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I'm running my party through the Pathfinder Iron Gods Lords of Rust campaign. They are about to get into combat with the head of the coloseum who uses a chariot. He's seen the characters in a couple of combats and seen their love of spells that create pits and create difficult terrain which pretty much will take all the fun out of his chariot.

Being a smart fellow, he wants to pay someone to cast fly on the mounts (don't want to spoil the surprise of the module, but this should work) but I'm stuck with how to levitate the chariot behind the mounts.

Levitate is too short ranges and by my estimate, can't quite lift enough. (Chariot 800-1,000lbs, driver 300-ish)

  1. Can a spell caster just hunker down on the chariot and maintain two levitate spells on the chariot?. (Since Levitate doesn't specify concentration?)

  2. Is there another way to do this? The mounts are important mood wise and threat wise, so I don't want to do a flying chariot spell that provides mounts. I'm also not opposed to giving the PCs a levitating chariot magic item if worse comes to worse. Just having trouble finding it.

Many thanks!

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Welcome to the site. Take the tour. Thank you for participating. Helskarg's already a pretty tough fight. Are the PCs of sufficient level that they still have a fighting chance in this battle despite Helskarg rendering their abilities useless via a potentially flying chariot? \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    Sep 26, 2015 at 18:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ In a word, yes... Although I'll revisit Helskarg to double check.. I may have jumped the gun. I'm not looking to make him fly as I think that would make him too tough: I'm really looking for a way to make the chariot hover (pod racer style) over the pits and bad terrain the pcs will throw out. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oldmicah
    Sep 26, 2015 at 20:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ Would you be open to homebrew magic items as a solution? \$\endgroup\$
    – DuckTapeAl
    Sep 26, 2015 at 21:12

2 Answers 2

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The way I would solve this problem is with a homebrew magic item made with the standard magic item creation rules.

Chariot of Smooth Travel

Aura moderate transmutation CL 10th Weight 800 lbs

This chariot floats a few inches off the ground when in use. If it is pulled over an obstacle that is 10 feet tall or shorter or any kind of pit, the chariot smoothly increases its height to fly over the obstacle. It can fly over an obstacle for up to 1 round. If it ends the round above an obstacle, it begins to fall immediately.

Cost: 12,000 gp (2 [caster level] * 3 [spell level] * 2000 [continuous item] * 2 [minutes/level cost modifier] * .5 [ad hoc price adjustment])

The ad hoc price adjustment is because this effect is much less versatile than a standard levitate spell. Basically, this lets you ignore most difficult terrain up to a super-wide pit, but won't let you fly and doesn't ever go outside of melee range.

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    \$\begingroup\$ That will work perfectly and I actually really like it as an item. Seems like it would be an easy sell to nobility (those roads are just awful, don't you know!) or chariot archers. Thanks for doing the math on it and the suggestion. It will work great and is very much appreciated! \$\endgroup\$
    – Oldmicah
    Sep 27, 2015 at 3:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ That "If it ends the round above an obstacle, it begins to fall immediately" line seems a bit weird. So, if I park my chariot over a part of the path that's covered in discarded rakes and other small-but-painful-to-step-on gardening equipment, it falls down? But if I cleared the stuff away first, it'd remain hovering without trouble? \$\endgroup\$
    – GMJoe
    Sep 29, 2015 at 6:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ @GMJoe shrug I didn't put that much thought into the precise details of its operation when writing the description. I'd say that whether it can float above a square of short difficult terrain was up to the GM, comic timing, and how the GM/players imagine the magic works. \$\endgroup\$
    – DuckTapeAl
    Sep 29, 2015 at 14:26
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No and yes.

  1. Target object is just that, a whole object. Won't point at the relevant definition at the moment, though; there might not be one.

  2. Levitate can affect an object up to 100 lbs per caster level. Boost caster level high enough, or rework the chariot to be lighter. The caster will have to be present in the chariot itself, though. The caster's and driver's weights are irrelevant since they can be affected by fly as well as mounts.

The other angle of approach is enchanting the chariot to be capable of flight (see Carpet of Flying). That is much more expensive, though.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ First off, thank you for the answer. Re 1: my read on what you said is that if an object is over the weight restriction the levitate just fails. It doesn't make it xxx lbs lighter. I.e. 4 casters couldn't work together to levitate something really heavy. Makes sense and probably cuts a bunch of player abuses off. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oldmicah
    Sep 26, 2015 at 20:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Oldmicah exactly. If you can't levitate the whole object, the spell just fails. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jeor Mattan
    Sep 27, 2015 at 22:11

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