The Gaming Den

So, I was building a character that is a spoof on a 40K spess marine in a universe where teh emparah made genetically engineered combat maids instead, because, hey, 40k is a literal, actual joke, I might as well laugh at it.

She ended up having the wings of thunder maneuver, and the Void wings graft.

And I got to thinking, if you start at a velocity of 1.5 miles per round (6 seconds) and increase your speed exponentially each round, how long would it take you to reach the speed of light, which google tells me is 1,117,698 miles/6 seconds?

I heartily approve of your 40k AU.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only tea and frilly aprons.

1,117,698 mi/round = (1.5)^t, where t = # of rounds

log (1,117,698) = log (1.5^t)

log (1,117,698) = t log (1.5)

t = (log (1,117,698)) / (log (1.5)) = (6.04832447381) / (0.17609125905)

t = 34.3476701027

So you'd hit light speed after 35 rounds of exponential acceleration. Although at that point you'd have slammed into something, and if damage is relative to velocity your character would be reduced to a smear across the spaceways, and the impact would be measured as a shower of cosmic rays.

I mean, there isn't actually that much stuff in space, and a person is quite small, it seems unlikely that you'd hit anything in that amount of time. How do you figure?

Void Wings doesn't seem to work the way you are hoping. It sounds like it just adds the base speed each round in the example (i.e you retain your old velocity, but add your base velocity as acceleration), so not exponential... except that they do imply relativistic speeds. It would take much longer to accelerate to light speed at +60 feet per round, or even +1.5 miles per round.

So 1,117,698 ÷ 1.5 = 745,132 rounds before your speed is equal to light speed.

Still given that time frame, you're unlikely to have impact into anything in space unless you were aiming for it. And if it isn't larger than the spess maidrine then it is swept aside by Wings of Thunder ability.

My reading is that you start at velocity x call it 30 feet. First round you move 30 feet and now you are going 60 feet/round, next round you move 60 feet and are now moving at 120 feet/round. I suppose it could also be your reading, it's not very clear, but it specifically calls out how quickly you were moving in the previous round.

erik wrote:Void Wings doesn't seem to work the way you are hoping. It sounds like it just adds the base speed each round in the example (i.e you retain your old velocity, but add your base velocity as acceleration), so not exponential... except that they do imply relativistic speeds. It would take much longer to accelerate to light speed at +60 feet per round, or even +1.5 miles per round.

So 1,117,698 ÷ 1.5 = 745,132 rounds before your speed is equal to light speed.

Still given that time frame, you're unlikely to have impact into anything in space unless you were aiming for it. And if it isn't larger than the spess maidrine then it is swept aside by Wings of Thunder ability.

Well, 745,132 rounds is only about 52 days, which is a very respectable timeframe to accelerate to light speed (maybe not in 40K, but generally).

The problem is, space is not empty. Any given square centimeter, depending on where you happen to be, is likely to have a few atoms in it, and at relativistic speeds you're moving through said square centimeters really, really fast. Which means you are causing a continual stream of hypervelocity collisions with said atoms. Ergo, moving around at relativistic speeds is functionally equivalent to flying into a particle beam - you're just generating the beam as you go. Big spacecraft have various ways of dealing with this, whether its magsails or just big plates of metal in the front, but a person is going to have all kinds of issues.

Void wings specifically grant immunity to radiation.

Yah, between the two feats, they cover not worrying about celestial friction unless it is a large body. Void Wings specifically calls out only objects larger than the user as being dangerous, which I take to supersede Wings of Thunder which states only large immobile objects like giant rocks and mountains can stop you.

Now I think you still need to breathe/eat/drink, but that's what ioun stones are for (or other homebrew/wiki feats etc.).