Why Use Ships and Wagons When You Have Magic?

[Hotrod]

I was reflecting on the cost of moving people and goods around earlier today, when it struck me. With all the means of magical transportation available, why use ships and wagons to haul people and stuff around? Granted, teleportation can be risky, but there are two fool-proof methods I can think of.

1. Circles of Teleportation. Holy cash cow, Batman! Set up 2 teleportation circles (that you can draw as big as you want, by the way) up to 3,000 miles apart, Burn a pair of fairy wings and BAM, you ship as much stuff as you can fit in your circle instantaneously and 100% safely. No delays, no brigands, no tolls.

2. Mystic Portal (the spell). This spell (that I may be confusing with a Heroes Unlimited spell, correct me if I'm wrong) allows you to physically see through to the other side, so you can ensure 100% that you're going to the right place. With the portal open, you're free to carry or toss stuff through for the duration! Incidentally, could a permanence ward be used with a portal spell to create a permanent shortcut between two vastly distant places? Or would such a portal only go to where its controller wanted it to, changing locations at a whim?

Am I missing some serious drawbacks here? Why spend fortunes on ships that can be lost to bad weather, piracy, blockades, or sea serpents, when you could just shell out some cash to a local magic guild and move stuff instantly and risk-free?

[Library Ogre]

1) Faerie wings are expensive. Getting them requires you to a) kill a living, sentient creature and b) **** off faeries, usually a lot of them, especially when it becomes known that's how you're making your fortune. Good people aren't going to go for this, and will probably work to stop you.

2) Mystic Portal (the HU2 version) is limited to 100' per level of the caster. Assuming you mean older versions with longer ranges, also consider the security risk that such a portal poses. If the other side is taken in war, then bad guys have a path either directly into you city, or right outside your walls. This says nothing of the possible side effects of having such a portal open over the long term... while it's too small to have much of an effect on the weather (cold, high-pressue wind from the Northern Wilderness constantly blowing into the tropical Land of the South Winds city), warping space for that amount of time could have a negative side effect that isn't present when the spell only lasts the stated duration.

[pblackcrow]

Actually, faerie wings are not that expensive, the faeries are a ruddy pain on a good day! And don't say that they are just like ADHD children. They aren't! They have an IQ of 3d6, magic, the ability to turn invisible, and most are thieves. So, yes I do condone the use of their wings in the game! And even good people get annoyed with their tricks!

Sorry Mark! These aren't the sweet and lovable faefolk from modern day faerie tales.

[BookWyrm]

1) material components are costly, whether you can get them wholesale or not. If your local magical goods source doesn't have what you're looking for, you may have to spend the time and cash to get what you need anyway.
Never mind ticking off the local magical sentients community if you start hunting them down for parts. Some will only need an excuse ("Let's kill the humans for what they did to poor Gribblix! And just for some spell-components? RAAAHHHRRGH!") to start up anothe rin a long line of wars that just don't do anyone any good.

2) Most teleportation spells are limited, and if your GM is a litlle sadistic, you could find yourself in the wrong place at the worst time.
Not to mention that you'd ahve to have those teleport-points guarded constantly from intruders. More money and time spent.

Best to have some kind of back-up plan. Or three.

[J. Lionheart]

Magic, while it fills our game books, does not fill the game world. It's not a feature of the average citizen's life, in pretty much any nation.

The player characters, with their armor, weapons, training, and magic, are about as far from normal as can be imagined. The books point this out repeatedly, and it bears repeating yet again. The characters are super powerful, and move among and against the super powerful elite of the world. The closest most people will ever get to magic is their local cleric doing a prayer now and again.

In addition to the cost (35,000 gold is a lifetime's wages or more to the average steadily employeed person) and consequences (faeries will come kick your ass) of using faerie wings for large scale commerce like this, there's also simply the secrecy factor! A Summoner or Alchemist is not simply going to make one of these uber circles, announce it's availability, and let assorted people come pay to use it. For another circle user, just seeing the circle for a minute is long enough to record it, allowing them to work out it's magic! Circle mages, like others, are far too jealous of their secrets to do this regularly. On top of this, it would require multiple mages working together thousands of miles apart, over long periods of time. Not likely. These guilds are just as jealous of each other as of any independant.

