Spells for long distance travel

[RavenStarver]

I am calling out to the combined knowledge of the forums!
I've searched high and low and cannot find any spells that have a long enough duration to be effective for long distance travel, not teleport though. No magic items preferably, just spells.
Or for those looking for a challenge and with more experience than I have maybe use the Through The Glass Darkly rules to modify an existing spell or to create a new one.

[Bill]

Fly as the Eagle will get the character 50 mph for 20 minutes per caster level. That can get a character pretty far.

[RavenStarver]

I'm hoping for something to present to my GM to allow my Mage to travel at a decent pace.
Teleporting isn't an option as I'd have to leave the rest of the party and I'd rather not chance materializing inside a cliff :/

[RavenStarver]

Fly as the Eagle will get the character 50 mph for 20 minutes per caster level. That can get a character pretty far.

That one's good but my group does a lot of traveling, a lot. Often driving all day for several days at a time, and if I run off alone I'll probably get eaten by a dinosaur, our GM loves his random encounter table a little too much.

[Bill]

You're out of luck. Spells very seldom have a duration measured in more than minutes per level. I recommend riding shotgun with friends or caving in and getting a vehicle.

[Bill]

You could use Tame Beast to train a mount whenever you need one. Pick the right one and it can take you as far as you want pretty fast. You'll want to have Horsemanship: Exotic though.

[RavenStarver]

You're out of luck. Spells very seldom have a duration measured in more than minutes per level. I recommend riding shotgun with friends or caving in and getting a vehicle.

I can't cast anything but self spells if I'm inside our APC, and I watched another players character go from full health to dead in 2-3 seconds last session. Bandits surprised coming over a rise (bad dice) he got winged in the opening volley of gunfire, his bike was then rammed sending him tumbling, and then a truck exploded shredding him and a party NPC with shrapnel. And all that happened in the bandits initiative, so within about three seconds he went from fully functional psionic healer to corpse.
This is why I am paranoid about vehicles

[Bill]

I highly recommend that you learn to let go of your fears. There's nothing you can do to prevent the GM from killing off your character when the time comes for it to happen. If you had a spell that would allow you to fly for hours, you could still be shot out of the sky. If you had one that would let you run at superhuman speeds for days, you could still hit a landmine. Blind alleys and corners, stands of trees, hills, ruins, and other forms of cover can conceal all manner of threat that will get the drop on you. Accept that every session will have the threat of something as bad or worse happening and move forward gleefully. Adventure and exploration are dangerous, but very exciting.

[dragonfett]

You're out of luck. Spells very seldom have a duration measured in more than minutes per level. I recommend riding shotgun with friends or caving in and getting a vehicle.

I can't cast anything but self spells if I'm inside our APC, and I watched another players character go from full health to dead in 2-3 seconds last session. Bandits surprised coming over a rise (bad dice) he got winged in the opening volley of gunfire, his bike was then rammed sending him tumbling, and then a truck exploded shredding him and a party NPC with shrapnel. And all that happened in the bandits initiative, so within about three seconds he went from fully functional psionic healer to corpse.
This is why I am paranoid about vehicles

You could always ride ON the vehicle rather than in it.

[RavenStarver]

You're out of luck. Spells very seldom have a duration measured in more than minutes per level. I recommend riding shotgun with friends or caving in and getting a vehicle.

I can't cast anything but self spells if I'm inside our APC, and I watched another players character go from full health to dead in 2-3 seconds last session. Bandits surprised coming over a rise (bad dice) he got winged in the opening volley of gunfire, his bike was then rammed sending him tumbling, and then a truck exploded shredding him and a party NPC with shrapnel. And all that happened in the bandits initiative, so within about three seconds he went from fully functional psionic healer to corpse.
This is why I am paranoid about vehicles

You could always ride ON the vehicle rather than in it.

Alter Gravity Plane for hilarity....
Or magnetic boots....

[dragonfett]

You're out of luck. Spells very seldom have a duration measured in more than minutes per level. I recommend riding shotgun with friends or caving in and getting a vehicle.

