Re: New helm being Submitted to Compendium

> <<  Because you can make massive, heavily armed,
> maximumally armored dreadnoughts with it that are immune to anything
> but ramming each other >>
>
> That can't catch anything faster than an asteroid.
> Seriously--military
> commanders aren't going to go for a ship that can't manouver worth
> anything.
> This was designed to be a slow, lumbering helm suitable for ships
> engaged in
> transport of bulk goods like wood, grain, salt, and ore.

Let's see.  Enhance maneuverability.  Rudder of maneuverability (or one
of the other various devices).  Spelljamming proficiency.  Spells (and
magical items) that enhance SR.  With one proficiency check and two
spells I can improve SR by two and MC by one.  That assumes you don't
allow multiple SR and maneuverability enhancing spells to stack in your
game.  Also you presume that many ships have an SR better than one or
two.  I submit that in a balanced SJ campaign this will generally not
be the case (the more high-powered the campaign, the more ships so
you'll still end up with many that aren't that fast, unless you're
playing Under the Dark Fist as it was written, in which case we should
just drop the discussion here).  Also in even a high powered campaign
these dreadnoughts still end up like they did in WWI, massive battle
platforms that are unstoppable centers of fleets.  Now you can always
invade that asteroid base because nothing can stop you from reaching
it.  If the enemy has no bases left, who needs to fight his fleet?
Assuming he hasn't wasted it in the useless effort to defend those
bases.

Even if we leave all the above aside you end up with other problems
(assuming you're sticking to standard SJ).  Case in point:  the neogi
are not much of a threat because even their 100 ton deathspiders are
now no match for your average cargo hauler.  They can't pack enough
troops on board to overwhelm the crew and marine complements of your
average trader any longer.  Before the neogi were a credible boogyman
for SJ because only the elves could match their most common ships in a
straight ship on ship fight.

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