Dungeons and Dragons: Flying Ships of the Forgotten Realms

Become a Member:
/ ajpickett
Become a SubscribeStar Supporter:
www.subscribes...
Become a Patreon Supporter:
/ themightygluestick
Buy some Tee Spring Merchandise:
teespring.com/...
Join the Discord community:
discordapp.com...
Flying Carrack Stat Block for 5th edition D&D
media.wizards....
aj pickett, the mighty gluestick, dungeons and dragons, roleplaying, tabletop, 5E, 5th edition, faerun, toril, forgotten realms, Eberron, pen and paper, Dungeons and dragons lore, monsters, magic, magic items, monster ecology, greyhawk, mystara, krynn, golarion, spelljammer, planescape, homebrew, live stream, Magic the Gathering, Wizards of the Coast, WotC, Ravnica, Ravenloft, Theros, Strixhaven, Fizban, Mordenkainen, Drizzt, cosmology, planescape, spelljammer, lore, stories, outer planes, elemental, artifact, toril, faerun

[@scottmcley5111]

The Townsends have a KZbin channel that covers colonial cooking methods and have videos on salted pork, pemmican, and hard tack. Very interesting stuff!!

[@camerongunn7906]

Been watching those guys for years. I'm glad you gave him a shout-out

[@adamwelch4336]

He's a cool dude I added ideas from history for my campaigns love that channel

[@salvadorvillanueva3047]

That pemmican episode had me wanting to hunt some Jerky at the 7/11

[@cernunnos_lives]

My father told me about some ways sailors would preserve their provisions. Water would get full of algae/slime in the barrels which sometimes made alcoholic beverages the only option.

[@charlesjameskelly7689]

⁰0p

[@DCdabest]

Very pertinent video! I am sure you are a divination wizard Master Pickett; whenever I need a reference video you have one uploaded relatively recently haha

[@AJPickett]

It's what I do. I drink coffee and I know things :)

[@DCdabest]

@@AJPickett But most importantly you tell the rest of us online haha

[@thekaxmax]

becomes cost-effective to have Create Food & Water items, and/or carry clerics.

[@Greenscyth22]

I can personally attest to the power of a ballista/scorpion. My friend and I made a functional miniature one in High School. A ship outfitted with ballista magically enchanted with haste spells would probably stifle most astral threats.

[@AJPickett]

Mage goes Pew PEw!

[@Paleking63]

hell yeah, somebody talk about dock. İt's the biggest trade hub in toril and nobody knows. thank you for work

[@Tzimisce]

Most people (including most of the residence there of) don't realize that Waterdeep is a spelljammer port either.

[@Paleking63]

@@Tzimisce yeah you right it always looks wierd to me waterdeep has no-fly zone in the city and always come to city from water with spelljammers

[@lordmars2387]

This...this is the first video where I didn't learn anything from AJ. I'm flabbergasted. I am preparing for a spell jammer campaign but still...

[@lordnul1708]

Just an early thing for those who "don't like the idea of firearms existing in medieval *fantasy* on account of 'realism'", look up the Medieval Handgonne, or "hand cannon". Note: for those not satisfied with wikipedia links, they cite their sources a lot better than most commenters, and there's plenty of videos and articles by historians, college students and military scholars to back up the info I'm about to share. It's called that because it's a tiny cannon on the end of a stick, and there were even variants that were intended to be mountable on castle ramparts. Because they were *slow, inaccurate and with a fair bit of kick* however, they had to be used alongside archers (who were faster) and crossbows (who had far more accuracy for the amount of time they took to pull the string back, load the bolt, aim and fire) to really be effective. Certainly added a *lot* of intimidation via the noise though, especially for enemy riders' horses. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_cannon Hell, the invention of steel "full body" plate armor wasn't even a thing until the 1400s, so in reality the use of gunpowder to fire a projectile from a handheld weapon (the base concept of firearms) literally pre-dates steel full plate armor, yet the latter is considered "more medieval". en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_armour

[@AJPickett]

Many good points. Why this comment only showed up a year later, is a totally mystery to me.

[@Expressoteddy]

I have flying ships (not spelljammers) in my setting thank you for this it helps more than even you know wise sage.

[@kennethdennis8907]

This is pretty cool I plan on using these in my future campaigns! But I have got a question other than steampunking it, or putting a spell jamming helm on it how would you make a sky and space hunting ship? For like dragons or other flying creatures? I know it's he said that the crew usually pepper the creature with their own spells and stuff, but I'm just wondering.

[@agustinvenegas5238]

I'd look to age of sail whaler crews as that's the closest we've had to ships hunting large creatures on the how you're probably gonna have to go with either steampunking it, saying spells did it or some sort of combination; a ship with some sort of lighter than air lift, aided by spells, that would be moved forward by it's rigging

[@kennethdennis8907]

@@agustinvenegas5238 thank you

[@georgemercer402]

Final Fantasy also has airships, though I don't know how they're powered; I'm thinking a crystal of some type does so, but I could be wrong

[@thekaxmax]

crystals for /everything/ in FF

[@georgemercer402]

@@thekaxmax Precisely what I thought

[@rzgaming5678]

Yea if you look at the FF12 airships, which are what i use, they have special crystals that keep the ships in a fixed position in the air, using other crystals to alter the height, direction and speed

[@georgemercer402]

@@rzgaming5678 THX for the note

[@lucaricciardi8253]

Just why just why a flying vessels must be shaped like a boat (maritime vessel so not designed for air travel) and not like .... dunno, Concorde airplanes?