While an empire with vast resources might logically employee mages to do this kind of thing to break a seige, or to secretly transport royalty and critical messengers, it's not the sort of thing that would be available, or profitable, to most merchants. Far better to pay a tiny fraction of the wing price (not to mention the service price) to send your goods over land or sea for a month each way than to spend twice your caravan's value just to get it there and back (don't forget, you'd have to pay again to come back with the payment!). Hiring 10 mercs for a 2 month journey? Perhaps 3000 gold, all supplies included, with like a 95% success rate. Doing one back-and-forth via teleport circle? 70,000 gold, plus service charges. The extra 1 out of 20 caravans that makes it won't make up for the 1.35 million gold extra cost.

[Library Ogre]

Actually, faerie wings are not that expensive, the faeries are a ruddy pain on a good day! And don't say that they are just like ADHD children. They aren't! They have an IQ of 3d6, magic, the ability to turn invisible, and most are thieves. So, yes I do condone the use of their wings in the game! And even good people get annoyed with their tricks!

Sorry Mark! These aren't the sweet and lovable faefolk from modern day faerie tales.

And this is why you are evil. "I fully support killing sentient beings for my convenience and because they are annoying." "I think the appropriate response to someone bothering me is mutilating their corpse." "He is a thief. Him and all of his kind must be hunted down, extremities cut off, and their corpses used to fuel a world-spanning mercantile enterprise. It is only just."

[Hotrod]

Far better to pay a tiny fraction of the wing price (not to mention the service price) to send your goods over land or sea for a month each way than to spend twice your caravan's value just to get it there and back (don't forget, you'd have to pay again to come back with the payment!). Hiring 10 mercs for a 2 month journey? Perhaps 3000 gold, all supplies included, with like a 95% success rate. Doing one back-and-forth via teleport circle? 70,000 gold, plus service charges. The extra 1 out of 20 caravans that makes it won't make up for the 1.35 million gold extra cost.

Your points on secrecy are quite valid, and would probably be the reason this isn't done more. However, I still don't buy the cost-effectiveness comparison. You could pile as much stuff into a teleportation circle as you like, enough for 1 caravan, 20 caravans, shoot, even 100! The scaling is the compelling factor. That combined with the instant, ridk-free travel could make this more viable than your analysis would indicate. Oh, and 3,000 miles isn't a 2-month journey. When considering that circle distance is as the bird flies, not as the caravan walks, or even as the ship sails, the distances covered could make this much more worthwhile.

Any other means of magical transportation one could use?

[Goliath Strongarm]

Actually, faerie wings are not that expensive, the faeries are a ruddy pain on a good day! And don't say that they are just like ADHD children. They aren't! They have an IQ of 3d6, magic, the ability to turn invisible, and most are thieves. So, yes I do condone the use of their wings in the game! And even good people get annoyed with their tricks!

Sorry Mark! These aren't the sweet and lovable faefolk from modern day faerie tales.

And this is why you are evil. "I fully support killing sentient beings for my convenience and because they are annoying." "I think the appropriate response to someone bothering me is mutilating their corpse." "He is a thief. Him and all of his kind must be hunted down, extremities cut off, and their corpses used to fuel a world-spanning mercantile enterprise. It is only just."

I think you just described the traditional "lawful good".... taken to the extreme of course. And no, Im not joking...

Fae- "they constantly harass and are bothering good, decent folk. Obviously, they are agents of evil"
Bothering me- "He's obviously a villian. By mutilating his corpse, and leaving it where others can see, perhaps they will not follow his footsteps, and will become good people"
Thief- "well, we all know that evil is merely a slope. There are no shades of grey, and theivery is evil. Kill all thieves"

[J. Lionheart]

You could pile as much stuff into a teleportation circle as you like, enough for 1 caravan, 20 caravans, shoot, even 100! The scaling is the compelling factor.

And where, exactly, is the merchant going to get the additional stuff for the additional caravans-worth that would be being teleported?

The way almost any trade economy works is that the first caravan pays for the second, the second for the third, etc. Sure, there's a small profit margin, but it isn't enough to cover additional caravans. This is why, even in the modern retail world, a single bad season can bankrupt a well-established company. Every season pays for the next season, they don't simply have 20 years worth of money and goods lying around which they are slowly releasing in to the market. The merchant sends the caravan with as much as he can possibly gather, to make the greatest return on the caravan investment. He doesn't simply sit on a whole pile of extra goods, nor can he afford to wait until he has more - storage is money wasted.

