1. My mythal doesn't incorporate the creation of the big rock that the city and bubble sit on. I'd need to know who in Realmspace could assist in towing/finding a rather large asteroid.
2. I am considering saying it involves help from the Elven Imperial Navy, mostly from the planet Karpri, with an invented Admiral. Any thoughts on the feasibility?
3. What would consist of a SMALL trade port over a planet? I am thinking of having one near the city, and wonder what variety of defenses it might have?
Okay, thanks folks, and I look forward to hearing back from you.
1. My mythal doesn't incorporate the creation of the big rock that the city and bubble sit on. I'd need to know who in Realmspace could assist in towing/finding a rather large asteroid.
Selune, Toril moon, has some asteroids following its orbit. They are called "Tear of Selune" and many legends about this asteroid cluster are known on Toril. Lots of free asteroids in the Tears of Selune wait only a proud adventurer to conquer them!
2. I am considering saying it involves help from the Elven Imperial Navy, mostly from the planet Karpri, with an invented Admiral. Any thoughts on the feasibility?
I think elves hould be interested in destroing orcs.
Maybe, your asteroid is infested with orcs and needs some cleaning?
Otherwise, if you want elves' magic, then... I think you must offer them some dead orcs or a way to kill some...
my advice to you: just buy the asteroid from a dwarf clan who has finished mining out an old asteroid and wants a new one. the only race that can *quickly* move asteroids larger than a cube 65' on a side (up to 7 times the volume, so maybe 115' on a side? which of course, you could change the shape of, as desired).
alternately, you could assume that the asteroid was moved a bit at a time, and was 'glued' together at the receiving end using stone shape spells and such (rock to mud/mud to rock would also work).
because actually moving an asteroid of decent size is usually going to take a really, really long time. the simple fact is, unless you can travel at spelljamming speeds, you are not getting anywhere fast, and when moving something the size of an asteroid, you are going to be travelling at tactical speeds (for your reference: spelljamming speeds are, if i remember right, 100 million miles per day. tactical speeds go up to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 180 mph, and that's a very fast ship for tactical speeds...)
(the thread's current page is -- http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=734716&page=6)
That just seems to be a flamewar in the making, but the begining of the thread seems interesting (maybe you could sumarise the important information here so I don't need to wade through pointless offtopic discussions about the ability scores of real life human women that have crept into the conversation).
You seem to be struggling with the concepts of air, heat and gravity. You don't need to worry about these. Anything as large as an asteroid has gravity and an air envelope (a bubble of air). You can put plants on your asteroid that will keep the air fresh. The main change is that your asteroid base will probably have a gravity plane rather than circular gravity. This means that it will have a top you can stand on and a bottom that you can also stand on. In between these two areas will be an area of zero gravity where spelljamming ships can dock.
You don't need an airlock on any base in the Spelljammer Campaign Setting. It is almost imposible to touch vaccum as a buble of air goes with your body. There are some airless worlds, so you could make your base airless as a property of your mythril, but I don't see an advantage of that. If you really want to stop people getting in you need a totally enclosed base (you can fly over a castle wall with ease on a spelljamming ship). Maybe you could make a hollow asteroid and put a forest, defences and a landing dock on the outside and an artificially illuminated city on the inside.
If you did use a hollow asteroid then your mythril could perhaps create the illusion that people are on a regular planet. Maybe it has stored an image of Myth Drannor (or another place) and that image has been recreated inside the asteroid so that elves can go there and relive the past. (If you watch Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn you can get an idea of how an elven city inside an asteroid can be made to look.)
Unfortunately, I know next to nil about Spelljammer, even after reading good amounts of Beyond the Moon and Shattered Fractine pages, and I was wondering if anyone might be able willing to give me some useful advice.
Start work on your Mythril asteroid, but be prepared to research more SJ material and make adjustments to your work as you go along.
1. My mythal doesn't incorporate the creation of the big rock that the city and bubble sit on. I'd need to know who in Realmspace could assist in towing/finding a rather large asteroid.
Where do you want the asteroid to go? If you want it in orbit around Toril then just use one of the Tears of Selune as others have suggested.
The Tears are not well developed and your base could easily be slotted in among them. You might even be able to get your city hosted on Beyond the Moons if you make it usable by Spelljammer GMs.
2. I am considering saying it involves help from the Elven Imperial Navy, mostly from the planet Karpri, with an invented Admiral. Any thoughts on the feasibility?