[@garyvincent7397]

because its cool, personally i prefer to hybridise galleon style ships with zeplin balloons

[@danielleglorie8164]

imagination...........

[@garyvincent7397]

@@danielleglorie8164 this guy gets it

[@lucaricciardi8253]

@@danielleglorie8164 the lack of imagination

[@SunburntHands]

To design and make concorde requires enormous investment into engineering, aerodynamics, material sciences, new technologies. If you're using magic to make stuff fly instead of physics, then you can employ shipwrights to just do their stuff, with a few bespoke alterations, and then cast a few spells. Much easier and quicker.

[@tombirmingham7033]

Hey thank you so much this is awesome. Could you do an episode on UbTao versus the snake God that wants to eat the Sun

[@adamwelch4336]

Skyships are really cool badass and practical for a adventuring party and ripe for dragon attacks, sky pirates Griffen and wyvern riders more anventure hooks you can shake a stick at!😎🤘🚢 🎈

[@ianyoder2537]

I'm planning a pirate campaign in a setting with floating islands, this is very helpful. Now I just need to find some great ship to ship/ ship to monster combat rules.

[@hertzeid]

AD&D 2e had a rules book called 'Ships and the sea' that had great rules for this, easily updated to later editions. Highly recommended.

[@ianyoder2537]

@@hertzeid thx

[@Tzimisce]

Check Appendix A of Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Also, Ultimate Ships from Legendary Games.

[@krispalermo8133]

D&D3.5e, forget having/making a Flying Broom or Carpet, once a wizard reaches that level just go with a flying row boat. Early 2000's Dragon/Polygon magazine had a mini campaign for Spell Jammer called " Moons of the Spider Queen." Very little on what the Drow campaign was about, more along the lines of going over a solar system of worlds and prestige classes found for the game. Hardest part about bring flying ships into your campaign is, .. dealing with a bunch of dungeon crawlers . Even when they run a Star Wars campaign, they are less into starfighter space combat and more into ship to ship boarding actions. A flying row boat is treated little more than a helicopter for deploying troops. 2.) Old Disney movie " The Rescuers," had a pair of mice on a large tree leaf being propelled across the surface of swamp water by a dragonfly. So in one Forgotten Realms campaign I put together a 3.5e wizard that was 10th-level spellcaster and 2nd-level rogue for social skills. Instead of a flying carpet he had a flying skiff row boat to trade off of. Other than having the Leadership Feat, his traveling N/PCs were a couple of pixies, an Baator imp, and a young adult green dragon .. four females and a guy. The dragon uses the wizard magic items to shape change her size to push .. " her " .. row racing boat through the sky. The concept was put together cause we had four grade/ college school age girls that wanted to PC a couple of pixies, imp, and dragon to boss and argue around a guy of a flying boat. I had to draw out and write up that character concept a few times over a ten year time frame cause, that is just something .. females .. mind set drift to. 3.) Little Nemo, and the Flying Bed ... Created by a 3.5e " Manual of the Planes," Planeshifter prestige class wizard casting a Gate spell on said flying bed. Then throw in Superman's trouble making .. friend/fan .. Mister Mxyzptlk into the mix. The adventures break the concept of logical reality .. If you want an adventure with Dead Pool, Spiderman, and Darth Vader flying around on a reality hopping flying bed, go for it. My last female DM had a fetish of N/PCing a fire genie necromancer that dropped Call of Cthulhu and Ravenloft themes into everyone of her games. Her husband that own the shop said I shouldn't encourage his wife's power tripping.

[@demetrinight5924]

Flying ships are definitely a cool part of D&D. Only surpassed by the upcoming flying sailing ships through space.

[@terrainaholic]

BEAUTIFUL ART!!!!! I have some scratch built flying hell ships. I did an airship race in hell for years at conventions until covid:(! GOOD TIMES!!!!

[@BenFrayle]

You'd think with enough magic to make a floating ship they could include some magic items to provide free food and drink or a crewmember to cast the same.

[@stuartlaws9977]

Everything a growing Sailor needs in one bowl of goop

[@BenFrayle]

Sustenance, Hero's Feast, Create Food and Water, Goodberries etc. Not to mention unlimited preserved or fresh food could be put in a chest of holding or similar.

[@kingmasterlord]

the Captain's Table is an item enchanted with Heroes Feast

[@zimattack9994]

So my necromancers skeleton crew would work better?

[@aidenharvey3784]

Why does AJ not have 1M subs yet, his content and presentation style is pure gold.

[@SeraphimKnight]

I've been thinking of possibly running a game in the Granblue Fantasy game wold... Explaining simply, it's basically a world that's entirely floating islands in a sea of clouds with skyships crossing the skies... and the "floor" of the world is a no-go zone but that's a bit complicated to explain. Basically just an excuse to pull out ship adventures without resorting to the typical sea monster stuff and without going full-blown spelljammer. Plus it'd be super easy to run with no rules modifications since the world itself canonically has adventuring crews getting quests for monster-hunting, magic, big dangerous enemies and many, MANY world-threatening baddies.

