so in a few levels my group will be traveling to Taldor. one of my players and I joked about the bandits of Taldor being land pirates. fast forward a few months later and it has actually become a common joke between the two of us. I really want land pirates cool hats and awesome boats. I don't want the boats to have wheels I want magic on those ships. any help creating the ships would be greatly appreciated. so far the only magical idea is to put earth glide on it and im sure there are other options but I don't know what. Oh and should I have these land ships resemble traditional sailing ship or do something different?
And the behavior of the land pirates is something I am unsure of as well. I have two options they could be marauders who go about pillaging the country side in their awesome land boats. or they could be the Robin Hood of Taldor. these pirates will mostly be found in the uninhabited fields of Taldor, their base or bases will be out there somewhere. Should I do a mix of both or is there another angle I am missing? And any hooks to get my party involved with working with or against these Land Pirates would be wonderful.
Blimps perhaps there are minerals that when burned or when submerged realse helium. This would mean such ships are limited in range because they need to stay near their source. This would make them localized and rare.
Boats with permanent earth glide. This presents problems of pc ownership.
Boats enfused with elementals stress that the elementals are intelligent and keeping them bound is not for good characters.
Make them exactly like regular pirates, except they have magical boats that effectively have earth glide on them (which isn't a spell but whatever) so that the boat treats land as if it were water.
Make their flag or symbol a Bulette.
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Blimps perhaps there are minerals that when burned or when submerged realse helium. This would mean such ships are limited in range because they need to stay near their source. This would make them localized and rare.
Boats with permanent earth glide. This presents problems of pc ownership.
Boats enfused with elementals stress that the elementals are intelligent and keeping them bound is not for good characters.
Well if you include real world chemisty, there exists the Kipp Apparatus, 3 stacked glass globes that is used to create gases using a mixture of mineral substances and acids (for stoners out there a Kipp apparatus looks almost like a bong).
I recently created an airship deck plan as a map commission for FASA games that had a giant Kipp apparatus on the top deck with a hose connecting it to the gas bag overhead producing hydrogen, which is real chemistry. The primary elemental substance for producing hydrogen is "water" - so there should be no issues of being "localized and rare". The apparatus does require some kind of "armor" protection as being inside a metal or wooden box, since the apparatus itself is entirely made of blown glass and thus somewhat fragile.
Of course hydrogen is highly inflammable, thus might be a concern in itself.
I considered the localized and rare to be a perk. Because if if it was abundant and common. Airships would be the predominant form of travel.
To me as a GM I think land pirates sounds funny until the PCs view the captured ship as treasure.
Whereas I think if it were more of a known thing, then everybody would be simply fire burning arrows or fireballs at airship gas bags filled with hydrogen to either bring it down or burn everyone aboard - think Hindenberg. If using a Kipp apparatus is an unshared technology (perhaps invented by one of these "land pirates") then they could get away with being unique and relatively safe for a while, until the technology gets out.
If it were so easy to knock an airship out of the sky, I wouldn't think it would become a predominant form of travel in a typical PF world. Airships make great transportation devices, but generally poor warships due to its frailty. In a world of adventurers and BBEGs to constantly fight, traveling on a flying bomb would be kind of stupid.
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If you visit my G+ community, and go down page about 20 posts, I've created "deck plans" for a 2 decked "ship" that consists of a gigantic beetle corpse, that has been animated by a necromancer "engineer". As a giant scarab beetle it can walk, bite, and fly. Although designed for use in a short Spelljammer campaign I'm running for my home game, if you're looking for an unusual flying, armored walking vehicle, with a crew of 32 - its the perfect fit. Though it might be a real challenge depending on the level of your adventuring party. The ship is armed to the teeth with 12 ballista, 2 trebuches, serving as an aircraft carrier for 3 each, 5 man versions of the same giant beetles.
Also as an aside the Egyptian styled city map at the top post in my G+ community is supposed to be the capital city for the navy that uses these ships.