I can't cast anything but self spells if I'm inside our APC, and I watched another players character go from full health to dead in 2-3 seconds last session. Bandits surprised coming over a rise (bad dice) he got winged in the opening volley of gunfire, his bike was then rammed sending him tumbling, and then a truck exploded shredding him and a party NPC with shrapnel. And all that happened in the bandits initiative, so within about three seconds he went from fully functional psionic healer to corpse.
This is why I am paranoid about vehicles

You could always ride ON the vehicle rather than in it.

Alter Gravity Plane for hilarity....
Or magnetic boots....

TW Boots (or Armor) with Carpet of Adhesion would work as well.

[cosmicfish]

I am calling out to the combined knowledge of the forums!
I've searched high and low and cannot find any spells that have a long enough duration to be effective for long distance travel, not teleport though. No magic items preferably, just spells.
Or for those looking for a challenge and with more experience than I have maybe use the Through The Glass Darkly rules to modify an existing spell or to create a new one.

First, what level are you? And are you limited to any particular set of spells? How much PPE do you have?

Second, I don't think any of this will help. Not only is this primarily an issue of how willing (or eager) your GM is to kill off PC's, not only would it likely isolate you from your team, but as a spellcaster you would be spending the PPE you rely on for attack and defense on routine travel. We might find a spell that lets you travel 200 or 500 miles in a day, but if you are attacked during, what are you going to do, shoot a laser rifle? Why even be a mage?

You have gamer PTSD. Calm down, just because your buddy died in a GM ambush that doesn't mean you are going to die in a GM ambush. And if you do, well, get a new PC. And perhaps a new GM.

[Bill]

Metamorphosis: Creature of Light (DB13, p.126) will let you fly at Mach speeds equal to your character's Spd attribute for an hour per level. It's a 15th level spell that costs 2500 PPE though. Before you get your hopes up, all other metamorphosis spells have durations of 10 or 20 minutes per level; so turning into a bird or something won't be any more effective than Fly as the Eagle. Though doing so would conceal your presence to anybody that isn't able to sense magic, which might be highly desirable depending on your GM and exactly how paranoid you are.

[Shark_Force]

it occurs to me that what you need is not a travel spell. it is a reconnaissance spell. reconnaissance is the thing that keeps you from walking (or driving, or flying, etc) into an ambush, not your method of travel. you can ambush a tank, or a helicopter, or a flying wizard pretty much with equal ease, but it is much harder to ambush someone who knows the ambush is there.

you need information, not a way to get around.

[flatline]

Cosmic Armor is my go-to spell for traveling long distances quickly.

As I recall, in atmosphere, your flying speed is 0.5 mach.

[ShadowLogan]

Create a Golem and have it carry you along, speed will be a base line factor though in keeping up with others on vehicles, unless they reduce speed or you can find a way to increase it.

PPE intensive cost for travel is an issue even if you use spells like Phantom Mount, Fly as the Eagle, Fly, and Winged Flight or even via TW devices depending on its specs. Might be able to travel via Ley Line depending abilities. You could combine Astral Projection (material plane) to scout out in advance for your teleporting (travel at up to Mach 1) or for the group who transport your body while you scout out ahead.

You might need to find a permanently enchanted object like from PF or just get a regular vehicle/mount (or TW converted engined vehicle) as Magic isn't built around long duration travel efficiently.

[RavenStarver]

it occurs to me that what you need is not a travel spell. it is a reconnaissance spell. reconnaissance is the thing that keeps you from walking (or driving, or flying, etc) into an ambush, not your method of travel. you can ambush a tank, or a helicopter, or a flying wizard pretty much with equal ease, but it is much harder to ambush someone who knows the ambush is there.

you need information, not a way to get around.

Now that's an idea I can get behind.
And after a talk and some beating my head into a desk to figure out spell creation we came up with a spell based on the TW feature of the Jackrabbit power armor from the Arzno book.

[Mack]

For reconnaissance, I highly recommend Astral Travel.

For your mage's personal travel, consider something like a TW Magic Carpet. It can be small enough for just one person and is easily rolled up and attached to a backpack when not needed.

[Gamer]

For reconnaissance, I highly recommend Astral Travel.

For your mage's personal travel, consider something like a TW Magic Carpet. It can be small enough for just one person and is easily rolled up and attached to a backpack when not needed.