Again, there's nothing wrong with the principle of using teleport circles here, you're right. It would be safer and faster. The problem comes from the reality of economics, which is an important reality to consider in any serious game. Resources are not unlimited, and actions are not without consequence.

[drewkitty ~..~]

While I would expect high cost & low mass/volume [& highly illegal] cargos would be shipped via magic. Why? Because the Cost of the magic used to move the cargo.

While I would also expect that low cost, high mass, high volume[, legal] cargos would use ships and wagons.
Why? Dirt cheap compared to the magic costs.

[Sir Blayse]

The merchant sends the caravan with as much as he can possibly gather, to make the greatest return on the caravan investment. He doesn't simply sit on a whole pile of extra goods, nor can he afford to wait until he has more - storage is money wasted.

Not to mention higher taxes for those goods that are stored. Those would count as assets to be taxed. Plus, depending on the goods they might spoil in that time. Teleporting would only be good for very expensive or dangerous cargoes- something that is going to be paid for by a powerful wizard or local government. Regular merchants would not be able to afford this option.

[Library Ogre]

I think you just described the traditional "lawful good".... taken to the extreme of course. And no, Im not joking...

Fae- "they constantly harass and are bothering good, decent folk. Obviously, they are agents of evil"
Bothering me- "He's obviously a villian. By mutilating his corpse, and leaving it where others can see, perhaps they will not follow his footsteps, and will become good people"
Thief- "well, we all know that evil is merely a slope. There are no shades of grey, and theivery is evil. Kill all thieves"

I think that's far more Lawful Evil. While the LG types would want to reform, wanton killing isn't their thing.

[azazel1024]

The circles ain't that big to start with. You aren't talking about fitting an entire merchant ship's worth of stuff in a circle. Also what about really low cost bulk items? Grain? 70,000 gold is probably about the shipment cost long distance for a ship...but now you're talking probably anything from 30 tons up to something like maybe 150-200 tons of cargo in a voyage for the cost of what a single circle might cost...and your talking probably 2-20 times as much stuff depending on the bulkiness of it.

Overland caravans are extremely expensive in comparison to shipping goods by sea, both historically and I'd imagine in the game context. Really only worth it if A) there is no choice or B) a very hard to come by good or C) that area of sea is highly dangerous.

Typically you'll see goods shipped by boat even if it means slogging 100 miles to the nearest port, going to another out of the way port and taking on hundreds of sea miles if only to shave a little bit off the land distance and maybe even taking longer (if 4 weeks are spent by boat and 2 by land for a total of 6 instead of 5 weeks total by land...you might still be saving money by only needing 2 weeks of a land caravan and all the wagons, etc).

Magic just isn't that common. There are not tens of thousands of summoners just itching to make teleportation circles and fewer who are willing to create a circle and then travel all that way to make the other end of it. Their costs are going to be really high as an input (maybe say as much or more then a merchant ship to begin with, at least a cheap one) and then you have the fairy wing costs.

Some big cities might have some kind of special courier or transportation circle business running that will do just this, but expect really high prices (afterall, they are going to charge more then their basic costs) and probably you'd only see really high value goods being sent. Example, bank wants to send a shipment of gold to one of its branches, or maybe a merchant needs to send a pile of rare silks and spices or the local noble needs to send an important emmisary and delegation to a kingdom they are nearly at war with to try to diffuse the situation.
-Matt

[The Dark Elf]

If you were to transport goods via mystical means then you may very well have several different shipments (or in this case circlements) from different suppliers to transport from one place. You may collect these at different times which means you made need a large premise to store these in (rent, security labour costs etc.) and you customer/clients will need to bring them to you (you're doing one circle from ONE place).

You would also have (what we call in the/MY trade) convenience of delivery. Ie it is really difficult to arrnage a similar thing on the other side of the circle (or portal). You want to make the retrun trip with cargo as well to fully expand you profits.

Also you are missing out on the small distance deliveries that you conduct whislt delivering from A-Z you also pick up from B and deliver to F, Q ,W or as many stops as planned as well as collecting.

Your warehouse is your ship and your security/staff are your sailors you already have with you.

Cirlces are expensive as its a lot of cash for just one trip. Sending an invading army would be worthwhile but most business are little and often. And ofc it would cost a faerie life.

