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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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Crake said:
In theory, how much air capacity could a carrier hold? You said a Dauntless could hold up basically two flights or so? (Odd configuration, but works)
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The Dauntless is meant as a cruiser, not as a carrier. That's just it's knife-fighting contingent.

As for the hypothetical carrier, that's ultimately just a matter of strapping more engines and cargo bays on, weighed up by how large you are willing to make the thing. I've still got the notes for a trade ship and if you convert the cargo bays into hangars, it could carry 100 Wyverns and 50 Manticores.
 
@Azel @Crake Here's my thoughts on Suicide Drones for the fighters.

A single-use Teleport effect at 9th level would cost 225 IM.

We have no good, reasonable method of creating practical missile-like projectiles that can travel at the necessary speeds. What we can do, however, is kick reality in the nuts.

Using a Lesser False Raven Construct as a guide for pricing purposes, we start with a cost of 25 IM. We equip them with a single-use Teleport item and 20 pounds of Explosive Packs, with a nice fragmentation casing. That's only 250 IM of enchanting each, which isn't bad at all for that kind of damage potential.

They wouldn't be fast, but they would be able to instantly Teleport to any target designated by the pilot.

Four per fighter seems reasonable to me. They could also be ordered to detach from the fighter and act like mines rather than Teleporting bombs, with orders to detonate based on proximity or a timer.

These would also make excellent weapons for the Moonchaser.
 
[X] Hungry Snek Part II
-[X] Questions for Yss before we feed him (heavily implied that the cost of the questions is covered by the sacrifice)
--[X] Would Yss be willing to help proofread a book written to establish a Grand Unified Religion of the Imperium? This is to help make sure we avoid stepping on any toes with him.
--[X] On the nature of the divine.
---[X] How do Ley Lines factor into this?
--[X] What can Yss tell us of the various types of serpentfolk that once served him, their various abilities, and where they could be found?
--[X] Can Yss give us a map of his former worshipper's lands in Sothoryos so we can track down the ruins later?
---[X] On the subject of his worshippers, has he found any more suitable candidates for clerics aside from Svitran?
---[X] Does Yss have his holy book he can give us for our collection?
--[X] Can Yss tell us the locations of any leylines that he's aware of and mark them on ou appropriate maps?
--[X] What can Yss tell us of Sseth, his abilities, what methods and champions he tends to use (if there are specific names that would be great), where his former strongholds were located, etc.
--[X] What can Yss tell us of Lolth, her abilities, what methods and champions she tends to use (if there are specific names that would be great), where her former strongholds were located, etc.
---[X] What can Yss tell us of the Underdark and the ruined Drow city of Zanthor on the surface? What about the "silver mountains" elsewhere in Sothoryos?
--[X] What can Yss tell us of Zathir/Jazirian? (can be given as books IC that we read later to keep the questions short)
--[X] Is there a way to precisely divine the location of the undead coatl godling in the Plane of Fire?
--[X] Is there a way we could get more coatls (not godlings, just normal ones), and if so what payment and material components would we need?
--[X] We have an Orb of Dragonkind. Does he know of a way to destroy the artifact as well as the wyrm inside? If so, how much payment would he need?
--[X] Ask Yss if resurrecting gods of Valyria, like Syrax or Meraxes and not keeping any connections to the 15th is possible. Would he, a god with domains of Life and Death, be capable of such feat if given a sufficient infusion of energy?
--[X] Ask Yss what his price would be for taking part in creation of an artifact out of Varys' god-denying trinket, a piece made together with other gods we manage to diplomance into this, a way to snare Tiamat's/other deity's power when it is exerted over the wearer... Like young Aegon, who is trapped in her web of lies.
---[X] On that vein, when the time comes, does he know of a solution to deal with the 15th? How much payment would he require if so?
--[X] Does Yss know how to stop sleeping so much? We have lots of strong monsters to feed him and are often thwarted by the fact that he's asleep.
-[X] After the questions are answered, sacrifice the following for Yss
--[X] Sacrifice two Colossal Fiendish Monstrous Spiders (CR 13 each) to undo Lolth's divine curse on the two Chwidenchas and restore them to their original forms.
--[X] Sacrifice Tor (CR 15) and Varys (CR 17 with gear, CR 16 without?) make sure to vote beforehand what reward to get out of it.
 