Not to mention used as your bedroll when you camp for the night.

[ShadowLogan]

For reconnaissance, I highly recommend Astral Travel.

For your mage's personal travel, consider something like a TW Magic Carpet. It can be small enough for just one person and is easily rolled up and attached to a backpack when not needed.

Or a TW Flying Broomstick. Could put in a few other features/functions that a carpet might not be able to reasonably have. It'd possible take up less room (carrying capacity) than a carpet to depending on the carpet.

One possible concern though is that TW is supposed to be incapable of flight w/o the use of a Ley Line AFAIK, so that potentially limits the usability (unless the GM gives a pass on it).

[Mack]

One possible concern though is that TW is supposed to be incapable of flight w/o the use of a Ley Line AFAIK, so that potentially limits the usability (unless the GM gives a pass on it).

Where did you get that indication? While some of the example flying devices are limited to ley lines, that's because the are designed as ley line powered devices. That's a power source choice that has nothing to do the device's function.

[ShadowLogan]

I got that indication for the TW examples in the books (RMB and RUE), specifically in RUE pg136 under the TK-Flyer: "The Techno-Wizard's magic not normally sufficient to power aircraft, but with the additional energy of the ley line, they can utilize flying devices." Even the Tree Trimmers and Wing Board/TK-Gliders, which are closest to the Flying Carpet concept, can't operate away from a Ley Line hence TWdry needs Ley Lines to offer flight.

[dragonfett]

Siege on Tolkeen: Sedition has a number of TW vehicles, including small, 1-2 man skiffs. Page 73. And they don't require a Ley Line to be used.

[13eowulf]

Does the APC have a hatch? In combat open it up and go out, just have to be over 50% out in order to cast iirc.

You could use Tame Beast to train a mount whenever you need one. Pick the right one and it can take you as far as you want pretty fast. You'll want to have Horsemanship: Exotic though.

I second this suggestion. Further I would suggest the Phantom Wolf from Madhaven, then have an intangible/astral shift ability called Phantom Walk, and it shifts the rider as well, first sign of trouble it can shift out of harms way.

Siege on Tolkeen: Sedition has a number of TW vehicles, including small, 1-2 man skiffs. Page 73. And they don't require a Ley Line to be used.

The Turbo Wing Board is great for any magic user.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Flying Chariot in cloud creation magic. 200 MPH at 15 minute per level duration. so assuming mid-range (level that's a 2 hour trip of 400 miles at a cost of 80 PPE. If you start your trip at a nexus for triple duration that's 6 hours for 1200 miles. or you can just land near the end of the duration and cast it again.

[cosmicfish]

The OP has already acknowledged that his is more of a reconnaissance problem than a travel problem. Regardless, any travel method is going to be useless if it cannot keep up with the rest of the group - 50mph doesn't work if your party goes 100mph, and 2 hours of spell duration doesn't work if your party expects to travel for 8. You could fly ahead or come behind, but that is a bug chunk of the day that you are on your own!

Magic and TW travel has some cool advantages, but it has some big limitations too, especially when you are trying to match to mundane travel!

[Shark_Force]

I got that indication for the TW examples in the books (RMB and RUE), specifically in RUE pg136 under the TK-Flyer: "The Techno-Wizard's magic not normally sufficient to power aircraft, but with the additional energy of the ley line, they can utilize flying devices." Even the Tree Trimmers and Wing Board/TK-Gliders, which are closest to the Flying Carpet concept, can't operate away from a Ley Line hence TWdry needs Ley Lines to offer flight.

the RMB did have that in it. it was silly.

early RL aircraft were powered with what were essentially modified car and truck engines. if you can power an all-terrain transport truck or especially a hovercycle, you can power flying vehicles (or at least, some of them; i'm not saying it implies you can therefore build a combat jet, but you can definitely at least build simple airplanes, which means that the restriction on all aircraft needing ley lines was always a bit silly)

[ShadowLogan]