Mystic portal is just 60 ppe so go for it. We play first edition and it can be doen 12 times a day. Us as PC's use it every day just to go to the toilet

[azazel1024]

What happens if you need to go a 13th time that day? I mean sometimes with those celebratory beerfests after an adventure you have to hit the privies a lot. Or maybe your PC is getting over a case of the 'elven disease' and hasn't been the healer yet to get fixed up.

I'm just saying, what happens when you can't mystic portal to the privies then?
-Matt

[Stone Gargoyle]

What happens if you need to go a 13th time that day? I mean sometimes with those celebratory beerfests after an adventure you have to hit the privies a lot. Or maybe your PC is getting over a case of the 'elven disease' and hasn't been the healer yet to get fixed up.

I'm just saying, what happens when you can't mystic portal to the privies then?
-Matt

Seems like you'd need a Portable Privy spell.

[azazel1024]

Or an impervious to urniation spell.
-Matt

[Scott Gibbons]

There's one gigantic, glaring problem with doing a huge teleportation circle that hasn't been brought up yet - legality.

Most rulers are not going to want to have something like a mile-wide circle set up in their kingdom, or even the neighboring kingdom for that matter, for the simple fact of security. Yeah, Timiro and Bizantium might have good relations right now, but diplomatic relations can sour in a big hurry, or one could stage a surprise attack on the other with little to no warning. How many monarchs could sleep easily knowing that a huge army, followed by another, and another, and another, could show up at any time in the middle of their kingdom, all for the cost of a few fairie wings burned up?

In fact, doing a blitzkrieg-type attack on another nation, where you could quickly loot a lot of wealth with comparatively little investment cost would be one of the few ways you could make such a circle pay off economically imo. Not to mention your army would arrive fresh and ready for battle, not worn-out from having just walked half the freakin' world to get to the invasion point.

For that reason I don't think any ruler would allow a merchant to set up such a pair of circles. "Nope, sorry, that's illegal in our city/district/country." In fact, the ruler would probably hire assassins and sabotuers to make sure that just such a pair of circles couldn't ever be constructed. [Hmm, maybe there's an adventure in there for some GM to use?]

The same would go for permanent portals if those were constructed, though maybe they could be made if there was some way for the monarchs in question to pull the plug if one got too nervous about having a permanent doorway into his area exist.

[azazel1024]

Circles can be destroyed, right?

At any rate, I doubt I see a ruler having an issue with a smaller circle, so long as it wasn't within the walled portion of their city...not unless they tightly controlled the circle. Example, I have a hard time believing that the ruler of country X or even the ruler of city Y in country X would have a problem with a local summoner or magic guild or even merchant having a smallish circle say outside the walls of the city at their country retreat. How threatening is a circle that might squeeze 20 or 30 guys in to it tight packed going to be all that threatening if it isn't within the city walls. Now one that could fit 1,000 men...that might be something very, very, very different.
-Matt

[J. Lionheart]

Circles can be destroyed, right?

At any rate, I doubt I see a ruler having an issue with a smaller circle, so long as it wasn't within the walled portion of their city...not unless they tightly controlled the circle. Example, I have a hard time believing that the ruler of country X or even the ruler of city Y in country X would have a problem with a local summoner or magic guild or even merchant having a smallish circle say outside the walls of the city at their country retreat. How threatening is a circle that might squeeze 20 or 30 guys in to it tight packed going to be all that threatening if it isn't within the city walls. Now one that could fit 1,000 men...that might be something very, very, very different.
-Matt

The size of the circle on the arrival end doesn't control how many people could fit - only the one on the sending end. Once you have a circle, of any size, another circle, of any size, can send things to it. A nice field outside of town would be an ideal place for dropping an army

[MADMANMIKE]

I was reflecting on the cost of moving people and goods around earlier today, when it struck me. With all the means of magical transportation available, why use ships and wagons to haul people and stuff around? Granted, teleportation can be risky, but there are two fool-proof methods I can think of.

1. Circles of Teleportation. Holy cash cow, Batman! Set up 2 teleportation circles (that you can draw as big as you want, by the way) up to 3,000 miles apart, Burn a pair of fairy wings and BAM, you ship as much stuff as you can fit in your circle instantaneously and 100% safely. No delays, no brigands, no tolls.

