Defending a ship

[Lizard Lips]

Thanks for the input guys, this is helpful. I've only lost two ships so far, but one of them was a Theocratic Man O' War... the party surprsied me by attacking it and I had to throw something together on the fly. I want to be prepared in case they do something like this again.

The party attacked at night. I figured the Capatain and his Cleric were both asleep, so the party had a good four rounds while the Cleric woke up, grabbed his gear and cast a Prot. spell. By the time he was on deck, the Mage was already out of range of the spells he had prepared. I'm trying to figure out ways that a ship would have defenses up constantly to avoid these sneak attacks, that don't rely on a caster countering the attack.

Summoning a Griffon seems to be the best air support... I'm stealing that idea.

I like the chum idea, but by the time a shark arrived, I have a feeling the rogues would be either gone/or out of the water. The rudder seems to be the biggest weakness on the ship. Using Seafarer's Handbook, I gave it a hardness of 5 and a break DC of 28. The rogues used great axes (1d12 damage) and it only took two or three rounds to snap the rudder off using the Handbook rules. I though about reinforcing the rudder, but it seems with stuff like Warp Wood, Shrink and other spells, its still not too hard to disable the rudder, rendering the vessel crippled.

 

[Mark]

Regular use of divinations (especially in these troubled times) should eliminate any "sneak" attacks in the near future. Protection spells thrown on the maidenhead/main mast of a ship after a divination has revealed that the PCs are coming leave the Cleric free to mount a counter assault with his summoned monsters of the deep. Don't forget, a Cleric worth his (sea) salt will not only have spells prepared but have a big bundle of scrolls covering tons of things he doesn't regularly keep in his arsenal. Having a Theocracy of Scroll writing clerics backing you up goes a long way to protecting anything they don't want violated...

 

[Jack Haggerty]

Or wands, for that matter.

 

[mindqwerk]

Hmmm... if they are on a ship out wreaking so much havoc, why not have a fleet come after them with the sole purpose of eliminating them.

You could even give them a taste of their own medicine - send some rogues to their ship. Any nation that loses that many ships to one enemy can pull together some incredible resources to hunt them down.

All of the above suggestions are great, but they focus on helping better the defence of these ships (which is what you asked for after all) - but you might look at putting your players on the defence - see how they like it.

 

[Tzarevitch]

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.

I too was wondering why the theocracy didn't have its priests doing Divinations? Divinations are one of a priest's most powerful tools. After the 2nd attack, the theocracy should've started divining when the next attack would come and been ready to surprise the attackers. Also, use the Summon Planar Ally spells to call water elementals or tojanida (elementals are better) to protect the ship underwater. Treat the summoned creatures as part of the crew (i.e. on Theocracy payroll) so they are arround whenever needed. Paying tritons or mermen to work as guards works too. If they are rangers they can being along some of their animal friends to help out. If the Theocracy is evil use sahuagin or better yet kuo-toans. Kuo-toans can see invisible, astral or ethereal creatures at decent ranges.

For air defense, little beats air elementals in terms of ease of summoning and effectiveness. Arrowhawks are OK too but generally the elementals are tougher and hit harder. Invisible stalkers are excellent as well. Outsiders also work well for summoned guards: Devas, Sword or Lantern archons, Fiends etc.) I like the scent idea in the above post but griffons are too big for a ship. They need handlers and to land and to sleep and be fed. Find an elemental or an outsider with blindsight, scent or someform of blindsight.

Additionally, as has been suggested, try using magical defenses on the ship. Use the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook for examples since a large ship is fundamentally the same as a floating castle. Try fitting the ship with the walls that provide SR. There are also spells that improve the hardness of materials. Use those to toughen the wood and use the modifications from the Stronghold Builder's book to give the unattended wooden hull a saving throw. Try affixing (Otiluke's) Dispelling Screen or Greater Dispelling Screen onto the ship's hulls (permanently if possible) so that it can dispel Water Breathing spells of peoply trying to approach underwater. Hallow/Unhallow also is effective if you can cover the whole ship. If you can't get the whole ship, set up an altar at the bow and another at the stern so that you get the ship and a bit of extra buffer zone around the ship. Affix a Dispel Magic into the Hallow so that it dispels anyone who is not one of the faithful who enters the area. (This might knock out Fly spells, Invisibility or Water Breathing). Alternatively, affix fire protection spells into the Hallow so that the crew will be protected. (Use divinations to determine what sort of elemental attack will be used.)

Lastly, why hasn't the Theorcacy done active searching for the pirates attacking their ships? Priest's can scry too. I can't imagine that there were no survivors in any of the attacks who could give a description. Even if everyone died, use speak with dead. Presumably the deceased crewmen will be willing to describe who they saw then the priests can scry for them. The Theocracy can also use a Commune to determine who is responsible and get names and locations. If the high priest is powerful enough, Discern Location is at his disposal.