I got that indication for the TW examples in the books (RMB and RUE), specifically in RUE pg136 under the TK-Flyer: "The Techno-Wizard's magic not normally sufficient to power aircraft, but with the additional energy of the ley line, they can utilize flying devices." Even the Tree Trimmers and Wing Board/TK-Gliders, which are closest to the Flying Carpet concept, can't operate away from a Ley Line hence TWdry needs Ley Lines to offer flight.

the RMB did have that in it. it was silly.

early RL aircraft were powered with what were essentially modified car and truck engines. if you can power an all-terrain transport truck or especially a hovercycle, you can power flying vehicles (or at least, some of them; i'm not saying it implies you can therefore build a combat jet, but you can definitely at least build simple airplanes, which means that the restriction on all aircraft needing ley lines was always a bit silly)

I agree that the RMB and RUE's approach is just silly when you consider prop aircraft (jets and such are another matter). All I am saying is that by the rules such vehicles come across as highly restricted in the when/where they can fly, I don't dispute that exceptions exist, but SOP for TW appears to be more restricted.

[eliakon]

I got that indication for the TW examples in the books (RMB and RUE), specifically in RUE pg136 under the TK-Flyer: "The Techno-Wizard's magic not normally sufficient to power aircraft, but with the additional energy of the ley line, they can utilize flying devices." Even the Tree Trimmers and Wing Board/TK-Gliders, which are closest to the Flying Carpet concept, can't operate away from a Ley Line hence TWdry needs Ley Lines to offer flight.

the RMB did have that in it. it was silly.

early RL aircraft were powered with what were essentially modified car and truck engines. if you can power an all-terrain transport truck or especially a hovercycle, you can power flying vehicles (or at least, some of them; i'm not saying it implies you can therefore build a combat jet, but you can definitely at least build simple airplanes, which means that the restriction on all aircraft needing ley lines was always a bit silly)

I agree that the RMB and RUE's approach is just silly when you consider prop aircraft (jets and such are another matter). All I am saying is that by the rules such vehicles come across as highly restricted in the when/where they can fly, I don't dispute that exceptions exist, but SOP for TW appears to be more restricted.

And don't forget this is magic we are talking about. Some times the restrictions are not based on logic, they are based on what the casters (or in this case builders) think is logical. It is quite possible that the reason that an engine that provides enough power on the ground will not power an airplane is because TW doesn't allow airplanes. When dealing with magic, sometimes the answer boils down to "A wizard did it" after all.

[Shark_Force]

I got that indication for the TW examples in the books (RMB and RUE), specifically in RUE pg136 under the TK-Flyer: "The Techno-Wizard's magic not normally sufficient to power aircraft, but with the additional energy of the ley line, they can utilize flying devices." Even the Tree Trimmers and Wing Board/TK-Gliders, which are closest to the Flying Carpet concept, can't operate away from a Ley Line hence TWdry needs Ley Lines to offer flight.

the RMB did have that in it. it was silly.

early RL aircraft were powered with what were essentially modified car and truck engines. if you can power an all-terrain transport truck or especially a hovercycle, you can power flying vehicles (or at least, some of them; i'm not saying it implies you can therefore build a combat jet, but you can definitely at least build simple airplanes, which means that the restriction on all aircraft needing ley lines was always a bit silly)

I agree that the RMB and RUE's approach is just silly when you consider prop aircraft (jets and such are another matter). All I am saying is that by the rules such vehicles come across as highly restricted in the when/where they can fly, I don't dispute that exceptions exist, but SOP for TW appears to be more restricted.

And don't forget this is magic we are talking about. Some times the restrictions are not based on logic, they are based on what the casters (or in this case builders) think is logical. It is quite possible that the reason that an engine that provides enough power on the ground will not power an airplane is because TW doesn't allow airplanes. When dealing with magic, sometimes the answer boils down to "A wizard did it" after all.

except that a TW can easily be an aircraft engineer who is perfectly capable of making a WW II era aircraft using a bog-standard non-magical engine from various groundcraft. in particular, as i mentioned, the hovercycle engines must be outputting a truly absurd amount of power to function as they do, and iirc there is no restriction on converting a hovercycle to TW. anything outputting enough power to make what is for all intents and purposes a slightly aerodynamic 1000 lb brick fly at all speeds between 0 and 100 mph (and sustain that for hours of travel) is probably going to have orders of magnitude more power than is needed to make an airplane or helicopter go. a ley line walker might not know that, but a techno-wizard with the skills needed to build aircraft will.

