In my S&S game I am the one that fixes the ship and we have come up with an idea for making our ship not only look better but hopefully be more combat ready. We named it the Ravens Revenge, no clue why we didn't go with the HMS Plot Device but we didn't. It is a sailing ship and I want to get Darkwood and craft a massive raven on the front of it. We want the wing to move back along the front sides of the ship. The group want this to be thick and durable. Along with having little pockets we can drop archers in with little murder hole for them to shoot out of. My DM wants to know how many feet I would need and the weight of something like this. So any help in figuring out the math of it would be great. Pros and cons of my endeavor are welcomed. And if anyone has ways to improve this idea I await the recommendations
Off the top of my head-
Adamantine raven's beak as a ramming prow.
Multi-shot ballistae (the kind that fire a bunch of small arrows rather than one big one), plus fire arrows.
Liberal use of Animate Object. Be creative.
A bunch of Charmed and/or trained giant ravens living in your crows nests. Use them as scouts and to air-drop bombs on enemy ships. Also good for long range boarding actions.
Edit: I only read the first part of your post. Oops.
if you can figure out how big your dark wood wings are, you can use this to get the weight.
Ha found it. This is the ship
Love the beak idea and that shall be done. Maybe with some magic later once we have more funds. I like the idea of the ballistae so I will mention it when we meet later in the week. Animate object is a lovely spell and if we have the funds would be a blast. And I happen to be a druid so the bird might be a thing. I didn't even think of that.
Check out Ship Sentinel for the figurehead. Flavor as appropriate.
Check out Vessels and Vessel Customization for already worked out ship improvements. Some quick numbers: [bold=my recommendation]
Additions .. cost .. effect
Armor Plating .. 30% .. +4 hardness, +15% hp
Broad Rudder .. 500 .. +1 sailing check
Extended Keel .. 10% .. +1 sailing check
Hardened Control .. 1000 .. 2X hp & hard
Hardened Hull/SQ .. 4500 .. 2X hp & hard
Hardened Oar .. 100 .. 2X hp & hard
Hardened Sail/SQ .. 500 .. 2X hp & hard
Narrow Hull .. 15% .. cargo -10%, +2 sailing check
Ram .. 50/100/300/1000 .. +2d8 ram damage, ignore 1st square & all ramming damage
Rapid Deploy Sails .. 10% .. 1/2 time adjust, +1 sailing check
Silk Sails .. 15% .. +10% waterborne speed, +1 sailing check on upper hand check
Sturdy Hull .. 10% .. hard +2, cargo -10%
Wooden Plating .. 20% .. hard +2, hp +5%, cargo -10%, waterborn speed -10%
/cevah