Hey guys! So my last session ended with my party returning home on their ship after completing a treasure hunt. The party is 8 players, and they have a 7 man crew assisting them on operating their actual ship. During the two days since they decided to head back home, a small, extremely quick vessel was spotted trailing them. The druid wildshaped into a bird to scout them out, and discerned it was a band of hostile pirates. The session ended with the pirates reappearing out of the fog and taking aim with the on board cannon.
So far, the encounter i have planned is as follows. The pirates know they are outnumbered, so they will attempt to avoid boarding the parties ship right away. Instead, they will hang back and take shots at the ship, attempting to disable the sails with their cannon. Once the parties ship cannot move, the pirates will try to circle and take shots at the hull, demanding surrender.
The pirates are a crew of 7. The captain is a Bandit Captain, he has an Assassin ( minus the poison sword), and 5 regular bandits. The assassin may try to sneak aboard and take out a couple NPCs while everyone is distracted.
The party is 8 level 5 PCs, and their crew of 7 has a number of combat capable NPCs.
The pirates have a Troll hiding in their hold that they keep as a secret weapon.
Over all, how does this encounter look? Ive got a week to hammer out the fine details.
Be very aware of your party's Ranged spell attacks and large area of effects spells, these can quickly dominate an encounter which could be over in just one quick round (poor Troll going down with the ship). Most ships would also probably have a rowboat or two, so you could "spread out" the attackers on multiple flanks.
If your party enjoys long, grueling combat rounds, I'd recommend you cook up something on the pirate ship to mitigate the spellcasters (anti magic aura on the hull? pirate sorcerers with Counterspell?).
Also use the sea to your terrain advantage, perhaps placing coral reefs as navigating obstacles, sudden high wind gusts or crashing waves, or anything to present a sudden situational curveball. Like, someone fails a Dex save and falls overboard. Possibly, one of the cannons shots knocks over an oil lamp and the fire needs to be dealt with immediately.
Also can you clarify if the Party's ship also has cannons?
Another quick question, is the Party utilizing the crew role stats fleshed out in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh? Captain, First Mate, Boatswain, etc. Gives them extra/other things to do on their actual turn in relation to the NPC crew.
Otherwise back to your original scenario, I think at face value it could be a fun fight but overly favors the Party instead of pirates based on 8 party PCs with way better Actions (and much more variety) than a much smaller pirate crew. I do very much like your pirates having the common sense to swiftly come about to attack at range with cannons to weaken rather than a direct boarding party. ALL of the Party's NPC sailors need to be fair game (Commoner stats I'm assuming?). A lvl 5 PC could probably take a cannon shot (not sure what the damage die roll is exactly), but an NPC would be taken out immediately I'd assume.
Also, once they find a way to quickly take out all enemies without damaging the ship, suddenly now they have 2 ships.
If the players can get into melee they’ll win easily. That really isn’t much of a challenge for them if they’re able to put sail the pirates in order to close for action quickly. Even with the troll the party has a huge advantage over the pirates.
I’d do something strategic to give the pirates an edge. It doesn’t need to be much, have the pirate captain know the water and it’s hazards so that he has advantage on the opposed ship handling checks to close/avoid closing with the party’s ship. And mix a couple of hazards in, sand bars are devastating when a boat runs aground on one and it takes a couple of rounds to push the boat off of it for example. Plus, of course the pirates are going to attack at sunrise or sunset with the sun behind them blinding the party, aren’t they?
Im utilizing some rules, mostly ship stats from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. I thought about assigning the different roles, but me and my group are all fairly new and still learning the game, so i thought it might be a bit much to add too much all at once.
For the pirates, I've gone back and started making some custom beefier stat blocks for them, added a support spell caster, and decided to give the Troll a swim speed. The Troll will swim under the ship, then attempt to board and start trying to throw NPCs and some PCs overboard
Best of luck, sounds like it will be a fun combat encounter, don't be afraid to use the ship ramming action (see Saltmarsh ship to ship combat) to cause further mayhem especially if any poor PC'S or NPC's find themselves overboard just prior. And, having both pirates and PCs/NPC'S being able to claim half cover from the ship's side railings will help to draw out the rounds a bit.
Why not have a hungry pack of sharks show up in round 2 to further complicate matters and force players into divided attention? Last suggestion is to make the pirates definitely willing to turn tail and run, which could transition immediately into a very cool high seas chase scene, leaning heavily into navigation checks, ships speeds around reefs, risks of beaching, and trying to levy ballistas, cannon broad shots when the opportunity presents itself.
Let us know how it turns out!
I ran 3 sessions in a row out at sea with several ship combat scenarios, a few months ago, and boy was I humbled with the amount of consideration for optional rules and how easily the ranged spell caster nearly took out a ghost ship out singlehandedly. I learned a lot for my own future reference, but the gang is still talking about that encounter and as long as Your party has FUN one way or another that's what counts.