Remember, even if the individual PCs are protected from divinations, you can try to divine the PCs ship. I guarantee that it is not protected. Once the theocracy learns who the PCs are then can return the favor by sending a hit squad out for them. Give them some of their own medicine, attack THEIR ship while at sea or attack them in their beds while they sleep. The attackers should let at least some of them survive the attack so that they know who is giving them payback.

Tzarevitch

 

[Mallus]

The best defense is a good...

...cheap adventure designed to knock you're players down a peg or two {also known as "presenting a challenging adventure that keeps player interest high"}.

Now, from what you've stated 1) the PC's aren't engaging in piracy --pirates after booty don't start off with salvos of fireballs and 2) the ships their targetting belong to a theocracy which presumably has a few reasources at their disposal.

So... its not unreasonble to think after a few motivated, deadly attacks that said theocrats mght specifically take steps to deal with your PC's. So attack them first the next time they set sail. A theocracy should have access to plenty of divinations. Why couldn't they know the precise time of the PC's next attack, or better, the exact position and time the PC's are the weakest --after a violent storm damages their ship perhaps? After all, the theocrats could simply ask their God.

Armed with this kind of foreknowledge, and some simple clerical spells, you've got a highly challenging scenario. Mind you, I'm not advocating slaughtering you're PC's, just providing a little needed challenge that is already built into your situation.

BTW, the worst ass-kicking one of my old groups got was the hands of a group of warships from a rival theocracy {which also burned mages, oddly enough}. My DM armed them with little tiny pebbles that dispelled magic --something created by 'faith magic' as per the old 2nd ed. Tome of Magic. Needless to say, our magical flying ship, and its uber-deadly magical flying crew {all but 2 PC's always had a fly spell active, and the 1 non-magical flyer had wings...}. Bereft of our abundant spells, we got hammered. Barely got away, after having our priest kidnapped.

We never uttered the phrase, "Hah, they have no mages" again. Plus it set up a fantastic adventure to rescue our kidnapped priest buddy from the seemingly magic-proof fortress HQ of the rival theocracy...

Oh, and without Free Action and a major STR. buff {for starters}, I'd never ever let an underwater axe-wieding PC cut through a ships rudder...

 

[Bob Aberton]

You let a SWIMMING ROGUE with an AXE destroy a ship's rudder?

As an amateur sailor and collector of all things maritime, let me help out here...

A ship's rudder would not only be at least 6 inches or so thick, it would be made of treated, seasoned oak, and, furthermore, it would be SHEATHED IN METAL to protect it from marine worms. I don't see how a swimming rogue could cut through that with an axe in 2 or 3 rounds...

Plus a fast sailing ship would far outdistance him...

Here's what I'd say...

have the sails dampened down, as mentioned before.
Do not allow the rogues to chop through the rudder. A real ship's rudder would be far too tough for something like that.

Have the Ship's Chaplain (a cleric of at least 3-5th level) use his prayers to good effect (Control Weather, Summoning spells, and Dispell Magic come to mind here).

 

[Lizard Lips]

Ok folks, just to let you know my Theocracy isn't toatally retarded... the first ship they took out belonged to a bunch of orcish pirates. It was the first naval battle I ever ran, so I didn't mind. Last session they ran into the Theocratic Man O War blockading a narrow strait they needed to pass through. They waited until nightfall before launching their raid. We stopped halfway through the battle, so the government/navy, even the attacked ship itself, hasn't had a chance to react. I wanted to get some opinions from you guys though, so I could nip this in the bud. I don't want these Theocratic guys to come off as a bunch of shmoes.

As for the axe wielding underwater rogues attacking the rudder... I had no idea how a rudder was constructed, so relied on my handy Seafarer's Handbook. With their rules its entirely possible to hack through the hull of a ship in a few rounds, so I adapted the rules to the rudder since I had nothing else to go on.

Currently the party has just returned to their ship, and next session they'll be trying to dash past the crippled warship. Can a ship travel without a rudder? I 'd like to be able to have the warship at least be able to rotate to bring its cannons to bear as the party ship tries to escape... would summoning and controlling a gust of wind by the ship's cleric be able to do that? I really don't know all that much about sailing (and sadly the Seafarer's Handbook didn't clue me in on very much. You'know.. it got a lot of good reviews on the net and I'm really at a loss as to why... but that's another thread) so I don't know HOW crippled the ship is and what it can do to get out of this jam.

 

[bardolph]

Even if the PC's catch this Man-O-War "with their pants down," remember that the Theocracy probably doesn't take such matters lightly, and will probably launch a full investigation to find and capture these pirates.

Are there ANY survivors who can help identify these criminals? Is there any clerical magic which can help to locate them? What kinds of assassins and privateers will they send after the PC's? Where do the PC's sleep? How can they ever be safe again? They are outlaws now. There will be a price on their heads.

 

[bardolph]

Also, just because "official policy" disallows the Theocracy from hiring Wizards, this doesn't mean that there aren't secret Wizards who are being paid "under the table" to help protect their navy...