Help me build a cargo plane pathfinder style.

[Mathius]

A roc or Brachiosaurus is the way to go I think. Both start at gargantuan and can be made colossal for 90k. I could not find any colossal animals. I have now idea of what the each of these animals would cost but it is probably they same.

A roc starts with a str of 28. For 360k we add 8 with an item of permanent animal growth. Muleback chords cost 2k to make slotless and add 8 str. A belt of giant str +6 combined with heavy load belt costs 39k

This gives us a final str of 50 on colossal x 3. This gives us a light load of 204 tons and heavy load of 614 tons at heavy load. Light load speed is 80 and heavy load is 55. Total cost is 401k + roc

A Brachiosaurus starts with a str of 37. For 1k we add 8 for muleback cords. Since a Brachiosaurus can not wear a belt we +6 str cost 64k and the heavy load belt cost 4k. An item of permanent air walk costs 112k. Air walk does not work on colossal so no animal growth.

That gives us gargantuan beast with a str of 52 x 3. Light load is 199 tons and heavy load of 599 tons. A slotless version of horseshoes of speed cost 6k. For 24k we can have footwear of slipstream. Speed with light load is 70, 50 with heavy. Total cost is 207k. Because it does not take much wind to mess mess up air walk it might be useful to spend worth it spend 72k on permanent cloak of winds. That brings out total to 279k.

The roc carries more but not by a lot. Same with speed. Not sure the roc is worth the extra 122k.

Anyone see ways to make this better. Rings of sustanance would allow for movemnet 22 hours/day at cost 14d6. Both creatures could take that easily but would the best way to heal it each day be? Also needed would be a immunity from fatigue.

Anyone know how many tons the largest cargo plane in the real world can carry?

[Mathius]

This would never have a real use in a game since teleportion is available by the time you could outfit one of these. Where this could be much more useful would be in an E6 world. In such a world the Brachiosaurus would be the clear winner since animal growth is a 5th level spell.

The Brachiosaurus's str would only be 46 since there would be no belt of giant str. That gives us a light load 88 tons and 265 tons for a heavy load. We also save 64k in gold.

We could save even more if there is a way to use alter winds instead of cloak of winds to deal with winds at altitude.

A raft with a permanent levitate effect would allow 5 or even 10 times as much cargo to be moved by creature.

[Lincoln Hills]

Mathius - while it's true teleport supersedes the need for passenger jets, it'd be rather uneconomical to pay a 9th-level wizard, over and over, to shuttle thousands of pounds of iron ore, millet, or lamp oil between two locations.

That said, superhuge transports aren't necessarily going to be economical either, especially if they have to be fed. Note also that - unless I misremember - natural fliers can only fly at Medium or lighter encumbrance... land and sea creatures could go much heavier, but from the thread title I gather that "air travel" is kind of the point. Has anybody calculated the Str of the various vermin that have Colossal advancement? They may actually outdo the roc...

[Mathius]

The lockheed C-5 galaxy carries about 195 tons so even the E6 variant can do better then this with a tailor. The regular versions have it beat with a light load. It does however have rather large speed advantage.

[Mathius]

The Brachiosaurus on the ground combine with animal growth carry more the twice the airborn variety at a simalar speed but then you can never move in a straight line on the ground and terrain slows you down. Also that much weight on the roads would be bad.

A ring of sustenance solves the feeding issues.

If you are right about the fliers and their load limits then the Brachiosaurus is better.

As to the the vermin, I could find no gargantuan one stronger then a Brachiosaurus. Some colossal ones were but not by the 8 points animal growth can give. The fan version of the deadly mantis is better but the paizo lacks a fly speed and is only 8 points stonger then the roc witch is countered by the animal growth.

[Claxon]

Wellll, I'd just mosey over to d20pfsrd and go to the vehicles section and look up air vehicles and look at the air ship.

