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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zardnaar" data-source="post: 9778570" data-attributes="member: 6716779">That's true. Cannons have never worked well in D&D. Generally they cant sink a ship very fast and its kind of what PCs often want to do.  Another problem is realism. Once PCs hit certain levels pirates are generally low CR foes. Its kind of immersion breaking having crews that are CR2 or higher across the board.  The boss pirate may be a half demon or whatever with suitable crews but yeah.  Finally the naval combat tends to be a mini fane. Some players build around that others don't. Its a d20 problem in general even in other genres eg star wars.  A DM kinda has to incorporate naval combat into the gane eve if its abstract. Best approach is usually opposed skill checks to get into range. Faster ship has advantage if the slow ships very slow they can have disadvantage.   Cannons can be subbed with magical equivalents. Eg acid firing Cannons or "prism flowers" that fire sunbeams. If PCs have that and typical oponent ship doesn't yeah see previous comment about immersion  breaking. Also plundering merchants its not exactly good.  Spelljammer is easier as neogi, beholder and ilithids aren't very sympathetic. In 2E my players tricked out a man o war for speed and maneuvering. They rammed other ships essentially one shooting them and using ranged attacks on the survivors. Theres always a rule explot somewhere.  If you've played some video games eg Assassins Creed Black Flag/Odyssey, Port Royale series, Sid Meiers Pirates the ship combat is mostly a sub game and the computer handles the details.  Minimum the ship to ship combat. Make it boarding based. Happy pirates vs a evil empire or inhuman die works best imho.  Pathfinder has a lot of material im trying to locate the stuff I used. Theres also a 3E books I found useful. I still own it but good luck finding it.</blockquote>

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