Accelerate Ship
Transmutation
Level: Brd 4, Sor/Wiz 4
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Target: One person using a spelljammer helm
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
Accelerate Ship increases a flying ship’s Move speed by 20, for example making a ship with a Move (fly) speed of 40 accelerate to 50. The spell will work on a ship at starspeed only in theory; there is no appreciable effect at such velocity.
Material Component: A small ivory arrow. It is pointed upward during casting, and is consumed when the spell is finished.
Accelerate Ship, Greater
Transmutation
Level: Brd 6, Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Target: One person using a spelljammer helm
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
Greater Accelerate Ship increases a flying ship’s Move Speed by 40, for example making a ship with a Move (fly) speed of 40 accelerate to 80. This more powerful version of the Accelerate Ship spell causes a ship at starspeed to accelerate from four million miles per hour to six million miles per hour. This is useful only for evading pursuit, however; the duration of the spell is insufficient to have any great impact on travel times, especially in the Rainbow Ocean.
Material Component: A large ivory arrow. It is pointed upward during casting, and is consumed when the spell is finished.
Airsphere
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Cleric 3, Druid 3, Sor/Wiz 3, Creation 3
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Personal
Effect: Globe of air
Area of Effect: 40 feet globe, initially around the caster
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None (harmless)
Spell Resistance: No
Airsphere creates a mobile globe of air, in composition identical to the atmosphere of the caster’s native world or, at a minimum, identical to the mixture of gases that the caster normally breathes. It can go foul or deadly, just as any other air can, but it drives out and freshens bad air within its area of effect.
The sphere of air comes into being around the caster, who for the first three minutes of the airsphere’s existence can make it move with a successful Concentration check (DC 10). It can move at up to 90 feet speed. After three minutes, the caster can no longer make it move, and it obeys the normal laws of gravity.
The most common use of this spell is to assist creatures floating in space whose air envelopes are going foul, and who cannot join the caster in a friendlier environment.
If an explosion in the phlogiston occurs where the fire radius touches an airsphere during the first three minutes of the airsphere’s existence, the fire’s explosive radius expands to fill the airsphere, and fouls it. Anything within the airsphere at such a moment takes the fire damage twice, as the air created by this spell is extremely pure and feeds fire.
Material component: A bottle of air.
Chill Fire
Transmutation
Level: Cleric 3, Druid 3, Sor/Wiz 3
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Area of Effect: 40 yards radius
Duration: 10 minutes/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Chill Fire reduces the minor fire-dominant trait of the phlogiston in a limited area, causing fire to inflict normal damage only. Spells and any other effects that create flame still detonate instantly, centered on the caster or creator of the fire, but the damage is not increased for being in the Rainbow Ocean. All forms of fire are affected.
This spell has no effect in any place other than the phlogiston.
Material Component: A sliver of glass or ice.
Collapse Crystal Shell Portal
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 8
Components: V, S, F, M
Casting Time: 1 full-round action
Range: Long (400 feet + 40 feet per caster level)
Target: One crystal shell portal
Area of Effect: 50 feet of radius + 20 feet radius per caster level (reduction)
Effect: Reduce the size of a crystal shell portal, possibly destroying it
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None for the spell itself; see text
Spell Resistance: No
This dangerous attack spell is spoken of in whispers throughout the spheres. Few know how to cast it, but nearly all space faring races have dark legends of it slicing ships in two by closing a crystal shell portal.
Due to the resistant nature of crystal shell material, the caster must make a Spellcraft check (DC 30) to cast this difficult, devastating spell. Failing the check indicates inexplicable failure, as the shell material did not respond to the unnatural command to close the portal before its time passed. The DC rises slightly, to 32, if the crystal shell portal is not a natural one, but instead was created by the create crystal shell portal spell. Magic, even that designed specifically for the purpose, is remarkably unreliable when used against crystal shells.
If the spell works, the effect is that the size of the crystal shell portal loses 20 feet of its radius for each caster level. It closes from its center. Should this reduce the portal’s size to 0, or a size smaller than the beam width of anything passing through the portal, it will cut anything it closed upon in two – no appeal. Nothing, not even a wall of force, can stop the edges of the portal.