2. Mystic Portal (the spell). This spell (that I may be confusing with a Heroes Unlimited spell, correct me if I'm wrong) allows you to physically see through to the other side, so you can ensure 100% that you're going to the right place. With the portal open, you're free to carry or toss stuff through for the duration! Incidentally, could a permanence ward be used with a portal spell to create a permanent shortcut between two vastly distant places? Or would such a portal only go to where its controller wanted it to, changing locations at a whim?

Am I missing some serious drawbacks here? Why spend fortunes on ships that can be lost to bad weather, piracy, blockades, or sea serpents, when you could just shell out some cash to a local magic guild and move stuff instantly and risk-free?

Magic isn't as prolific as you seem to think. For everyone who has a minor magic item there are thousands who've never seen magic in use. The game is about larger than life heroes. You dilute that if you take what makes them special and give it to everyone. I'm not saying you shouldn't, I'm just explaining why it would never happen in canon. In the end though, if you're the GM, it's your game, do what you want.

-Mike <8]

[azazel1024]

Circles can be destroyed, right?

At any rate, I doubt I see a ruler having an issue with a smaller circle, so long as it wasn't within the walled portion of their city...not unless they tightly controlled the circle. Example, I have a hard time believing that the ruler of country X or even the ruler of city Y in country X would have a problem with a local summoner or magic guild or even merchant having a smallish circle say outside the walls of the city at their country retreat. How threatening is a circle that might squeeze 20 or 30 guys in to it tight packed going to be all that threatening if it isn't within the city walls. Now one that could fit 1,000 men...that might be something very, very, very different.
-Matt

The size of the circle on the arrival end doesn't control how many people could fit - only the one on the sending end. Once you have a circle, of any size, another circle, of any size, can send things to it. A nice field outside of town would be an ideal place for dropping an army

But if you've setup both ends of the circle already, I'd think that couldn't be changed. Or at least there is nothing in the book about delinking a circle and linking it to a different one. So I take that to mean once you create the two ends of a teleportation circle they are fixed, unless you destroy one end of it, in that case the other end ceases to function (permenantely).

So if you create two 30ft teleportation circles you can't just enlarge one end. Also isn't there a certain maximum size of circles? Or is there no max (I am not as well brushed up on my circle magic as I have never played a summoner or GMed a PC who was a summoner).

Finally, you can always setup the circles in a controlled manner. Maybe you create the destination on a rocky island just off the coast from the city...its great that you just saved weeks of travel for your invading island...but now they are situated 100ft below and 1,000ft away from the fortified enemy city with a whole lot of badness looking down upon them...and needing to take the 2 row boats to get to the mainland...well unless you want to swim with armor on.

Or maybe the end point circle is created within a small room lined with death wards...so only the summoner controling the teleportation circle and the diabolist who created the wards can access the room to use it as a courier circle for the owner. Just some thoughts on 'controls' for teleportation circles.
-Matt

[Stone Gargoyle]

The few times I have allowed such things, there were guards and officials on both sides of the portals. An unauthorized teleport could cause an international incident. Some kingdoms I have played in outlawed certain types of spells altogether.

[pblackcrow]

Look Mark, I have yet to see a gm who played the nice little faerie! How much annoyance are you going to put up with before you snap? I mean seriously! I am sorry. For me the card "Faerie's, the other other white meat!" fits! Call me what you want to call me. I truly don't care. All of my characters I have truly grown to LOATHE faeries! And after they switched out my wine when my characters was busy with an ants in the pants arrow. And it way for my girlfriend in the game, to have a picnic. And uh she died because of their pranks. Then there was the wizard who had an agreement with them...they leave me, my help, and my house and belongings alone and I would give them 10 loafs of honey bread a week. I had business to attend to in town so I was gone for about a week...When I got back I found 100+ fae in my study. They were having an drunken orgy, my help was turned into donkeys and they were using my collection of maps for TP, and the scroll cases as lavatories (with scrolls in them that I wanted to study at the next level and try to memorize), and had marked up my books. They had puked everywhere. Than, there was the time that they pretended to be hurt only to get us to dismount so they could jab a little sword in the horses back side, and rob us. And than there was time that the little monsters replaced the nuts in my friends saddlebag. OKAY? There are lots of reason why almost all of my characters do not care for the fae. But regardless, you are entitled to your opinion.

[J. Lionheart]

The only thing you need to do to "link" a circle to another is to write it's location in the bottom quadrant, and draw a small pic of a t-port circle next to it. Nothing more. If you want to change destinations, erase and replace. Simple.

