Ship Roles

Meta Information

Managing an airship requires a great deal of skill and effort. The airship roles detailed here allow the characters to take positions, allowing them to apply their skills and proficiencies to the airship’s overall operation. When a player chooses a company position for his or her character, that choice is independent of and in addition to the character’s class, background, and other options. Taking a role is optional, and can always be outsourced to a skilled hireling. However, a character who takes a role helps enrich and enhance the overall campaign.

Attuning to an Airship

In order to use some of the roles' features, the character must be attuned to a ship. Attuning to a ship works like attuning to a magic item; the attunement to a ship requires a character to spend a short rest focused on only that ship while being in physical contact with it. The time spent represents the character getting to know the ship better, investigating its structure and layout, and learning how "the pieces fit together."
Attuning to an airship takes the place of a single magic item attunement. A character can be attuned to one ship in addition to two magic items at a time, or three magic items. However, a character cannot be attuned to more than one ship. To attune to a new ship, the character must end attunement to the previous ship to which they were attuned. A character's attunement to a ship ends if the ship has been more than 100 miles away for at least 24 hours or if the character dies. A character can also voluntarily end attunement by spending another short rest focused on the ship.

Role Proficiencies

Accepting an airship role means more than just having a neat title. When a character takes an airship role, they gain proficiency in the tools and skills that role requires. Typically, these new features are specific to operation of the aircraft, but there are some roles that extend beyond the airship. As a character gains levels, they earn additional proficiencies, special equipment, and new features which they can use with the airship. Typically, these proficiencies are gained during the tiers of play level advancement milestones at 1st, 5th, 11th, and 17th levels.

Airship Roles