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<blockquote data-quote="Castellan" data-source="post: 1282607" data-attributes="member: 639">Just a couple of quick ideas:1: Man Overboard! Whenever you have a relatively &quot;straightforaward&quot; pirate encounter, spice it up by having an important NPC fall overboard. Your players might not think much of this (&quot;Awww, we'll come back and get him later...&quot;) but you should impress on them how falling overboard was considered a near death-sentence back in the days of wind-driven vessels -- loooong time for a ship to &quot;come about&quot;, and ships rely on sails and sweeps (oars) for locomotion, so if you don't get someone quick, you can't be guaranteed they'll be there when you come back (this is particularly useful if your party doesn't have access to fly spells, yet, but can be an added level of difficulty in any encounter). Make sure the party doesn't forget there's a battle going on.If the individual falling overboard has armor on, thos swim checks are going to be rough, and if there are sharks (or dire sharks), evil porpoises, or other unpleasant things in the water, that makes the sense of urgency even greater!2: Attack from the air. Sure, this encounter is done (often overdone) on land, but your PCs are likely to be looking for something to attack from on or under the sea. They'll probably have a lot of water-based spells readied, and be looking to use their seafaring tactics. Hit them with something from the air like a wyvern or a young dragon. If the PCs are lower level than that, have them pass a floating shipwreck and/or sargasso sea that is infested with stirges or stirge-like creatures (maybe make them like flying fish). Let the stirges attack. This might be a great time to use #1 above, since someone might fall overboard while trying to beat one of them off.Hopefully that's a little helpful!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Castellan, post: 1282607, member: 639"] Just a couple of quick ideas: [b]1:[/b] Man Overboard! Whenever you have a relatively "straightforaward" pirate encounter, spice it up by having an important NPC fall overboard. Your players might not think much of this ("Awww, we'll come back and get him later...") but you should impress on them how falling overboard was considered a near death-sentence back in the days of wind-driven vessels -- loooong time for a ship to "come about", and ships rely on sails and sweeps (oars) for locomotion, so if you don't get someone quick, you can't be guaranteed they'll be there when you come back (this is particularly useful if your party doesn't have access to [i]fly[/i] spells, yet, but can be an added level of difficulty in any encounter). Make sure the party doesn't forget there's a battle going on. If the individual falling overboard has armor on, thos swim checks are going to be rough, and if there are sharks (or dire sharks), evil porpoises, or other unpleasant things in the water, that makes the sense of urgency even greater! [b]2:[/b] Attack from the air. Sure, this encounter is done (often overdone) on land, but your PCs are likely to be looking for something to attack from on or under the sea. They'll probably have a lot of water-based spells readied, and be looking to use their seafaring tactics. Hit them with something from the air like a wyvern or a young dragon. If the PCs are lower level than that, have them pass a floating shipwreck and/or sargasso sea that is infested with stirges or stirge-like creatures (maybe make them like flying fish). Let the stirges attack. This might be a great time to use #1 above, since someone might fall overboard while trying to beat one of them off. Hopefully that's a little helpful! [/QUOTE]

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