Simple defenses for pirate ships wanted

[NewJeffCT]

Imagine you are a pirate hunter/privateer who just found the location of the D&D equivalent of Tortuga from Pirates of the Caribbean – you know, a wretched hive of scum and villainy, a haven for pirates, etc.

What is to stop a good-aligned sixth level sorcerer from entering this haven and launching his allotted four fireballs (3 plus a bonus from high CHA) from 640 feet away and torching a bunch of ships? Or, have two or three sorcerers just lay waste to the whole harbor? (This is a 3.5E game)

What sort of basic defenses would pirates have to keep their ships (and their livelihoods) from being sitting ducks?

I generally run a fairly low magic game, so not every pirate ship will have access to a powerful wizard to cast protective spells. However, some of them will have that access, or at least will be wealthy enough to buy some protective items, or have a wizard create them, or force a wizard to create them…

But, what about your average run-of-the-mill pirate sloop that is captained by a third or fourth level warrior or rogue and is crewed by mostly first and second level warriors, rogues and fighters? What would they do to protect themselves and their ship? I know they would have guards on their ships – but, a few guards cannot really stop a sorcerer launching a fireball from 400 or 500 feet away.

So, my questions are:
1) What sort of defenses would a low level pirate ship and crew have? (say, the captain is in the level 3-5 range and is the toughest among the crew) - mostly nonmagical, but maybe a minor magic item?
2) What about a more powerful ship? (say, the captain is level 6-8, with several underlings in the 3-5 range) What sorts of ship and personal defenses? Again, nonmagical, but also maybe a few minor magic items, and one mid-range magic item.
3) And, for the most feared pirates that might have a wizard or sorcerer on board and where the top pirate is level 9-10 or higher? What defenses would a wizard have for a ship?

I guess this would also apply to the good guys, too. What would stop a few evil sorcerers from entering the harbor of kingdom's biggest city and laying waste to a bunch of ships there?

Thanks

 

[Grymar]

1) What sort of defenses would a low level pirate ship and crew have? (say, the captain is in the level 3-5 range and is the toughest among the crew) - mostly nonmagical, but maybe a minor magic item?

Not much, maybe a magewright (in Eberron at least) or 1st level wizard who can cast mending as a quick fix for battle damage. Quench is also very useful. Aside from that you'd have to rely on a well-trained crew with standard damage control items like buckets of sand.


2) What about a more powerful ship? (say, the captain is level 6-8, with several underlings in the 3-5 range) What sorts of ship and personal defenses? Again, nonmagical, but also maybe a few minor magic items, and one mid-range magic item.

Gust of Wind can keep flaming arrows away, so a permament device that can be activated once or twice a day would work well. Still, you'd have a hard time defending against fireballs.


3) And, for the most feared pirates that might have a wizard or sorcerer on board and where the top pirate is level 9-10 or higher? What defenses would a wizard have for a ship?

Magic items that can cast Enlarged Obscuring Mist (as a defensive screen), Protection from Fire somehow permanently cast on the whole ship, or have a sorcerer on hand with a wand of fireball or dispel magic to work as a combat dispeller.

 

[NewJeffCT]

thanks, maybe I can invent an item or two that might help.

 

[Jindy]

Imagine you are a pirate hunter/privateer who just found the location of the D&D equivalent of Tortuga from Pirates of the Caribbean – you know, a wretched hive of scum and villainy, a haven for pirates, etc.

What is to stop a good-aligned sixth level sorcerer from entering this haven and launching his allotted four fireballs (3 plus a bonus from high CHA) from 640 feet away and torching a bunch of ships? Or, have two or three sorcerers just lay waste to the whole harbor? (This is a 3.5E game)

Don't forget the defenses for Tortuga itself. I imagine it's been built up by some higher level scum/pirates... maybe a druid has a Kraken animal companion patrolling the seas about 600 feet from shore. Those who aren't invited in aren't allowed in.

