Ship Features and Actions

Enemy ship actions

Enemy ship officers and their crews take actions in the iniatitive order, just like PCs and NPCs, such that action may alternate between allies and foes during a combat round, as per usual combat.

Likewise, enemy ship officers can activate a ship's legendary action after any player's turn.

Small ships or no crew = no crew actions

For ships small enough that there are no NPC crew groups, actions are per the usual combat flow. Player characters can ready actions, trim sails, load/assist to load and fire ballistas, etc. There are no ship "actions" unless there are NPC crews.

Ship weapon placements

A ship can have a maximum number of weapons equal to its size. If you are using ships with a large number of cannons, they must be grouped into batteries and resolved in a number of actions no greater than the ship's class in order to maintain game flow. E.g. a group fires two ballistae with one attack roll.

Crew AC and HP

Crew AC is 12. They are treated as a swarm with 100 HP, with vulnerability to area effect attacks. Crew on deck can be targeted.

When a crew group's HP falls below half of max, they have disadvantage on skill checks (not attack rolls) and deal 1/2 damage in close quarters combat.

When hull HP is below half of max, 1/2 damage from each attack is added additionally to one crew group below decks.

Crew skill Checks

Crew may need to perform skill checks both in- and out of combat initiative. For small ships, 3 PCs constitute a crew group. (Small ship PC crews can operate one ballista, fire a mangonel every other turn and resolve combat individually.)

For routine activities such as trimming sails, rowing, or weighing anchors the skill DC is 5. Basic crews have proficiency +4 (per GoS). Skilled crews have higher proficiency for skill checks, though they demand more pay.

The following condition affect the skill check DC. Other conditions or effects may apply at the DMs discretion such as a deck being overcrowded, severe cold, etc..

A critical fail on a crew skill check may result in an equipment failure or hazard, such as an unsecured line lashing across the deck or wildly swinging sail boom, necessitating Dex saving throws from crew or PCs on deck, or potentially a sailor going overboard or being maimed, which could affect morale and loyalty.

Loyalty

Loyalty affects a crew's proficiency. (They try harder when they care.)

As a DM you can choose to ignore crew skill checks until there is something that makes a skill check more difficult, such as trimming sails during a tacking movement or in high seas.

Movement and Actions

In initiative, the ship's captain/pilot/helmsman can attempt to make movement in addition to any crew actions.

Crew Actions

Crew actions (detailed in a succeeding section) include

• trim/unfurling/furling sails
• loading/firing weapons
• dropping/weighing anchor
• ship weapon attacks
• take cover (dodge)
• put out fire
• shoring hull breaches and bailing water
• lookout for enemies
• close quarters combat
• grappling lines/cutting lines
• deploy/recover longboat
• boarding
• mooring/docking

Turning and Size

Long ships are harder to turn, requiring up to 2 or 3 rounds to make a 90 degree turn.

AC and Size

Larger ships have thicker hulls and higher base AC, which is offset by the Dex bonus of smaller ships, such that all ships and ship sections begin with AC independent of ship class

Crew Size

A skeleton crew can operate a ship, but cannot keep up with maintenance tasks or respond as well to emergencies. A skeleton screw has no proficiency bonus for tasks such as putting out fires, patching and shoring the hull, repairs, bailing the hold, maintenance checks, etc.

Assisting the Crew

If one or more players characters with a suitably useful ability or skill (such as Str, Dex, or Int) uses their action to assist a crew, the DM may grant advantage to the group, or remove a disadvantage due to low group HP.

Untrained PCs/NPCs working without crew have no proficiency and disadvantage on crew skill checks.

Passengers

The ship class table shows how many passengers can berth (stay overnight) on a ship. A ship can ferry two or three times as may passengers over a short distance. As a rule of thumb, budget 500 lbs. per berthing passenger and crew member for their weight, trunk and required food.

Sailing speed

Sailing speed depends on ship size, wind speed, direction and crew skill.

Due to the interference of bow and stern waves, longer ships have less drag and sail faster.

For optimal sailing, the angle of the sails has to be adjusted when the ship changes direction. This is called "trimming" the sails. It only has to be done when changing direction.

Tacking means changing direction while sailing into the wind. This is tricky and dangerous. Ship speed drops dramatically, and the ship lists suddenly in the opposite direction.

Rowing Speed

Only ships with a rowing galley or small ships with oars have a rowing speed. Rowing speed is affected by crew health, wind, and waves.

Targeting ships

When a ship is attacked, the default target is the hull. The attack can also target the sails/mast, helm/rudder, or a weapon system. Each has its own AC and HP.

If the attack is an area affect requiring a save, the ship attempts a save (e.g. Dex save). If the area effect includes multiple systems such as the helm, sails and deck (hull), each system takes damage.

Hull AC and HP

If an enemy does not target a specific ship section, the target is the hull. Hulls are resistant to fire damage because they are wet.