A natural portal will reopen in its usual time (if it recurs) after being closed this way, or immediately reopen if it is a constant portal. A portal created by a create crystal shell portal spell, or a natural portal that is non-recurring, is permanently destroyed.
If the portal does not close fully, it will reopen again instantly, but the damage, if any, is done.
Should a ship be moving through the portal at the time this spell is cast, the caster and the helmsman of the victim ship make Initiative rolls. The winner can apply his or her Dexterity modifier to the following table, as either a plus or a minus.
If the portal is closing on its own, such as is the case when a create crystal shell portal spell is expiring or a natural portal is closing, the helmsman of the victim ship opposes a random d20 on the Initiative.
The vessel’s current speed divided by 10 (round down, minimum 0) is always a bonus on this table. A Spelljammer Ace at the helm can add half his class level (round down, minimum of 1) to the table roll, even if he lost the Initiative.
0 or less Ship is destroyed regardless of its hit points; one edge of the collapsing portal hits it, and it then bounces off the other edge hard. This shatters its structure completely. The ship breaks apart into 1d12+1 pieces and those pieces either do not pass through the portal at all, remaining on the other side, or are bounced on through (50% chance for either, check individually).
1-5 Ship is hit by the edges of the collapsing portal, assuming that the portal becomes small enough. If the portal closes entirely, the vessel is cut in two; otherwise, it suffers heavy damage. The latter result is a “Direct Hit” (see below).
6-10 Ship is nipped by the collapsing portal and suffers a number of d10s in damage equal to the caster’s Dexterity modifier. In addition, it suffers the Maneuverability Loss critical hit from damage to its aft steering mechanisms, unless it has no such devices or none astern. (This applies to its port or starboard steering mechanisms, if coming through the portal sideways, again unless it has none). The ship is immune to this effect if flying backward, but in that case, it takes 4d4 points of hull damage as the collapsing portal nips its nose.
11-15 Portal closes 30 seconds before the ship reaches it; the ship must turn at least 90° in that round or ram the crystal shell. If the ship is capable of making this turn at all, a Pilot check (DC 25) is required. If the ship is not normally capable, the helmsman can make a Pilot check (DC 35) to reverse the helm and turn the ship at the same time, avoiding the crash.
16-20 Portal closes 1d4 seconds before the ship reaches it; the ship unavoidably rams the sphere. (The Pilot can attempt to turn away, but the DC of the Pilot check is 60).
21+ Portal closes 1d4 seconds after the ship makes it through.
Direct Hits from Collapsing Crystal Shell Portals
If the portal shrinks to less than the beam width of a ship passing through it, that ship takes 1d12 damage – for every 10 feet of beam width it has (round up). Thus, a 50 feet beam vessel would suffer 5d12 damage, and a 65 feet beam ship would suffer 7d12 damage. Larger size works against the vessel in this case, though larger ships also have more hull points and can better withstand the damage. The hardness of the hull material reduces this damage by its hardness rating.
Note: Use the ship’s length, not its beam width, if it is, for some reason, passing through a portal sideways.
Normally, there is no save, but a Spelljammer Ace at the helm can make a Reflex save (DC 30) to halve the damage, by angling the ship to a defensive orientation and partially darting out of the portal. (For anyone other than an Ace, the DC is 50). In many cases, however, the ship will still be destroyed or heavily damaged.
A ship that is hit by a closing portal’s edges suffers the following critical hits in addition to the damage, if it survives for them to matter:
Ship Shaken (unless it was not moving at the time of impact)
Hull Holed (circular compression crush, circling the entire vessel)
Maneuverability Loss (in this case, down to Limp – the steering gear can be assumed destroyed – unless the DM determines that the portal edges compressed on a part of the ship that has no steering mechanisms)
Spelljammer Shock – the helmsman must make a Fortitude save (DC 30) or suffer spelljammer shock
A bisected ship splits in two, one half in the Flow and the other in wildspace. Its atmosphere divides evenly. If it lost all of its hit points when hit by the closing portal edges, it breaks into d4 pieces on either side. The DM determines exactly where the hit occurred. All beings in danger must make Reflex saves (DC 18) or 5d20 slashing damage, as the collapsing shell material slices them.
