D&D 5E Excerpt from a 5e naval supplement I'm writing

[Ancalagon]

So the variability in damage comes from the number of hits, not per cannon... fair enough.

small medium large for cannons is acceptable I suppose, although a "4 size" system could work too?. Doing the "4, 6, 8, 12, 18, 24 and 32" royal navy bit would probably be too granular. I think some heavy guns had more range than the medium ones, but I think the way to go is extend the long range, not improve the 600 feet mark.

How big is a "square" on this naval scale? I am suspecting 100 feet, but considering that a 32 gun frigate was about 150 feet long, or a 74-gun third rate could be over 180 feet long... maybe a bigger square could be used? That would extend your "room"

The attack bonus is just a basic +2 proficiency bonus, and a +1 Dexterity bonus for a military-trained crew. A normal merchant ship probably has +0.

Sounds reasonable

 

[Derren]

Well you did call it a "naval" supplement

And a naval engagement will happen most of the time on the empty, open sea. Rarely you will have the cost close by or some reefs but thats it. Only a madman would sail on a flooded river, especially with a ship as it would run aground as soon as it left the riverbed and entered the flooded land. If such a engagement would be fought it all it would be with launches and cutter, not schooners and galleons.

 

[RangerWickett]

I fully acknowledge that realistic sailing ships would never get into a battle in the boughs of a flooded rainforest, just like how realistic people don't swordfight weretigers in a temple that's on fire. But if it happened in a game, I'd find it exciting.

 

[Lanliss]

I fully acknowledge that realistic sailing ships would never get into a battle in the boughs of a flooded rainforest, just like how realistic people don't swordfight weretigers in a temple that's on fire. But if it happened in a game, I'd find it exciting.

Aye, I think it is important for a Fantastical Naval Supplement to have actual rules for things like a battle between a flying Ship v. Giant dragon v. sea-born ship. There are other places where one might get more mundane "Normal" rules, like the Nautical adventures PDF mentioned in the other thread. In the case of something like this, I would want an normal open-sea battle to be the exception, rather than the rule. Maybe if a ship had some sort of enchanted Extreme Range Laser spell, that could only be used to its fullest when the enemy had no hiding spot.

 

[Derren]

I fully acknowledge that realistic sailing ships would never get into a battle in the boughs of a flooded rainforest, just like how realistic people don't swordfight weretigers in a temple that's on fire. But if it happened in a game, I'd find it exciting.

And yet many encounters in D&D are pretty mundane except for wizards and clerics. But even then it mostly matters not if you are fighting orcs or just barbaric humans. Not every fight is utterly fantastic and there a varying degrees off "fantasticness". Rules also need to work for the mundane.

Im this example there is not even a magical explanation why two large sailing ships, one which would not even be able to navigate the river very well, are even there and manage to not run aground the instant they enter the flooded area.

 

[Ancalagon]

Well, to be fair it could be a river with a very wide mouth - some are navigable by ocean going vessels after all. The flooded forest though... that is not something sane captains would enter willingly.

But we shouldn't get TOO caught up on that detail.

 

[Derren]

Well, to be fair it could be a river with a very wide mouth - some are navigable by ocean going vessels after all. The flooded forest though... that is not something sane captains would enter willingly.

But we shouldn't get TOO caught up on that detail.

If it is just one example it is ok. But if that is the baseline of what the book covers then I question its usefulness. Also while some people will think sneaking up on a galleon on a river through a flooded forest is cool, others will just roll with their eyes at the sillyness of it. If there is a balance between fantastic and mundane in the book it is ok. But based on the comments of the author I got the feeling that fantastic will be the norm and the mundane, like engagements on open waters will be the red headed stepchild of the book and mostly be glossed over.

 

[Lanliss]

And yet many encounters in D&D are pretty mundane except for wizards and clerics. But even then it mostly matters not if you are fighting orcs or just barbaric humans. Not every fight is utterly fantastic and there a varying degrees off "fantasticness". Rules also need to work for the mundane.

Im this example there is not even a magical explanation why two large sailing ships, one which would not even be able to navigate the river very well, are even there and manage to not run aground the instant they enter the flooded area.

I was imagining something like 1-200 foot tall trees, and the flooding was described as being halfway up to the canopy (Or halfway down depending on your life view). That gives the ships 50-100 feet of water below them, which is plenty of space from the few things I can remember at the moment. They probably have to keep an eye out for lower branches, but that is explained by the difficult terrain.

 

[Ancalagon]

Oh it's not the depth of the water (although submerged obstacles are a severe concern), it's the space between the trees! We aren't talking about canoes here....

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using EN World mobile app

 

[RangerWickett]

If it is just one example it is ok. But if that is the baseline of what the book covers then I question its usefulness. Also while some people will think sneaking up on a galleon on a river through a flooded forest is cool, others will just roll with their eyes at the sillyness of it. If there is a balance between fantastic and mundane in the book it is ok. But based on the comments of the author I got the feeling that fantastic will be the norm and the mundane, like engagements on open waters will be the red headed stepchild of the book and mostly be glossed over.

If it makes a difference, the flood was, like, super deep.

When you say you're worried normal naval encounters will be glossed over, what sorts of things are you hoping get covered?