The Elven Imperial Navy have ships in most crystal spheres, so you can use them if it helps you.
You don't need to make the ships come from Karpri unless you really want to link that in with you campaign. Karpri station got zapped a long time ago and the planet itself is a water world, so you would have to set this in the past to create a link like that. You seem to be trying to make this connected to the past in your other thread, but I'd strongly advise against using Karpri as aquatic elves in space don't work so well. (However if you insist on using Karpri you could have a look at my Aquatic Fleet article for ideas.)
I saw someone mention the Netherese on your other thread. Are you aware that they attempted to create a Spelljammer fleet and were blocked by the Elven Imperial Navy? You could involve them and have a the Netherese create a floating city send it into wildspace (to act in a similar way to an aircraft carrier). After it arrives in wildspace you could have the EIN surround and capture it and then install your Mythril. This would probably allow you to put a few Neterese goodies onto the city as well as elven items.
3. What would consist of a SMALL trade port over a planet? I am thinking of having one near the city, and wonder what variety of defenses it might have?
"A" planet? Again I have to ask what planet you want to use? Toril would be your best bit as there is already SJ traffic and trade to Selune and the Tears of Selune. On top of that putting this on Toril makes it closer to your existing "groundling" campaign. If you want to use another planet then you are going to have to read up on that and work out how it might interact with your city. (For example, if you pick a planet like Karpri then there is no reason for anyone to fly a ship there.)
A port "near the city"? What city are you talking about? Do you mean a city on the planet below? That sort of thing wouldn't work. Unless you are talking of Netherese flying cities (which are not really SJ locations) you are going to have a base in an orbit so high that it would be no more than a speck in the sky. The groundlings on Toril are not supposed to believe that spacefarer's are anything more that fairy tales, so your "space base" should not be looming over a city on the ground.
On the other hand if you mean a city on the asteroid then you don't need to make a distinction between the port and the city. The asteroid can be chopped up into districts with port districts at the gravity plane and other types of districts elsewhere. You could pick a couple of cities you know well (like Waterdeep) and shuffle everything around in order to create a layout for your base.
As for defences, that is fairly easy. Look at the Rock of Bral and copy the defences on that base. Just make your base a different shape and change the number of weapons along the gravity plane. You base could also have a number of ships defending it.
So have you picked a name yet?
You seem to be struggling with the concepts of air, heat and gravity. You don't need to worry about these. Anything as large as an asteroid has gravity and an air envelope (a bubble of air). You can put plants on your asteroid that will keep the air fresh. The main change is that your asteroid base will probably have a gravity plane rather than circular gravity. This means that it will have a top you can stand on and a bottom that you can also stand on. In between these two areas will be an area of zero gravity where spelljamming ships can dock.
Myth Yggdrasil is more like a big Netherese flying enclave, in that it's bottom side isn't flat, but jagged. The top is flat, yes. As for air and gravity, I suppose my physics just got away from me. Still, the Planar Gate of Air will keep "fresh" air coming, until the ecology is stable. As for inside, that primarily consists of dwarven living areas, dwarven mines, and "off limits" stuff.
You don't need an airlock on any base in the Spelljammer Campaign Setting. It is almost imposible to touch vaccum as a buble of air goes with your body. There are some airless worlds, so you could make your base airless as a property of your mythril, but I don't see an advantage of that. If you really want to stop people getting in you need a totally enclosed base (you can fly over a castle wall with ease on a spelljamming ship). Maybe you could make a hollow asteroid and put a forest, defences and a landing dock on the outside and an artificially illuminated city on the inside.
Since originally, Spelljammer was going to have only a small bit here, keeping traffic out from space wasn't really an issue. The mythal does a fine job of keeping people out from below, and I suppose many of those defenses would also work on spaceborne threats. Otherwise, the city will eventually have wizards and warriors to protect it, and maybe even large ballista emplacements to shoot down bothersome ships. It seems to work for Lionheart, and all. Also, the port next to it might have some defense ships, and those would come to the city's aide, I hope.
If you did use a hollow asteroid then your mythril could perhaps create the illusion that people are on a regular planet. Maybe it has stored an image of Myth Drannor (or another place) and that image has been recreated inside the asteroid so that elves can go there and relive the past. (If you watch Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn you can get an idea of how an elven city inside an asteroid can be made to look.)
Nope, they are certainly on the surface. They see the stars, the planet "below", and such. The dwarves live in the rock, because dwarves like that, and they are mining out meteoric iron, to make darksteel, but everyone else lives above.
