Hello, so my party and I are enamored about the idea of buying an airship. We run a mercenary company out of Waterdeep and are climbing the social ladder quite quickly. Seeing an airship in the skies beyond Waterdeep's walls, "docked" as it would be, would bring us not only fame and prestige but it would also serve us when we wish to use it.
I was thinking about a permanent crew for the craft as well as our soldiers armed with bows, and maybe a couple ballistas too, but what do you think would be good additions to it? I know I want to add smaller siege engines to its rails, stern, and bow but am looking for both militaristic enhancement ideas and also general furnishing ideas. Anything from paintjobs to magical defenses.
If your party had an airship, what would you add? What would you see fit to add? Share below! Thanks!
Some of the best magical add-ons, if your DM approves, are spells like Hallow and Teleportation Circle, which can be made permanent with a year of casting.
The other great "upgrade" is more ships. Small shuttles that can accompany a main vessel will help with landing in more difficult locations, and transporting crew/dignitaries.
For storage, you might be able to get a bunch of Portable Holes, which you could either mount along the walls, or fold up and leave in a chest.
For Offense, a few Elemental Gems never hurt. Either Air elementals for Air to Air combat, or Fire Elementals that you can drop on an enemy ship before high tailing it out of there.
Some kind of permanent Thaumaturgy as a P.A. system, and an excellent conference room.
Oh, and hide some trapped/marked treasure in your hold while you're at it. If you ever get boarded by pirates, or if the ship gets stolen, you'll want a way to track it.
I've always been a fan of bronze hulls/bulkheads and a crew who knows the shocking grasp cantrip. If people start to climb up the side, "all hands on deck... or rather, wall" and shock them off in unison.
And besides that, a steel ramming bow like a trireme.
Hello, so my party and I are enamored about the idea of buying an airship. We run a mercenary company out of Waterdeep and are climbing the social ladder quite quickly. Seeing an airship in the skies beyond Waterdeep's walls, "docked" as it would be, would bring us not only fame and prestige but it would also serve us when we wish to use it.
I was thinking about a permanent crew for the craft as well as our soldiers armed with bows, and maybe a couple ballistas too, but what do you think would be good additions to it? I know I want to add smaller siege engines to its rails, stern, and bow but am looking for both militaristic enhancement ideas and also general furnishing ideas. Anything from paintjobs to magical defenses.
If your party had an airship, what would you add? What would you see fit to add? Share below! Thanks!
All of these:
LIVING VESSEL This vessel's hull was crafted in the Feywild under the direction of master Eladrin shipwrights. It is a living plant. drawing sustenance from water and sunlight. Vines covered in thick leaves hang over its side, and the wood runs with fresh sap when damaged. The ship gains a +2 bonus to all Constitution checks or saving throws. As long as the ship has at least 1 hit point, it re- gains 10 hit points every minute.
EVER-FULL SAILS These billowing sails are woven from cloud-stuff drawn from the Elemental Plane of Air. Wind whips and whis- tles around them, allowing a ship to move with a speed of 60 feet regardless of direction relative to the wind.
BONES OF ENDLESS TorL The bones of ancient, mysterious creatures festoon the ship. Potent runes crawl across these remains, emitting a sickly green radiance. When a humanoid dies aboard th e ship, that creature must make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, it dies as normal. If it fails, it immediately rises as a zombie obedient to the ship's captain. The zombie gains a working knowledge of the ship, allowing it to serve as a member of the crew. A number of creatures equal to the ship's creature ca- pacity can be animated in this manner at any given time.
(For that last one, I'd ask the DM for a variant letting the ship raise skeletal crew - I like skeletons more than zombies).
You might want to look at some ship upgrade options from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. While those options are for ships on water, you can copy those ideas for air ships. I like the Vigilant Watch hull upgrade so invisible creatures are visible when they are near or on the ship. RAW, you can only get hull upgrades once, but since the Vigilant Watch upgrade is just a row of eyeballs and you or your GM is okay with having multiple hull upgrades, I would also look into the Living Vessel (the ship is basically a living plant) upgrade so that your ship can regenerate health on its own. Bones of Endless Toil is my favorite ship upgrade for flavor and practicality as you can have a zombie crew so you do not have to worry about disobedience or mutiny.
For lots of extra space, you can consider having one or more permanent Magnificent Mansion portals anchored to the ship.
I also recommend having lots of chest of preserving to store food. Since stuff does not age nor decay, depending on your GM, you may be able to use it store corpses of fallen crew members and NPCs and revive them later.
An alternative idea to a flying airship is a flying locomotive using tracks made of immovable rods.
For storage, you might be able to get a bunch of Portable Holes, which you could either mount along the walls, or fold up and leave in a chest.