It can carry 30 tons of cargo, moves at a maximum speed of 100ft and only cost 50,000 gp.

Or, you could just purchase teleportation rings or whatever the item is called. It's a pair of rings that has a permanent teleportation circle effect on it if I recall correctly, but only like a foot in diameter and is like a two way teleport portal between just those two.

Or you could just cast permanencied teleportation circles. Expensive to begin with, but they do last forever. And not as expensive as you're creations at only 22,900 gold + the cost of casting the spell + finding a 17th level wizard. Of course, that sounds about as reasonable as what you're trying to do...

[Kolokotroni]

Why on earth would people want to ship things by ludicrously large animal in a world where portable holes and bags of holding exist?

[Lincoln Hills]

Why on earth would they want to ride horses in a world where flying carpets exist?

Besides, this isn't about practicality - what in Pathfinder is? It's about the awesomeness of having adventures on a giant flying whatever. Adventures inside a portable hole on somebody's saddlebag tend to be a bit more limited in scope. Particularly if you're worrying about your air supply.

Oh, hey... What if you apply Half-Celestial or Half-Dragon to your brachiosaurus? It becomes winged, right?...

[Captain Xenon]

the easiest way to move a lot of goods from location A to location B is to use create demiplane, greater. just use 3 castings of the spell- one to create it, and two more to add portals to the locations you need. then have unskilled laborers haul things down a hallway to your other warehouse, regardless of what plane its on. cost only really goes up if you want to make the demiplane permanent. you just need a wizard willing to spend 8 hours casting a 9th level spell for you, repeatedly.

now, for a proper 'cargo plane', i would suggest designing a new animal from the ground up. perhaps some kind of flying whale? pick the final stats you want, and then describe how it gets there. easy for a GM to do. for a player, talk to your GM- either they will help you build it, or they save you time by simply telling you no.

[Mathius]

Actually the demi plane idea is a cargo plane of sorts. It does have the word plane in it after all.

I am more doing this as just a fun thought exercise in the pathfinder world. The only time those who could get one of these cargo planes they could just teleport.

Just realized that an item of overland flight cost less then air walk do to duration issues and the hustle effect essential doubles you overland speed to either 80 or 60 depending on load.

Half dragon would solve the flying issue but would only have fly speed of 60/40. The +6 str is awsome for this and I will have to run the numbers but I think and item of overland flight and animal growth will do more for me. The extra int may or may not be a good thing.

Any way to get an enlarge effect on to dragon? If there is then the template is the way to go.

I guess you could breed a dire Brachiosaurus with dragon but I am not sure that is legal. If it is then we have winner.

[Mathius]

So I think I have come up with a the ultimate cargo plane but it takes an 18 level caster to go through the process it is really not practical in any real way but it is still fun.

We start with herd of brachiosaurus and breed only the best of the best with an emphasis on size. Eventually you will have an advanced giant brachiosaurus. Once you have this, force it to breed with a dragon. This is quite dangerous since you will need at least a gargantuan dragon and if you can simply pay the dragon that is probable for the best. If not I would make sure to kill the dragon once you have the eggs you need.

An advanced, giant, half dragon Brachiosaurus adds +16 str, increases the beast's size to colossal, and adds in a fly speed. This str of 53 so far. This beast may want to exert its own will since it has an int of 4 but we have let it grow until it reaches maturity. Don't get to attached since we now have to kill it so we can raise it as a juju zombie. This 4 more str; makes us immune to fatigue and non lethal damage; and removes the need for air, water, food. This gets us a beast with a str 57 that can fly 24/7.

Equipping our pet will cost 69k but add 14 more str and triple our carrying capacity. That is a str of 71 for carrying capacity on colossal flying quadruped. 153 pounds x3 (ant haul) x24 (colossal quadruped) x 1024 (str) = 5640 tons on light load and 16957 tons on heavy load. That is around 34 million pounds.

Any one got a way to increase fly speed?