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Argh, now my mind is stuck on the concept of a druid using gangs of halfling & gnome pirates to raid the countryside from treehouses built into oak trees he casts liveoak on. Why is the druid doing this?
Plenty of reasons. I've run an organization of extremist, anti-urban druids that desire all humanoid communities to be no larger village size, as any larger community will start to deplete natural resources and affect the local biosphere. These druids did all they could to start wars between barbarian/orc-type nations and civilized nations. They would disrupt trade, and supporting bandit gangs would be a method of disrupting trade. They want the destruction of all cities. These aren't acts of evil, rather acts extreme neutrality, wishing to return of balance between sentients and nature.
Yeah that is why I suggested helium.
The more practical form of airship isn't one that's built around a gas bag but either some form of levitational device or lifting wood, usually called a windship. Either case, though they're not generally that sturdy, especially in large sizes.
Land bound "pirates" are typically horse raiders and highwaymen. Their targets would be stagecoaches and caravans which have restrictions in movement because of their cargo and economics.
Oh, I definitely wouldn't use any kind of airship (at least not gas bag based), I only brought it and hydrogen up, because its relatively easy and cheap to produce - kind of basic alchemy. You don't have to get "arcane" to make it work. Though, still very much not practical.
I was only trying to accomodate the OP's inquiry.
Airships seem too "steampunk" to me, and not a genre I particularly care for.
Now a flying, armored undead animated beetle ship, that's got lots of pracicality in my book, but it fits traveling through Arcane Space. Playing road bandit in a beetle ship would be overkill with a poor return on investment.
some very interesting ideas too be had. I currently cant use the extremist druids but I may at a much later date cause that Cnetarian is awesome. the slip stream spell it interesting and I probably have a that somewhere. I will defiantly be using the idea of Phantom ship. one of my players is very interested in spell creation and has told me I should give it a go. what kind of level would I put that at?
i want avoid the airships completely. it is enough that i am including the land ship i don't want to deal with battle in that regard. if my group wants any kind of airborne vessel they will figure it out on their own. i have enough insanity in my campaign. and yes the that is too steampunk perhaps if we play the Iron Gods campaign later that might be an option.
Claxon there will be a Bulette flag i like this.
and to LazarX yes they are bandits but they call themselves pirates, land pirates. them being land pirates is very important.
Thank you all.
The phantom spells listed multiple the number of people affected by 6 per level so:
level 3 phantom steed for 1 person
level 4 phantom chariot 6 people
communal phantom steed 6 people
level 5 phantom ship 36 people
level 6 phantom warship 216 people
thank you though I cant seem to find that, I may be that my computer and I are about to go to war again.
Is this for Kingmaker?
Nope this is for a campaign of my own creation. which is why I have so many posts. creating my own campaign for my first try at DMing was rather foolish but I haven't failed yet. im hoping to play not run Kingmaker.
phantom ship and phantom warship are not listed spells, I was about to go to sleep when I posted this list and forgot that. If the level 3 spells cover 1 person, and the level 4 spells cover 6 people than a level 5 spell should cover 36 people and a level 6 spell should cover 216 people.thank you though I cant seem to find that, I may be that my computer and I are about to go to war again.The phantom spells listed multiple the number of people affected by 6 per level so:
level 3 phantom steed for 1 person
level 4 phantom chariot 6 people
communal phantom steed 6 people
level 5 phantom ship 36 people
level 6 phantom warship 216 people
thank you. the panicked looks that will be on their faces when what looks like a 'ghost ship' is seen will be wonderful. I am running a undead heavy campaign and they will fear undead sailors. I love it!
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Is this for Kingmaker?Nope this is for a campaign of my own creation. which is why I have so many posts. creating my own campaign for my first try at DMing was rather foolish but I haven't failed yet. im hoping to play not run Kingmaker.
Seriously, a near identical thing happened in my Kingmaker game.
Started by a Pirate Shark Shaman PC, who was "converting" Bandits, into "Pirates".
Not actually being by any Sea, or even any real large body of water, these became known as "Land Pirates" by some fellow PCs.
Eventually, this PC became an enemy NPC.