In a generic fantasy world like the ones presented in D&D, how likely would it be for a small flying fortress (with flight qualities similar to a hot air balloon,) to be attacked?
Would people shoot it down solely for being outside of "what's natural"? Would kings order it to be brought down by catapults for being seen as defiance of their rule? How likely would dragons or being from other planes e interested in such a contraption?
By flight qualities of a hot air balloon do you mean effective weightlessness? Because if so all you need is a mild storm and that thing is smashed into the ground or carried so high the staff asphyxiate.
Good point. I should be more clear. The fortress would still have weight to it, but it is rather slow and sturdy. It is driven by a series of weights and pullies, as well as monitoring air currents and following them. It doesnt require fuel to stay aloft due to magic, but it does require staff and supplies to travel.
Reverse engineer your question. If you could make a flying domicile, why not a house? Why specifically a FORTRESS? Fortresses are built with fortifications, defense systems. Floating fortresses can't utilize ground advantages, but it makes due by the ability to relocate itself and choose better terrain.
Your question also assumes such a thing would be unique and otherized. If such a thing were unique, its description would say so or it would be clearly specialized. TO be unique or even rare would require cloistered secrets or limited resources, usually both.
In terms of likelihood to be attacked, a fortress can also contain battlements. A fortress floating over a major city is a direct threat. There would be laws and ordinances to keep such a thing from happening between integrated countries and territories.
tl;dr "Generic" fantasy doesn't actually tell you what you need to know to determine how people would react to it.
>How likely would it be for a small flying fortress (with flight qualities similar to a hot air balloon,) to be attacked?
Depends on where it is and what lives in the area. If you parked it over the open ocean, where flying creatures tend not to go unless they're migrating, you're probably pretty safe. If you park it in a valley in the mountains, many more flying monsters that could threaten it.
>Would people shoot it down solely for being outside of "what's natural"?
If you're dealing with elves or druids or some other group that reviles technology and considers it an affront, sure. But normal humans don't randomly attack things just because they're man-made.
>Would kings order it to be brought down by catapults for being seen as defiance of their rule?
If you built a castle on someone else's land without their permission, that's pretty much a declaration of war. Parking a flying castle in their airspace isn't much different. Talk to the people in charge, get their approval. If they don't approve and you don't want to fight, go somewhere else. This should be a general rule of thumb for any big caravan/structure/group, not just flying forts.
>How likely would dragons or being from other planes be interested in such a contraption?
Well, D&D chromatic dragons are malicious by nature, and usually incredibly prideful, so they'd definitely attack. Luckily, you don't usually find more than one big dragon in an area.
I'm asking because my spellcaating character has recently claimed ownership of a magical stone that can make a structure float of built properly.
Specifically he's going to have a small tower built that can fly, and has a observation/navigation deck on top, and on the bottom has a cage with a chain to drop/pick people and cargo up.
My idea was to use this as a "portable base" for his adventures that would also be safe. But as I got thinking about it, I realized the idea has a few complications.
A flying tower will have its own threats to deal with, but so will a grounded fort. You'll just have to prepare defenses accordingly. And as said, if you don't want to piss off whatever polity you're in, talk to the
>local lord
and make sure there's not gonna be a problem with you hovering around his county.
Would it really become an issue? You're technically not building a fortress on his LAND.
The king isn't gonna care about semantics if you're posting up with an armed fortress in his territory, kid.
If you're concerned about locals seeing it as a threat, maybe consider building an airship instead, or at least making it as ship-shaped as possible. A fortress or tower has obvious military implications that would rightfully spook people, but a ship is more likely to get the benefit of the doubt provided you don't cover the thing in obvious weapons and pirate decor.
You're a wizard, Harry. Fricking charge up some stones for weather control, air current control. Polymorphic flying creatures as the staff and guards. Lightning bolts, conjured stones, plagues, and flammable whatsits as your angry god weapons.
You're a wizard building a flying tower, go full arcane overlord. Make it closer to a flying island with a massive tower in the center, full-on Eye of Sauron, surrounded by pleasure gardens and grounds wide enough to support your own armada of flying defenders, from pegasi cavalry to a griffon aerie or maybe even a dragon's lair in the lower island.
I hear the radios get shot up every time
Thats a cool picture!
Depends on how easy it is to shoot down and the failure rate/cost of running whatever powers its flight.
So, the stone that powers the flight doesn't require fuel, but it does have a limit of how much it can carry. I've been told that it can carry the weight of a moderately large home and the contents therein, and that everything that it carries must be made of a solid construction. (Like, I can't just put some dirt on the side of it and consider that "Landmass".
After it's built, my goal is to search more dungeons from the similar lost civilization to find more of these stones and either experiment on them or use more of them to expand my house into a full sized flying castle.
>I've been told that it can carry the weight of a moderately large home and the contents therein,
that would mean any large flying beast could bring it down, just by sitting/landing on it. Not a fatal flaw by itself, but I'd expect a ton of ballistas and archers to defend against anything that could throw ballast your way.
Very. Wyvern Riders, flying races like Aaracokcra with spellcasting, flight is pointless.
For frick sakes, play something other than 5e.
Well good news is that catapults and other things lose too much kinetic power going up so unless you're like under 30 meters of height it's unlikely they can damage a stone building.
The coolest way of transportation would be like Dracula's castle in the Castlevania aminated series where it teleports in and the air displacement is enough to flatten buildings, that's the equivalent of a star destroyer jumping in from hyperspace directly in your face.
And now I'm thinking of such a fortress flying around a world like that of dragon hunters and I feel nostalgic...