there's some features I want to properly convert, and some new features I want to add, all with as little homebrewing as possible. A little info: the original costed 100 million gold to produce in 3.0, this one looks like it'll be twice that. It will be the size of a modern Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier, built with technologies found in a medival to steampunk transitional era. The majority of the vessel's manpower comes form contructs.

First, this fortress has anti-submarine measures in the form of ballistea, or rather huge size underwater crossbows. Problem is, I can't think of any spells, magical effects, substances, etc... to create an opening in the wall of a ship that keeps water out, air in, and allows projectiles through. Any thoughts?

Second, in the original, Juggernaunt constructs were placed at the tops of each tower with readied actions to cast force wall to block incoming projectiles. I can't seem to find any creatures with at-will forcewall. Besides scrolls and staves, are there any good ways to have a large supply of a single spell available?

Thanks guys!


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If the crossbow-wielder will be a construct you just need an airlock, and a dome to protect the crossbow when not in use. Pumps and doors will do the trick.

Solid Fog is wandable & should block attacks well enough.

Lantern Lodge

Unfortunately, the underwater ballistae will be fired by humanoids. I thought of using air locks (in conjunction with the water breathing spell), or rather flooding the entire outer-shell of those floors of the ships, but thinking about the entire process of loading and firing, getting new ammunition, etc... seem rather clunky. The other thought I had was to get +1 Brilliant Energy ballistae, but they wouldn't be able to sink a submarine.

Solid Fog seems like a great idea. I'll probably implement that. Though I'm still stuck on force walls for flavor and versatility reasons. Force walls can damage incoming ships, block the movement and breath attacks of dragons, etc... Also I'm not sure how well solid fog deals with siege attacks (RAW notwithstanding).

Lantern Lodge

Apon further study, I've found a couple solutions to the underwater arrow slit problem:

Tiny Hut seems to be a possible solution with a little DM fiat. Including the standard air pressure, the tiny hut would only be able to stand half of the pressure of being 40 feet under the water (judging from it only being able to withstand 74 mph winds, math is fun...). Perhaps the DM would allow a similar spell to be researched.

The next option is the spell Path of Winds (slyph) which can move 40 feet of water. It requires concentration though, making coordination very important, and losing concentration could sink the ship. The winds also make ranged attacks impossible, with siege engine attacks still possible, but at a -4 penalty. Also, a 6th level spell, and about 10 spell casters would be needed to open up all the side ballista.

Finally, Control Water *might* be able to do it without any DM fiat. It says that when cast on large bodies of water, it creates a whirlpool. It the arrow silts were left open, and this spell cast, would water be rushing in? How fast would the water that did come in dissipate? Would the spell guarantee only one inch of water within the dimensions? This would probably be my best bet.

Still trying to find the best way to get force walls going. Scrolls, staffs of evocation, and rings of spell storing are seeming to be the only options outside of homebrew. Might be best that way, gives the "deflector shields" a way to recharge.


What purpose could such a fortress possibly have?

I bet if you listed all the things it does for you I could find a way to do the same thing at 1/10th the cost.


I think a few costum spells would be a small amount of Fiat compared to what you need in other places of this fortress. I assume you are the GM in the game since 100.000.000gp is a little over WBL for any character. I think bound warther elementals must be part of this wonder in some way. Or some constructs made of water.
I suggest you just make the thing and then bother about rules afterwards.
In PF you can generally not place some one with a Ready action they have to ready the action when they get there initiative.
And i also have to ask what could this thing do that was worth 100.000.000gp


FrodoOf9Fingers wrote:

First, this fortress has anti-submarine measures in the form of ballistea, or rather huge size underwater crossbows. Problem is, I can't think of any spells, magical effects, substances, etc... to create an opening in the wall of a ship that keeps water out, air in, and allows projectiles through. Any thoughts?

Second, in the original, Juggernaunt constructs were placed at the tops of each tower with readied actions to cast force wall to block incoming projectiles. I can't seem to find any creatures with at-will forcewall. Besides scrolls and staves, are there any good ways to have a large supply of a single spell available?

Thanks guys!

The use of Air Bubble may work. Cast a permanent version on a spike or two in the arrow slits and it keeps water out while still allowing you to fire underwater.

There are also these other spells: cloak of winds mixed with calm air, water breathing.

But a modified Life Bubble may be the best bet for what you're looking for.

You could also use these for your crew.

For the other part of having force walls, planar binding might be an option if you want some of these hanging around.

Constructs, these might be something to consider and you could modify these
You could also modify Clockwork mages, cannon golems, and soulbound shells.

Lantern Lodge

fictionfan wrote:

What purpose could such a fortress possibly have?

I bet if you listed all the things it does for you I could find a way to do the same thing at 1/10th the cost.

Probably, but your missing the point. It's a gigantic, floating fortress of doom!

One of the things that adventurers can't do well is wage war. Sure a wizard can threaten a city with a meteor. But having actual soldiers is best, and often cheaper.

Although this isn't the cheapest way to do things, it fits the current state of the campaign world. We are already high leveled, and very powerful, but we need to have a home base. Secrecy is out of the question in this situation, so having strength of arms is very important.

The ship serves it's purpose as A. an income source, B. A way to ward off fleets on it's own, C. a means of fast transportation, D. a safe haven for adventurers and armies, E. a place where even the gods themselves would fear attacking.

We have enough money coming out of our noses (epic levels), so I'm deciding to spend my share on something cool and flavorful rather than gear. Either I, or my DM, could end up using the ship as a adventuring place in future campaigns. There's lots of potential.

But most of all, it's to be an out for my creative side :)

Lantern Lodge

Shasf wrote:
FrodoOf9Fingers wrote:

First, this fortress has anti-submarine measures in the form of ballistea, or rather huge size underwater crossbows. Problem is, I can't think of any spells, magical effects, substances, etc... to create an opening in the wall of a ship that keeps water out, air in, and allows projectiles through. Any thoughts?

Second, in the original, Juggernaunt constructs were placed at the tops of each tower with readied actions to cast force wall to block incoming projectiles. I can't seem to find any creatures with at-will forcewall. Besides scrolls and staves, are there any good ways to have a large supply of a single spell available?

Thanks guys!

The use of Air Bubble may work. Cast a permanent version on a spike or two in the arrow slits and it keeps water out while still allowing you to fire underwater.

There are also these other spells: cloak of winds mixed with calm air, water breathing.

But a modified Life Bubble may be the best bet for what you're looking for.

You could also use these for your crew.

For the other part of having force walls, planar binding might be an option if you want some of these hanging around.

Constructs, these might be something to consider and you could modify these
You could also modify Clockwork mages, cannon golems, and soulbound shells.

I don't know how, but when I read air bubble, I thought it only applied to guns. Thanks for the find!

I haven't quite gotten to the construct choosing phase yet. I'll figure that out once I get the ships exterior drawn (I need to figure out my force wall situation before I can finish the walls). but I'll certainly keep those in mind. Also, thanks for the idea of calling creatures with force wall.


No problem, if you have the 3.0 book "Stronghold Builder Handbook" I believe, it may help with some of the other issues.

Lantern Lodge

I used that book for the original, but not everything in there translates to pathfinder O.o

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