D&D General PCs vs Ships

[Weiley31]

Im all for the yummy drama of the Cleric and the Warlock PCs hooking up an-

Oh wait, you don't mean THAT kind of ship.

 

[TheSword]

So I think you need to think about your ships the same way you would any encounters. Particularly recognizing that different ships can be treated very differently.

- Merchant vessels: Lots of cargo space, relatively slow, basic guards, maybe a higher CR passenger, largely crewed by sailors and a few officers. Cargo is likely to be bulk goods not necessarily as valuable at the PCs port than their destination port. The ship won’t be worth much because the kind of people that would buy a merchant ship aren’t going to buy it from a pirate, it will sell but for a cut price rate. Basically worth something but not as much as you would think.

- Pirate vessels: massive range of ships. Will be faster. Very varied crews, captain and officers likely to be interesting NPCs similar to the PCs. Ship may have unusual defenses and armaments. Decide the CR of the encounter you want or combination of CRs. Probably won’t have cargo unless they have just stolen one. Ship will worth more than a merchant ship to pirates but still very second hand.

- Military Vessels: these are the pirate hunters. Armed for a fight, crewed by professional soldiers. Will have wizards, priests, officers will be competent fighters. Some might have veteran crews. Fast, likely little or no cargo. Ship will be worth the most.

There are a few other things you can do to keep things interesting.

• A ship appears to be one type of ship then reveals itself to be another, it’s not a merchant ship - it’s a pirate ship. Tables get turned.
• You interrupt two ships already in an encounter.
• You get interrupted by another ship,
• The ship you attack is sinking - either deliberately, due to damage in the attack, or because of some other misfortune.
• The ship you attack has some other affliction, plague, curse, other monster onboard

My personal preference is that once you have done your first merchant encounter treat future merchant pursuits as a downtime encounter with its own risk and reward table. As you say fighting regular sailors doesn’t need full combat encounters.

I would discourage plunder in most circumstances unless it’s really worth it - probably only when you upgrade your ship. You need to make the Ship Value vs Effort unrewarding.

You need crew to sail the other ship. If you get attacked while on skeleton crew you’re potentially in a lot of trouble. If you take reinforcements from the ship you just captured what’s to stop them turning on which ever portion of the crew you leave in charge. If the PCs go with the new ship what happens if the old crew decide to go their own way. They are pirates after all. Or worse, what if they get attacked and the PCs aren’t there to help.

Bringing a ship back should be a major undertaking and in that situation you could make it a real reward.

Sorry lots of thoughts there, but I’ve enjoyed a few pirate campaigns and love talking about them.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I feel like any halfway decent ship built in a DnD setting would have at minimum a half-dozen Glyphs of Warding installed across the ship with spells pre-installed for common threats and situations, a Create Water (rain) glyph for if any fires break out on deck for example

 

[jmartkdr2]

Another possibility: if there are very, very few 8th-level characters in the world, it could well be that a ship simply is not a challenge for pcs anymore. I wouldn't expect them to worry about muggers or highwaymen at this point either.

This means that "attacking a ship" is no longer a challenge for them (and running the scene in detail is probably not worth the time.) You can just handwave such encounters if they're going to come up repeatedly.

 

[AlViking]

I feel like any halfway decent ship built in a DnD setting would have at minimum a half-dozen Glyphs of Warding installed across the ship with spells pre-installed for common threats and situations, a Create Water (rain) glyph for if any fires break out on deck for example

I think it also makes sense that some materials might be magically enhanced. So maybe the sails are fire resistant and the sides of the ship are extra slippery.

I'd even be tempted to throw in a hull that can be temporarily electrified. I know glyphs and whatnot could be expensive but so is a ship an it's cargo.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

As others have noted, if magic/fantastic attackers threaten shipping, magic/fantastic countermeasures will develop. Guilds that protect ships with specialized personnel and or devices will arise.

1) There’s a link in my sig for a thread about Underwater Adventures: plenty of discussion about RW & fantastic creatures of the sea that a summoner or commander of aquatic life might call upon.

2) As the Depeche Mode song points out, “everything counts in large amounts”- low-level magics en masse can be brutally effective when used properly. One high level party found this out when raiding a school of wizardry, and the student body started launching magic missiles from their wands…before the teachers joined in.

3) even mundane things can be a disruptive nuisance. Caltrops underfoot can limit movement, as can a deck slippery with soapy water.

4) moonshine runners in backwoods America used to modify their cars with higher powered engines to evade the authorities. In this context, ships in pirate infested waters might invest in items to boost their ships’ speed, like a Bag of Wind or an Everfull Bottle. Deployed at the right time and they might split the boarding party, or avoid them altogether.

 

[touc]

I feel like any halfway decent ship built in a DnD setting would have at minimum a half-dozen Glyphs of Warding installed across the ship with spells pre-installed for common threats and situations, a Create Water (rain) glyph for if any fires break out on deck for example

That seems to make sense, and there's probably an entire economy built around it. The PCs just sailed into the largest port in the region (with the permission of its Hurricane King who has a job for these up and coming pirates), and this might be their first exposure to the Glyph economy. I already have enchanted sails and other ship enhancements for sale on a handout for them, but not this.