Where do you want the asteroid to go? If you want it in orbit around Toril then just use one of the Tears of Selune as others have suggested.
Originally, I forgot about the Tears, and then some small part of my brain likely thought that they might actually "belong" to a goddess, and such. Stupid, perhaps, but that doesn't always stop my brain :D "Go" meant getting to Toril, if said rock wasn't alrady there, and then being able to move around it, like a satellite, but at Quarion's control. Now, I am indeed using a Tear of Selune, and it can move anywhere above Toril, though usually only above Faerun, often in the region above Silverymoon, as that's where it's only current entry gate is.
The Tears are not well developed and your base could easily be slotted in among them. You might even be able to get your city hosted on Beyond the Moons if you make it usable by Spelljammer GMs.
Well, I doubt it'll ever be cool enough to get up on a bigger site like that, but who knows. It could be cool. It still might be a little to "bumpkin Spelljammer" for real Spelljammer. For now, it is more Forgotten Realms, maybe with some SJ training wheels.
You don't need to make the ships come from Karpri unless you really want to link that in with you campaign. Karpri station got zapped a long time ago and the planet itself is a water world, so you would have to set this in the past to create a link like that. You seem to be trying to make this connected to the past in your other thread, but I'd strongly advise against using Karpri as aquatic elves in space don't work so well. (However if you insist on using Karpri you could have a look at my Aquatic Fleet article for ideas.)
The entire allure of Karpri was that it was in the Toril system, had a name, and elves were there. It existed in canon book. Honestly, I don't need it to be there. I don't know where standing IEN forces would be found, to be included. Again, that's that lack of Spelljammer knowledge hitting me. Especially between 2E and 3E. If Lionheart was in Realmspace, especially if it were close to Toril, I would've picked it, even without it having a 3E version, but I doubt it's in said area.
"A" planet? Again I have to ask what planet you want to use? Toril would be your best bit as there is already SJ traffic and trade to Selune and the Tears of Selune. On top of that putting this on Toril makes it closer to your existing "groundling" campaign. If you want to use another planet then you are going to have to read up on that and work out how it might interact with your city. (For example, if you pick a planet like Karpri then there is no reason for anyone to fly a ship there.)
99% of the time I reference a planet, it is Toril. The naval port isn't officially a piece of Myth Yggdrasil, and while they do business, they are separate. The IEN built it, kind of as a condition for helping with his city. Since Quarion and his city aren't thus obligated to create its defenses, I figured I'd find out what IEN uses for base defenses of a small port, orbiting a world like Toril. It is a separate, smaller rock in space, free-floating, like my mythal.
A port "near the city"? What city are you talking about? Do you mean a city on the planet below? That sort of thing wouldn't work. Unless you are talking of Netherese flying cities (which are not really SJ locations) you are going to have a base in an orbit so high that it would be no more than a speck in the sky. The groundlings on Toril are not supposed to believe that spacefarer's are anything more that fairy tales, so your "space base" should not be looming over a city on the ground.
This city reference is to my city, Myth Yggdrasil. Yes, both are too high to be seen from below, on the surface, though Myth Yggdrasil isn't a secret. It's just hard to get into now, so it has a chance to get stable before some evil force destroys it. Eventually, it'll be like a Myth Drannor in space; a multicultural, multiracial metropolis, with a number of entry gates erected at various points below, in Faerun.
As for defences, that is fairly easy. Look at the Rock of Bral and copy the defences on that base. Just make your base a different shape and change the number of weapons along the gravity plane. You base could also have a number of ships defending it.
If I can find an entry like that, and preferably one that is 3E/3.5, I'll probably do as such. I don't know what variety of ships, though. Manowars, little Flitter-like things? We can't all pull an Armada, can we?
So have you picked a name yet?
Yep, it is Myth Yggdrasil - the City of Stars
Again, thank you very much for your help and time. It is nice to get input from people who actually know the stuff, as I kind of make it up as I go. Faerun I know pretty damn well after all these years, but Spelljammer, I never got a chance to learn. If you have any other thoughts, or answers to new questions here, I would very much like to hear them.
1 Man of War
3 Cutters
2 Hammerships
Some number of Flitters, if I ever figure out what they are like.