There is no maximum circle size. If you've got the components and the space, you can make them any size you want.

As to pblackcrow's statement, genocide is evil, period, end of story. Whether some faeries annoy you or not, you can't simply go around killing them for fun in Palladium's alignment system without consequence. If every fairy is an over-the-top reasonless machine of mischief and destruction, that's simply your GM's inability to run a good NPC. They are not inherently evil (most of them), and wantonly murdering them due to the actions of their kindred is exactly that - murder.

[azazel1024]

I guess my only question is, how exact does the location have to be. I guess we don't have a coordinate system in palladium so you can't write in 34*, 16', 27" N 54*, 03', 00" E, 1008ft elevation in to the teleport circle. What if the destination circle is secret, or at least its location isn't exactly known?
-Matt

[Avatara]

Ya well I'm not personally fond of Gangsters and Drug dealers. Both of which are not good people yet you don't see me harvesting their organs for profit. Killing faries when they attack you is ok. Killing faries when they annoy you debatable. Murdering faries to build your trade empire not so ok.

[pblackcrow]

As to pblackcrow's statement, genocide is evil, period, end of story. Whether some faeries annoy you or not, you can't simply go around killing them for fun in Palladium's alignment system without consequence. If every fairy is an over-the-top reasonless machine of mischief and destruction, that's simply your GM's inability to run a good NPC. They are not inherently evil (most of them), and wantonly murdering them due to the actions of their kindred is exactly that - murder.

Look, my characters don't go around hunting faeries for the sport of it. And I wasn't killing them for the fun of it. However, considering what has happened to characters they are trouble anywhere they are and are to be avoided.

And actually they were used as a plot device every time they were used. I AGREE that genocide is wrong. But we aren't talking about killing every faerie we encounter, well with the exception of in the Western Empire where they are MUCH more violent in the one place.

[AaronCE]

Step one. Pilfer flagship. Preferably something quite solid and impressive. (think Stone Ship/frigate/whatever) Go for speed. Big and fast. One of those ships that needs superior wave/wind conditions to goooo. Personally I'm partial to Frigates and Corsairs. (and with perfect wind/wave/weather conditions, can get 18-22mph. out of 'em)

Step two. Be a Summoner/Diabolist. Both capable of power circles. Preferably a Summoner-Diabolist. Inscribe Summon Elemental Forces in a safe spot on your flagship. Sacrifice the hawk. (sorry buddy, had to do it) Apply permanence ward. (and power ward, c'mon now, why not?)

Step three. Get your flotilla togther. Use your Circle of Summon Elemental Forces to control wind and water, to make any approaching pirates rue their mistake, and generally have the best fastest seagoing voyage ever. Also, you should have 3 capable circle-masters. Go in shifts of 8 hours. Do the buddy system.

Given that Summon Elemental Forces is a pretty badass circle, you got your permanence ward going (always on), and you got a power ward (if you really have to, get an Alchemist, but seriously, do the Diabolism yourself). Atmospheric Manipulation is probably going to be your go-to effect. Say we got a sixth level Summoner/Circle-maker. You can effect a 3,600' radius, well enough to encompass your flotillia. You can raise or lower the temperature 120 degrees within your sphere of influence. You can raise/lower windspeed by 120mph. (basically saving you from anything short of a hurricane, and you can have the perfect windspeed/vector for your sails, making the sailors love you) Change precipitation by 144%. Clear or make fog. (hiding or revealing your ships, or create a 100' ring of fog 3,500' out. Creepy.) Also, imagine sailing inside what appears to be a hurricane. To everyone else, that 3,500' radius looks like a nasty storm. Pirates beware, everybody give your storm-flotilla a wide bearth. And that's just for sailing conditions. Let's get into offensive capabilities. Northwind (on the pirates), Ball Lightning, Call Lightning, Cloud of Ash, Fire Ball, all at the equavlent of 12th level. (imagine if you were 10th level . . .) So your pin-point targeted Call Lightning does 12D6 damage at a range of 900'. Ball Lightning 15D6 out to 720'. Not to mention the ever-popular-on-ship Extinguish Fire at will. Also, a note at the bottom, says the circle has a 20 mile maximum radius (before your power ward). This could be interpreted that you can use any of the elemental effects out to 20 miles. As if the 300' per level wasn't enough.