[@firesuppressionequipment]

Great video. I've always thought age of sale would be perfect for dnd. People always argue why guns when there's magic, but crossbows or even the bows that are in dnd are not that much less resource or laber intesensive than it is to make flint lock gun(in the 1700 brown bess muskets which were the stapel for the British and American militarys pretty much as long as flint locks were used could be mass produced by local black smiths like pikes or spears and or other pollearms could be)if such other weapons are used I think flint lock firearms would find a place in the world. As for armor with magic and magic metals it throws the armor vs lead bullet out the window yes maybe a standard lead ball would mess up a standard steal harness but add magic and you can make a throwing shirken that can magically penatrate anything or conversely you can have an armor that can magically stop anything. tldr: guns are not out of place in dnd as the prevalence and ease of access to magic should make it so all ranged weapons would be pointless anyway so why not.

[@AJPickett]

Why not indeed? Mage armor is essentially a high tech personal force field, Barkskin is personal ablative armor, they have even more defences against firearms. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Bess Historic Muskets!

[@krispalermo8133]

As my cousin pointed out due to physics, a heavy crossbow fired at point blank range is still tapping your head/neck with 700lbs worth of force within a square cm area. Even if the bolt doesn't go into the helmet, you still have to deal with whip lash to your neck. Also over the years I have notice, people take firearms tech for granted. Just look at the number of years/centuries before local government put restrictions on copper/brass purity for shell casings and powder refinement for bullets. Let alone metallurgy for creating gun mental. During the early 1900's the British empire lost major battles in Africa with rifles that could fire test fire 23 bullets per minute against bows/arrows and spears. Problem was after the building tests the government went with cheap manufacturing resulting the bullet casing jamming up the rifle along with the powder clogging the barrow after the first rapid firing of 13 to 17 bullets. The powder also created large smoke clouds blocking range visibility " fog of war." 2.) Prevalence and ease of access to magic, .. That is up to the DM and their playing group to any given campaign. AD&D, overall just .. sucked. The rules for multiclassing in 3e made it that even a peasant farmer could be a 3rd-level wizard with an int:10 casting cantrips base on what type of campaign the gaming group was running. Creating magic items went from needing to be a 12th-level wizard to a 3rd-level wizard with a given feat. Potion required 9th-level spellcaster ability down to 3rd-level with a feat. The 1980's & 90's AD&D Forgotten Realms/ Dragonlance novels, it was easier to find a hundred bowmen than it was to find ten wizards. 3.) As it was pointed out to me in junior high school back in the 1980's, if we lived in a world with .. mutants .. that could throw lightning bolts out of their hands and fly, then our government militaries would push for full weapon development of twenty to thirty feet robots to fight them. So drop the concept of lead ball and go with a bolt casting a brass bullet. Bending the rules of D&D3.5e, a rogue2/fighter1/wizard3 CR:6 feat, Item Creation Feat: Craft Wondrous Item. Starting level rogue1, .. skills Craft( firearms) at around 6+ranks, masterwork tools +2 skill craft bonus, int:12+1 skill craft bonus=+9 modifier to craft a firearm. Ravenloft campaign source book setting, place gunpowder as an Alchemy DC:15, if you rolled a 12 you still have gunpowder but it will have a higher chance of miss firing. Wizard3rd, a 1st-level spell True Strike gives a +20 insight bonus to hit on your next attack action, deals with doing away with range penalties. As a 2nd-level spell it should grant a +40 to hit. Star Wars Gamer, prestige class: Sharp Shooter sniper effect was making a Reflex save vs attack roll to avoid critical hit. If critical hit reflex save failed then the target had to make fort save vs damage deal or die. If fort save was made, then target takes that much dmg to temporary constitution dmg, which could still result in death. My gaming group used those rules for crossbows fired within a ten foot range. Main difference was crossbows do 1d8dmg compare to blaster rifles doing 4d6dmg. Also 2nd-level spell Enchant Weapon/Armor grants a +1 bonus to hit which deals with getting past magic monsters defense against normal weapons. Power up the pistol to shot a werewolf without silver bolts. Wand of Magic Missiles becomes a pistol/rifle of Magic Missiles. Let your imagination play with the spell use. A spell such as Dispel Magic can cripple your enchanted firearm. Enchanting the spell Fire Ball or Lightning Bolt/Plasma Burst on a rifle bullet is over kill but firing such said bullet through an arrow slit into a room can be fun. A shape changing dragon whose hobby is engineering machine guns such as the USA civil war gatling or WW II 50cal can be a fun campaign twist.

[@SkoomaGodDovahkiin666]

In my setting, Airships are quite common amongst draconic, Aaracorka and dwarven fleets while the warforged(who hail from the future and have unshackled themselves from the dragons) fuck around in immense sythetik-esque spelljammers.

[@coreyeaston6823]

I imagine that Wizards doesn't want ships to be too accurate as they want to have plausible deniability to create their own reality. Imagine a party trying to capture a ship with over 100 crew. Yah, unless your packing something significant under those robes its the plank for you all, or as I like to say a long walk off a shore pier.

