Defending a ship

[Lizard Lips]

My party has taken to the high seas and they're making mincemeat of the enemy ships they're encountering. I could, of course, have all the enemy ships that ply the sealanes be crewed by 10th level wizards and have a cohorot of undead sharks to protect them from underwater attacks, but I'm trying to stay a little more down to earth. In a fantasy world, whats the best way to protect a ship? The party typically suprises the enemy ship, sending their invisible mage (buffed up to AC 27) to fly over the ship and hurl fireballs at the deck, while the water breathing rogues close on the ship and destroy its rudder. If the enemy ship mounts any sort of organzied counterattack, the party retreats, but typically the enemy vessel has been disabled by that point. The party are then free to escape the enemy vessel or attack it at their leisure.

I'm hampered by the fact that the enemy vessels they are attacking belong to a Theocratic nation that burns mages as witches, ruling out some of the defensive tactics I could use. Anyway, any ideas to make my warships a little more threatening?

 

[ATO_DM]

It seems to me that a Technocratic (in a Fantasy Setting) would develop some sort of defense against magic. Such as, Clerics who don't use magic much, but focus on its dispellment. If this Technocratic nation has the ability to capture and burn wizards it would certainly have some means to prevent the wizards they target from becoming invisible, flying, or using mass destruction spells. If not, this nation is inhabitited by quite a lot of underpowered wizards or sorcerors.

Also, if the nation's ships keep disappearing they would certainly respond in some way to protect their shipping lanes. In world war 2 ships were under the attack of invisible, fire shooting things (submarines). Merchant Ships had to be protected by vessels designed to counter this threat, and since Merchant Ships are greater in number than Destroyers they had to travel in large groups.

See what happens when your group runs into an escorted group of ships, with couple of dispelling priests.

 

[Pielorinho]

It's pretty clearly your fault that none of the enemy vessels can stay afloat, but that's hardly surprising. Everyone knows that Lizard Lips sink ships.

Ahem.

Consider having highly trained eagles that sit in the crow's nest of the ships, using thier magnificent spot checks to watch for invisible wizards. If they see them, they fly up and attempt a grapple.

Do the ships have any sort of magic on-board, or any compensating "technology"? If not, then they're extremely outclassed right now; it seems the equivalent of sending big canoes against someone equipped with stealth-cannons.

If they have some way of knowing when the rogues are at work, they could dump one of two things overboard:

-Poison (killing the rogues and anyone else down there); or
-chum (hiring themselves some big-toothed mercenaries to fight off the rogues)

Consider letting the PCs hear rumors that the evil kingdom has brought one of their better generals in to see to the defense of shipping lanes, giving them advance warning that things are about to become less easy.

Daniel

 

[Donatello]

In Broadsides! there is the Oceanic Sentinel prestige class that was designed precisely for this situation. It gets a spell list that can target a ship instead of a person, like endure elements, displacement, spell turning, invisibility purge and the like.

Without that PrC, I would suggest the following:

Counterspells, specifically counterspellers set to watch for fireballs and other spells that would do massive damage to a ship.

Globes of invulnerability (even minor) placed on deck officers at certain intervals to prevent spells from affecting the area.

There are no low-magic ways to prevent spell damage, as it's a high-magic assault. Spells must be countered with spells.

As for the underwater stuff, there's nothing wrong with having the ship begin dumping chum into the water when they know they're under attack. Normal sharks smell blood as far as a mile away.

Also - what kind of hardness are you giving to the rudder? It's not like rogues can sneak attack a rudder, and the treated, hard wood would be Hardness 8 - 12 on most ocean-going vessels. Rudders are HUGE, and designed to not break, even with minor impact.

There's also nothign wrong with a few Marines (another Broadsides! PrC, but the generic term really means a naval warrior) armed with spears, harpoons, crossbows, and the like to repel attackers.

 

[Jack Haggerty]

I'm hampered by the fact that the enemy vessels they are attacking belong to a Theocratic nation that burns mages as witches, ruling out some of the defensive tactics I could use. Anyway, any ideas to make my warships a little more threatening?

He said Theocratic, guys. not Technocratic.

And in that case, why aren't there Clerics aboard those ships protecting them through the might of their god?

I typical Ship's Chaplain aboard any of these ships should have the Protection Domain, and either Air or Water Domains.

There's a lot of potential there for defending against airborne and underwater attacks.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

The very excellent d20 book Seas of Blood by Mongoose Press introduces the concept of magical items for ships. You know the figurehead on most old ships (usually a mermaid or something). If a ship has one of those (it can't have two) it gains whatever bonus the figurehead is set up for. Figure pricing like a normal magic item. The bonus is NOT passed on to the crew.

