Vehicles

Be aware the images and info below may be out of date, the most recent version will always be in the 5eTools Collection (See Homebrew).

Ship Rules

Every creature on the ship is considered either a passenger or a crew member. This is decided by the creature each round, either on their own turn or the ship's turn, whichever comes first in the turn order.

A passenger acts as normal in combat but a crew member forgos an action on their turn to manage the ship for the rest of the round. A crew member may still take reactions and bonus actions, as well as any additional actions, such as those granted by Action Surge or Haste. They can only move as their duty would allow. For example, they may move up and down the deck but if they jump overboard, they are no longer a crew member.

A creature can only be a crew member if it is physically and mentally capable of doing so and its Strength and Wisdom scores are both 6 or higher. A ship cannot have more crew than it's crew capacity.

Many NPCs, particularly civilians and hired crew, might not contribute to ship combat except to serve as crew. As such, you do not need to track initiative and movement for every individual character. When targeted by area effects, assume that these untracked crew and passengers are evenly distributed across the ship in sensible locations, such as crew being near weapons, oars and sails or passengers being below deck and behind cover. For example, if a ballista is targeted by the fire ball spell, you might assume that 1d4+2 of the ship's untracked crew within range of it. If these crew are just hirelings, rather than characters with statblocks, assume that all their ability scores are throws are 10 (+0) and that they die instantly if they would take anymore than 5 damage.

A captain can be either a passenger or a crew member. They issue commands to the ship on their turn (no action required by the captain). The ship's turn is taken on the same turn as the captain's. If there is no captain, the ship acts on it's own initiative and is controlled by the DM. Any creature that the crew members would conceivably obey can become a captain, this is usually a designated creature but an acting captain may step in during emergencies.

A ship's possible actions are defined by their crew numbers and the components it has, as described in the stat blocks. A ship can only have one turn per round in combat, regardless of how many creatures take the captain role in that round. Ship weapons will use their own statistics for attacks regardless of the creature operating them.

On larger ships, the crew roles would likely be filled by NPCs. But smaller ships may require PC crew members to function. If a ship becomes a major part of a campaign, I'll probably implement some extra rules from Ghosts of Saltmarch such as crew morale and special officer roles.

These rules would likely also apply to the strandbeests in Xheros or other large crewed vehicles.

Ship Rules ALT

At the top of the round, every creature on board a ship must decide if they are going to act as a passenger or as crew. Their choice lasts until the end of the round, or until they are removed from the ship.

Passengers

Passengers act as normal whilst on board a ship.

If they do not intend to fight, they can simply take the Dodge or Hide actions while behind cover. While doing so, they cannot act and cannot be targeted by effects while the ship is still floating and is not being boarded.

Crew

Crew effectively forgo their turn in favor of aiding the ship. They cannot take actions.

At the DM's discretion, notable characters, such as PCs, might still be able to use bonus actions, reactions or additional actions, such as those granted by action surge.

Most crew will be typically be NPCs that are hirelings, who will only contribute to combat via ship actions and will always be crew rather than passengers. For such crew, consider the following:

You do not need to track initiative, statistics or location for them.
You can assume they are sensibly distributed throughout the ship.
When an effect targets an area, such as the fireball spell, the DM might decide that a number of the crew would be caught in the area without suitable cover. For example, 1d4 crew per 10 feet of a sphere or cube's radius, or 1 per 5 feet of a cone or line.
When a crew member is targeted by an attack or caught in an effect's area as described above, assume that they have an AC of 12, that all their ability scores are 10 (+0) and that they immediately die if they take 5 or more damage. It is often advisable to roll saving throws as a group.
Some captains or ships may have features that improve the statistics described above.

For example, a ship has 30 hirelings in its crew. An enemy target's the deck with a fireball, hoping to get one of the ship's weapons and some of the crew. The DM decides that 4 (2d4) of the crew are within the area of the fireball and unable to take cover. The DM rolls a single +0 Dexterity saving throw and fails. All 4 of those crew are killed and the ship now acts as if its has 26 hirelings in its crew.

Captain and Ship Actions

One creature on board the ship takes the role of captain and controls the ship on the ship's turn. The captain can be crew or passenger and can still act normally on their own turn if they are a passenger. The captain should be someone that the majority of the crew would willingly obey. The role can move to another creature, though the ship can not act if it already has this round. The captain can be a hireling within the crew if no other creature has taken the role.