[@kingmasterlord]

the very first adventure I ever wrote started with finding a lifeboat in a field hundreds of miles from shore. turn it right-side up and it starts flying, and the injured occupant will tell you of a galleon with a cloud-keel captured by Storm Giants who plan to raid and capture a Cloud Giant fortress. 3.5e

[@InquisitorThomas]

Eberron Character: Wait a minute, Forgotten Realms is higher Magic than Khorvaire. Elminster: Always were. **Pulls out Gun**

[@camerongunn7906]

Elminster: "Stay strapped, or get clapped."

[@SonicSanctuary]

Hmm warforged would make great airship sailers.

[@dereksutton2671]

I have long avoided incorporating airships directly into my campaigns. I think the information you have provided has eased my hesitancy towards them. My primary question is an airship's maximum altitude based on sea-level or over the ground?

[@AJPickett]

Sea level.

[@dereksutton2671]

@@AJPickett thank you sir!

[@isaacm4791]

Ah, shame a week ago I already did some world building on flying ships. The spells my world uses, allow the ships to sail on the ethereal, allowing you to defy gravity completely (while the magic is functioning.)

[@krispalermo8133]

In DC comics, the ethereal is also know as the Phantom Zone which in the All New DC52 story line the path way to reach Hades from earth. My gaming shop house rules, natives of Krypton are psionic mages that draw their powers/abilities from the Elemental inner planes through the ethereal/Phantom Zone.

[@TheEvilProfessorMonoCulture]

There was a Graphic Novel back in the day... Meridan? [Meridan Saga - Barbara Kesel] The world had a loose relationship with physics, thusly trees where anchored to the earth by their roots and a branch broken off would float into the sky. Ships primary made of wood floated by default and needed weighted ballast to stay upright

[@LSDireWolf]

This is great. In my current campaign a “super” lich is raising a lost netheril city and it’s entourage of flying ships. Superb timing as always AJ! Many thanks!

[@HiopX]

There really should be a ship weapon that shoots -Greek- Alchemist Fire

[@thekaxmax]

there is one, IIRC. Much /much/ better to use a catapult to fling small kegs of Alchemist's Fire, though; you /really/ want the fire to be only at their end.

[@MBCGRS]

Always remember the most expensive item listed for sale on the equipment list AD&D 2e Players Handbook... Galley, Large 25,000 gp... The Party always wanted one... Thought we might see you in a booth at Armageddon AJ... Maybe next time....

[@AJPickett]

One day I might be spotted hawking some books, but not this year :)

[@Enclave.]

I'd imagine any ship of this style would have a few bags of holding in order to store provisions.

[@dondumitru7093]

I'd imagine that along with an industry of Wizards who are creating the flying ships, there is an industry of other spellcasters creating the items that magically produce food and water. For Halruaa and their recognition of the skyship as a strategic asset (the technique of magical production is a closely-guarded state secret), it only makes sense to optimize all of the logistics for efficiently operating a skyship. Basically, anything that you as a shrewd player would come up with to efficiently use your skyship, the nation state of Halruaa would have done - because the NPC's Know What They Are Doing. (This "the NPC's Know What They Are Doing" aspect of DM'ing is probably what I overall struggle with the most - it's just amazingly hard to continuously out-clever the players and keep them surprised by the ingenuity of NPC's, but it is completely what "should" be happening.)

[@theirDevil]

@@dondumitru7093 Honestly, the mountains of shenanigans that can be accomplished when you begin to readily deploy common and uncommon magical items is astronomical.

[@thekaxmax]

D&D3.5 had Chests Of Holding for this exact purpose; Bag Of Holding but a 2 ton load and much more volume. Only worked on vehicles.

[@dondumitru7093]

@@thekaxmax I can't find a reference to Chest of Holding in 3.5. Do you have a reference for it, or was it possibly a homebrew thing? ty

[@theHedgex1]

Catapult... Cat a pult. Gentleman. Load up the cats. We're firing at the enemy.

[@thekaxmax]

Tabaxi specops troops in padded red-and-white painted baskets.

[@BrendanKOD]

Under canons I see you forgot about Canister or Grapeshot - a fragile container full of many steel balls. very limited range, but it fires in a spread rather than as a single shot. Desperate crews also sometimes just paceked silverware and anything else they found into the canon to improvise grapshot when they lack anything else

[@AJPickett]

I plan on a very detailed video on firearms for Forgotten Realms and Exotic multiversal weapons fairly soon, including all sorts of ammo. :)

[@BrendanKOD]

@@AJPickett There's a lot of potential nuance in firearms. Hmm, actually if you want to look at they why's and why not's of firearm development, Here's a video I found looking at why so few places other than Europe really pushed to advance firearm technology. The key points were that they had the economy and terrain to field big armies of heavy infantry, and also did a lot of sieges, with the final element being them not needing to also field light mobile troops to deal with a bordering area filled with nomadic tribes.

