Flying House...mount?

[Drachasor]

So let's say you use make a flying house/tower/whatever. Some large building.

If you are inside it and it moves, do you use the rules for mounts? Is attacking from within it mounted combat? If you are inside it and fighting someone also in it, do you both use mounted combat?

It's interaction with the cover rules is also weird.

Anyhow, I'm not aware of any rules that cover this situation well. Seems like anything like his would either be done by grappling or mount rules. Somewhat similar, an Animated Ship that swims would suddenly change how it works compared to a normal ship. Unless you hand wave it.

Am I missing anything? Thoughts?

[Timebomb]

I would go with the naval combat laid out in Skull and Shackles, namely that the ships/houses aren't accelerating fast enough to cause noticeable effects on the occupants save for the concentration checks needed because of motion while casting, even in "rough seas" it just says to treat all squares as difficult terrain and that's it.
It is a house, not a fighter jet.

[SwiftyKun]

I am interested to hear what series of events led to this question...

[Drachasor]

Timebomb wrote:

I would go with the naval combat laid out in Skull and Shackles, namely that the ships/houses aren't accelerating fast enough to cause noticeable effects on the occupants save for the concentration checks needed because of motion while casting, even in "rough seas" it just says to treat all squares as difficult terrain and that's it.

It is a house, not a fighter jet.

It is tricky to get its speed and maneuverability up high enough for aerial acrobatics, I admit. I'll have to check out those rules.

Making it a creature is what makes the rule interaction a bit weird, I think. They don't really go over rules for creatures providing anything more than soft cover, for instance.

Same if you cast Invisibility on it. Are the occupants visible? I would venture that they aren't since they are concealed like an object, but it isn't entirely clear either.

SwiftyKun wrote:

I am interested to hear what series of events led to this question...

It is not very exciting.

My Wizard is going to take Craft Construct in another level. Eventually he'll be able to make Animated Object buildings. Who doesn't want a flying castle or the like? But it raises a lot of questions about how it works.

It can similarly be applied to using an Animated Object (or the like) as some sort of mobile battle platform, I suppose. I wasn't planning on using it for combat really, but it is fun to think about. I mean, I would use it for combat if my group could handle that sort of thing, but it is a quite a bit beyond the level they play at so I'd stick to transport mostly.

We're playing Rise of the Runelords (4th level, no spoilers please). I also kind of doubt flying castles or the like is something they imagined at higher levels. If someone knows better, let me know.

As for affording a massive structure, well, Wall of Stone and other spells make it free with a little time.

[Timebomb]

making it a creature... hmm... well... yup.

For invisibility I would rule that if you are inside it, it are considered one of it's possessions, and therefor invisible if it is invisible.
For the soft/hard/no cover debacle I would just go with the original cover rules with common sense added as needed. The cover rules are pretty explicit so I don't think too much common sense would be needed.

As for the building of it... head out to the middle of a forest, hire a bard, and rent a Lyre of Building (basically the best item in the entire game).

[Drachasor]

I lean similarly. I just noticed the rules don't seem to cover it very well.

Lyre of Building is certainly an option. I only say Walls of Stone, Fabricate, and so forth since that really just takes time and is otherwise free.

Now, I'll have to look at upping stealth out the wazoo on a Animated Castle. It would be amusing for it to sneak up on people. Hmm, or would Bluff work? Distract someone, then use Bluff again to convince them you didn't move (without words, obviously).

[Timebomb]

Sadly since animated objects are mindless they cant take skills (though there is always the roughly 1% chance for it to become an intelligent magic item). Maybe you could shove an Elixir of Hiding down its... throat?

What you can do is give it a burrow speed in addition to a fly speed. Imagine the look on people's faces when a house comes plunging out of the sky, only to burrow its way into and then through the ground.

I am seeing a Gargantuan Animated Object (small house) that has 30' burrow, 30' land, and 60' fly(clumsy).

I don't suppose your character's name is Baba Yaga?

[Drachasor]

True they are mindless. But they aren't prevented from USING stealth or bluff. So you can get them items that buff those skills. Hence a castle could sneak up on someone or bluff them into thinking it hasn't moved (likely counts as an Impossible Lie though).

No, not Baba Yaga, but I always wanted to make some constructs, and flying castles are cool. Burrow is definitely interesting to place on a castle.

It's hard to get a high speed though, since technically you can only take a speed increase once. So 40' is the usual max as far as I can tell. Some magic items might be able to increase that.