I seem to recall that in Stormwreck or whatever that wizard's 3.5 pirate setting book was there were things in their to control the weather to good effect. Likely a high enough wizard/sorceror resident of Tortuga can manipulate the winds/rain/huricanes to the benefit of Tortuga.

Imagine the look on the Sorceror's face when his fireball gets blown back into his face!

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

1) Any sane captain has a watch on his ship, they WILL shoot any bugger who acts suspicious...it's Tortuga, the only law is "what's acceptable".
Threatening someone's ship by fire spell casting nearbye= the miscreant deserve a ballista bolt in the eye, and every musket ball in 50 paces!
hey, they'll shoot you just in case..or maybe for fun!

2) Bases are ALWAYS chosen for defenciblity, and maybe concealability.
So, the geography will include a strong break water and other features.
The real Tortuga, iirc, had a small but high island off the shore, with a small fort, protecting the port from hurricanes, and even it's small cannons could decimate anyone from their vantage point.

So, your port won't have ships lying next ot each other, not ever, everyone knows the risks of that. Each will be berthed well apart.
And captains would likely have rivalries, so again, they'd berth apart, and watch our for sabotage etc.

A lot of pirates were ex-military or ex-sailors, so they either know about patrols, watches etc, or good ship handling and safety.
A successful pirate crew is likely to be something like 1st lvl experts or commoners, and 2 levels of fighter and/or rogue.
They weren't no slouches, not if they were successful.

Also note, many pirates were NOT "sea battlers" they were actually marines. They landed and robbed towns, far more efficient and lucrative.

So expect a few cannon or ballista loaded with langrage if a ship is beached and being careened, in that vulnerable state, cpatians make damne sure anyone so much as twitches near their pride and joy, they'll get diced!

3) If the town has a ruling council, official patrols or the like may exist.
An arcane caster with a wand of flame extenguishing (2nd ed) would rule, there's a 3rd ed spell, can't recall name, that launches a ball of water, that would be best.
Gust of Wind just fans flames....

4) Anyone doing what that character is up to, if caught, would suffer a horrible fate. Either keel hauled, impaled or covered in tar and set alight at the local "gallows point".

Folk made spectacular examples of firebugs and those who threatened military bases and towns, as it's equivalent of high treason and/or a weapon of mass destruction (fire in old towns was a horrible danger).

EVERYONE would be after his blood!

5) Spies, informers, cut throats. odd sort of folk would get reported and noted, so he'd need ot be very good at escaping notice before attacking.

6) Since fire is such a danger to ships, in a magical world I'd assume any half way decent captain would pay to get it protected with some form of fire resistant spells.
So i'd imagine masts and sails marked with runic wards, that would give 5 fire resist, or absorb 20 hp of fire etc.
More powerful captains may have a summon water elemental or the like.
I can imagine a port liek that having a deal with some wizard or priest for an instant cloudburst, in case of fire.

7) if you want ot use explosives, best realize that gunpowder was highly dangerous, slightest spark form *steel shod boots* (no sneakers back then, lol) or whatever could set it off if you're laying a bomb...or it coudl jsut fizzle..and then blow you apart when you go to re-light it.
And if you do set of a ship's magazine...well, if you aren't 100+ yards away, high chance you'll get skewered by flying shrapnel.

And don't even think about nitroglycerine or the like...the reality was that stuff was pure suicide for that kind of use (lot of folk got blown up tryign to clear wrecks and reefs with nitro, hence the demand for the much safer dynamite, Hell gate Reef in New york??? is one I vaguely recall they had that problem with).

8) Fireships were often the best weapon against a harbour, buit you'd still need more than 1, unless the pirates were incredibly stupid and berthed close by each other.
Filling the hold with barrels of tar, turpentine, naptha or cheap rum/brandy, mixed with gunpowder, such ships certianly did destroy a greta many vessels at anchor, chekc history books.
But it' was very risky work, as the ship could go up under your feet, wind could shift direction, etc.

etc

 

[Delta]

Rod of flame extinguishing. (3E)

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rods.htm#flameExtinguishing

 

[NewJeffCT]

Don't forget the defenses for Tortuga itself. I imagine it's been built up by some higher level scum/pirates... maybe a druid has a Kraken animal companion patrolling the seas about 600 feet from shore. Those who aren't invited in aren't allowed in.