Arcane Focus: A smoothly cut diamond and a smoothly cut obsidian, each of at least 1000 gp value.
Material Component: A one-foot long silver thread.
Create Air
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Clr 1, Drd 1
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 full-round action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Target: One Medium-sized target per 2 caster levels
Effect: Encase target in a bubble of fresh air
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: None (harmless)
Spell Resistance: No (harmless)
Create Air generates a bubble of fresh air around the target. For an individual drifting in space, this permits another die roll for the duration of the fresh air of its air envelope.
The spell pushes out any foul air in the target’s envelope, so it can be used on a target with the retain air spell in effect. The spell has no significant effect if cast within a larger air envelope or a world’s atmosphere. It does have the ability to drive away the air befouled by such spells as stinking cloud or cloudkill. Cast upon an individual within the area of effect of such bad-air magic, it allows a single clean breath (giving that subject another save, if a previous save failed, or negating the need for a saving throw altogether for that round, as applicable).
Create Air does not increase the size of a ship’s air envelope. The excess air is pushed out into space.
Material component: A small, stoppered flask, empty except for air. The flask is not consumed in the casting, but its contents are, leaving hard vacuum there. Opening the flask to refill it therefore requires a DC 15 Strength check.
Create Crystal Shell Portal
Transmutation
Level: Brd 5, Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Area of Effect: Circular area of a crystal shell, radius 100 feet + 10 feet per caster level
Effect: Open a short-lived passage into or out of a crystal shell
Duration: 10 minutes/caster level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: None
Create Crystal Shell Portal allows you to open a temporary hole in a crystal shell. The create crystal shell portal spell causes an area of the crystal shell to become insubstantial, allowing anything that is not too large to pass through.
Due to the resistant nature of crystal shell material, the caster must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15) to cast this spell. Failure of this check indicates inexplicable failure, as the shell material did not respond to the unnatural command to become insubstantial. Magic, even that designed specifically for the purpose, is remarkably unreliable when used against crystal shells.
The use of this spell does not weaken the crystal shell in any way, and the portal itself does not affect any nearby objects or creatures. Once cast, the spell takes effect instantly and the portal cannot be dispelled – this spell merely triggers a natural phenomenon by artificial means. Even an Antimagic Field has no effect on portals. The only known magic that can close a portal before the duration ends (or the portal’s time has passed, for natural ones), is the Collapse Crystal Shell Portal spell.
If an object is left floating in the portal, half in wildspace and half in the phlogiston, the crystal shell will sever it when the portal expires. See the Collapse Crystal Shell Portal spell for details of a closing crystal shell portal.
Material component: A piece of wire wrapped in amber.
Debris Barrier
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Clr 6, Drd 6, Sor/Wiz 6, War 6
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 full-round action
Range: Long (400 feet + 40 feet per caster level)
Area of Effect: Flat, circular area 10 feet across per caster level, maximum diameter 200 feet
Effect: Creation of rockwall barrier in space
Duration: 1 round per caster level
Saving Throw: None (Reflex half)
Spell Resistance: No (see text)
Debris Barrier conjures a wall of boulders and other chunks of debris. They are a whirling, clattering, rapidly rotating mass of rocks and garbage. The barrier does harm to anything that enters it (damage 10d6 impact). If it is cast upon a creature or group of creatures, the wall inflicts damage on them that round (they can make Reflex saves for half damage). The spell can affect objects. It can be cast within a planet’s gravity, but the duration is halved as the world’s incessant pull interferes with the movement of the debris.
Spell resistance will not protect a defender from the impact of the barrier’s contents, but it can affect targeting. If the spell is cast with the intent to center it on a creature with spell resistance, the caster must succeed at the SR check or the spell is cast with its center 1d10 times 100 feet behind the resistant creature.
The caster can make the spinning wall move with a successful Concentration check (DC 16). Its Move is Fly 30 (average). The check must be repeated whenever the caster wishes the barrier to turn. The debris scatters (effectively dissipates) when the duration passes. The rocks and other rubbish whirl straight away from the center, along the plane of rotation that they had at the end of the spell’s duration. Because of this, the end of the duration will not cause the rocks and wreckage to harm the caster, unless he or she is foolish enough to turn the barrier edgewise with respect to him or her.