I figure Lionheart has a rather massive fleet, at two armadas, eight men-o-war, twelve cutters, two battle dolphins, a trio of hammerships, and twenty flitters. My city isn't a military base, and Realmspace is relatively peaceful, compared to Greyspace, especially right at Toril, as far as I am aware. Add to that that I know little of SJ, and I think my small fleet will do. Like Lionheart, Myth Yggdrasil can have its own standing defenses, like ballista towers and fireball-hurling casters. Sadly, we can't all have a "Crown of Corellon" like Armada vessel, even if Myth Yggdrasil is approximately 5 times larger than Lionheart (it's fleet is much smaller regardless). Also, too many more ships might be hard to flub. MYgg isn't a part of the IEN, nor is it technically even a part of Evermeet or Cormanthyr (even if Quarion does pay fealty to Queen Amlaruil). At the moment, it depends on several places, such as Silverymoon, but it is more or less independent. Thus, I have no good way of explaining where additional ships were procured. There are no docks to build spelljamming ships in the city, and only repair facilities on the naval port, and I don't necessarily plan to add them later. Have to see.
And as an added bonus, you could make the ballista an animated item or part of a construct. That would give it a limited capacity to attack on its own if the right triggering conditions occur (sound of a specific alarm bell, etc.)
New set of questions. What varieties of defenses can/does a port or base (in my case a city) use for defense in Spelljammer. My memory of Lioheart was mostly sets of ballista, catapults, and casters. Am I missing any? Are they the same variety of ballista as in the DMG? Also, can they be magically-enchanted? I seem to remember that fire-based spells are especially wicked in Spelljammer, piecing the air-envelope of ships, and burning off all the oxygen. Could one mount flaming burst ballistas (that enchant their ammo with fire)? Or maybe give them the range-increasing property, making them even more long-range, to take the fight to the enemy before they can bring it to you? As for the casters, I assume mostly elemental hurlers do the job. Meteor Swarm also makes me laugh quietly. Just curious as to what people think, have to say, and can tell me. Thanks.
Rules for enchanting siege weapons can be found in Heroes Of Battle
MYgg isn't a part of the IEN, nor is it technically even a part of Evermeet or Cormanthyr (even if Quarion does pay fealty to Queen Amlaruil). At the moment, it depends on several places, such as Silverymoon, but it is more or less independent.
Your space base might not be owned by the Elven Imperial Navy, but it will need to have a relationship with that organisation. The EIN visits all the elven nations that they can. They should have an ambassador on your base and their ships should visit.
(Visits by the EIN can be a symbiotic relationship, because the navy can stop for repairs and recreation and their visits can help deter attacks on your station.)
Another good organisation to have visiting your space station is the Sindiath Line. This was set up by a retired EIN Admiral and took over a lot of unwanted EIN ships. The Sindiath Line is a commercial transport organisation that still has ties with the navy. Its captains are elves but it does allow crewmen from other races.
Don't forget that some of the elves serving in the EIN will actually be from completely different crystal spheres and won't see much difference between your elves and the other elves of Toril. An Armarchnesti, Avanesti or Qualinesti groundling elf from Krynn who travels into wildspace and joins the EIN might not even have heard of Queen Amlaruil or might not know exactly who she is. Other elves in the EIN might actually be Sun Elves from Evermeet or Moon Elves from Cormanthyr who are visiting their homeworld.
Your station can still operate as an independent city, but if you tie it loosly to one or both of these existing SJ organisations, you can introduce a bit of internal politics (between your elves, other Toril elves and foreign elves from other worlds).
I seem to remember that fire-based spells are especially wicked in Spelljammer, piecing the air-envelope of ships, and burning off all the oxygen.
Fire-based spells are especially "wicked" in the phlogiston, where they cause explosions. However, in the void they only work inside an air envelope. They do cause damage, but are not necessarily going to burn off that much oxygen as there isn't a rule for how much air they foul.
Your space base might not be owned by the Elven Imperial Navy, but it will need to have a relationship with that organisation. The EIN visits all the elven nations that they can. They should have an ambassador on your base and their ships should visit.
(Visits by the EIN can be a symbiotic relationship, because the navy can stop for repairs and recreation and their visits can help deter attacks on your station.)
As much as I understand Spelljammer, my city could easily enjoy interaction with the EIN. Sadly, I am not so familiar with Spelljammer. It is 1 part "not officially made 3rd ed", 1 part "site A and site B say two different things about the same thing", and 1 part "we make this on our own time, so spots are empty". There is no reason that ships couldn't stop at the port, let crews off, and they could visit the city. My failing is that I am not proficient with Spelljammer, and yet I am trying to incorporate bits and pieces of it, perhaps failing spectacularly, in my city. I don't know if dwarves and elves come in subtypes, and what specials they have, and kind of am making things up as I go.