[eliakon]

I got that indication for the TW examples in the books (RMB and RUE), specifically in RUE pg136 under the TK-Flyer: "The Techno-Wizard's magic not normally sufficient to power aircraft, but with the additional energy of the ley line, they can utilize flying devices." Even the Tree Trimmers and Wing Board/TK-Gliders, which are closest to the Flying Carpet concept, can't operate away from a Ley Line hence TWdry needs Ley Lines to offer flight.

the RMB did have that in it. it was silly.

early RL aircraft were powered with what were essentially modified car and truck engines. if you can power an all-terrain transport truck or especially a hovercycle, you can power flying vehicles (or at least, some of them; i'm not saying it implies you can therefore build a combat jet, but you can definitely at least build simple airplanes, which means that the restriction on all aircraft needing ley lines was always a bit silly)

I agree that the RMB and RUE's approach is just silly when you consider prop aircraft (jets and such are another matter). All I am saying is that by the rules such vehicles come across as highly restricted in the when/where they can fly, I don't dispute that exceptions exist, but SOP for TW appears to be more restricted.

And don't forget this is magic we are talking about. Some times the restrictions are not based on logic, they are based on what the casters (or in this case builders) think is logical. It is quite possible that the reason that an engine that provides enough power on the ground will not power an airplane is because TW doesn't allow airplanes. When dealing with magic, sometimes the answer boils down to "A wizard did it" after all.

except that a TW can easily be an aircraft engineer who is perfectly capable of making a WW II era aircraft using a bog-standard non-magical engine from various groundcraft. in particular, as i mentioned, the hovercycle engines must be outputting a truly absurd amount of power to function as they do, and iirc there is no restriction on converting a hovercycle to TW. anything outputting enough power to make what is for all intents and purposes a slightly aerodynamic 1000 lb brick fly at all speeds between 0 and 100 mph (and sustain that for hours of travel) is probably going to have orders of magnitude more power than is needed to make an airplane or helicopter go. a ley line walker might not know that, but a techno-wizard with the skills needed to build aircraft will.

yep and as long as the engine uses no magic your fine.
But when you start to bring magic into the equation then sometimes you get weirdness. Magic doesn't always work rationally, that is why it is magic and not physics. And sometimes magic can be quirky. A technological invisibility cloak doesn't care if you have hostile intent or not, it will cloak you just fine no mater what. For some odd reason what you are about to do matters to magic's totally unrelated ability to make you invisible. In the same fashion it could be quite possible (and going by the RAW it is) that for some reason TW engines that provide enough power on the ground will magically fail to do so in the air. Why? Because magic. There are some exceptions yes, and it does seem that the state of the art is getting better and better at working around these limitations. But for right now that is the way it works.

[Shark_Force]

yep and as long as the engine uses no magic your fine.
But when you start to bring magic into the equation then sometimes you get weirdness. Magic doesn't always work rationally, that is why it is magic and not physics. And sometimes magic can be quirky. A technological invisibility cloak doesn't care if you have hostile intent or not, it will cloak you just fine no mater what. For some odd reason what you are about to do matters to magic's totally unrelated ability to make you invisible. In the same fashion it could be quite possible (and going by the RAW it is) that for some reason TW engines that provide enough power on the ground will magically fail to do so in the air. Why? Because magic. There are some exceptions yes, and it does seem that the state of the art is getting better and better at working around these limitations. But for right now that is the way it works.

the rather large number of flying TW vehicles that were released since then pretty heavily imply that actually, there is no such limitation.

i mean, if they said that, and then they didn't just keep on spamming out flying TW vehicle after flying TW vehicle, i might be inclined to not ignore it. but heck, it's been possible to TW convert hover vehicles since RMB as far as i can tell, and those are all essentially (very low altitude) flying vehicles, so they never even really stuck to that rule in the first place.