The wall provides cover (+4 to AC, +2 on Reflex saves) against attacks made through it in either direction.
Material component: A rough pebble plated in electrum.
Disable Helm
Abjuration
Level: Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 full-round action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Target: One spelljamming device
Effect: Target nonfunctional for spell duration
Duration: 1 round per caster level
Saving Throw: Will negates (see text)
Spell Resistance: Yes (see text)
Disable Helm is a difficult magic that removes the active spelljamming device from service on a space vessel. It is hard to cast successfully, requiring a DC 25 Spellcraft check to make it work (or DC 15 for furnaces), due to the resistance of these powerful devices (plus the fact that no non-Mercane fully understands how they operate).
If the spell functions, the helmsman must make a Spell resistance check (if SR is a factor), followed by a Will save if the SR check fails. Failure allows the helm to be scrambled, its responses to the spelljamming caster completely chaotic. Should this occur, the helmsman must make another Will save or be stunned by intense head pain for 1 round per level of the attacking caster.
If the spelljamming device is a furnace, it simply shuts down for the spell’s duration. It gets no saving throw. Other types of spelljamming devices do not get to save either, if not in use.
Nothing short of a limited wish can make the device work again until the spell’s duration expires.
Material component: A moonstone worth not less than 100 gp.
Enhance Maneuverability
Transmutation
Level: Brd 5, Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 full-round action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Target: One vehicle/2 levels
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
Enhance Maneuverability increases a vehicle’s Maneuverability by one step, from good to perfect, for example.
Material Component: A vial of wind from an air world (flying vehicle), hoof of a mountain goat (land vehicle), any bone from a fish with quick, darting movements (waterborne vehicle).
Flyfield
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 full-round action
Range: Long (400 feet + 40 feet per caster level)
Area of Effect: One vehicle, up to 5 tons per caster level
Duration: Instantaneous effect plus time for movement
Saving Throw: None (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes
Flyfield causes a powerless vehicle to move suddenly, at a speed of up to 5 per caster level (maximum of 100) from its location at the time of casting to another point within the spell’s range, determined by the caster. The vehicle moves in a straight line and cannot turn. Once the destination point is determined and the spell is cast, the vehicle will move at the speed indicated above until it arrives at the location designated by the caster. Nothing can stop it unless it hits something that is at least half its tonnage. Depending on the orientation of the vessel, such a collision may be a ramming attack instead of a crash. The caster can designate a random direction and a random orientation for the powerless vehicle’s movement, but not a random speed.
A crash or ram has the normal results, while a vehicle that moves into an anti-magic field or its equivalent will continue to move at the same speed and direction until it leaves the anti-magical area of effect, or until it hits something, whichever comes first. The flyfield effect is lost immediately and will not resume when the vehicle leaves the anti-magic area.
This spell has no effect on a ship powered by any active spelljamming device.
Material Components: A lodestone and a fist-sized hemisphere of iron.
Glassteel
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 full-round action
Range: Touch
Area of Effect: 5 square feet of glass/level, up to one foot thick
Effect: Transmute glass into glassteel
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Glassteel transforms a quantity of existing glass into glassteel, a transparent substance with the material strength of high-grade steel. The effect of the spell is permanent, and after twenty-four hours, the magic fades and the material cannot be dispelled. The casting is difficult and the caster must make a DC 20 Spellcraft check to make it work.
Other than the fact that it is transparent, this substance is essentially identical to steel.
Material Component: Aside from the glass itself, this spell requires a powder made from flecks of steel and diamond dust. The cost of creating this powder is 100 gp per foot of glass to be transformed.
Locate Crystal Shell Portal
Divination
Level: Clr 2, Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: See text
Area of Effect: See text
Duration: 1 round
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
This divination allows a caster to determine the direction and distance to the nearest open crystal shell portal on a crystal shell. Unfortunately, the travel time is always a random 2d20 days, so the portal detected may or may not be open when the caster’s ship reaches it.