I seem to recall that in Stormwreck or whatever that wizard's 3.5 pirate setting book was there were things in their to control the weather to good effect. Likely a high enough wizard/sorceror resident of Tortuga can manipulate the winds/rain/huricanes to the benefit of Tortuga.

Imagine the look on the Sorceror's face when his fireball gets blown back into his face!

Thanks - the island already has limited access from something similar to a Kraken, but pirates are a loose enough band where it would not be difficult for somebody to get to the island (leaving might be another story!)

 

[NewJeffCT]

Rod of flame extinguishing. (3E)

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rods.htm#flameExtinguishing

Thanks for looking that up for me!

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I've got a Privateer Captain for a PC so this has come up in my games quite a bit.

On a very practical, non-magical level there are a few things that can be done:

1) If you're using cannon, keep you major stores of powder in an enclosed, safe place - ideally a locked storeroom that can be sealed to some degree, either by thing metal plating, or just tar in between the joints of the wood planking. It'll take a good hit to the powder magazine to touch it off. Each cannon's powder can be kept in closed metal boxes, opened only while actually removing the powder.

2) Ships tend to be wet. Wet down your sails a bit before a fight, and they'll probably be reasonably resistant to the quick, flash-bang nature of a fireball. Heavier sails would seem likely to slow the ship down a bit, but hey, that's the tradeoff.

3) Keep men on fire patrol - if a fire starts, use pumps to wet down the area immediately. Only surface charring is likely to result from a 6-second fire.

4) Another idea is to use "turtle ships." Completely enclose the ship so that the interior of the ship has "full cover" for most purposes. I think the ancient Korean navy used turtle ships.

 

[Set]

Imagine you are a pirate hunter/privateer who just found the location of the D&D equivalent of Tortuga from Pirates of the Caribbean – you know, a wretched hive of scum and villainy, a haven for pirates, etc.

What is to stop a good-aligned sixth level sorcerer from entering this haven and launching his allotted four fireballs (3 plus a bonus from high CHA) from 640 feet away and torching a bunch of ships? Or, have two or three sorcerers just lay waste to the whole harbor? (This is a 3.5E game)

Ideally, a pirate haven should be in some sort of secluded harbor, with some sort of terrain that hinders that sort of thing. (Perhaps, like Green Ronin's Freeport, it has treacherous reefs and sandbars, and no vessel not piloted by one of the city's pilots is likely to be able to safely reach fireball range of the docks. Or it could use a more far-out solution, like the Realm's Skullport, where only approved ships are gated into a sheltered underground harbor.)

What sort of basic defenses would pirates have to keep their ships (and their livelihoods) from being sitting ducks?

I'd use Alchemy for a lower-magic solution. In a game-world where mages (and priests) can fling lightning and fire around with abandon, wooden sailing vessels might be regularly treated with a cheap alchemical 'paint' or 'shellac' that makes the wood much more resistant to flames.

Alchemical means of quickly extinguishing fires, such as 'Smotherblend' (from either the Kalamar Player's Guide or the Dragon Compendium, I forget which), a substance that can be shaken up and thrown onto a fire where it expands into a smothering foam that puts out a 5' or 10' square of fire, might also be a good idea. Stonecloth is also from one of those sources, an alchemically treated cloth that is fire-resistant, and would likely make suitable sails for ships that must operate in a world where explosive fireballs are only a pinch of bat guano away.

Some lower level spells might be specially researched as well, perhaps even a Metamagic feat that allows a spellcaster to expand a personal or touch range protective spell to his 'bonded ship,' allowing him to cast some form of low-level protection vs. fire spell and have it affect the structure of the ship itself, not merely his own body.

But, what about your average run-of-the-mill pirate sloop that is captained by a third or fourth level warrior or rogue and is crewed by mostly first and second level warriors, rogues and fighters? What would they do to protect themselves and their ship? I know they would have guards on their ships – but, a few guards cannot really stop a sorcerer launching a fireball from 400 or 500 feet away.

