Can you cast a hallow spell onto a ship, or does it have to be a building? The spell says "structure" so I wonder if it applies to a ship.
as a DM, I would allow it.
I'm picturing stumbling upon a ship where only the forecastle is so protected, yet three members of the have become undead. Caine mutiny ain't got nothing on that class warfare as the officers huddle behind a barred door and pee themselves, cutting a hole into the deck below in order to sneak around for the food stores below.
When all the time, the tastiest victuals are right there, banging around in their skulls. (Or so says the zombie crew!)
::dispatching into the radio:: "Send more brains"
The word 'crew' got clipped from the earlier posting. I do believe that is the third sign of the coming apocolypse. Better send in ericthecleric's Smasher to intercept and eat it.
I have been cooking up an order of seagoing paladins (plate armor no, buoyancy spells yes!) for my homebrew. I'm sure their ships have a hallow spell on them--probably centered on the ship's wheel. Let's the captain fight from a position of strength when he tangles rigging with a ghost ship.
Since the spell specifies site, building, or structure a ship definitely falls into that broad category. After all, damage to a ship ain't called "structural damage" for nothin'.
Clerics that worship sea-related gods may very well build a shrine into their ship or the ship itself may even be considered a shrine.
So to respond to the question, yep, you could definitely cast hallow on a ship or an area of a ship.
As another idea for an enhanced ship, the recent Eberron novel "The Mourning Dawn" has a nymph druid willingly serving the airship's crew, since her livewood tree was carved into the figurehead on the mast.
mmm... that make's me think about a cruise... mmm... piña colada in a skull... mmm... brains...
As another idea for an enhanced ship, the recent Eberron novel "The Mourning Dawn" has a nymph druid willingly serving the airship's crew, since her livewood tree was carved into the figurehead on the mast.
Gosh, I guess I'm not hip to Eberron, but if I was a nymph druid with a tie to a tree, and someone cut it down and carved it into a figurehead, I'd be feeling pretty vengeful.
Is livewood sort of like wizardwood in Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders series, capable of being animated in some way? There was an article in Dragon a while back that translated the idea of wizardwood figureheads into D&D terms. The article, of course, did not tell us the truth about wizardwood, which I have since found out by reading Hobb's series. (Which I highly recommend, by the way).
Livewood is an especially vivacious wood that remains alive after being cut down, it just grows veeeeeerrrry slowly. In all ways it is treated as being a live tree still. In the Eberron campaign setting, it even mentions the possibility of a dryad being bound to a ship or chair or house made from her tree.
Gosh, I guess I'm not hip to Eberron, but if I was a nymph druid with a tie to a tree, and someone cut it down and carved it into a figurehead, I'd be feeling pretty vengeful.
Well, I might be remembering in-correctly, but I think the reason the druid was willing to allow her livewood tree to become part of an airship is due to the fact that the artificer who was responsible for crafting the ship "freed" her from being a pirate vessel used to transportslaves or some such. She was definately vengful against the pirates, but quite kind to her liberator.
Using livewood or a wood from a druid's tree sounds like the perfect introduction to a splinterwaif terrorizing the crew.