Re: Helms

> From: "Jeymian Winterwolf" <wulffe_lord@???????.com>
> Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2006 9:33 PM
> Subject: [SPELLJAMMER] Helms
>
> I've been going over alot of the SJ material for 3.5e on the internet and
> found I like these versions of the SJHelms.. I got them from
> http://www.shatteredfractine.com/ here and I personally think these helms
> are better for SJ3
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> <snip>
> Notes on this Variant/Conversion: When making the conversion for
> spelljamming helms for 3E, <Shattered Fractine/Mark Doolan> decided that
> siphoning spells > away from spellcasters weaken them so that they are not
> an effect member in any fight on board the ship they pilots. By making the
> Tactical Speed base on > > > Helm and not level of spell caster allows for
> much cheaper helms, which in 3E is more balancing.

Considering that a spellcaster looses all memorised spells lets see what a 
1st level and 20th level sorcerer looses:

1st level sorcerer:
6 x 1st lev + 6 x 0 lev spells.

20th level sorcerer:
6 x 9th lev + 6 x 8th lev + 6 x 7th lev + 6 x 8th lev + 6 x 5th lev + 6 x 
4th lev + 6 x 3rd lev + 6 x 2nd lev + 6 x 1st lev + 6 x 0 lev spells.

I don't think it is better for the Ships Raiting (SR) of both these 
characters to be the same when the second character is clearly paying an 
awful lot more for the ability to spelljam?

I'm not sure what page of Shattered Fractine/Mark Doolan said Ships Raiting 
should not be dependent on the level of spellcasters? When I looked at the 
New Shipyard I found this page:
http://www.shatteredfractine.com/shipyard/spelljamminghelms.html

He brings spellcaster level back in with his Dweomer Boost rule. I like some 
of his ideas for special helms, but wouldn't personally allow helms that 
don't use spellcasting energy.

>     I am sure that this is but one of many conversions/varient that will
> show up of the minor and the major helms.
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> <snip>
> According to the Concordance of Arcane Space in the SJ box set a minor
> helm
> is worth 100,000gp and a major is worth 250,000gp .. now by looking a the
> price ranges of the above helms .. a minor helms TS speed is about +5 ..
> and
>  the major helms are +5 as well.
>
> Personally I like the idea of the TS being based on the Helm and not the
> level of the spellcaster.

But the game is called SPELLjammer. The whole product line was based around 
helms buring up spells (or other mystical energy) to create movement. If 
helms no longer need to burn spells then what is powering them?

> So if you use the "Helmsman" prestige class that both Dreamer and Peter
> wrote about, these versions of the helms work out much better for that
> Prestige class.

A Helmsman PrC who was *required* to be a spellcaster would gain SR at the 
same rate as any other spellcaster (and would also have any PrC bonuses that 
applied to the PrC).

David Shepheard