[@agustinvenegas5238]

@@BrendanKOD can we get a name on this? It sounds pretty interesting

[@BrendanKOD]

And of course I copied the link but forgot to paste it in 😵‍💫kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHaYaHmroMeWo5Y

[@jamestucker2013]

Oh to be able to fly on a flying ships. Up up and away to watch the landscape below

[@soultron4238]

What rules does everyone use for ..ahem.. small one manned vessels? Like a long distance travel flying fortress is great, but I've been looking for some decent dog fighting rules that feel action-packed and not over complicated.

[@AJPickett]

Good question.

[@soultron4238]

@@AJPickett and that's no slight on this video it was awesome as always. Just hyperfocus brain still looking for killer space combat dog fighting rules.

[@zacharycha4791]

It really depends on how realistic/magic dependant you want to make it. I wouldn't use a 1 man ship (no way one person can steer, shoot, reload, ect by themselves), but a small 3 or 4 man crew (Pilot, Spotter/Navigator, Gunner, and Wizard or something like that). Then just scale down the HP and Size of the ships and scale up the speeds (remembering that higher speeds may damage the ship) and maneuverability. Also keep in mind that they wouldn't be able to make voyages of any length at all. It would have to be something like a defense force or a force attacking a fixed position that towed the ships in wagons then launched them to get an advantage in a siege. They would let a crew of players, even one without a mage, depending on construction and what powers the ship, to act as an ace fighter/bomber crew. Give them some wing men/women and send them against the enemy force. If you want to give them a disadvantage put them against enemies on flying monster (Griffons, Giant Owls, ect). The enemy would have the maneuverability but the players may have the firepower with multiple characters able to make ranged attacks per turn, and carry more weight for bombs or maybe armor. Also don't forget that any spell like Bigby's ________ Hand/Fist or Reverse Gravity can royally wreck any carefully laid plans faster than you can say Griffon Rider.

[@soultron4238]

@@zacharycha4791 Indeed. I, very personally, like a bit more sci in my fantasy. The rods are a great lore but to explain (read excuse) the one person part, and I'm betting any Arcane/Mercain would love to sell a wealthy pirate/freedom fighter/adventurer a fast recharge ..ahem.. wand of radiant bolts dangerously connected to the positive material plane. Heck I'm sure an imperial navy or two have had really big ones commissioned. In fact I bet there are tons of small crew ship configurations to be found in the vastness of wild space. Far from Realmspace especially. Completely agree about the use of other spells makes for all kinds of fantasy shenanigans too. Point is my group would want to engage in fast-paced small ship dogfighting on the reg. Perhaps I should go look through that dusty DMG for mounted aerial combat. The answer may be as simple as I want the rules to be.

[@anonymouse2675]

@@soultron4238 Or simply homebrew an oversized rowboat, or better yet a Folding Boat with a Minor Helm or equivalent. Make the Minor Helm removable so it can be attached to any boat sized object that your Players commission and/or steal.

[@cernunnos_lives]

I'm wondering if your obsessed like everyone else about Baldur's Gate 3? Of course it isn't perfect, but it has kept D&D in the limelight and even pushed Spell Jammer and Mind Flayers to the front.

[@odriew5014]

3:30 Yes, but how many provisions do you need for a 3h tour?

[@AJPickett]

I just include some coconuts and a stick of butter so I can fashion a Rudimentary Lathe and Emergency Radio.

[@PlanktonWhisperer]

"Forgotten Realms is classic medieval fantasy, unlike your weaboo freak setting". 😆

[@Thorn99855]

Fantastic music choice. Very Bladerunner hover car. I highly recommend playing Cloudpunk if you never have. It's voxels, but it fulfills that fantasy well. ❤🧡💚

[@trajanfidelis1532]

In my setting airships are a new but very profitable/dangerous business. Over one of the continents is a rising mercantile empire based on airships. But also a rising piracy problem too

[@AJPickett]

You're going to LOVE hearing about the location called Dock in a remote glacial region of Kara-Tur.

[@trajanfidelis1532]

@@AJPickett looking forward to it :)

[@tatsusama3192]

6:04 "Honey, please, if I don't focus we'll hit a mountain"

[@flanch666]

As someone whos campaign ends soon and is going to make a spell jammer once the manual is release. This is getting me hype.

[@chriscalvin5083]

great video AJ one of my favorite part of fantasy setting is flying ship, cities and castles

[@jacobwilson8579]

My players for my first and current dnd Champaign (the setting is based on the games from Artix Entertainment) got their characters a space ship that’s been very damaged (not a Spelljammer since I use my own version of space in this setting) very early on, having been frozen in a glacier the ships currently worked on by dwarves to become more like a air ship. I’m glad I can count on AJ to give me rule ideas and stuff I will definitely use.

[@dragonturtle2703]

How do people fight things like flying ships and spell jammers. Perhaps if it’s flying low, you can hit it with spells and siege weapons, but even then, it’s basically a mobile and fully armed fortress made of wood, if not metal. And none of that defends against high altitude bombing runs. It seems that the only effective defense is flying mounts/troops, which probably only major powers would have in meaningful quantities.

[@sncrabs65]

Or Aarakocra

[@dondumitru7093]

My players have an airship. I tell them "As long as you don't try to turn the airship into a significant tactical advantage like using it to drop bombs, I will continue to give it some level of plot armor by for example not having enemy nation states send agents to burn it while you have the NPC's running it and you are in a dungeon. The Choice Is Yours."