Epic Scale Combat (Optional)

At long range or with many ship, tracking creatures on board each ship becomes far more trouble than its worth. The DM might decide to declare Epic Scale Combat.

At epic scale, you do not track the intiative, statistics or location of any creatures on board a ship, only the ships themselves. It is also recomended that, if you play on a grid, use 60ft tiles with ships occupying various sized spaces as determined by the DM.

At the DM's discretion, some notable creatures ona ship, such as players, might be allowed to take an action at the end of the ship's action, however they canot target individual creatures on another ship, only the ship's components. The area effects described in Crew might still apply.

Quick Boarding (Optional)

Boarding could be as simple as when ships are close enough, passengers can move over to the other ship and begin attacking as normal. In this situation, it may be a good idea to treat hireling crew as minions (as decribed on page X of Flee Mortals! by MCDM productions) or to say they simply refuse to engage in direct combat, effectively surendering if all other creatures on the ship are defeated.

At epic scale, boarding might occur when a ship successfully uses an action to grapple another ship in an adjecent space (60 feet). This can either trigger more standard combat in which neither ship can act, but all creatures on board both ships can act normally as described above.

Alternatively, if the DM and group wishes to handle boarding quickly, the DM can instead call for a series of contested rolls. For each check:

A creature respresenting the ship with the fewest crew makes one of the following checks of its choice; Strength (Athletics), Dexterity (Acrobactics), Wisdom (Perception) or Charisma (Intimidation). The DM might allow other types if they deem them appropriate.
A creature from the other ship then contests it with their own check. They may choose any check from the same list.
On a fail, a ship loses 2d6 crew. On a tie, both ships lose 1d6 crew. Alternatively, the DM might decide to deal 2d8 damage to all creatures on board the ship on a fail (or 1d8 on a tie).
The process is repeated two more times. A different creature can make the check, but no creature can make the same type of check that a creature from their ship has already made.

Once all three checks have been made, the ship with the most successes. is the victor and the other ship is disabled, sinks or surenders. On a tie, the DM might use the remaining crew numbers or call for a 4th check.

For example, a ship with 30 crew attempts to board a ship with 25 crew.

The second ship has the fewest crew so it goes first, the captain rols a 12 on a Strength (Athletics) check. The captain of the first ship then decides to contest that with a Charisma (Intimidation) check and rolls a 15. The second ship rolls 2d6 and loses 6 crew.
The second ship, now with 19 crew, goes first again. A knight on board decides to make a Charisma (Intimidation) check and gets an 18. This is contested by the first's gunners who make a Wisdom (perception) check, rolling a 15. The first ship loses and rolls 2d6, losing 12 crew.
The first ship, with 18 crew, now goes first. A skirmisher opts for a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, rolling a 17. The second ship contests this with their captain making a Charisma (Intimidation) check, also rolling a 17. Both ships roll 1d6, the first ship loses 2 crew while the second ship loses 4.
With one success each, the first ship wins with 16 crew versus the second's 15. The first ship decides to sink the second ship, kill officers and recruit any surendering crew to refill their numbers.

Cyranos Ships

Small fishing boats and merchant vessels will come under this statblock.

Not all small ships will have a ballista. Many won't unless designed for warfare.

Penteconters and similar come under this stablock

Triremes and similar come under this statblock

These are the ships generals and monarchs use to show off.

Tessarakonteres would be a good example of this.

Northlands Ships

Northlands ships are nearly all longships. While some are capable of ship warfare, they're main function is to transport people, livestock and goods over water. Almost none of these ship have space for large weapons, though archers and casters among the passengers are fairly common.

Karves are a small longships meant for transporting cargo and livestock and not typically designed for warfare. Though they are perfectly capable of transporting small teams of raiders to the shore.

Snekkar are small longships designed for mobility. They are lightweight and not as durable as other warships. They also have very little space for cargo. This makes them ideal for shallow rivers or carrying over land, but they are not suited for open water or long voyages.

Skeider are large warships and probably the most well known longships to those outside the Northlands since they can handle open water much better than smaller ships.

Drakkar are the largest and grandest longships in the Northlands. They are usually the flagships of rich monarchs and warlords.

Other Ships

This is a specific boat. Basically a small ship with no ballista.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse