The Helms

WoTC, added some personal view of the situation.

The spelljamming helms are objects of great potential. They are exclusively created by the Arcane, a race of blue giants. When created they are intentional meant to only fit with one ship. After the bonding the helm and ship become as of one. Removing a helm from the ship it's bonded with takes an Arcane check DC 20 for a Minor Helm and DC 30 for a Major helm. Failing the check makes the whole thing exploded in a great ball of Fire, Magic and Mayhem.

Attuning

When a caster sits in the chair and focuses his mind into it. His mind expands and encompasses the entire ship. In the first instance of the caster encountering the helm and attunes with it. At first glance he will know what happens around him in the nearby area, he will sense the individuals with him in the room. As he expands his conscious and focuses on a broader scale, he will sense the rooms near to him, after that he will sense the entire ship. He will feel as people walk around and interacts with the ship, as if someone pokes his skin or otherwise engages his sense of touch. When someone shots siege engines or similar against the ship the helmsman will feel that aswell. This extreme sense causes a small issue coming to critical hits, in cases induces spelljammer shock.

• A Fighter helm can bond with a ship up to 10 Tons and can't attain spelljamming speeds.
• A Minor helm can bond with a ship up to 50 Tons
• A Major helm can bond with a ship up to 100 Tons
• A Series helm can bond with a ship above 100 Tons

Movement

As the helmsman expands his consciousness further he will see the space around him/the ship. He can shift his view to various angles around the ship. Looking in all directions. As he focuses on turning/diving/rising/banking/ascending/descending/bowward/aftward or other the ship follows his motion. When he focuses on a particular point in space and thinks going really fast, the ship springs into a blur of motion towards the point, at which point the ship enters spelljamming speed.

Banking the power

The helms drains the casters as the helms the ship. At lowtimes they can bank their spellpowers as 1 slot per spell level (eg 1 for 1st level, 2 for 2nd level, 3 for 3rd level, etc).

• Fighter helm can bank 10 slots.
• Minor helms can bank 25 slots
• Major helms can bank 50 slots
• Series helms can bank 25 slots per spot in the series.

With the banks the casters can expend slots instead of expending their own spell slots helming the ship. A minor helm takes 3 slots to enter spelljamming speed, a major helm takes 5 slots to enter spelljamming speed. Series helms takes 5 slots plus 1 per spot in the series. While just doing normal stuff with the ship, the helmsman essentially uses cantrips to slowly move the ship towards docks or away from same. The case comes with battle in space, under normal conditions the ships slowly drifts through space exchanging blows and other siege engines in a motivation to destroy the other party (perhaps in a motivation to defend against assaulters or pirates). Expending slots will allow the helmsman to bank really hard or otherwise gain an advantage over the other party.

• Banking really hard costs 2 slots.
• Speeding forward also known as burning towards or away costs 3 slots.

Manufacturing

The Arcane holds their secret very close to their bodies, perhaps because it's a species thing that only they can do.

Parent Technologies

• The Spelljammer

Inventor(s)

It is not entirely clear who or when this was invented. Perhaps it was the gods that gave the Arcane the ability, perhaps they were the initial ones of The Spelljammer.

Access & Availability

As The Spelljammer gains a new captain, it goes through the cycle of changing captains.

Discovery

The Arcane, a long time ago. Perhaps the lore behind the discovery is lost to history.