Ship-to-ship fighting & dousing fire

MarauderX · Mar 28, 2009

I've been looking into ship-to-ship fighting as part of the upcoming action. In order to do this, it means that the two ships will be exchanging fire as they approach one another. The PCs & foes will likely have means of burning the opposing ship; are there repeatable means to douse the flames caused by an opponent?

One of the methods was to use the supply of freshwater that the ship normally kept on board, forming a bucket brigade once the fighting was done.

Ryujin · Mar 28, 2009

MarauderX said:
I've been looking into ship-to-ship fighting as part of the upcoming action. In order to do this, it means that the two ships will be exchanging fire as they approach one another. The PCs & foes will likely have means of burning the opposing ship; are there repeatable means to douse the flames caused by an opponent?

One of the methods was to use the supply of freshwater that the ship normally kept on board, forming a bucket brigade once the fighting was done.

I wouldn't expect an ocean-going crew would ever use their supply of fresh water to put out a fire. At sea, fresh water is life. They would throw buckets attached to ropes over the side and use seawater to put out fires.

I would tend to use the "Affect Normal Fires" ritual (PHB2, page 212) to deal with fires at sea. It takes 1 minute (10 rounds) to cast and can be used to reduce all fires in a radius of 10. Once the fires are all reduced to mere candle flames in size, it's relitively easy to put them out.

AbdulAlhazred · Mar 28, 2009

Yeah, Affect Normal Fires would be a good thing to have. In mundane terms I would handle fire something like this:

Each square is either burning or not burning. A character with a bucket can use a minor action to get water, if he's at the edge of the ship, and a standard action to toss it onto a square of fire. Water can be tossed 2 squares and dousing a square of fire is a medium difficulty STR check (DC10). A character standing in fire would take ongoing 10 fire damage and if he leaves the fire ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends). Throwing water on a character would give them an immediate save. If a square remains on fire for more than say 5 rounds it causes say 10 points of damage to the ship, burns out, and makes the square difficult terrain. In addition the fire spreads to the squares adjacent to the destroyed square.

Given that I don't know the size and damage system used for the ship I don't really know what exactly the appropriate numbers are for ship damage rate etc. Spreading may also need to be adjusted. The fire might also only move downwind. The rigging could also burn, as well as other vital parts of the ship, like the wheel, anchor, cargo, etc.

There could also be other magical means to fight a fire. It kind of depends on the campaign. Ships might have magical water pumps for example.

Silverblade The Ench · Mar 28, 2009

hm, quick fire rule:

Each round as a "saving throw" at end of the round, per square on fire, roll a d6.
for normal materials on a 5 or 6 it goes out (normal ship's material).
For very flammable materials only goes out on a 6 (dry, tarry rigging, paper, lamp oil etc).

To catch fire, for each square next to a fire or struck by fire, roll 1d6
Flammable materials ignite on a 5 or 6
Very flammable ignite on a 3 to 6
Damp ignites on a 6.
Wet won't ignite (as in literally soaking)

If you are in a fire, take 1d6 damage for 1 square of fire, then add 1d6 per square the diameter increases out of that square to a maximum of 4d6, so:
Diameter 1 = 1d6
Diamater 3 =2d6
Diameter 5 = 3d5
Diameter 7 = 4d6.

to put a fire out, it should be a MOVE action to get water from over the side of a ship (hey it's not that easy! you can't just reach over and dip in, the bucket would need ot be on a rope etc), or minor action from dipping into a barrel or from a "fire chain", or the like.
Standard action to throw water up to 4 squares, area of effect is one square.

Make a Dexterity attack, not a strength one, as accuracy is important,
DC easy, or Moderate if lots of smoke, wind or being attacked.
On hit , 1 square of fire goes out,
on a second hit on the same square that was burning, that square is now "damp".

A bucket of water will make any square that isn't burning "damp" and thus harder to ignite.
A bucket hit on a "damp square", will make that square "soaking" and thus cannot catch fire.

Dr_Ruminahui · Apr 1, 2009

Also remember that a wizard's prestigitation may extinguish a fire up to the size of a campfire.

Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui

Toriel · Apr 1, 2009

Also, you should think about powers with the cold keyword. Would you let a power that creates ice shards extinguish a square on fire?

Roger · Apr 1, 2009

MarauderX said:
are there repeatable means to douse the flames caused by an opponent?

Are you asking a rules question, or a house rules / fan creations question?

Cheers,
Roger

DanmarLOK · Apr 6, 2009

Off topic but related, I found the fire spread rules introduced in the first tavern fight in scales of war quite entertaining. Each square that's on fire rolls a d8 at the start (or end?) of each round during the encounter and the fire spreads in that direction with 1 being north (or whatever arbitrary point of reference you want to use).

If you had a wind in one direction you could perhaps use a d6 with 1 being the square to the left, 2 to upper left, 3 being the square ahead etc and a 6 being the square directly behind the flames so on average the fire would spread sideways or ahead but occasionally burn backwards. A very strong wind might be just a d4 with the fire only burning in a forward direction or forward lateral direction (4 = no spread).

It made for some tactical fun as the fires spread throughout the bar at random and would occasionally cut people off or force them to move away from it.

D