Imagine having a familiar (the resurrected hawk, perhaps?) flying out 30 miles ahead, spotting for your uber-Call Lightnings. The hawk could be over a mile up (two mile vision, s/he could be over 7,500' in the air) and you could still pick off the pirate captain.

And, imagine if you started up a convoy company. Allowing certain ships to sail with you, in your bubble...

Also, have offices/outposts/spies in certain markets, sending you magic pigeons. Buying when low, telling you when your cargo is scarce.

[azazel1024]

Sounds pretty sweet...though you might get some hard cases coming after you eventually. Below the waves attacks or straight from above are where it is going to be at. A bunch of summoned sea serpents or something similar could still wreack havoc on the fleet or ship.

The only knock I have about high seas is that some of the speeds are unrealistically high for the type of ship. 16-20 knots is the realm of a very, very fast modern sail boat, well beyond what a gaff rigged ship could generally manage, even with a crack crew and excellent winds.

Most of the ship designs shown, even the byzantium ones might be able to handle around 10-12 knots with great wind and a good crew. Depending on actual hull construction, shape and length along with sail plan there is maybe at least a chance there are a handful that could manage in the 15-18 knot range, but these would likely be yatchs and couriers.

As a comparison the world record set in 2005-2006 for a monohull sailboat for a 24hr sprint was 23.46knots, that is for a modern hull design, modern sail plan and light weight materials designed to be a fast boat, and not a merchant ship or ship or war. Average speeds with a good wind for Napoleanic era frigates were in the area of about 10 knots with a good strong wind.
-Matt

[Hotrod]

Azazel, that's just genius. I'd buy stock in your company.

[pblackcrow]

As to pblackcrow's statement, genocide is evil, period, end of story. Whether some faeries annoy you or not, you can't simply go around killing them for fun in Palladium's alignment system without consequence. If every fairy is an over-the-top reasonless machine of mischief and destruction, that's simply your GM's inability to run a good NPC. They are not inherently evil (most of them), and wantonly murdering them due to the actions of their kindred is exactly that - murder.

Look, my characters don't go around hunting faeries for the sport of it. And I wasn't killing them for the fun of it. However, considering what has happened to characters they are trouble anywhere they are and are to be avoided.

And actually they were used as a plot device every time they were used. I AGREE that genocide is wrong. But we aren't talking about killing every faerie we encounter, well with the exception of in the Western Empire where they are MUCH more violent in the one place.

Wow...you are almost the best apologist for Genocide that I have ever seen. All kidding aside...and not saying you are in any way, shape, or form the same or equivalent to who I am about to mention, but...

Hitler could use your very same argument..."But we aren't talking about killing every [Jewish person] we encounter, well with the exception of in [Germany] where the are MUCH more [insert antisemitic comment here] in the one place."

As I said, I'm sure you are not at all on the same level as Hitler...but you are indeed talking about the genocide of a race, regardless of if your scope is limited to a city, county, nation, world.

As to you as a character...who in their right mind would hire a group of Faeries to "guard" their Wizard's Tower? Assuming you are a Wizard worth his spells, you should know a thing or two about Faeries and would realize that you are essentially hiring a gaggle of mischeivious little girls or drugged-out teenaged celebrities to guard your stuff. What were you thinking?

I never hired them to guard my tower, I was paying them tribute to leave it ALONE!!!

I am sorry, but I don't see it that way. And I can't help what pops into my head while I type. I was just saying that in that one area in the W.E. fae are bad news, and big time. And yes, I will condone it there!

Now, I am sure that if it was imp wings you'd all be like, "HELL YEAH, kill the imps!" AND DON'T YOU DARE SAY "NO! Don't do that...It's genocide." The argument can be made that demons aren't the same as faeries...Well that much is true, at least an imp has actually helped a character of mine in a BTS game; which is far more than I can say for the Fae. But we're not talking about killing imps, we're talking about killing "tinker bell". Well, news flash, if I ever encounter tinker bell I wouldn't kill her; unless she does something to provoke it. I am talking about killing evil creatures here, and you all are saying faeries aren't evil. It is all about how they are played. And as I said before, I have yet to meet a GM who will play a helpful faerie. Believe it or not. I know, you might not believe this; but look at some of the older storied of the little blighters. I believe you will see what I am talking about. And I am not talking about killing all of them. Sorry, but faeries are worse then imps in the games I have played.

[pblackcrow]

But that is my GMs call.