Another good organisation to have visiting your space station is the Sindiath Line. This was set up by a retired EIN Admiral and took over a lot of unwanted EIN ships. The Sindiath Line is a commercial transport organisation that still has ties with the navy. Its captains are elves but it does allow crewmen from other races.
See, now that i really would like. The city has a number of skilled craftsfolk, and more markets to sell the wares at, the better.
Don't forget that some of the elves serving in the EIN will actually be from completely different crystal spheres and won't see much difference between your elves and the other elves of Toril. An Armarchnesti, Avanesti or Qualinesti groundling elf from Krynn who travels into wildspace and joins the EIN might not even have heard of Queen Amlaruil or might not know exactly who she is. Other elves in the EIN might actually be Sun Elves from Evermeet or Moon Elves from Cormanthyr who are visiting their homeworld.
Home realm is irrelevant for me. Wherever they're from, whoever their sovereign is, is fine. All they need do is follow the city's laws while inside, like any other distant port they might visit.
Fire-based spells are especially "wicked" in the phlogiston, where they cause explosions. However, in the void they only work inside an air envelope. They do cause damage, but are not necessarily going to burn off that much oxygen as there isn't a rule for how much air they foul.
Glad to know that. No point in building expensive ballistas. Maybe some kind of catapult of meteor storm :D
Thanks for your thoughts, and if you have anymore, please feel free to share.
On class, a HIGH ranking EIN member, perhaps an admiral; what classes would one think he'd have? I am looking for a non-wizard/High Mage thought on this one. I don't have a great "Officer" prestige class, yet, but I can slap something together, after I figure out his base classes.
Okay, thanks.
Could anyone point me to a source for Spelljammer core classes and races? Or are they just the same as the PHB? Would you make a Spelljammer dwarf as in the PHB, or are they a different type? Would elves be like the PHB, or what? I'm thinking of having a Spelljammer elf character in my city just be a Realmspace sun elf, because I have those books, and above mentioned some Faerunian elves traveling through space.
On class, a HIGH ranking EIN member, perhaps an admiral; what classes would one think he'd have? I am looking for a non-wizard/High Mage thought on this one. I don't have a great "Officer" prestige class, yet, but I can slap something together, after I figure out his base classes.
Okay, thanks.
The rules for core races depend from their origin: a sun elf is a FR sun elf; a High Elf from Greyhawk foolw th rules from PH; a grey elf follow the rules from MM; an Athasian elf would follow the rules from DS campaign and a Qualinesti elf would follow the Dragonlance rules and so on.
Here you can find other info about races and classes in spelljammer:
www.spelljammer.org
Dragon Magazine 339
and the manuals of 2e Spelljammer (the more you can find the better is)
Shadow Of The Spider Moon (a very much contested 3e conversion of spelljammer from polyhedron 151)
The Flow Flow Of Fresh Brains (WE for Lords Of Madness present the official but incomplete rules for Spelljammer from WoTC)
New little question to go with the rest of this. I am writing up stats (trying?) for a character to go with my city, and I am not sure what to make him. His name is Admiral Bregaen, and he is a gray elf admiral of the Elven Imperial Navy, from some other world in or near Realmslace. What sort of character classes/prestige classes do you think an elven admiral would have? My current writeup is Ranger 12/Legendary Tactician 5. (Ranger because I like it better for elves than fighter, and it helps against specific foes, and Legendary Tactician because it is a nice officer/general prestige class, in a setting where there don't seem to be many. I was intentionally trying to avoid a wizard, if possible, as Quarion is a powerful enough wizard to have at city, already. What thoughts/input do people have? Any better suggestions than the above mix?
Thanks
Unless Spelljammer ignores a little bit of real-world physics, flying outside the mythal would damage dragons and riders, possibly rather badly, and if there is a spell that would let them take an atmosphere pocket with them, so they could barrage ships away from the city, that would rock. Help please?.
Actually, spelljammer does ignore that aspect of physics, but only so far. Any creature leaving an envelope of air into vacuum in spelljammer takes with it a much, much smaller envelope. No where near enough for any sort of major trip, though. It's been a few years since i could get my hands on hardcopies of the core setting so the numbers escape me, but it boiled down to enough air for (i think) 1d12 rounds of air
so your dragon riders could technically make a quick jaunt from one pocket of air to another off-base to torch enemy rigging and munch a couple crewmen before returning, but only if the target ship was relatively nearby.
