
Natan Linggod 327 |
Or more accurately, what would the minimum amount of gp value would it cost to create a flying home?
Assuming it's not done by one person alone but by hiring casters, buying materials etc.
A castle would be at the upper end of cost, I would guess, simply because it's enormous. While smaller buildings should cost less.
A discussion with a player about wanting a character who is saving/working towards getting his "dream home". Obviously I don't want to drop this into the game too early, but at the same time I don't want to leave it till the end because I'd like them to actually get to play with it.
Having them deal with annoyed rulers (how do you tax something that isn't taking up ground space?), jealous peers, etc seems like it would be fun.

jdripley |
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From the Gamemastery Guide, an Airship is 6,000gp, a galley is 3,000 gp and a sailing ship is 2,000 gp. None of those are castles, but they could be home, and they are large expensive items so I list them for reference mainly - though the airship does fly...
Core rulebook page 596 has an Instant Fortress that retails for a cool 9,300gp. It doesn't fly, but it does other nifty stuff, so maybe removing "other nifty stuff" and swapping in "flying" would give you a more or less decent price for a flying castle? It's not particularly large, only 20x20x30, so while you could live in it, it's hardly spacious

Claxon |

Something like this doesn't have combat value (or at least the GM can situate it so it's not useful in combat) so I would personally make the cost 0, and rather have it be a unique item in the game world.
In PF1 the closest thing I know of was the Cloud Castle of the Storm King, which was an artifact. I would expect such a thing to remain an artifact in PF2.

Castilliano |

An Airship has about the same space as a Galley, at twice the cost.
So at minimum double the price of a normal castle, except note that Airships are vulnerable to being downed, require a crew, have to navigate storms, and have other issues you likely don't want your castle to tackle. If you wanted castle on a cloud (or otherwise secure from the follies a vehicle experiences), I'd say triple the cost AND rarer than the Rare Airship. So that's a quest/plot/endgame/artifact item.
At least on Golarion. In worlds with more extreme magic (like Eberron where magic vehicles are commonplace), then it'd simply be expensive.
Some of the high-magic, genie-friendly empires to the east might be able to construct such a castle, though there were flying pyramids one might be able to rebuild.
If we do get a First World/Fey AP, a cloud castle would be a cool site to explore, a place for one of the major courts. Maybe with the capability of shifting to the Material Plane or elsewhere for further adventures! Maybe it's part of some ploy to invade.

Ravingdork |
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This much, perhaps? 45,000gp for a castle-sized animate object sounds about right to me. :D

LBHills |
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You could also make it a plot point and cannibalize the drive from an old Shory city.
Or something similar.
Used Castle Salesman: Is flying castle. Cheap!
Rich PC: I was thinking something with turrets, not so... pyramidal...
Used Castle Salesman: No, no, is not haunted pyramid! Is castle!
Rich PC: Those aren't even windows! They're... they're stickers!
Used 'Castle' Salesman: Is castle! Not cursed at all! Very cheap.
I feel that if the castle is merely hovering, it's just an unusually placed headquarters and the PCs shouldn't be charged if they have already taken the trouble of clearing out the prior occupants and reassuring any local kings/mayors that they won't be using it as an artillery base.
Whereas if it can move (under PC control, that is, not just drifting with the wind), you'd want to look at the highest flying vehicle price and multiply it generously, based on its speed, amount of storage space, and potential to destroy entire adventures through saturation bombardment. It could become a real pain in the butt to the GM.

The Gleeful Grognard |

Yeah, as others have said.
It is probably the best offensive / defensive upgrade you can get for a castle.
And realistically should probably be way out of the realm of most PCs even purchasing it. Flying bases like an airship fine, but a flying castle. Probably best to have it rely on a unique magical artifact otherwise the question has to be raised "why doesn't every major city with way more gold than a level 20 PC will ever see have multiple flying castles?"
I would probably make a ritual required to infuse it with power and upgrade its capacity. Have that ritual cost components and then have the cast building element just be a castle built around the magical artifact that you infuse power into.
That way they can start with something relatively small and slowly add more to it until it is bigger and faster.
But if you are trying to balance it game wise, I wouldn't bother.

