Late addition: a beholder will attack the airship while in flight. It should be easy for them to outrun it if they so choose, but if it gets a Telekinesis Ray off: oops, dropped ya.
How are you planning to run the "chase" for this situation? I have not found a good mechanic for chases (not a fan of the DMG version) that I've been happy with.
I shouldn't need to use any special chase rules in this case. The Beholder has a move speed of 20', whereas the airship has a move speed of 60', and can dash for 120' if the helmsman spends his action. If they choose not to fight they'll be in the Beholder's eye ray range for two rounds as the Beholder pops up in front of them, they pass, and move on. (The airship has limited maneuverability, so they can't just turn on a dime and run back the way they came.)
Be prepared for the utterly inevitable phrase "Ramming speed!".
What damage does a dashing airship deal to a beholder?
Late addition: a beholder will attack the airship while in flight. It should be easy for them to outrun it if they so choose, but if it gets a Telekinesis Ray off: oops, dropped ya.
How are you planning to run the "chase" for this situation? I have not found a good mechanic for chases (not a fan of the DMG version) that I've been happy with.
I shouldn't need to use any special chase rules in this case. The Beholder has a move speed of 20', whereas the airship has a move speed of 60', and can dash for 120' if the helmsman spends his action. If they choose not to fight they'll be in the Beholder's eye ray range for two rounds as the Beholder pops up in front of them, they pass, and move on. (The airship has limited maneuverability, so they can't just turn on a dime and run back the way they came.)
Be prepared for the utterly inevitable phrase "Ramming speed!".
What damage does a dashing airship deal to a beholder?
Thanks for the warning.
The airship is not very maneuverable, so if I wanted to I could just say, "It doesn't work. He dodges." But I think I will give them a shot: melee attack at disadvantage.
Ramming with the spar is somewhat like a lance, so I'll give it 1d12 damage.
The airship's dash speed is 120' per round. 20' per second is equivalent to about 6' of fall damage. Basically the force of this attack is equivalent to if a knight dive-bombed you from 1 story up. I'm willing to double the damage to 2d12, since it will be satisfying to get some decent damage for a cool move. But I don't think it's combat-wrecking.
The airship is not very maneuverable, so if I wanted to I could just say, "It doesn't work. He dodges."
Err, just wondering... what powers the airship?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
My players has spent 30:ish sessions noodling around Secomber, questing and socializing with my metaplot slowly building. But we ended last session with them finally standing before the gates of Waterdeep, where they have lots of stuff to research and people to talk to. I have spent a couple of months doing serious prepwork of developing Waterdeep npc:s, webs of intrigue and political shenanigans.
So my next session will probably be all roleplaying with me spreading lots of intrigue breadcrumbs. Which is fine, me and my players really enjoy the social and roleplaying aspect of gaming.
Is a civil war coming to the pirate city of Bilgewater? The once ruler of Bilgewater, Gangplank, the Reaver King, and the island natives Buhru gather their supporters to take on the pirate queen Miss Fortune for control of the city while the Zoo Crew (the players) are stuck in the middle. Which side does the crew take or is it time to leave the Bilgewater and move on to Saltmarsh.
I expect this to be a heavy role-playing session as the party will discuss if they should get involved. The party knows Miss Fortune and has worked with her in the past, though not always on amicable terms still they have witnessed her benevolent rule of the city. The rumors of Gangplank had circled around the game for several months now always mention the once ruler is in hiding after a failed assassination attempt by Miss Fortune nearly killed him. Recently the party has been approached by Gangplank and the Buhru to join his side for the upcoming civil war and the party 'politely' declined his offer. Now the party is reconsidering who they trust, Gangplank, and help retake the city or alert, Miss Fortune of the Rever King return, as they have taken the time to learn more about these two rulers and what may be best for Bilgewater.
Given this group's history, I'm guessing they will leave the island and head off to Saltmarsh, which I've planned so far. If not...well that takes things in a whole new direction as I will have to create a major, major political theme adventure.
They still haven't faced the Beholder, since we ended the session early, but they have spotted the drow army and deduced they're marching on Moonpool. They're going back to warn the Moonpudlians. If they escape the Beholder's gaze and the drow army's thunder cannons.
They still haven't faced the Beholder, since we ended the session early, but they have spotted the drow army and deduced they're marching on Moonpool. They're going back to warn the Moonpudlians. If they escape the Beholder's gaze and the drow army's thunder cannons.
They find a way to lure the Beholder to the Drow army to have them attack each other.
They still haven't faced the Beholder, since we ended the session early, but they have spotted the drow army and deduced they're marching on Moonpool. They're going back to warn the Moonpudlians. If they escape the Beholder's gaze and the drow army's thunder cannons.
They find a way to lure the Beholder to the Drow army to have them attack each other.
The Beholder is working for the drow army. But anything's possible. We have some high-charisma characters.
ONE of my campaigns I am super hyped for as our previous session was a great role play one and the party are facing a trial with some character plot coming in!
The other we’re on the sixth session of the final chapter of Tomb of Annihilation and I am TIRED.
ONE of my campaigns I am super hyped for as our previous session was a great role play one and the party are facing a trial with some character plot coming in!
The other we’re on the sixth session of the final chapter of Tomb of Annihilation and I am TIRED.