The AC for the hull is determined by the ship's size and Dex modifier.

The hull keeps the ship up. If it is reduced to 0 HP or the hold reaches flood stage 5, the ship is sinking.

When a hull is severely damaged, weapon attacks pass some damage onto crew or passengers below decks. When a hull is sufficiently damaged, if a portion of the crew does not take the "shore/bail" action, the ship will take on water and add one flood level, suffering a penalty to Dex (AC), and speed and increasing the DC for the "shore/bail" skill check.

Hull Damage threshold

Damage below the damage threshold has no effect. Damage above threshold debits from HP as usual. Adding an armor layer (max 2 layers) increases damage threshold by +5 HP and reduces passenger capacity by 25% of max for each layer, up to a maximum damage threshold of 20.

Sails and Masts AC and HP

Sails and masts share a common HP pool.

Sails have AC 12 and are resistant to piercing damage as bullets, arrows, spears and ballista bolts simply pass through leaving only a small hole.

Masts have AC 18 and have no damage resistances.

Sail/mast damage has effects on ship speed.

Helm and Rudder AC and HP

The helm, including any wheel house, and the rudder are difficult to target and have an AC of 18. They share a common HP pool. When this pool reaches zero, the ship cannot be steered, except by oars if there is a rowing galley, and the ship Dexterity decreases by 4, which reduces its hull AC correspondingly.

Ship weapons AC and HP

Ship weapons have the same AC as the hull. Each of the ship weapons systems has its own HP pool. When a weapon is below 25% of max HP it has disadvantage on attack rolls.

Fire

Ship sections that take fire damage must succeed on a Con saving throw of DC 5 or 1/2 of the fire damage (whichever is higher) or catch fire. Wet sections have advantage on the save.

Fires begin at intensity equal to fire damage divided by 10.

Each round roll 1d4 to determine the fire behavior. When a fire reaches intensity of 5, make another Con save to see if the fire spreads to another section. In the new section the fire begins at intensity 1.

If a crew group is successful in a put out fire action the intensity decreases by 1. Multiple groups can take the put out fire action.

At the beginning of a new round fire in a section/system does 1d6 damage per level of intensity.

Flooding

When the hull takes damage and ends up below 25% of max hull HP, the ship attempts a Con saving throw of DC 8 or 1/2 of damage taken (whichever is greater). On a fail, the ship gains the flooding condition.

If a ship begins a round in the flooding condition and ends the round without a crew group making a successful shoring/bailing skill check, the ship gains an additional flooding stage. Once a group succeeds on a shoring/bailing skill check, the ship is no longer in the flooding condition. Additional successful shoring/bailing skill checks reduce the flood stage by 1.

Flooding is aggregate. If a ship fails two flooding Con saves in a round, the flooding stage can increase by two in the next round. If on group succeeds in shoring/bailing, flooding increases by 1. If both groups succeed, flood stage does not increase.

As flooding increases, the crew has to brace shoring timbers against hull breaches in increasingly deeper water in the hold and the DC for a successful shoring/bailing skill check increases.

Flooding decreases the ship Dex modifier, which reduces the AC of each ship section correspondingly.

The base DC for shoring/bailing can be affected by rough seas. At flood stage 5, the ship sinks 5 ft./round.

Airships

Airships differ from sea ships in a few key ways.

• Due to airship complexity, there are no class 0 airships (too small).
• Airships require a magical source of bouyancy in the hull to stay in the air, such as an Aetherium core (1/class), soarwood, or magical artifact or construct.
• Rather than flooding, airship hull damage causes the ship to lose buoyancy, meaning the ship struggles to gain altitude and eventually begins to go down.
• Airships have no keel so they can't sail into the wind. An airship can adjust its altitude to try to find winds in the direction it is going, but this is not always possible. Another source of propulsion (propellers, elemental, gust spell construct, etc.) is generally required if a ship is not traveling in the direction of the prevailing winds.
• Airships do not have the bow/stern wave interference of sailing ships so ship speed is not dependent on size.
• Airships have lower damage threshold due to lighter construction. Adding armor to increase damage threshold will reduce cargo and passenger capacity.
• Airships have +1 Dex and -1 Str and Con versus ships of similar size, which means +1 AC for airships—hard to hit things that can move up and down, too!
• Airship weapons are of lighter construction and have less HP and passenger capacity.

Ship repairs

Submersibles

Submarines are like airships except:

• damage threshold is 5 * class.
• the submersible can be class 0.
• at maximum hull mishaps the submersible sinks
• crew close quarters attacks against targets outside the submersible are not possible while submerged.
• no disadvantage to stealth while paddling/turning a screw
• hull mishap is technically flooding, but the effect is reduced lift/buoyancy similar to airships. The crew can stops leaks, but cannot bail unless surfaced. (The spell create or destroy water is useful.)