Moppy |
I remember something about the Shory flying cities in the Osirion adventure path, but not the specifics.
Not taking this completely seriously, but an immovable rod can loft 8000 lbs, or a wall section, assuming wire with cloth liner, and filled with sand. i.e. a primitive HESCO. Maybe use concrete. (1m3 of sand is 1500kg, or 35 cu.ft of sand is 3300 lbs). Now you just need a clockwork to deploy a line of rods, and push your castle onto it.
edit: PZO9083

Loreguard |
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Well... your castle could be a constructed private demi-plane, the portal getting you in the drawbridge, and surrounding it an illusion of the floating portal being surrounded by stone.
Then you are talking about a demi-plane with a portable portal, and a disguise dressing it up.
But as people mentioned, a private Shory mansion would probably fit the bill, if they go about finding one to 'take ownership' or otherwise 'recover'.
If you are concerned about balance and blowing up future stories by making them just move the castle/manor up to anyplace and drop catapult rocks on their enemies, there might be limitations on what paths the manor can take. Maybe it can only follow major trade-wind paths, and those paths might change over the seasons. Basically, it would become a sort of large yacht, that rides on a series of above-ground air-rivers large enough to carry it. If it gets too far out of the 'river' it begins to lose lift and eventually will float all the way down and settle onto the ground. Perhaps this is how it is found. Abandoned, and potentially even unknown the manor has the ability to rise any longer.
Then you have a fantastical and very flavorful base that can help be a springboard for future adventures, but it doesn't 'solve' the adventures by providing them with free small scale tactical flight to your adventurers (unless of course it feeds the story-line to allow it to get that close).

Moppy |
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If you are concerned about balance and blowing up future stories by making them just move the castle/manor up to anyplace and drop catapult rocks on their enemies...
If there's enough magic to permit flying castles, any competent & appropriate level opposition is going to have magical anti-air weapons _somewhere_, or perhaps flying cavalry.
edit: Or their own flying castle. Now that would be a cool siege. Imagine 2 castles figthing each other. Usually only 1 side has a castle.

Decimus Drake |
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I'd let the party have it for free and at low level. It can be their stronghold. You could build an interesting campaign around them discovering, capturing, and repairing a fortress. First they won't know its full potential. At mid-level they take it to the skies for whatever reason. Having them fend off avaricious sky-pirates, dragons etc. while working to a greater goal could be fun. I'd give it features like arcane cannons, alchemical bombs, shields, flying golem sentinels, local weather manipulation, illusion projection etc. but try to tailor the options to the player characters. If I was so inclined I'd run something like this.

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Like Moppy said, attracting attention and all I would be willing to be that after less than a week the castle would suddenly be overrun by agents of Razmir who are appealing to ask the very same question of the PCs as posed in the thread title: "How much for the flying castle?!"
To answer your question: I wouldn't let a party of PCs buy this at all, it wouldn't even make an appearance in any of my games unless it's part of the backdrop of the story or perhaps a dungeon to raid. If this is something that you're looking to include in your game I would advise that you probably shouldn't charge the PCs for it at all, but instead make the entire campaign ABOUT that very flying castle itself because on its own it will overshadow (hehe) nearly any other story you can tell if the PCs have unfettered access to and control of it.

Natan Linggod 327 |
thank you all for your replies. Got some good ideas in here.
I'm not worried about the players abusing the flight because it would be around the level where they'd have access to easily available flight anyway.
Also, the player who wants it really just wants a "cool headquarters" rather than a combat platform.
Thanks again, everyone!

Moppy |
Well if you want a price, the sun orchild elixir is about 90K gp (according to lost omens legends). This is an immortality elixir that's auctioned at the rate of only a handful per year. This tells us (a) kingdoms have problems coming up with this kind of money, (b) 20th level PCs have more money than some kingdoms, (c) the PF2 economy rules are broken :-) (Choose 2 of the above).