On the admiral class question... the combo you've got sounds about right. I'd make the ranger chosen enemy either orcs or scro (scro much less likely if you're not getting too far into the spelljammer setting). If you're playing him as a hands-on 'I'd rather be in the fray than at the back lines' kind of leader, you might consider the master marine prestige class (linked to from spelljammer.org)
http://shatteredfractine.com/prestige/mastermarine.html
Oh, and on the earlier topic of enchanted ballistae - things like stinking cloud and cloudkill, among others, do very, very nasty things to a ship's air supply. And imagine an impact-triggered Web smacking onto a deck full of scrambling crew members and rigging.
The last post of this thread should help you.
As for the enchanted stuff, I hadn't thought of cloudkill, stinking cloud, or low-level web, though I now wish I had. Having catapults launch those makes nice sense, and isn't disgusting, like my never-used meteor swarm launching catapults ;) Such spells in ammo would ward people off, but not cause needless deaths (as much at least), which is something Quarion cares a great deal about, and the dragons and spirit warriors can cause devastation, if the need arises, especially with my "little" fleet available. And since dragons move fast, they can get a decent bit done in 1d12 rounds, and stay closer to the city, in an effort to protect it, should enemies reach it.
and frankly, stinking cloud is not a non-lethal spell so much in spelljammer... it instantly fouls a huge volume of air, and potentially could kill people who don't have a nearby place to freshen their air envelope. that being said, it's unlikely to kill anyone directly while so near a planet, and will give penalties to the enemy crew for fouled air as i recall, even after the spell fades.
actually, that 1d12 rounds is 1d20 rounds (2nd edition rounds, so 20 minutes, arguably) of fresh air, with (40 - the 1d20 roll) rounds of foul air, followed by deadly air on the 41st round if i remember right.
and frankly, stinking cloud is not a non-lethal spell so much in spelljammer... it instantly fouls a huge volume of air, and potentially could kill people who don't have a nearby place to freshen their air envelope. that being said, it's unlikely to kill anyone directly while so near a planet, and will give penalties to the enemy crew for fouled air as i recall, even after the spell fades.
Hazaah! The more rounds my three dragons can fly through space, blasting ships and such, the better. Electric gas blasts, streams of flame, gouts of sleep effect, and force blasts can do decent damage, but even more if they have longer spans, and Tremendous Charge makes the rider's lance attacks more powerful, too, so the more rounds of acidic burst or fire burst lance stabs, the better.
Yeah, I really like the lack of fatality from stinking cloud. While sympathy can be construed as a military weakness, Quarion still believes that the fewer deaths, even when it's enemy besiegers, the better. If it comes to destroying foes though, several ships, three dragon riders, several mages, and some spirit warriors can trash plenty of fleets. Gungnir can also lay waste to a large amount of ships, if Quarion is willing to reveal it (better be a literal big fleet of scro, or something for that, of course). If the ships can be disabled, and surrender, that's all the better to Quarion.
and frankly, stinking cloud is not a non-lethal spell so much in spelljammer... it instantly fouls a huge volume of air, and potentially could kill people who don't have a nearby place to freshen their air envelope. that being said, it's unlikely to kill anyone directly while so near a planet, and will give penalties to the enemy crew for fouled air as i recall, even after the spell fades.
Curse my lysdexia, I misread your statement. Overall, I'd assume that stinking cloud wouldn't too often kill whole ships of sailors/attackers, and if it persuades them to hold back, or retreat to resupply their air, that's good. Sadly, sometimes people die, and Quarion is certainly not such a do-gooder that he refuses to allow deaths; he'd just rather limit it as much as possible. Sorry about the misread.
Obviously, most systems assume that there is one guy in charge of the crew running each weapon, and the weapon's modifier applied to that crew leaders' BAB. Either that or they average the entire crew as a single individual. So if the guy in charge has a decent BAB and is specifically trained in the use of siege weapons, he's got a fair shot, but some dope straight off the docks is just useless.
PC classes wouldn't be terribly appropriate in siege weapon crews, and would be more expensive than they're worth. But a crew of commoners led by a 6-9th level warrior with weapon focus (insert seige weapon here) would do the trick nicely without completely emptying the coffers.