I also like the idea that when you get a ship custom built, there's a special wood economy that can easily be enchanted to negate water breathing (for anything trying to get near the ship, though that will make fishing for food impossible) (or flying or even importing teleportation traps). I already planted the seed for this (purely by accident) in a prior adventure where the party had a replacement section of their hull with sacred wood that caused a real problem with a local druid.

Regarding movement, I should have clarified the encounter more:

• Enemy ship was looting a merchant ship
• PCs acted like their ship was "fleeing" the area
• They covertly swam over.
• I could see this tactic being reused in a variety of ways (pretending to be damaged to lure a ship closer, etc.), all so they can use combat skills.
• The party consists of a sea druid (shapeshifting), warlock (who can misty step), barbarian (with great climb skills), and psychic rogue. All have swim speeds and they used the water breathing spell.

 

[TheSword]

That seems to make sense, and there's probably an entire economy built around it. The PCs just sailed into the largest port in the region (with the permission of its Hurricane King who has a job for these up and coming pirates), and this might be their first exposure to the Glyph economy. I already have enchanted sails and other ship enhancements for sale on a handout for them, but not this.

I also like the idea that when you get a ship custom built, there's a special wood economy that can easily be enchanted to negate water breathing (for anything trying to get near the ship, though that will make fishing for food impossible) (or flying or even importing teleportation traps). I already planted the seed for this (purely by accident) in a prior adventure where the party had a replacement section of their hull with sacred wood that caused a real problem with a local druid.

Regarding movement, I should have clarified the encounter more:

• Enemy ship was looting a merchant ship
• PCs acted like their ship was "fleeing" the area
• They covertly swam over.
• I could see this tactic being reused in a variety of ways (pretending to be damaged to lure a ship closer, etc.), all so they can use combat skills.
• The party consists of a sea druid (shapeshifting), warlock (who can misty step), barbarian (with great climb skills), and psychic rogue. All have swim speeds and they used the water breathing spell.

what direction was the merchant ship going if the pirate ship was fleeing? Finding it hard visualize tbat,

You can see a ship from 10-20 miles away depending on the size of each ship and whether someone is in the crows nest. Weather being normal, how far away was the ship when the PCs decided to swim across.

Feels like the dash up to 3 + Con mod times Restriction is a pretty clear way to prevent their antics. They’re down to overland travel speeds then and the ship should be outpacing them. Particularly if there is another ship nearby and the captain beats to quarters.

 

[touc]

Feels like the dash up to 3 + Con mod times Restriction is a pretty clear way to prevent their antics. They’re down to overland travel speeds then and the ship should be outpacing them. Particularly if there is another ship nearby and the captain beats to quarters.

Good points on the movement. A ship under sail should outpace them.

In our scenario, the pirate ship was looting a merchant ship, spotted our PC's pirate ship, detached, fired some aggressive shots with ballista/catapult (the PC ship has a ballista but no ammo). The PCs faked fleeing (when in reality the PCs cast water breathing and leaped overboard). The pirate ship, once the ship was out of sight, returned to finish the looting. The PCs swam underwater, climbed aboard before the ship got to looting (the warlock used misty step to bypass an Athletics check to climb). Once on board, they focused-fired area attacks (not a lot of room to maneuver on a ship) to isolate the Captain and kill him (to demoralize the crew).

There is a roleplay aspect here. This guy was a wannabe pirate, but if they had attacked someone considered a true member of the Pirate Kingdom, they'd be marked for death. I'm hoping that will be a deterrent. They got lucky, this time.

So the enemy ship's advantage of movement was negated, though the PCs are certain to try and commandeer a better ship. I don't want to "thwart" well-laid plans by the PCs, but it seems to kill the entire notion of ship-to-ship classic combat. Given this world has some high-level Pirate Lords, what keeps them all from doing the same, whether it be flying, dimension door, etc.? That's my conundrum: what makes traditional sailing (speed) and weaponry (e.g. the new-age cannons that are popping up) relevant if magic can simply override it? What counter has the world come up with (such as glyphed hulls or special materials)?

 

[bloodtide]

You get three options:

1. The Easy Way. The PCs are demigods and can take out 99% of the world. This is a typical 'low magic' D&D world.

2. The Other Easy Way. 75% of the world have demigod power far above the PCs. So this type of ship has a impenetrable force shield, for example.

3.The Hard Way. You to the range of power, so some weaker then the PCs and some more powerful. Though most are quite specialized to get what they want/need. So, for example, even 'weak' ships can have a self destruct. so if they get attacked they can blow up and sink themselves in seconds. This discourages attacks. Or all cargo can be wizard marked. Or the cargo can be 'scanned' to see if it was stole or such.