[eliakon]

yep and as long as the engine uses no magic your fine.
But when you start to bring magic into the equation then sometimes you get weirdness. Magic doesn't always work rationally, that is why it is magic and not physics. And sometimes magic can be quirky. A technological invisibility cloak doesn't care if you have hostile intent or not, it will cloak you just fine no mater what. For some odd reason what you are about to do matters to magic's totally unrelated ability to make you invisible. In the same fashion it could be quite possible (and going by the RAW it is) that for some reason TW engines that provide enough power on the ground will magically fail to do so in the air. Why? Because magic. There are some exceptions yes, and it does seem that the state of the art is getting better and better at working around these limitations. But for right now that is the way it works.

the rather large number of flying TW vehicles that were released since then pretty heavily imply that actually, there is no such limitation.

i mean, if they said that, and then they didn't just keep on spamming out flying TW vehicle after flying TW vehicle, i might be inclined to not ignore it. but heck, it's been possible to TW convert hover vehicles since RMB as far as i can tell, and those are all essentially (very low altitude) flying vehicles, so they never even really stuck to that rule in the first place.

Hover craft aren't aircraft though. And actually as far as I know there isn't anything in RMB that explicitly says it can be done either.
And yes I understand that they have made a handful of TW fliers since then. But since almost every one of them is non-canon we are down to a very tiny number almost all of which are very new (Arnzo and the Black Market are the first sources of non-ley line flying TW vehicles I can think of that are canon.)

[cosmicfish]

And yes I understand that they have made a handful of TW fliers since then. But since almost every one of them is non-canon we are down to a very tiny number almost all of which are very new (Arnzo and the Black Market are the first sources of non-ley line flying TW vehicles I can think of that are canon.)

If there are non-ley-line-dependent TW air vehicles from Arnzo and the Balck Market in canon, then isn't this just an issue of availability?

[eliakon]

And yes I understand that they have made a handful of TW fliers since then. But since almost every one of them is non-canon we are down to a very tiny number almost all of which are very new (Arnzo and the Black Market are the first sources of non-ley line flying TW vehicles I can think of that are canon.)

If there are non-ley-line-dependent TW air vehicles from Arnzo and the Balck Market in canon, then isn't this just an issue of availability?

Maybe. Or maybe those two groups know some trick that regular TWs don't. Its not like every TW device in the books can be made by every other TW. Just like not every operator can make every piece of machinery......

[dragonfett]

yep and as long as the engine uses no magic your fine.
But when you start to bring magic into the equation then sometimes you get weirdness. Magic doesn't always work rationally, that is why it is magic and not physics. And sometimes magic can be quirky. A technological invisibility cloak doesn't care if you have hostile intent or not, it will cloak you just fine no mater what. For some odd reason what you are about to do matters to magic's totally unrelated ability to make you invisible. In the same fashion it could be quite possible (and going by the RAW it is) that for some reason TW engines that provide enough power on the ground will magically fail to do so in the air. Why? Because magic. There are some exceptions yes, and it does seem that the state of the art is getting better and better at working around these limitations. But for right now that is the way it works.

the rather large number of flying TW vehicles that were released since then pretty heavily imply that actually, there is no such limitation.

i mean, if they said that, and then they didn't just keep on spamming out flying TW vehicle after flying TW vehicle, i might be inclined to not ignore it. but heck, it's been possible to TW convert hover vehicles since RMB as far as i can tell, and those are all essentially (very low altitude) flying vehicles, so they never even really stuck to that rule in the first place.

Hover craft aren't aircraft though. And actually as far as I know there isn't anything in RMB that explicitly says it can be done either.
And yes I understand that they have made a handful of TW fliers since then. But since almost every one of them is non-canon we are down to a very tiny number almost all of which are very new (Arnzo and the Black Market are the first sources of non-ley line flying TW vehicles I can think of that are canon.)

Siege on Tolkeen is cannon as well and the first and last book (book 6, Final Siege) have TW fliers that don't need ley lines, and the ones in Sedition even need to have PPE pumped into them every hour or so.

