Dalillama wrote: ↑Sun Jul 15, 2018 3:19 am
ripvanwormer wrote: ↑Sat Jul 14, 2018 4:28 pm
Cloud giants are useful for the same reason; they have
obscuring mist and
fog cloud as spell-like abilities. In addition, their ability to
levitate themselves and up to 2,000 pounds means they can pilot small boats even without a helm (either towards or away from a center of gravity), which is useful in emergencies.
They can't though, cos they can't fit in small boats. They also take way more food.
Food is an issue, but they don't need to fit in the small boats. They can just float nearby.
Dalillama wrote: ↑Sun Jul 15, 2018 3:19 am
Did Rakshasas not make it into Pathfinder?
Rakshasas are in Pathfinder, but they have standard spells rather than spell-like abilities, which means they would just use standard helms rather than serial helms. Their
detect thoughts and
change shape abilities are supernatural abilities rather than spell-like abilities, but admittedly the distinction between spell-like and supernatural abilities are 3.x rules that might not be relevant to how Jeff Grubb defined "spell-like abilities" in the Spelljammer boxed set.
Also I went through the list and cut out all the Outsiders, who are unsuited by their extraplanar natures to space travel.
I agree that creatures whose sole spell-like ability is the power to travel to other planes are unlikely to use spelljamming ships, but listed them anyway since technically they
could use serial helms if they were forced to. I could imagine conjurers powering their ships with enslaved demons, for example.
I agree that planar creatures like genies would be unlikely to willingly travel via wildspace instead of the planes except we have the canon example of the
Peacock in Greyspace, which has an all-efreeti crew (
Greyspace, page 26). So clearly exceptions can be made.
†Can/will not work with anyone else whatsoever.
Aboleths are social creatures ruled by their savants. They've been known to ally with drow, illithids, ixitxachitl, kopru, krakens, and kuo-toas, and they're famous for creating their own servant race, the skum. In the first appearance of an aboleth in the AD&D game, I1
Dwellers of the Forbidden City, the aboleth had an alliance with the yuan-ti, was worshiped as a god by mongrelmen, and had slaves. Most of their abilities revolve around taking slaves, so I could imagine, say, a single aboleth with a serial helm in a ship crewed by skum or other slaves. Aboleths also sometimes have offspring which they raise for the first ten years of their lives.
Intellect devourers are typically
servants or pets of the illithids, so a group of illithids in a nautiloid could use intellect devourers to boost their serial helm. In Pathfinder, intellect devourers
have their own civilization and are explicitly from outer space.
"The Ecology of the Devourer" in Dragon #355 provides examples of devourers allying with other races, particularly outsiders and undead. They're motivated chiefly by searching for their own lost souls, so if one believes its soul to be imprisoned somewhere in Wildspace it's conceivable it might charter a ship with a serial helm to look for it, crewing its ship with ghast servants. They're unlikely to work with one another unless they've been created by the same event, but say, three devourers created by the same soul-devouring Wildspace horror might charter a ship to recover their souls together.
Neothelids, in Pathfinder,
have their own civilization and create worm-like minions called
seugathi (who also have spell-like abilities) to serve them.