[@Allenthedude]

Very excited for the Eberron airship entry with their elemental cores.

[@AJPickett]

*points at the words 'forgotten realms' in the video title*

[@mattnerdy7236]

Hey AJ, Good morning to you, Epic video! The ship stats seem crazy to me in 5e. Definitely will use this video as a guide. The Ogre bolt thrower, uses a ballista, 3d10 Ouch! Thanks for all the stats and lore, great information, really appreciate it. Thanks AJ, you have a wonderful day!

[@smile-tl9in]

I feel that the provision issue would be less of one with some necromantic magic and a litteral skeletton crew

[@michaelmorford3932]

Flying ships and fantasy pirates, love it so much!

[@Christopher_Pug]

This feels like the perfect top-of-the-first-hill-on-a-rollercoaster moment before we all get thrust into an insane ride of Spelljammer content. Can't wait! After watching all of AJ's video, or maybe somewhere in the middle of doing so, everyone should check out the PhD&D channel. He's criminally underwatched and has amazing ideas for using the domains of dread in unique, creative ways! Great content for TMG fans, for sure!

[@guuspot923]

A delightful morsel of a gluestick with some of my favourite flavour! A little sad the powers that be seem to have watered down Spelljammer though...

[@Comicnut64]

Awesome vid AJ time to set sail into the stars

[@AdamBoozer]

3:50 ish. I imagine that players would just have a bag of holding for their own gear at least? It was pretty interesting. I think I would want a ship that didn't need sails though. Steampunk sub all the way. Sunless Skies? 😉

[@thekaxmax]

magic-powered propellors, easy. Plus the same as small ones for water use.

[@HBHaga]

My GM will love this one. He did steampunk airships in an earlier campaign and took a deep dive into zeppelin designs for that.

[@Telenaus]

hmm i wonder if i could make weight stones where the weight of things is transferred, imagine tossing a stone at an attacker activating & whomp gravity becomes like +2 hehe. or have the stones linked but have one in the realm of air or another realm where it can fall while taking on the weight of the air ship, the chaos , but it could be worth it for weight & maneuverability lol

[@jacobwilson8579]

My players for my first and current dnd Champaign (the setting is based on the games from Artix Entertainment) got their characters a space ship that’s been very damaged (not a Spelljammer since I use my own version of space in this setting) very early on, having been frozen in a glacier the ships currently worked on by dwarves to become more like a air ship. I’m glad I can count on AJ to give me rule ideas and stuff I will definitely use.

[@virtualcircle285]

Reminds me of Earendil's flying ship from the silmarillion

[@Purple_crustacean]

Imagine spell jammers that is also a flying ship and can also be seafaring ship

[@Tzimisce]

All Spelljammer ships can fly using their helm, and a number of the common Spelljamming ship designs (especially human-built ones which are just modified sailing ships) can land and sail in water.

[@philipmeade7789]

Flying vessels in DnD fantasy have always seemed quite boring to me. It’s really just a naval vessel transplanted into the sky. No consideration for what it actually means to be in the 3-D environment of the sky. C- for imagination and verisimilitude. In my setting one of the types of aerial vessels uses treads lined with immovable rod - type magic items that support it as it trundles through the air. A very stable and reliable aerial platform, if slower than other designs.

[@Serbobiv123]

Uhm, pretty sure a carrack is timber framed rather than clinker built, otherwise awesome video!

[@AJPickett]

A Flying Carrack, not a normal Carrack Andres, but thanks :)

[@albertlawson9894]

Hey AJ, have you had the chance to look at the new Vecna info that came out? It mentioned that Vecna wrote the book of Vile Darkness. If I recall correctly, didn't Vecna learn from the book on how to become a lich? Hence the Vecna not knowing the ritual beforehand? Would be cool to look at it and get your opinion

[@AJPickett]

He was taught the magic by a super old and powerful arcane serpent primordial, much later he wrote most of what is found in the book of Vile Darkness, including many necromantic rituals.

[@albertlawson9894]

@@AJPickett Ahh good to know, thanks for the feedback brother

[@stanchskate]

I've always loved a good musketeer/age of pirate fantasy setting

[@DavidShepheard]

I wonder how the rules for crew and rations compare to the rules for crew and rations on spelljamming ships.

[@AJPickett]

Why would the rations required be any different?

[@Lurklen]

@@AJPickett The only reason I can think of is that you might go on longer voyages in a Spelljammer ship, as the distances are vast and there's perhaps less opportunity for finding provender on the way. In an airship or a sailing ship you might be able to fish or hunt game if you stop somewhere (it's actually far more possible for an air ship to stop off somewhere than either of the other two if you think about it, if you just hang out in the middle of the ocean or space nothing is necessarily going to be available, though there's whole stretches of land that are barren, there's also tons of land that is not and is inhabited by people or animals, both of which might be able to resupply you--though hopefully in different ways!). So it's possible that the rations on a Spelljamming ship might have to be more nutritious or higher in calories so you don't have to pack quite as much of them. More bang for your buck. But otherwise I cannot think of a reason why. I guess it's possible on an airship you wouldn't need to gather as much fresh water. You could probably gather it from clouds, or drop down to a lake or some such.