Okay, now I will try to speak on all these points, and if I sound snippy, please forgive; it's early morning, and I should be asleep.
No problem. Please excuse the delay. My job is ending soon and I'm spending a lot of time looking for jobs.
As much as I understand Spelljammer, my city could easily enjoy interaction with the EIN.
Don't forget that the interaction can go any way you want it to. The EIN want to communicate with as many elven communities as possible - but - that doesn't mean that all elven communties want to communicate with them.
The EIN is not the United Nations of elves and there are probably a lot of elves that can't wait for their ships to leave. On the other hand there are also probably other elves who throw big parties every time the EIN is in town.
Sadly, I am not so familiar with Spelljammer. It is 1 part "not officially made 3rd ed", 1 part "site A and site B say two different things about the same thing", and 1 part "we make this on our own time, so spots are empty".
I've spent a lot of time hunting down Spelljammer websites (see my links in my footer). Sadly a lot of people want to start their own thing instead of supporting Beyond the Moons.
Wizards of the Coast issued a legal document called the ESD Conversion Agreement that lets people convert AD&D and older stuff (including Spelljammer) to 3rd edition. People doing the conversions have tended to introduce their own tweaks as they implemented them. This is all personal judgement, so different people will convert old stuff in slightly different ways.
There is no reason that ships couldn't stop at the port, let crews off, and they could visit the city. My failing is that I am not proficient with Spelljammer, and yet I am trying to incorporate bits and pieces of it, perhaps failing spectacularly, in my city. I don't know if dwarves and elves come in subtypes, and what specials they have, and kind of am making things up as I go.
...and...
Could anyone point me to a source for Spelljammer core classes and races? Or are they just the same as the PHB? Would you make a Spelljammer dwarf as in the PHB, or are they a different type? Would elves be like the PHB, or what? I'm thinking of having a Spelljammer elf character in my city just be a Realmspace sun elf, because I have those books, and above mentioned some Faerunian elves traveling through space.
This all depends on if you want official stuff or any stuff.
There are three official sources for Spelljammer material:
Beyond the Moons is the official Spelljammer website. This means they can publish fan conversions and new content for Spelljammer. You could even submit your base to Beyond the Moons (when it is finished).
Paizo used to have the official licence to make Dungeon and Dragon (the official D&D magazines). As well as the contravercial Shadows of the Spider Moon there is a lot of SJ material in various issues. (Beyond the Moons has a full list.)
Wizards of the Coast still own Spelljammer, so they can also put out official Spelljammer material in their game books or web enhancements. For example the FRCS describes spelljammer in passing detail on pages 230-231. If you know SJ and hunt around you will find several small references to things that come from Spelljammer.
But to get back to your question, imagine that if you use Spelljammer, that you are also using Dragonlance, Greyhawk and any other campaign setting you have ever heard of. Every other campaign setting is in another crystal sphere and spelljamming ships can bring anything or anyone you want to your game. (However, do bear in mind that most of these worlds are groundling worlds and most people there don't know about spelljamming. So don't bring hordes of kender or other races - just bring one or two and make them special NPCs.)
So the elven subraces of Spelljammer would include all the elven subraces of any RPG books that you are using. However, these subraces would all be "groundling" elves. The spacefaring elves are called "Void Elves". The original AD&D Adventures in Space boxed set didn't have any special modifiers for Void Elves, so I would suggest making them the same as the ones from the PHB. (You could think of Void Elves as mongrels as they would have ancestors that originated on different worlds in different crystal spheres.)
Keep your eye on Beyond the Moon's D&D conversion project as it is in the process of creating three PDFs that will help you.
See, now that i really would like. The city has a number of skilled craftsfolk, and more markets to sell the wares at, the better.
As well as the Sindiath Line, there are a number of other groups that buy and sell stuff. The Crimson Caravan (from SJR7 Krynnspace page 69) are a group of merchants based in Krynnspace that sometimes visit Realmspace and Greyspace to buy goods they can't get in their own sphere. A group like that would give you a good excuse to put some Dragonlance style visitors in front of your PCs.
Home realm is irrelevant for me. Wherever they're from, whoever their sovereign is, is fine. All they need do is follow the city's laws while inside, like any other distant port they might visit.
The visitors home realm might be irrelevant to you, but it can be used to add a bit of flavor to your NPCs.
You don't need to have special rules (i.e. con +1/dex -1). You could just have elves with blue hair green skin.
