Arcane helm monopoly...

What was the purpose in having the Arcane have a monopoly on helm manufacture?
Knowing TSR, I always thought it was just an excuse for having a powerful
magic item available for cash, no questions asked.

While a helm is powerful magic,  it seems that some of the Elemental command
staves, rings, braziers, etc... would provide sufficient power to lift and
move a ship in Wildspace.

I never understood the virtual interchangeability of helms as power sources for
ships, nor the fact that certain craft can fly at all without a helm, Elven
Flitters, the Catamaran, a ship's boat, or seemingly, any enchantment at all.

What happens if the ship itself is a magic item?  The 'Enchant an Item' spell
doesn't appear to have a size restriction except that the object can't be
within 30' of any magic item not involved in its creation.

Helms supposedly merge with the ship, or else they'd have to be very solidly
braced to lift the ship, considering a ship weighs many tons.  How then can
a helm be salvaged or repaired by anyone but the Arcane, which happens in the
Cloakmaster Cycle stories?  Presumably those occur in the Spelljammer
universe, covered by TSR's claws, even if the rules in the stories are
different from those described in the rule books.


Anybody have any idea how much hull damage a ship mounted trebuchet would
do?

Favorite weapon for a small ships:
Decanter of Endless Water (geyser)  in the very cold regions of space
(Instant Ice Storm)
Flash Bombs, with pyrotechnic spells.
Forward firing ballista with the 'bucket of spikes' option for clearing
crews from the hull.
or bucket of live scorpions

Favorite weapon for large ships,
trebuchet
wrecking ball  ( ship spins as fast as possible, playing wrecking ball line
out...)
large marine contigent

Michael Sandy
mehawk@peak.ork
org, oop, org