Building a Pirate Encounter, comments appreciated
Hey guys! So my last session ended with my party returning home on their ship after completing a treasure hunt. The party is 8 players, and they have a 7 man crew assisting them on operating their actual ship. During the two days since they decided to head back home, a small, extremely quick vessel was spotted trailing them. The druid wildshaped into a bird to scout them out, and discerned it was a band of hostile pirates. The session ended with the pirates reappearing out of the fog and taking aim with the on board cannon.
So far, the encounter i have planned is as follows.
The pirates know they are outnumbered, so they will attempt to avoid boarding the parties ship right away. Instead, they will hang back and take shots at the ship, attempting to disable the sails with their cannon. Once the parties ship cannot move, the pirates will try to circle and take shots at the hull, demanding surrender.
The pirates are a crew of 7. The captain is a Bandit Captain, he has an Assassin ( minus the poison sword), and 5 regular bandits. The assassin may try to sneak aboard and take out a couple NPCs while everyone is distracted.
The party is 8 level 5 PCs, and their crew of 7 has a number of combat capable NPCs.
The pirates have a Troll hiding in their hold that they keep as a secret weapon.
Over all, how does this encounter look? Ive got a week to hammer out the fine details.
Be very aware of your party's Ranged spell attacks and large area of effects spells, these can quickly dominate an encounter which could be over in just one quick round (poor Troll going down with the ship). Most ships would also probably have a rowboat or two, so you could "spread out" the attackers on multiple flanks.
If your party enjoys long, grueling combat rounds, I'd recommend you cook up something on the pirate ship to mitigate the spellcasters (anti magic aura on the hull? pirate sorcerers with Counterspell?).
Also use the sea to your terrain advantage, perhaps placing coral reefs as navigating obstacles, sudden high wind gusts or crashing waves, or anything to present a sudden situational curveball. Like, someone fails a Dex save and falls overboard. Possibly, one of the cannons shots knocks over an oil lamp and the fire needs to be dealt with immediately.
Also can you clarify if the Party's ship also has cannons?
Boldly go
Love all these suggestions so far! Thank you! And the parties ship has two mounted ballista, but no cannons
Another quick question, is the Party utilizing the crew role stats fleshed out in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh? Captain, First Mate, Boatswain, etc. Gives them extra/other things to do on their actual turn in relation to the NPC crew.
Otherwise back to your original scenario, I think at face value it could be a fun fight but overly favors the Party instead of pirates based on 8 party PCs with way better Actions (and much more variety) than a much smaller pirate crew. I do very much like your pirates having the common sense to swiftly come about to attack at range with cannons to weaken rather than a direct boarding party. ALL of the Party's NPC sailors need to be fair game (Commoner stats I'm assuming?). A lvl 5 PC could probably take a cannon shot (not sure what the damage die roll is exactly), but an NPC would be taken out immediately I'd assume.
Also, once they find a way to quickly take out all enemies without damaging the ship, suddenly now they have 2 ships.
Boldly go
If the players can get into melee they’ll win easily. That really isn’t much of a challenge for them if they’re able to put sail the pirates in order to close for action quickly. Even with the troll the party has a huge advantage over the pirates.
I’d do something strategic to give the pirates an edge. It doesn’t need to be much, have the pirate captain know the water and it’s hazards so that he has advantage on the opposed ship handling checks to close/avoid closing with the party’s ship. And mix a couple of hazards in, sand bars are devastating when a boat runs aground on one and it takes a couple of rounds to push the boat off of it for example. Plus, of course the pirates are going to attack at sunrise or sunset with the sun behind them blinding the party, aren’t they?
Professional computer geek
Im utilizing some rules, mostly ship stats from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. I thought about assigning the different roles, but me and my group are all fairly new and still learning the game, so i thought it might be a bit much to add too much all at once.
For the pirates, I've gone back and started making some custom beefier stat blocks for them, added a support spell caster, and decided to give the Troll a swim speed. The Troll will swim under the ship, then attempt to board and start trying to throw NPCs and some PCs overboard
Best of luck, sounds like it will be a fun combat encounter, don't be afraid to use the ship ramming action (see Saltmarsh ship to ship combat) to cause further mayhem especially if any poor PC'S or NPC's find themselves overboard just prior. And, having both pirates and PCs/NPC'S being able to claim half cover from the ship's side railings will help to draw out the rounds a bit.
Why not have a hungry pack of sharks show up in round 2 to further complicate matters and force players into divided attention? Last suggestion is to make the pirates definitely willing to turn tail and run, which could transition immediately into a very cool high seas chase scene, leaning heavily into navigation checks, ships speeds around reefs, risks of beaching, and trying to levy ballistas, cannon broad shots when the opportunity presents itself.
Let us know how it turns out!
I ran 3 sessions in a row out at sea with several ship combat scenarios, a few months ago, and boy was I humbled with the amount of consideration for optional rules and how easily the ranged spell caster nearly took out a ghost ship out singlehandedly. I learned a lot for my own future reference, but the gang is still talking about that encounter and as long as Your party has FUN one way or another that's what counts.
Boldly go
Thanks for all the feedback! Im excited to run this encounter. I'll definitely post an update once we have the session
Well it's been a year. How did this turn out? Sounds like a fantastic encounter.