[Shark_Force]

then there's the 3 galaxies books which as i understand have TW spacecraft (i think it's safe to say that they can fly, though i've never read beyond the phase world book itself). and atlantis, which has vehicles described as being TW in nature that can fly, plus the standard kydian TW power armours can fly. and there's a suit of what is defined as TW armour that can fly in south america (think it's SA 2, and is from the incan empire). pretty sure there's one or two in the federation of magic book too, though i could be wrong on that. or hey, why bother even leaving the core book: mystic power armor, explicitly listed as a TW creation in the same section, has the ability to fly for as long as it is charged. and there are options to convert electrical and internal combustion engines to TW that do not restrict what you can build it into (the TK-engine does have such a limitation). not to mention the standard armor feature in the RMB that lets you levitate (which is essentially stationary flight).

wouldn't be surprised to hear that there's something in the japan books either allowing ninjas to use TW to fly.

frankly, all signs point to the claim of TW machines being unable to fly except on ley lines as having been so much hogwash. kevin didn't even go through one whole book following the supposed rule.

[eliakon]

then there's the 3 galaxies books which as i understand have TW spacecraft (i think it's safe to say that they can fly, though i've never read beyond the phase world book itself). and atlantis, which has vehicles described as being TW in nature that can fly, plus the standard kydian TW power armours can fly. and there's a suit of what is defined as TW armour that can fly in south america (think it's SA 2, and is from the incan empire). pretty sure there's one or two in the federation of magic book too, though i could be wrong on that. or hey, why bother even leaving the core book: mystic power armor, explicitly listed as a TW creation in the same section, has the ability to fly for as long as it is charged. and there are options to convert electrical and internal combustion engines to TW that do not restrict what you can build it into (the TK-engine does have such a limitation). not to mention the standard armor feature in the RMB that lets you levitate (which is essentially stationary flight).

wouldn't be surprised to hear that there's something in the japan books either allowing ninjas to use TW to fly.

frankly, all signs point to the claim of TW machines being unable to fly except on ley lines as having been so much hogwash. kevin didn't even go through one whole book following the supposed rule.

To bad that most of those aren't really TW devices....(Bio-Wizardry, Divine Artifacts, etc.)
Though some are (PW ships, Mystic Power Armor)
Leading to the conclusion that maybe the restriction simply means that no TK-Engine can power flight. Maybe it means that none of the engines can power flight and you have to use fly spell. Who knows.
It doesn't really matter much since TW has always been "Make up something that fits your game" anyway.

[Shark_Force]

being made by the splugorth doesn't make something bio-wizardry. a large number of their creations are explicitly labeled as techno-wizardry. none of the things i listed are examples of bio-wizardry. and it doesn't matter whether something is divine techno-wizardry or not, it is still listed as techno-wizardry.

[kaid]

You're out of luck. Spells very seldom have a duration measured in more than minutes per level. I recommend riding shotgun with friends or caving in and getting a vehicle.

I can't cast anything but self spells if I'm inside our APC, and I watched another players character go from full health to dead in 2-3 seconds last session. Bandits surprised coming over a rise (bad dice) he got winged in the opening volley of gunfire, his bike was then rammed sending him tumbling, and then a truck exploded shredding him and a party NPC with shrapnel. And all that happened in the bandits initiative, so within about three seconds he went from fully functional psionic healer to corpse.
This is why I am paranoid about vehicles

Problem there is not being in a vehicle would make you even more vulnerable to an ambush. An APC if its MDC at all is going to have double or triple your MDC unless you had all your shielding up and the shielding stuff in general until higher levels only lasts for like 10 minutes per level or so which means you most likely are just going to be running around in just whatever normal body armor you have which baring your character being a lemurian is not going to be anywhere close to an APC. Even if you had your shields up it still unlikely you would more durable than an APC. Also if one is wearing body armor inside the APC they have to not only destroy the MDC of the apc but also of each occupant of the car. And while they are inside the wreckage they would be in full cover and it would be wild firing to hit them. Unless people are not wearing their armor its rare to see a vehicle blown up and the occupants before anybody can react.

[kaid]

without really knowing how much armor your psionic healer had its hard to say for sure but the fall off the bike is unlikely to damage their armor it may do SDC damage if they use the optional rules for that sort of falling damage but it won't do MDC damage. Also a vehicle exploding typically is not going to do MDC damage and if it does for some reason you have the option to roll with impact for half damage and its already only going to do half damage unless its a direct hit so unless the initial gunfire destroyed the persons body armor I don't see how that scenario of events ends with them dead in 2-3 seconds baring your GM just really wanting to kill a player. If the later is the case there is nothing you can do to mitigate that in rifts as there is always a bigger hammer to apply.

