D&D General If you could put D&D into any other non middle ages genre, what would it be?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just create a spell that wards barrels against fire. It's a hyper-specialized spell, so it can be fairly low level, and you don't have to remove the enchantment to use the gunpowder.

Should work...but you need a similar ward vs electrical as well.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Part of this depends as well on whether you have low level NPC wizards. Think level 0 casters that can only cast cantrips but have control flames or fire bolt. Maybe they're only trained well enough to use wands. Controlling fire on a boat whether caused by a fireball or a clumsy sailor with a lamp would be incredibly beneficial.

Odds are good that hooded lamps using Continual Flame/Continual Light would be the light source of choice on ships- and cities- as soon as practicable.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yes, ranged combat in 5E is seriously reeling on the brink; that is, of becoming too close to melee as to make melee superfluous.

It's still a primitive game for that purpose (since there's basically nothing in place to encourage behavior commensurate with ranged tactics) so this is not a good thing.

Cover does a pretty good job.

I find that the game rewards melee quite well, and rewards taking cover from ranged attacks quite well.

 

[Lanefan]

Would it really? I guess it depends on whether or not you care much about realism (and I admit I haven't read the Saltmarsh naval rules) but ships don't turn on a dime. It lasts at most for a minute, presumably someone would notice the helmsman wasn't doing their job and stop anything too dramatic from happening.

I'm coming from 1e, where Hold Person lasts a couple of rounds (i.e. minutes) per caster level; far more than long enough for a ship to run into trouble due to a non-functioning helmsman.

Spells would change combat so it depends on the genre you're trying to emulate and how closely. At a certain point if you're going for a feel of historical simulation you're going to have to pretty much get rid of magic altogether, but that has a lot of ripple effects.

I don't think it's as drastic as having to eliminate magic altogether - at least I certainly hope not! - but it absolutely has to be reined in in some aspects, and kept to a reasonably low level.

 

[Lanefan]

At a certain points flying wizards launching off the deck of a large vessel dedicated to caring and providing for said wizards and supported by a flotilla of smaller ships starts to make sense. Actually engaging in ship to ship combat is silly if you can just send some Fight Wizards to attack from above, plus it lets you strike in land with your FW-18 groups.

This can be achieved with either wizards able to cast the Fly spell, or by providing your attackers flying magic items. I can see a large flying carpet and a bag of holding full of alchemists fire being a problem/solution.

That's not Age of Sail, that's Age of Aircraft Carriers.

 

[Lanefan]

Not just weather magic- anything vaguely elemental...including summonings. I mean, a fireball is an obvious threat to a classical sailing vessel, even moreso if it has gunpowder. But so are spells like pyrotechnics or any summon spell that unleashes any creature of elemental fire on board.

I have sommoned creatures always appear fairly close to the caster, so no problem there. But yes, ranged damage spells e.g. fireball and pyrotechnics would have to (mostly) go.

Couple that Hold Person with a Gust of Wind?

Yep - I'm kind of fine with the Gust of Wind but the HP is problematic.

Create a Wall of Ice in the course of a wooden hulled ship?

Any decent-size ship would shatter a Wall of Ice on impact (assuming the Wall hadn't just dropped into the sea and then turned on its side to become a big flat ice floe - they don't hold themselves aloft, these walls!), though might take some damage in so doing.

Wall of Force that does hold itself in place and cannot be broken, however, is bad news. No more Walls of Force.

Warp Wood?

Make its range 'touch' and I'm cool with this one.

An Everflowing Bottle powering a paddlewheel? Or a steam engine that used a tiny portal to the elemental plane of fire for heat and a similar elemental portal for its water? (Steamjammers?) If you can make an airtight vessel, submarines become possible with a portal to Air.

For true Age of Sail I'd ban steam engines; they ruined it in real life. But you're on to something with the paddlewheeler - I like it!

Non elemental magic is equally problematic: Magic Missile, Web & Sleep wands deployed at the guys manning the rigging? Illusions making sailors see sea dragons or sahuagin...or sirens?

Magic Missile isn't much worse than a well-aimed crossbow - a low-priority problem. Web and Sleep are more of a concern. Illusions - interesting question. I don't want to completely hose Illusionists here but I'd probably want to put some limits on what they can do.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Still, you get the point: you’d want to take a close look at the magic in the core books at the very least. Analyze it all with your RBDM (Rat Bastard Dungeon Master) hat on.

How many times have you or your players combined Web or Grease with some kind of fire attack?

What can a saboteur do with Animate Rope on a sailing ship?

What happens when someone activates an Immovable Rod in the Hold of a ship...below the waterline?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

[video=youtube;5kwIkF6LFDc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kwIkF6LFDc[/video]
The events depicted in that video might have played out very differently in a world with D&D magic.

...depending on which sides had what at their disposal, of course.

 

[Derren]

That's not Age of Sail, that's Age of Aircraft Carriers.

It is the logical evolution of the Age of Sail with D&D magic added.
Even the easy availability of alchemist fire would transform naval warfare into something quite different than what we know as the Age of Sail and then you also have spells and monsters.

 

[Tony Vargas]

It is the logical evolution of the Age of Sail with D&D magic added.

Combine too much logic with D&D magic, and it will scuttle(pi) any period, genre, or setting. At the root of it, n/day is a meaningful limitation only to adventurers raiding under time pressure, but to a society with years to accomplish projects or build up war materials, it's a superabundance of magic.

Even the easy availability of alchemist fire would transform naval warfare into something quite different than what we know as the Age of Sail and then you also have spells and monsters.

I don't think that'd be too much of an issue: there're plenty of incendiary options in the Age of Sail, already... I mean, fireships were a thing.