Are there any rules for creatures of various sizes to serve as crew of a ship? I've been trying to find an answer for a little while now, as I know there are rules for non medium creatures to operate standard siege equipment (at penalty), and there are plenty of small humanoid creatures scattered through the shackles who engage in piracy (halflings, goblins, gnomes too I think).
Is there an official answer to this?
Edit: Im also curios if there are any other restrictions on crew. Could a lich captain a ship with a crew of mindless skeletons?
I'm not super familiar with these rules but there is one part I can answer:
Edit: Im also curios if there are any other restrictions on crew. Could a lich captain a ship with a crew of mindless skeletons?
Yes. You don't even have to be a lich.
School necromancy; Level arcanist 4, cleric 3, oracle 3, sorcerer 4, summoner 4, summoner (unchained) 4, warpriest 3, witch 4, wizard 4
Casting
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, MEffect
Range touch
Targets one or more humanoid corpses touched
Duration 1 day/level
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance noDescription
This spell turns corpses into skeletons (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 250) that act as crew and obey your commands to the extent of their abilities.The undead you create are 1 Hit Die skeletons that possess Profession (sailor) scores equal to half your character level plus your Wisdom modifier (for clerics), Intelligence modifier (for witches and wizards), or Charisma modifier (for sorcerers and summoners). Each skeleton can perform the duties of one crew member but has no other abilities. The created skeletons cannot speak, attack, or even defend themselves. The only orders they obey are ones pertaining to the operation of a ship. Skeletal crew members are not proficient with any weapons or armor.
You can’t create more Hit Dice of skeletal crew members than twice your caster level with a single casting of skeleton crew. The desecrate spell doubles this limit.
The undead you create by casting skeleton crew remain under your control for the duration of the spell, and do not count against your limit of total Hit Dice worth of undead creatures you can control.
A skeletal crew member can only be created from a mostly intact humanoid corpse. The corpse must have bones. When you cast this spell, any flesh left on the corpses melts away into fog.
I'd be inclined to say absolutely no difference between small and medium.
Maybe no difference for large size either, except going below deck probably means squeezing to get in.
As far as I know, no rules written take into account size.
As for a lich with skeletons...sort of. Mr. Charisma pointed out the skeleton crew spell, but it's worth noting that they're different from skeletons made with animate undead. They're useless in combat, but specially made for sailing a ship.
I would say most of the work on a ship would be too complex for the normal mindless skeleton to be able to do but...you have the other spell to cast that gets you what you need.
Crew isn't the only place I've seen the mention of a certain number of creatures of a specific size being mentioned, and im wondering if their is some easy exchange rate for number of creatures and creature size.
Unless it is only interchangeable in those very specific instances (a cart can be pulled by 1 large creature or 2 medium creatures, but not 4 small creatures). Maybe ships are so complex that they would need to be built with a creatures size in mind (an ogre would not be able to climb up to the crows nest, and a halfling would not be able to reach the rigging pulleys). But it seems canonically that crews can be mixed of small and medium races, so i dont know...
Also, Mr.Charisma, i had no idea skeleton crew was a thing, and i love it!
No, generally speaking with creation spells there is no "exchange rate". In general, most things don't have an exchange rate for size of creatures. One of the few exceptions I can think of are teleportation spells.
They limit the size capable of being create by certain spells levels to prevent it from being too good.
Also, Mr.Charisma, i had no idea skeleton crew was a thing, and i love it!
No worries ^_^
I'm not really into the necromancer aesthetic, but this spell is so flavourful that I couldn't help but love it.
As for a lich with skeletons...sort of. Mr. Charisma pointed out the skeleton crew spell, but it's worth noting that they're different from skeletons made with animate undead. They're useless in combat, but specially made for sailing a ship.
I would say most of the work on a ship would be too complex for the normal mindless skeleton to be able to do but...you have the other spell to cast that gets you what you need.
Yeah I think you'd need one set of skeletons to run the ship and another set for combat (or whatever other tasks you need done). I doubt this would really be a problem though. Skeletons don't eat or sleep so you could do away with the galley and sleeping quarters (to hold more treasure?), and your crew don't need time off so you wouldn't need a day shift and a night shift, thus reducing the total crew needed.
You can basically be a one-Lich pirate crew. And if you are somehow killed your crew will continue sailing until their unholy energy expires (hence the tales of ghost-ships).