[Shark_Force]

without really knowing how much armor your psionic healer had its hard to say for sure but the fall off the bike is unlikely to damage their armor it may do SDC damage if they use the optional rules for that sort of falling damage but it won't do MDC damage. Also a vehicle exploding typically is not going to do MDC damage and if it does for some reason you have the option to roll with impact for half damage and its already only going to do half damage unless its a direct hit so unless the initial gunfire destroyed the persons body armor I don't see how that scenario of events ends with them dead in 2-3 seconds baring your GM just really wanting to kill a player. If the later is the case there is nothing you can do to mitigate that in rifts as there is always a bigger hammer to apply.

that presumably had something to do with the group of armed people waiting to take advantage of the stunned person lying on the ground, dazed and unable to effectively dodge.

[kaid]

Again if a GM just wants to setup a scenario to kill somebody there is nothing you can do to mitigate against that. Generally most GM do not set up a firing squad in the middle of no where all rolling opening fire the second they see somebody. Really if this type of situation keeps popping up the best answer is don't use any vehicles other than robots/power armor go slow and on foot and check for traps every 10 foot square. Maybe get a long pole to test the ground ahead of you like we used to do in old school d&d.

[Blue_Lion]

One possible concern though is that TW is supposed to be incapable of flight w/o the use of a Ley Line AFAIK, so that potentially limits the usability (unless the GM gives a pass on it).

Where did you get that indication? While some of the example flying devices are limited to ley lines, that's because the are designed as ley line powered devices. That's a power source choice that has nothing to do the device's function.

That is from the old rifts main book. But does not seam to apply any more.

[Blue_Lion]

If the vehicle has a gunners position the gunner may have a hatch he can open when he needs to cast spells. Other options would be use of small personal vehicles like hover bikes, jet packs or wing boards.

Teleporting the whole group using a ley line is also an option. Magic by itself as a routine movement is not a mages best choice. Regardless of how you choose to travel the group is going to have to move at the slowest persons rate not the fastest. (teleporting is the fastest.)

To me it sounds like the real issue is not how to move your mage but how to keep the group safe while you travel. Cross country in rifts most ground vehicles should be traveling 30mph or less for safety. Also look into getting spotters up with detect ambush and or trap and take frequent rest to avoid fatigue. Your spotters should have skills to detect ambush and high IQ for opposed perception rolls. (If the skill is available to your mage get it.) A ambush party will be less likely to strike if before they pull the trigger all your guns are pointed at them.

[Axelmania]

Do you consider travel through rifts to be teleporting? If not then dimensional portal or (cheaper) Circle of Travel.

[Blue_Lion]

Do you consider travel through rifts to be teleporting? If not then dimensional portal or (cheaper) Circle of Travel.

There is a teleporting rift spell

[drewkitty ~..~]

There is the Summon Pathway spell in the TtGD book....but it is a way to cross dimensions so getting to some place on the same world you'd have to use it twice.

If you'd want more magical starship options then petition Wyane to get my Galaxy Unlimited article published. It expands the Starship construction rules in AU:GG to include magical & Techno Magical (It's HU so there is no TW there) ships' systems. It also includes a couple sections about two sectors in this galaxy, with planets and some alien races. The text in it is written so a player or GM can make ship from totally technological, through a spectrum of percentages to making ships that are totally magical. Yes, they are convertable to MD/MDC most of the people who know the canon conversion rates are less then happy with them cause they don't quite nerf the MDC and MD down enough to match the PW starship MDC/MD stats.

There is the T-port self spell I think its in the HUGMG.

[Mack]

Other options for the mage:
-- Fly tattoo gets you 30 min/lvl and a speed of 50 +10/lvl mph. Down side is that it'll be 40 PPE. Upside is that it can be purchased in Dweomer (FoMr p144).
-- A Spirit Wing Fetish grants 300 mph for 10 min/lvl, but that's going to be significantly harder to come by (Spirit West p93).