Ships are expensive things. Some kind of standard clerical protection in the 5,000 gp range would be very reasonable.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'll concur with the idea of using some of the beasties to help identify invisible opponents. You've got a theocratic group being assaulted, so use some of those clerics!

Divinations on each merchant ship leaving port: "When is this vessel most likely to come under attack?" Prepare accordingly.

Wet down the sails, consistently. Fireballs do damage, but aren't generally considered to catch things on fire. If the sails are nice and wet, the fire won't affect them.

Monster Summoning V: Griffon. Griffons have scent. Tasty mage.

For the big ships, cast Hallow, with either Dispel Magic, Protection from Elements, or Invisibility Purge as the imbedded spell. It costs, but for a 30,000 gp ship its not that huge an investment.

Chum is your friend when it comes to swimming rogues.

Also, fast ships under good sail probably will outsail swimming roges by a long shot. My own guesstimate that I use in my game is that most ships with strong winds and full sail have a move of from 50'/rd to 90'/rd.

Give the ship oars so they can still outrun the rogues, even with the sails down - take the sails down and switch to oars immediately upon the first fireball.

Control Winds to knock flying mages out of sky, if you want to bring a cleric on shipboard that's high enough level to cast it.

 

[Mark]

If they've run away before then they've left survivors to tell the tales...

Certainly a Theocracy will send out some higher level Clerics to protect their ships, right? They have a multitude of divination spells to help them avoid the PCs in most cases, I would think.

When they can't avoid the PCs, they have Make Whole spells to repair rudders and sails, Dispel Magic to counterspell, Wind Wall to reduce the speed of enemy ships or block missile attacks, Control Water and Control Weather to cause problems for anyone chasing them, Sending to summon their allies and create a blockade or noose to trap the PC's ship and out number them and that just takes us through the fourth level divine spells...

 

[Pielorinho]

Also, fast ships under good sail probably will outsail swimming roges by a long shot. My own guesstimate that I use in my game is that most ships with strong winds and full sail have a move of from 50'/rd to 90'/rd.

Good point -- and remember that the ship won't be doing anything besides moving, so it'll do a double-move each round. Are you making your rogues make swim checks each round?

If a cleric has the water domain, she can rebuke and/or control water elementals. If she has the air domain, she can do the same thing for air elementals. Control of these elementals is permanent; if the ship has a resident cleric with one or both of these domains, the ship should have guardian elementals. Imagine when the rogue goes to sabotage the rudder and the water itself begins to attack!

(Or, of course, there can be a tojanida, or an arrowhawk, or some other critter).

Daniel

 

[Jack Haggerty]

A few other possible Tactics...

Control Water, SRD...

Lower Water: This causes water (or similar liquid) to sink away to a minimum depth of 1 inch. The depth can be lowered by up to 2 feet per caster level. The water is lowered within a squarish depression whose sides are up to 10 feet long per caster level. In extremely large and deep bodies of water, such as deep ocean, the spell creates a whirlpool that sweeps ships and similar craft downward, putting them at risk and rendering them unable to leave by normal movement for the duration of the spell. When cast on water elementals and other water-based creatures, this spell acts as a slow spell. The spell has no effect on other creatures.

Raise Water: This causes water (or similar liquid) to rise in height, just as the lower water version causes it to lower. Boats raised in this way slide down the sides of the hump that the spell creates. If the area affected by the spell includes riverbanks, a beach, or other land near the raised water, the water can spill over onto dry land.

A good way to slow down, or sink the PCs ship, eh?

Control Winds, SRD...

Wind Force: For every three caster levels, the character can increase or decrease wind force by one level of strength. Each round, a creature in the wind must make a Fortitude save or suffer the effect.

Strong winds (21+ mph) make sailing difficult. A severe wind (31+ mph) causes minor ship and building damage. A windstorm (51+ mph) drives most flying creatures from the skies, uproots small trees, knocks down light wooden structures, tears off roofs, and endangers ships. Hurricane force winds (75+ mph) destroy wooden buildings, sometimes uproot even large trees, and cause most ships to founder. A tornado (175+ mph) destroys all nonfortified buildings and often uproots large trees.

A good way to knock flying wizards out of the air, or sink the PC's ship... Also a good way to help the ship under attack run away:

As soon as the lookout in the crow's nest spots the PC's ship, the Ship's Chaplain uses Control Wind to sail them away in a completely different and incomvenient direction.

Suddenly, the characters find the seas strangely devoid of ships, since they are all avoiding the PCs, instead of confronting them. Next, the PCs find the sea rife with warships intent on destroying the evil pirates plaguing their commerce.