Note, to make flying carriers, you start to run into serious structural concerns.

Which means a lot of metamaterials to make up for it, like Mithral, adamantine and VS.

So cost is an even more serious factor.
 
Goldfish said:
@Azel @Crake Here's my thoughts on Suicide Drones for the fighters.

A single-use Teleport effect at 9th level would cost 225 IM.

We have no good, reasonable method of creating practical missile-like projectiles that can travel at the necessary speeds. What we can do, however, is kick reality in the nuts.

Using a Lesser False Raven Construct as a guide for pricing purposes, we start with a cost of 25 IM. We equip them with a single-use Teleport item and 20 pounds of Explosive Packs, with a nice fragmentation casing. That's only 250 IM of enchanting each, which isn't bad at all for that kind of damage potential.

They wouldn't be fast, but they would be able to instantly Teleport to any target designated by the pilot.

Four per fighter seems reasonable to me. They could also be ordered to detach from the fighter and act like mines rather than Teleporting bombs, with orders to detonate based on proximity or a timer.

These would also make excellent weapons for the Moonchaser.
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How much if we use Teleport without Error – Spell – D&D Tools instead?
If we assume that it counts as "viewed once", you would have a 25% miss rate for those projectiles, meaning the effective cost per hit is roughly 333 IM.
 
Azel said:
The Dauntless is meant as a cruiser, not as a carrier. That's just it's knife-fighting contingent.

As for the hypothetical carrier, that's ultimately just a matter of strapping more engines and cargo bays on, weighed up by how large you are willing to make the thing. I've still got the notes for a trade ship and if you convert the cargo bays into hangars, it could carry 100 Wyverns and 50 Manticores.
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I'm thinking probably some of those for air lift capacity, Dauntless cruisers to give some "shiny mid-boss that is supposed to make you think "wow there can't be anything tougher than this!" and some Moonchaser sized craft to make things interesting.

I am thinking of multiple perspectives this could all take place from, like a mercenary company flying sorties with an elite squadron of Imperial Aces.

My only thought is that Imperial Pilots would be cheerfully fatalistic (the kind of occupation which attracts a certain brand of people would be one where if you suffer a significant hull breach you are exposed to environmental hazards you were literally never meant to survive).

Stuff like a pilot sacrificing himself to take down an enemy Ace and for the Strangereal mercs to freak out due to losing a colorful personality, and his squadron shrug it off completely.

"The Emperor appreciates his noble sacrifice."
 
TotallyNotEvil said:
Note, to make flying carriers, you start to run into serious structural concerns.

Which means a lot of metamaterials to make up for it, like Mithral, adamantine and VS.

So cost is an even more serious factor.
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Rather than a carrier, a heavily armed and armored vessel with a linked portal Gate which can be opened to a hanger Demiplane would be more practical and efficient.
 
Goldfish said:
Rather than a carrier, a heavily armed and armored vessel with a linked portal Gate which can be opened to a hanger Demiplane would be more practical and efficient.
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Goldfish, they have to be able to Planeshift the vessel.

Gate wizardry and "thinking with portals" only works with fixed locations.
 
Crake said:
I'm thinking probably some of those for air lift capacity, Dauntless cruisers to give some "shiny mid-boss that is supposed to make you think "wow there can't be anything tougher than this!" and some Moonchaser sized craft to make things interesting.

I am thinking of multiple perspectives this could all take place from, like a mercenary company flying sorties with an elite squadron of Imperial Aces.

My only thought is that Imperial Pilots would be cheerfully fatalistic (the kind of occupation which attracts a certain brand of people would be one where if you suffer a significant hull breach you are exposed to environmental hazards you were literally never meant to survive).

Stuff like a pilot sacrificing himself to take down an enemy Ace and for the Strangereal mercs to freak out due to losing a colorful personality, and his squadron shrug it off completely.

"The Emperor appreciates his noble sacrifice."
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The Dauntless is already armed with 40 steam cannons, 40 Launchers in quad arrangements (though I would make half of those turrets Farstrike Quads instead) and has an armor thickness of 40 cm of hardened, enchanted steel. Also, it can loose a quarter of it's engines without any effect on it's combat performance.