I love portable holes. I am little paranoid about portable holes accidentally going into each other though, so I prefer to weave my portable holes onto carpets of flying, weave the carpets together into a long scroll, and then use illusion magic to hide the holes, so the entire thing is just looks like a large luxurious panoramic tapestry, and you can scroll around (to get to a different portable hole) by rolling the cylinder mechanisms at either end.
Hello, so my party and I are enamored about the idea of buying an airship. We run a mercenary company out of Waterdeep and are climbing the social ladder quite quickly. Seeing an airship in the skies beyond Waterdeep's walls, "docked" as it would be, would bring us not only fame and prestige but it would also serve us when we wish to use it.
I was thinking about a permanent crew for the craft as well as our soldiers armed with bows, and maybe a couple ballistas too, but what do you think would be good additions to it? I know I want to add smaller siege engines to its rails, stern, and bow but am looking for both militaristic enhancement ideas and also general furnishing ideas. Anything from paintjobs to magical defenses.
If your party had an airship, what would you add? What would you see fit to add? Share below! Thanks!
Some of the best magical add-ons, if your DM approves, are spells like Hallow and Teleportation Circle, which can be made permanent with a year of casting.
The other great "upgrade" is more ships. Small shuttles that can accompany a main vessel will help with landing in more difficult locations, and transporting crew/dignitaries.
For storage, you might be able to get a bunch of Portable Holes, which you could either mount along the walls, or fold up and leave in a chest.
For Offense, a few Elemental Gems never hurt. Either Air elementals for Air to Air combat, or Fire Elementals that you can drop on an enemy ship before high tailing it out of there.
Some kind of permanent Thaumaturgy as a P.A. system, and an excellent conference room.
Oh, and hide some trapped/marked treasure in your hold while you're at it. If you ever get boarded by pirates, or if the ship gets stolen, you'll want a way to track it.
I've always been a fan of bronze hulls/bulkheads and a crew who knows the shocking grasp cantrip. If people start to climb up the side, "all hands on deck... or rather, wall" and shock them off in unison.
And besides that, a steel ramming bow like a trireme.
Dry bar. Chaise lounges. Butler who knows his way around a martini shaker.
All of these:
LIVING VESSEL
This vessel's hull was crafted in the Feywild under the
direction of master Eladrin shipwrights. It is a living
plant. drawing sustenance from water and sunlight.
Vines covered in thick leaves hang over its side, and
the wood runs with fresh sap when damaged. The ship
gains a +2 bonus to all Constitution checks or saving
throws. As long as the ship has at least 1 hit point, it re-
gains 10 hit points every minute.
EVER-FULL SAILS
These billowing sails are woven from cloud-stuff drawn
from the Elemental Plane of Air. Wind whips and whis-
tles around them, allowing a ship to move with a speed
of 60 feet regardless of direction relative to the wind.
BONES OF ENDLESS TorL
The bones of ancient, mysterious creatures festoon the
ship. Potent runes crawl across these remains, emitting
a sickly green radiance. When a humanoid dies aboard
th e ship, that creature must make a DC 12 Wisdom
saving throw. On a successful save, it dies as normal. If
it fails, it immediately rises as a zombie obedient to the
ship's captain. The zombie gains a working knowledge
of the ship, allowing it to serve as a member of the crew.
A number of creatures equal to the ship's creature ca-
pacity can be animated in this manner at any given time.
(For that last one, I'd ask the DM for a variant letting the ship raise skeletal crew - I like skeletons more than zombies).
You might want to look at some ship upgrade options from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. While those options are for ships on water, you can copy those ideas for air ships. I like the Vigilant Watch hull upgrade so invisible creatures are visible when they are near or on the ship. RAW, you can only get hull upgrades once, but since the Vigilant Watch upgrade is just a row of eyeballs and you or your GM is okay with having multiple hull upgrades, I would also look into the Living Vessel (the ship is basically a living plant) upgrade so that your ship can regenerate health on its own. Bones of Endless Toil is my favorite ship upgrade for flavor and practicality as you can have a zombie crew so you do not have to worry about disobedience or mutiny.
For lots of extra space, you can consider having one or more permanent Magnificent Mansion portals anchored to the ship.
I also recommend having lots of chest of preserving to store food. Since stuff does not age nor decay, depending on your GM, you may be able to use it store corpses of fallen crew members and NPCs and revive them later.
An alternative idea to a flying airship is a flying locomotive using tracks made of immovable rods.
I love portable holes. I am little paranoid about portable holes accidentally going into each other though, so I prefer to weave my portable holes onto carpets of flying, weave the carpets together into a long scroll, and then use illusion magic to hide the holes, so the entire thing is just looks like a large luxurious panoramic tapestry, and you can scroll around (to get to a different portable hole) by rolling the cylinder mechanisms at either end.
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