[@lysander9957]

Right in time for my commute? AJ, you spoil me.

[@AJPickett]

I got you *fist bump*

[@zacharyweaver276]

huh didn't know flying non-spelljammer ships were a thing in Toril

[@Tzimisce]

There's actually a crashed one in the Tomb of Annihilation adventure.

[@zacharyweaver276]

@@Tzimisce Yeah never played or read any modules so I wasn't aware they were really a thing

[@SofaKingDead]

is there a stat block in the description I am missing?

[@AJPickett]

Yikes, I knew I forgot something, sorry I will get it edited in there.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

Cool, this is for those that want Spelljammer ships without the other spelljammer weird and wondrous nonsense

[@AJPickett]

That is exactly right.

[@trogdor856]

Always here as fast as possible for that good good dnd shit

[@jloren4647]

Ive caught on to the Kiwi plan for world domination since slowly but surely I find you, Weller and viva la dirt creeping into dominating my feed... And I welcome my new masters for they are crafty and capable lol. Love the content, Mr Pickett!

[@357Dejavu]

Love airships! Thanks for the video!

[@-SRM-]

Hey AJ. Heads up; I know it's not new news around KZbin, but thought I'd let you know I've not received notifications of your uploads for a few weeks now.

[@Janshevik]

Ohh you finally did it! Covering the topic I am most interested about :D

[@cliffm3085]

What about 'the dock'?

[@AJPickett]

Coming soon!

[@jameswhite-pv3sq]

I love aerial games. Things like this are the reason I allow flying in my games. For additional options.

[@dragonballtalk8527]

AJ Pickett still got best dnd info video catalog on the internet in my opinion

[@neurolancer81]

I’m always looking forward to your lore videos. Thanks!

[@ebertwix5860]

Listened to this on my break at work, really helped me destress. The way you explain things really takes the mind off anything else but the subject matter, and whatever that music was is a great choice

[@AJPickett]

Happy you enjoyed it :)

[@dragonballtalk8527]

it's good to prevent scurvy

[@davidpaikins3172]

I would think batista get bonus to hit vs flying ... or else why don't flying creatures attack every city all the time.. why build walls

[@stuartlaws9977]

Always thought there would be a range finder or scope of some kind to help lead the target effectively

[@Leafy1-j1l]

Because flying creatures that want to attack cities aren't that common, mostly? It's a bit like "if 30-06 AP exists, then why does anybody bother with bulletproof vests anyway?" Because most threats aren't that. Like, from the perspective of a flying monster, cities are painful.A gryphon can't do anything useful from the air but swoop down on defenders while the militia pounds crossbow bolts into it - mostly ineffectually, but you are a large target, there are a lot of those little pissants, and now they're scattering all over the place. This is going to be irritating at best. This somewhat changes if you're, say, an adult red dragon, but dragons are relatively rare, their lairs tend to be far from cities, and frankly, if you come under attack from dragons often enough to consider siege weapons, moving is cheaper.

[@thekaxmax]

That's something else that designers let go by the wayside. The big thing for cities is they can have a /lot/ of inaccurate weaponry, plus the hand-held weapons and spells of troops.

[@camerongunn7906]

I seriously cannot wait for the new 5e Spelljammer the come out. Super interested to get your take on it and to see how they're going to handle the transition from the Phlogiston to the Astral Sea.

[@theHedgex1]

I can't afford a boat :(

[@isaacm4791]

killing a dragon helps, if you don't have any in you area. Behirs feud with dragons and its presence might indicate a vacated lair.

[@theHedgex1]

@@isaacm4791 ^///^ almost killed by two kobolds. I don't think i'm quite ready to take a dragon.

[@jamesfisher9594]

Time to hoist the black flag!

[@robertsimpson7424]

Bolters Brothers!

[@AncientRylanor69]

🚂🚅🚞

[@shawnkarter8867]

I was adding airships, but got confused as there are many sources for mechanics and so much is contradictory -- what did you use for sources?

[@mmardh799]

thank you!

[@blakmajk3512]

Top shelf content, AJ!

[@snforde4603]

I am curious how an artillert artificer’s Eldritch Cannons and other such abilities and inventions would effect combat on an airship.

[@AJPickett]

Drastically.

[@derskalde4973]

It honestly be a shame to just talk about firearms in Fantasy settings, when there are historical real-life examples of firearms that are almost as, if not more, fantastical than what you see actual fantasy. I mean, if you've told me a few years ago, that many of the weapons from RWBY are somewhat "historically accurate", I'd have declared you crazy. And yet, there are examples of weapons similar to those in the Show.

[@edmaldonado8207]

Once again, another conveniently timed video! I've been running a pirate themed campaign and the players have a specialized warship that can planeshift into transitive planes such as the Ethereal or Astral planes to allow them to travel to inner and outer planes. Last night they were attacked by a Githyanki warship and we used the same siege weapons you described!

[@Arwcwb]

Thanks for the upload!

