Magical traits for ships

[RangerWickett]

As I wrap up the text for E.N. Publishing's Admiral o' the High Seas naval adventures rulebook, I'd like to hear if anyone has any ideas for novel magical traits ships could possess.

So far I've got the following.

General Components

• Claws/Teeth/Tentacles - Like a ram that grabs.
• Combination Ship - Voltron. Give each PC their own ship.
• Eldritch Defense (various) - Numerous ways to protect a ship from cheap "I win" buttons like fireball.
• Extradimensional Hull - It's bigger on the inside.
• Folding Boat - Shrink down.
• Living Ship - It heals and can act on its own without a crew.
• Portal Pad - For those epic-level boarding actions when you just want to beam onto their ship.
• Ram - Nonmagical ram.
• Ram, Farslayer - Ram from 25 feet away.
• Skeleton Crew - A literal crew of skeletons.

Piloting Components

• Advanced Rigging - nonmagical component that handles multiple points of sail more efficiently.
• Flight
• Ghost ship - Pass through obstacles.
• Jaunter - Teleport during battle.
• Landship - Sail through earth.
• Nautilus - Go underwater.
• Seaborn - The sea carries you, letting you ignore difficult sea terrain.
• Windship - Not only can your ship fly, but people nearby it can fly too.

Gunnery Components

• Acidic - crew in area takes ongoing damage.
• Blast – works like dragon breath, hitting a wide swath up close, instead of a single spot far away.
• Chain Shot - non-magical way to mess up enemy rigging.
• Flaming - sets fire to ship.
• Freezing - slows ship.
• Noxious - ?? Not really sure how to handle poison, actually. ??
• Shocking - more damage to crew, less to vessel.
• Thunderous - mostly just flavor.
• Unmanned - No crew necessary.

Do you have any suggestions for extra things?

 

[Yora]

You seem to be lacking defenses.

- Self-Sealing.
- Floating+: Stay afloat even with considerable chunks of the hull missing.
- Fire proofing.
- Acid proofing.
- Lightning redirector. Catch the lightning and shot it from an iron rod at the bow.
- Air sealed: Protect it against water running through hatches on the deck and fill the interior. Also life saving when the ship is submerged.
- Huricane-rated rigging: Keeps the sails from being shredded and the masts from snapping in massive winds.
- Parasite proofing! We're talking about magic here, so there will be people who will weaponize enchanted termites to disintigrate your ship from the inside within hours or minutes.
- Emergency Escape Blast: In an emergency, an incredibly strong force will repell anything currently attached to and standing on the ship. Will slap away tentacles, might snap chains and ropes, and sends anyone on deck flying. And then use whatever speed enchantment you have and GTHOOH!

 

[FreeXenon]

Perhaps a clockwork/warforged/construct/summoned creature marine/shipboarding defender detachments.

 

[FreeXenon]

Iron Sail and Iron Mast enchantments to resist tearing and those pointy ballistae thingy's

 

[Dioltach]

Magnetic: always points to the north.

More seriously, though, how about a viewing cabin that allows you to see much further than normal? Alternatively this could be the crow's nest.

And facilities that generate food and water.

 

[FreeXenon]

Environmental/Weather protected decks so deck hands can work without getting blown over board, soaked, sunburned; perhaps even have it have an option for variable opacity for privacy and to keep the barmy berks guessing.

 

[RangerWickett]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

So, of all the various threats a ship can face, the spell fireball is probably one of the worst. Prismatic Wall, also, is kinda bad, because ships don't have breaks. But what are some other spells that could ruin a ship's day?

 

[Dioltach]

So, of all the various threats a ship can face, the spell fireball is probably one of the worst. Prismatic Wall, also, is kinda bad, because ships don't have breaks. But what are some other spells that could ruin a ship's day?

Whenever they encounter a ship, my players always want to use Warp Wood. We have protracted discussions about how much wood they can warp and how that affects the ship's seaworthiness.

Otherwise, any spell that involves fire (Flaming Sphere for example) or acid is going to cause problems. Lightning, too. Anything, really: I believe it's in one of the Hornblower novels where he describes the four elements as potentially life-threatening to any sailor: Fire, Water, Earth and Air.

 

[FreeXenon]

Summoned elementals or other creatures, especially if they are dropped right on the deck or rigging.

But what are some other spells that could ruin a ship's day?

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm less concerned about messing things up once the party is within 50 feet or so, because then the other ship can fight back. It's more of an issue when they can annihilate an opposing vessel from 1000 feet away.

I ran a 2nd edition game where the 17th level PCs sank an incoming fleet with water elementals they'd summoned. In 3e they wouldn't stick around long enough to wreck a whole fleet, but we do have countermeasures in place to deter just sending one or two.