Re: Create Helm spells - God

SPELL LEVELS DEBATE

3e:
a single spell for all powers of Helm is sensible, as it fits the computer
game feel of 3e. It would presumably be a Domain spell as it is a preety
specific sort of flavour - maybe available to Transport, Numbers, maybe
Strength, Geometry? Some sort of more restricted list would fit the high
level / restricted access school of thought.

One crazy thing for 3e: 3e spells can be cancelled by a reversed re-casting
of the spell... so what does that imply for Helms???

2e:
laws of spell design would indicate that the spell to make a minor helm
would be level 3-4: +2 levels for area of effect (effect covers an object
that itself lifts whole other big object - a multi-ton ship). Making it
higher wouldn't hurt anything (because of rituals and sacrificing a powerful
reagent or item to lower the effective spell cost) but it would restrict
Helms a lot in a "typical" campaign ie one where higher levels are much less
common than low level spells.

Also I think 'thatotherguy' may have strayed here in asserting the common
nature of spaceships as I can't see where in the "canon" Spelljammer setting
writeups it says spelljammers are common. In fact the "Wildspace" adventure
implies otherwise, as does the Rock of Bral description regarding the
numbers of ships in and around the port. Likewise the unavailability of
Helms to own as opposed to rent (urgh) would have to greatly limit ship
numbers. Some Dragon magazine stuff and throwaway lines imply there are huge
numbers of ships, but simple mathematical extrapolation is not "canon", it
is retroactive continuity and open to all sorts of debate. Such as this. ;-)

1e:
no real guide here as 1e ranges from the very sensible and very old things
from the very first Dave Arneson campaign to IMO the contrived excesses of
Unearthed Arcana. The Arneson approach would seem to be "what the hell, put
it in, so what" along the lines of the several actual starships in his
setting, the Gygax approach is of course more like "whatever you give to
players, take back off of them as soon as possible. Plus, put cool stuff out
of reach or in the hands of god-like NPCs". The thing never addressed in my
knowledge to date is, if the Barrier Peaks starship works in D&D (and all
its other technology did), then why wouldn't "spelljammers" be more like
that ship? And if it is a function of levels of knowledge, then somewhere
out there in the flow, there would have to be another culture building
Barrier Peaks type ships. One of which would destroy pretty much all the
spelljammers in creation IMO.