[@reforgedrole-playinggames1035]

Excellent work

[@jp1116]

I love the lore this game has its so amazing

[@thekaxmax]

well, they /have/ had 40+ years to layer it up

[@yogsothoth7594]

On the point of historical accuracy i think its worth mentioning that while bolt throwers weren't unheard of on Roman vessels anti-ship artillery mounted on ships was not the focus of naval warfare until pretty recently as ships designed to fire a heavy broadside of cannons became possible. Firstly, torsion based weapons had the serious limitation that moisture degrades them over time and as far as i can tell using a ballista against another ship would be unlikely to have a serious chance of sinking it. The kinds of artillery used on things like Roman ships were almost always pretty small, anti-personnel weapons. They were used because they could outrange a bow and as such could be used to kill enemy archers and other troops on deck before the ships closed to range. Large torsion engines maybe lighter than those based on things like counter weights but they're still pretty heavy and expensive to be having to constantly replace parts of. Water might not be as much of a problem with a flying ship but then you have to consider what you have to damage here to destroy the enchantments holding it aloft and it would take a very large ballista indeed to physically tear a ship apart to the point it is destroyed. Maybe bolt throwers larger than a regular scorpion catapult might be more useful fighting large monsters though. On cannons its also worth baring in mind that it wasn't until well into the 1500s, about 250 years after they were being first used in Europe, that some people began aiming to primarily use cannons as an anti-ship weapon as opposed to anti-crew. Mostly early cannons were not carried in enough numbers or a large enough size to have much hope of sinking ships, like earlier scorpion catapults they were being used to target the enemy crew, and for a long time after it began to become more plausible to sink or otherwise disable a ship with cannon fire blasting the ship until it surrendered or boarding it were still more common ways to defeat an enemy ship than sinking it. Both because it could take a good while to tear enough holes bellow the water line to sink a vessel and because an intact vessel could be patched up and used or sold. Its also complex to fiddle around with rule sets similar to that of ghost marsh. Rather than expecting players to learn a whole new set of mechanics to describe naval combat I've always thought it makes more sense, in terms of historical parallels and in the interests of mechanical simplicity to to describe a naval paradigm not focused on anti-ship weapons. The two ships close towards each other, if one tries to run away you have a chase thing. As they get into range various weapons like light anti-personnel artillery, spells and bows are used to target the enemy crew and soldiers board the enemy ship. Then you board the enemy ship either by coming alongside or maybe by deploying specialised troops who can swim, fly teleport etc and capture the ship.

[@dondumitru7093]

Seems like "setting the other ship on fire" would be a more viable strategy compared to "punch holes in the other ship". Fire on your opponent's ship means their crew is busy fighting the fire, the crew themselves might be on fire, and the rigging is burning which degrades the other ship's ability to maneuver, letting you literally run circles around them and set them even more on fire. Alternatively, maybe "fling swarms of diminutive constructs" at the other ship which then wander about attacking indiscriminately. Or "fling zones of Darkness" to apply blindness to the opponent crew. Or "fling zones of anti-magic".

[@yogsothoth7594]

@@dondumitru7093 Its relatively difficult to set a ship on fire in combat via mundane methods. A good fire ship will work with naval warfare but of course that requires significant cost in turn. Fire arrows can have some value but particularly ones that didn't use slow burn gunpowder mix Chinese style are are relatively difficult to set fire to a ship's hull with. If you think a ship's hull are large timbers, often damp wood, it takes a significant amount of sustained heat for it to start to catch and spread. Canvas is slightly more likely to catch meaning setting fire to sails is slightly more viable. But bare in mind that if this is a clash between two naval vessels the question is not necessarily can you ever set fire to the enemy ship, but rather can you set fire to the enemy ship before the enemy either manages to board you or shoots regular arrows at your archers and other crew? A good mage that knows certain fire spells probably has a better chance. I would say if you wanted to sink another ship particularly rather than capture it a few fireballs would be a good method. Its still not certain to work. If you can shoot a fireball you can get shot at by a longbow (or a if you have enough ranged combatants a volley of enough shortbows, light crossbows and heavy crossbow shooting with disadvantage will still likely get some hits. ) plus if mages are common enough to be a regular staple of warfare counter spells, magically treated wood or magical methods like create or destroy water. Using constructs to board an enemy ship sounds like a fun idea, though i'd guess just lobbing them (maybe via magical means IDK) seems both a relatively expensive way of going about things give a lot of them would break on impact or miss. Darkness to blind the enemy crew could be handy, particularly if they have the advantage in ranged weapons and you need to get in position to rush aboard. But presumably you'd also be imposing disadvantage on shooting anything within darkness. For a flying ship anti-magic might make them dive but I'd guess that the magic should start working again as soon as the ship falls out of the zone? IDK.

[@samsamsamsamsamanilla5281]

I need one!❤️

[@smile-tl9in]

what about zeppelins ? Or engines ? , Is there anything like that ? I mean a flying dreadnought would be pretty scary

[@thekaxmax]

don't need a zeppelin with a floating hull. And magic-powered propellors only takes the concept of propellors to exist.

[@smile-tl9in]

@@thekaxmax the zepplin would be anle to fly higher though

[@bgcvetan]

Compared to GW, WotC is quite reasonable in terms of numbers.

[@thekaxmax]

not an endorsement for accuracy. :P