Locate Crystal Shell Portal may be cast only within 100 yards of a crystal shell, but it may be used on either side.
The DM determines whether there can be more than one portal at the same distances, and even whether there are any at all. These conditions vary from one shell to another, but in most crystal shells, the caster can find one, whether the caster’s ship can reach it before it closes or not.
Material Component: A conch shell.
Portal Vortex
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 feet + 10 feet per caster level)
Area of Effect: Magical passage 5 feet wide
Duration: 1 round per caster level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Portal Vortex opens a one-way magical passage from a spot within range to another location within range, determined by the caster. If the desired destination point of the vortex is not visible, the locale at the other end of the passage must be familiar to the caster, or at least viewed with divination magic. There must be an open space at the other end; a vortex with its other side in solid rock will not function – the rock will prevent anyone from walking through the vortex at all.
With the portal open, getting to the other location is as simple as stepping through the portal. This is a full-round move action.
Should someone be standing in the portal when the spell’s duration ends, that person will be shoved to one side or the other (equal chances) and must make a Fortitude save (DC 15) or be stunned for 1d6 rounds.
Arcane Focus: Two sheets of platinum (25 gp value each).
Softwood
Transmutation
Level: Clr 4, Drd 4, Travel 4
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 full-round action
Range: Touch
Target: 1 medium-sized being per 3 caster levels
Effect: Surround target(s) in soft wood
Duration: Permanent in the phlogiston, soft wood dissipates in 30 minutes elsewhere
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
Softwood encases the recipients in soft, spongy wood, similar to that of a rotting stump. The wood is a living plant that sustains the life of the recipients at a far lower level than normal. They go into suspended animation, the same as individuals who suffocate in the phlogiston, except that their flesh does not change.
An individual adrift inside a softwood capsule does not age appreciably for the time spent encased in softwood; the aging process slows to about 1 minute per actual year. Thus, if the drifter is not fortunate enough to be rescued soon after encasement, he or she may awaken any amount of time later to find a universe very different from the remembered one.
A softwood capsule has resistance 30 to all forms of energy attack, and its DR is likewise 30. The shell of soft wood has 100 hit points and regeneration (2). As an object, it suffers only half damage from energy attacks, except sonic. Thus, with a bit of good fortune, it could survive falling to a world from orbit. It is capable of cushioning such a fall so that its occupant suffers no damage. If affected by the Enlarge Spell metamagic feat, the softwood capsule has an additional 50 hit points per increase in size category. If the capsule is destroyed, it dissipates in one minute, and the individual inside must make a Fortitude save (DC 20) or die. Once brought into an envelope of fresh air, however, the softwood lasts only 30 minutes, and then dissipates in one minute. The individual inside need not make a save in that case.
Softwood does not interfere with divination magic in any way, though any magical devices that the occupant may have that do interfere will still work. Thus, it is most often possible for a cautious rescuer to ascertain who or what the occupant is before letting the capsule dissipate.
The spell’s main purpose is for defense against the calcification effect of the Rainbow Ocean, and prevention of death by suffocation in wildspace. However, aggressive divine spellcasters have used it to contain enemies. It can be used to set persons adrift without slaying them.
Material component:Any piece of tree bark. The softwood capsule will resemble the type of bark used to cast the spell. If the bark came from a plant monster of any kind, the softwood will not have any of that monster’s special abilities, but the bark fragment will still serve as the material component.
Spark Burst
Evocation (Electricity)
Level: Sor/Wiz 4
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: One standard action
Range: Medium (100 feet + 10 feet per caster level)
Area of Effect: 20 feet radius burst
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half and see text
Spell Resistance: Yes
Spark Burst agitates the air of an atmosphere, or of the phlogiston, in a chosen location. It operates through a crystal shell portal (outward, into the phlogiston), but it has no effect in vacuum. It triggers a vicious blast of highly charged electrical sparks.
In an atmosphere not located in the phlogiston, the spell inflicts 1d4 per caster level of electrical damage to creatures and objects within its area of effect (save Reflex half), and all within the area of effect must make Fortitude saves (DC 14 + the caster’s Int modifier), or catch on fire.