I sure as fuck wouldn't want to fight that with an F-16. :V
 
Azel said:
How much if we use Teleport without Error – Spell – D&D Tools instead?
If we assume that it counts as "viewed once", you would have a 25% miss rate for those projectiles, meaning the effective cost per hit is roughly 333 IM.
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If the Construct can see its target, there would be no.miss chance. We would just need to link the pilot's visual feed to that of the Construct, or just make sure they always look at what the pilot does.

Using Greater Teleport wouldn't only be more expensive, at 455 enchantment, but would need a 13th level crafter. Using regular Teleport let's us use 9th level crafters.
 
Azel said:
The Dauntless is already armed with 40 steam cannons, 40 Launchers in quad arrangements (though I would make half of those turrets Farstrike Quads instead) and has an armor thickness of 40 cm of hardened, enchanted steel. Also, it can loose a quarter of it's engines without any effect on it's combat performance.

I sure as fuck wouldn't want to fight that with an F-16. :V
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It's also up against a world that has hyper-specialized in aerial warfare.

One of the Arsenal Birds from Ace Combat 7 would actually be a scary threat to face.
 
Goldfish said:
If the Construct can see its target, there would be no.miss chance. We would just need to link the pilot's visual feed to that of the Construct, or just make sure they always look at what the pilot does.

Using Greater Teleport wouldn't only be more expensive, at 455 enchantment, but would need a 13th level crafter. Using regular Teleport let's us use 9th level crafters.
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Alright, uneconomic, even if the miss chance is 25%.
 
Crake said:
Goldfish, they have to be able to Planeshift the vessel.

Gate wizardry and "thinking with portals" only works with fixed locations.
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No, they don't.

The fighters can be in their hanger Demiplane, safe and sound. Then the Gate ship travels to its destination, signals it's arrival, then the portal is connected to the specially prepared Gate on the ship. During this time the ship would of course be holding a fixed position. The fighters fly through and commence killing shit.

Etc.
 
Goldfish said:
No, they don't.

The fighters can be in their hanger Demiplane, safe and sound. Then the Gate ship travels to its destination, signals it's arrival, then the portal is connected to the specially prepared Gate on the ship. During this time the ship would of course be holding a fixed position. The fighters fly through and commence killing shit.

Etc.
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If you can sell those Stargates to DP, I'm game.
 
Azel said:
Alright, uneconomic, even if the miss chance is 25%.
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???

250 IM to deliver 10d6 damage explosions, likely with an effective blast radius of at least 40ft after taking the fragmentation casing into effect, to any target within LoS without fail seems super economical to me.

Given the price of modern cruise missiles, it actually seems even more reasonable. We can produce 50 of these for the price of one fighter. Arming each fighter with four of them gives the pilot serious firepower.
 
I will have to give this some thought. Any designs do not necessarily have to be finalized forms, for instance this is very much a touch and go kind of investment even in the long-term.

So I can imagine having hanger module configuration carriers, or Stargate style carrier launch platforms. In which case their capacity would functionally be limited to how many fighters and gunships we could produce.

We going to design Thunderhawks for our Praetorians? Since we can just use larger craft to land normal ground troops, however Praetorians could benefit from fast attack craft which have some troop capacity.

Or maybe the gunship could serve?
 
Goldfish said:
???

250 IM to deliver 10d6 damage explosions, likely with an effective blast radius of at least 40ft after taking the fragmentation casing into effect, to any target within LoS without fail seems super economical to me.

Given the price of modern cruise missiles, it actually seems even more reasonable. We can produce 50 of these for the price of one fighter. Arming each fighter with four of them gives the pilot serious firepower.
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No, I meant that using Teleport without Error would be uneconomic. The Teleporting cruise missiles are awesome and I would like to order 100.
Crake said:
We going to design Thunderhawks for our Praetorians? Since we can just use larger craft to land normal ground troops, however Praetorians could benefit from fast attack craft which have some troop capacity.
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I was thinking about dedicated transports on basis of the Manticore chassis.