It might be possible to have crewmen run to man the ballistae and catapults when an unidentified ship pulls within spell-flinging range. The artillerists could then be ordered to hold their action, using spyglasses to cover different individuals on deck of the other ship. If one of them starts waggling his hands and pulling out the spell components, he might find himself needing to make a Concentration check, as a ballista bolt interrupts his casting. The difficulties of hitting a single target at that range might make this problematic, so instead, some form of 'scattershot' might be used, that peppers an area with shot that does much less damage, but is far more likely to hit a spellcaster (and everyone else within it's 10' radius target area), and might include a weaker version of the Thunderstone item as ammunition, creating loud distracting noises as the projectiles strike, to add another Concentration check (or just a penalty to the damage-based one) to the difficulty.

So, my questions are:
1) What sort of defenses would a low level pirate ship and crew have? (say, the captain is in the level 3-5 range and is the toughest among the crew) - mostly nonmagical, but maybe a minor magic item?

Not much. Same 'defenses' that the average pirate ship had against cannon, actually, which was, 'try not to get hit too much...' The ship, or at least it's sails, might be treated to be resistant to fire, but the best 'defense' would be a strong offense. Don't let enemy spellcasters get their spells off, pepper them with thunderstones, arrows, ballista bolts, alchemical fire, smokesticks, etc. Use a catapult to sling a bunch of caltrops over there (use moldy potatoes with nails jammed through them, save some money!), to make it difficult for the enemy crew to run around and deal with stuff. Pots of burning pitch might not set the enemy ship on fire, but they might raise clouds of smoke that irritate the eyes and / or block line of sight, which would hamper the use of some spells.

A really effective magical item choice might be something that can harry a potential enemy spellcaster, such as an arrow that turns into an eagle and swoops around interrupting his spellcasting for a minute (or until slain).

A Wand of Magic Missiles could be ideal, since even a single magic missile could interrupt a much more potent spell, and they have great range. Even if it only has a few charges, the captain hopefully won't *need* fifty magic missiles to interrupt an enemy caster!

A Wand of Obscuring Mist could be saved for emergency getaways, providing concealment and immunity to spells that require line of sight, giving the pirate vessel a chance to get out of range.

A Ranger, Druid, Adept or Arcanist with a Companion or Familiar would make it easier, but even an Expert can Handle Animal and train a seahawk or osprey to target people for harrying, creating a cheap technique for pirates to send their brightly-colored squawking parrots over to harass and interrupt enemy casters!

If that bird is trained to drop a Thunderstone or Tanglefoot Bag or flask of Alchemical Fire or Smokestick, so much the better, as it becomes mobile artillery, without the massive range penalties that would accrue from trying to fling that stuff at Fireball ranges with a catapult.

Catapult-sized 'shot' to generate smoke, etc. are available, IIRC, in the Heroes of Battle book, and might be useful to check out.

2) What about a more powerful ship? (say, the captain is level 6-8, with several underlings in the 3-5 range) What sorts of ship and personal defenses? Again, nonmagical, but also maybe a few minor magic items, and one mid-range magic item.
3) And, for the most feared pirates that might have a wizard or sorcerer on board and where the top pirate is level 9-10 or higher? What defenses would a wizard have for a ship?

Until the ships are abreast, something like Wind Wall is going to be a powerful defense. But even Obscuring Mist might prove to be great at eliminating Line of Sight.

If a Wall of Fire can be created on an enemy ship, the combat's done. If anybody can Control Weather, again, game over. The right summoning, such as a Thoqqua, will wreck any ship that isn't completely fireproof, as the creature can burn through rock, let alone wood, and can destroy a huge chunk of ship during each round of it's existence.

Edit to add;
I'm pretty sure that Green Ronin's Advanced Player's Guide has a few OGL spells that are well-suited to the whole 'putting out fires' thing, rewrites of 2e spells like Cloudburst and Precipitation, for instance.