In the phlogiston, the minor fire-dominant nature of the Rainbow Ocean causes an additional effect – the immediate detonation of a mass of flames, equivalent to a small, weak fireball (2d6 damage, save Reflex half).
This spell does not endanger the caster in the phlogiston (unless he or she targets the effect too close) because the spark burst occurs at a distance.
Material Components: A bit of flint and steel, with a small amount of cloth or cotton with a light amount of oil on it.
Stable Gravity
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Area of Effect: One spelljamming vessel
Effect: Vessel’s binary gravity unaffected by outside influences
Duration: 1 round per caster level (D); also see text
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Stable Gravity attempts to keep a spelljamming ship’s gravity exactly the same regardless of planetary landings or larger objects entering the ship’s gravity envelope. It is always effective against the gravity of worlds, but if a larger object enters the ship’s gravity envelope, the spell’s effectiveness is not assured.
When the gravity fields overlap, normally the orientation of the smaller object’s gravity would shift to match that of the larger. Stable Gravity fights that effect; the spell itself makes a Will save (with the same modifiers as the being who cast it), against DC 20. The roll is further modified by the difference between the sizes of the vessels in tens of feet (their longest dimensions, round down to the nearest ten).
Thus, a Stable Gravity spell protecting a ship 80 feet long that is suffering a gravity wake attack from a 100 feet long vessel would suffer a –2 size difference penalty on the saving throw, with the caster’s modifiers also in effect.
With success, the smaller vessel’s binary gravity is simply unaffected, held stable and steady. Upon failure, the normal gravity disruption takes place and the spell terminates, defeated.
Somatic component: Touch on the spelljammer helm.
Material component: A flat, rectangular pane of glass with four metal rods (each exactly the same length), attached to each corner. Glassteel with gold rods grants the spell a +4 arcane materials bonus on the saving throw.
Unseen Crewmember
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 4
Components: V, S, F, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Effect: One invisible, mindless, shapeless servant/level
Duration: 1 hour/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
An unseen crewmember is an invisible, mindless, shapeless force that performs shipboard duties at your command. Unseen crewmen can respond to commands that you would understand, though they must be relatively simple. They can perform only one type of task at a time, and left unattended they perform it over and over, but they can do so for the spell’s entire duration. Unseen crewmen have Strength scores of 10, so they can perform steering duty or – under close direction – the menial work of damage control operations.
Unseen crewmembers are not nearly as competent as living beings, so a ship whose various stations are manned exclusively by these creations is at a disadvantage in combat. The vessel suffers a –10 circumstance penalty to initiative, its Maneuverability is reduced by one step, and any saving throws that it must make are under a –5 circumstance penalty.
The creations of this spell are unable to attack anything, similar to the first-level unseen servant spell. They can withstand 24 points of damage from area attacks. They cannot make saving throws.
Material Component: A piece of string or a bit of wood.
Arcane Focus: A silver, glass or glassteel model of the vessel itself. This focus costs 100 gp per ton of the vessel.
Unseen Weapon Loader
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S, F, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Effect: One invisible, mindless, shapeless servant/level
Duration: 1 hour/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
An unseen crewmember is an invisible, mindless, shapeless force that performs weapon duties at your command. Unseen weapon loaders can do anything that unseen crewmen can do, and in addition they can load and fire siege weapons.
If the team of unseen weapon loaders is led by a living being doing the aiming and firing, the siege weapon takes no penalty. If one of the creations of this spell is also the one doing the firing, however, the weapon’s attacks are all at a penalty of –4, and it takes one additional round to reload, but in the absence of real gunners, the weapons can at least fire. A siege weapon manned only by unseen weapon loaders attacks with the caster’s highest base attack bonus, albeit with the aforementioned penalty of –4.
The creations of this spell otherwise conform to the general abilities and limitations of unseen servants and unseen crewmen. They can withstand 30 points of damage from area effect attacks before dissipating.
Material Component: A piece of string or a bit of wood.
Arcane Focus: As for the unseen crewmen spell, but the silver, glass, or glassteel model must also be detailed enough to show the vessel’s siege weapons. This increases the price of the focus to 150 gp per ton of the vessel.