On class, a HIGH ranking EIN member, perhaps an admiral; what classes would one think he'd have? I am looking for a non-wizard/High Mage thought on this one. I don't have a great "Officer" prestige class, yet, but I can slap something together, after I figure out his base classes.
You don't need a special prestige class for officers. Prestige classes were originally meant to be themeatic add-ons specific to campaign settings. I suppose that the EIN might warrant a prestige class. But even if one was made, it would still be optional.
Remember that some of the officers would be wizards (or clerics) because only spellcasters can spelljam. You need to have several spellcasters, because whoever is on the helm will have no access to their spells. If you assume 3 8-hour shifts on a ship, then you need at least 4 spellcasters to have access to spells.
As of now, I don't know how many different Campaign Settings I want to cross; I am very familiar (I like to think) with FRCS, and reasonably with Greyhawk, as it's the primary book's world, but other than them... Planescape is sort of not around for me in 3E, but facets of it show up everywhere else, some others don't seem to be in Spelljammer (Dark Sun, Ravenloft (thankfully), or the White Wolf Scarred Lands stuff), and I have a few of the Dragonlance books, but I was not immensely cool to me. Fun enough, and it has one of my favorite, unusable PrCs, the Dragon Riders (really like them, and have three NPCs in my city using it, but they don't really seem likely in all but the most high-end campaigns, as I suppose they should be ([i]completely off-topic rant: I, a LG warrior must pay a LG dragon a large amount of money to fight the good fight against Takhisis's forces of darkness that they already should be fighting? If it said you had to split treasure gained during the partnership, hell, I'd be all for it, but not the way it is, now.[/I}), and I am using the Legendary Tactician PrC, because the Star Wars Officer PrC isn't quite the neat conversion, and i wanted some abilities to rally and support the soldiers, without being a Bard or Noble, especially if Noble isn't usually a part of SJ (again, it's a Dragonlance thing I sort of like, but am not using this time).
I don't know, I just seem to like Prestige Classes a lot more than I should, and when I find one that isn't a local area only one (Spellguard of Silverymoon, Evereskan Tomb Guardian, or first version of Hathran), or just one I'm never going to use (Guild Thief/Shadow Thief of Amn or Cultist of the Shattered Peak), I like to find a character to apply it to. Thus, I do, and as my one thus far attempt to GM Dragonlance ended with mixed results, I won't likely run it again, but it had a few PrCs that I wanted to transport out, and here they appear in my city. No, many characters don't need PrCs. FRCS's greatest assassin has one level in Assassin, and it's the only one most anyone needs, but I am a PrC junky, sort of like I am a lich junky, so I like to use them.
Okay, back on something resembling topic. I think I'd keep the relationship with the EIN neat and clean, and they'd be more the looked forward to visitors. With a semi-retired Admiral floating around, and a few permanently assigned forces, people would get used to them, and there wouldn't be too many of them, so they'd hopefully not start acting like they own the place. Being right above Faerun, and with Queen Amlauril having some relations with the EIN, I don't think it would be too hard, in game, to keep the relationship friendly and workable. Every once in a while, if one of my players were to say "I want to play a FILL IN THE BLANK from FILL IN THE BOOK", it would be a convenient way to say they got to Faerun, or at least the city, but the bulk of that, I'd keep to a minimum.
I'll keep an eye on the other source materials, as time permits.
Okay, my rant is complete, I think... Yep, seems to be. Haven't done anything with my write-up of Myth Yggdrasil, lately, so maybe I'll go flesh out the stats of some more NPCs.
Again, thank you very much for your reply and thoughts. Makes me happy to know some people are still actually reading this thing.
Oh, and as an off-thought, the only real reason I didn't want Admiral Bregaen to be a wizard (my usual Elven character class) is because, thinking more of my city than the universe beyond, there were already a good number of powerful wizards in my city, full time, and I didn't want it to go even more overboard than I already have. Two High Mages, some wizards aboard my guard fleet, defense-manning wizards, and a group of Spellguards from Silverymoon (temporarily, at least) add up to a decent number of wizards, and I plan to introduce a War Wizards of Cormyr-similar group for the city, or at least a Wizard's Guild of some sort. Other than that, I suppose I used the High Admiral of Lionheart as some of my inspiration of Bregaen, and she was all Ranger, too. Plenty of the EIN officers could/should be wizards, just not mine. Okay, so long.
you're talking about a city with a mythal, as i recall?
of course the city is going to be crawling with spellcasters...