And if you don't want to bother with landing, Feather Fall and taking that one step.
 
I will be honest, I have no idea what verse Crake is talking about.

That said, teleporting suicide constructs sound great. How you getting UMD to activate those teleport scrolls, tho?
 
Goldfish said:
to deliver 10d6 damage explosions
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Add Wildfire.
Have even a slightest hit by it carried via shrapnel guarantee the destruction of whatever it lands on, if not instant.

Wildfire is fucking awesome when one doesn't have to discriminate what he's buring.

*WMD-mania intensifies*

...I'm spending a boatload of money to communicate while on the other side of the country from my city >_<

This quest is cancer on muh sanity.
 
On a different track, if we want a neat bomb, I'd like to figure out how to make an Orb of Wildfire.

Several dozen of those to unleash on the Deep Ones would be excellent.
 
[X] Duesal


Snowfire said:
. "Death Curse, Viserys. She'll just be able to play this all back." He still almost did it, I could tell. Then he snarled something that could only be a vicious curse in a tongue I'd never heard him speak, and let me help lower the young woman to the ground.
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Seems to me like letting her rewind would be the best option. Viserys gets another chance at that nat. 20 to convince her.

Snowfire said:
It's possible, so long as it's done before she catches her train. And she would have to choose to come back, too.
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Just a reminder that Dragonlance (Towers of High Sorcery) has a spell that allows you to Rezz people who died in the last minutes/CL without the "willing target" factor.

Also I consider trying to go back and get a better result if you can do it a perfectly reasonable option.
Savescumming for difficult encounters is just something that makes sense.
 
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"On this topic, just summarizing a few posts which hit upon key points:

Practically speaking, most of magic is in the mind."

-Jim

Hmmmm.

@Snowfire I will say I am 100% certain that Lya could fix that.

Even if only in the sense that she could probably surgically transform a Dresden files soul into a DnD universe soul.

Since... Well...

If Dresden files souls ARE their minds, that makes them... Quite a bit like dnds outsiders actually.

And we know what "breaking the rules" does to outsiders...
 
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@Snowfire
I am aware that you are wilfully weakening D&D mind/soul magic for story reasons, to make the crossover's themes work. Therefore I won't argue about that. It's necessary to make the crossover's (pretty cool) themes work, after all !

HOWEVER

This chapter utterly failed to show Viserys going all-out before failing. Therefore, I read it as "he didn't really care about her, gave it an offhand shot, killed her when she proved inconvenient".
  • Where were the uses of Mythic Power, especially for Diplomacy ?
  • What about Alter Fortune during diplomacy? Alter Fortune is noticeable to allies but not to enemies, I believe. Or was Viserys afraid that she could somehow manage it?
  • What about his Belt of Battle? Arcane Spellsurge and Greater Arcane Fusion? Time Stop? Celerity? All of these effects are mainstays of a Viserys powerful enough to cast Miracle, especially when faced with someone of her power. Having him fail to use them when he already used them a lot in battle makes this whole mess read less like a desperate struggle and more like a casual spar that ends in murder. He should have cast a lot more spells, sometimes loving too quickly for Viserys to see.
So overall, I am disappointed with this chapter not because of its outcome, but because I feel it failed to convey its own main theme. Having Viserys fail to social-fu someone? Why not! It makes her seem as psychologically alien as a Deep One! Having Viserys fail to capture her alive? Why not! Time Magic is bullshit!
But please have him actually try. They should both be using temporal acceleration, and Viserys should be casting super fast. This fight should have at least another 12 spells from Viserys, and Kathy could simply dispel them all at once, force their durations to expire instantly and/or use her own version of Time Stop!

Example: Viserys casts black tentacles, then a Swift or quickened Invisibility to get away with activating his Belt of Battle to cast Arcane Spellsurge and Time Stop without being seen breaking the Law. Then? Wham! Wall spells, buffs, animated objects, whatever! At this level Viserys has incredible action economy: thanks to Arcane Spellsurge and the Arcane Fusion spells (which he should know or have on items at level 20 - I'll be pushing for that at least!) he can cast 4 spells per round, and Time Stop gives him 1d4+1 rounds in which to cast battlefield control spells or buffs.
 
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