Tomb really intimidated me to the point where I didn’t run it.
Party just found a Chuul hidden in a cave on the river by the town the adventure is based around currently. It had grabbed a dockworker from the small harbour and dragged it away.
They killed one and another appeared and then disappeared under a pool of water in this cave. So one of 3 things will happen.
Party chase underwater and find 2 Chuul under there fight them, the aim of the encounter is to prepare them for the dangers and difficulties of underwater combat (there is an aboleth looming in the background).
Party tell me they are taking a short rest, Chuul hit and run interrupting said rest meaning they hopefully give chase underwater.
Party retreat to recover head back to town, return to find Chuul gone, in a few sessions time more attacks on dock workers and party lose standing with town :).
I see this is going to be an interesting session as the EotW tailers this multi-tier arena combat with the assumption the characters are going to be willing to fight their opponents and not try to escape from Sahuagins by taking their captures head-on. While in the first combat in the area the players do not have any of their gear there are still two magic users that have Cantrips, VS spells and a Monk that can put some hurt on whomever they end up facing. It's not until the second combat with the Sharks where they get their gear back where they are more likely to go off-script and try to capture the Sahuagin leader and force their exit. I've placed enough Sahuagin in the area so hopefully, if the party does try to take on their captors it will be pretty lopsided combat.
I think I've worked out all the possible scenarios the party can throw me that are not covered in the EotW. Still, this group of players has a tendency to surprise me with their actions so maybe any of this prep will not have been enough.
They still haven't faced the Beholder, since we ended the session early, but they have spotted the drow army and deduced they're marching on Moonpool. They're going back to warn the Moonpudlians. If they escape the Beholder's gaze and the drow army's thunder cannons.
They ran from the drow army and the Beholder, but not before it got off several scary eye rays and the drow thundercannons took out a couple of their rocs.
They're signed up to hold back the drow army to protect their spellcasters' flank while they bombard the drow front lines. However, before that, they want to do a little prep. They might be looking for some spells for the wizard to copy, shopping for improved weapons, and following up on a plot line they left hanging.
Definitely looking forward to my next session. Players have been dealing with a lot of social interactions and scheming between fights for the last several adventures, so I'm throwing them into a good old fashioned dungeon dive to change things up a bit.
The dungeon dwellers themselves are nothing the PCs can't handle, but I am also going to have rival parties of treasure seekers showing up at intervals to challenge them for the main prize. The entire dungeon is an LSAT style logic game (but a relatively easy one) that must be solved in order to enter the central chamber. And there are ninjas...
Very excited to see how my players react to the puzzle, and I will have to be quick on the VTT controls to ensure things don't get bogged down, as there are a lot of moving parts.
Well, I have two different groups running my Drow Civil War campaign (all kids, nieces and nephews). And we play on a VERY irregular schedule. Two are doing a reskinned combination of Lost Caverns of Tsjocanth and White Plume Mountain and another four are doing a Shrine of the Kuo-Toa thing. Also, I have one player and a demon NPC who were ditched in Sigil and they'll need to get some resolution and be brought back into the mix somehow.
I can't say how far either group will get by when. But this is the stage of the campaign, where I wanted to introduce some big magic items that we'll still have around for the finale, whenever that happens and whoever is there. So The Necropolis of the Drow is a natural place to find an artifact, I just need to settle on which. At the Kuo-Toa shrine, I took a page from one of the quests in ROTFM.
Dr Albruf Mazinkaiser was one of the greatest gnomes in his field when he was kidnapped in a raid on the Underdark trading city of Zondernaam. All of his fellow captives were eaten alive in a sacrifice to one of the Kuo-Toas' ineffable deities, but Mazinkaiser escaped and hid in the temple. He quickly realized that they were completely blind (I just wanted them to have blindsense instead of darkvision), not particularly bright, and crazy as a cut snake. For years, he lived among them in disguise, learning their language and even becoming something of a holy man. He sent his followers out through the Underdark to gather very specific sacrifices to please the Large Metal God of Horrible Vengeance. Essentially, in Tony Stark fashion, Mazinkaiser has built The Mighty Servant of Leuk-O and is about to power it up and destroy his captors and probably also Zondernaam for never looking for him.
My next session running Wednesday campaign: The players are beat up, nearly out of resources, and unable to rest heading into the main fight of the quest. I'm very concerned. Considering bringing in a famous guest NPC (old PC of different campaign, well known by some of the players) to heal them and help out a little bit.
My next session running Friday campaign: The players are currently exploring sahaugin caves, and I know they can clear it out with no problem. They will level immediately afterward, which will mean level 10, and I'm really excited. After that, they will receive two new quest options, and they are pretty interesting.
My session Sunday as a player: We are exploring goblin caves, attempting to find kidnapped villagers. Hopefully my 3rd level tabaxi monk will be able to catch arrows and use 'Furry of Blows' with her 'Kitty Points'
My session playing in Saturday campaign: We are about to unfreeze the mouth of a very icy human in the tunnel near the cistern beneath a castle. We are chasing a powerful spellcaster who ran away from us last combat and is ahead of us by about 5 minutes.
In the game I play in, we cheated past the puzzle by stone shaping the seal to the next level.
The DM is heavily hinting that we better long rest before we face the final boss, even though we're still in the dungeon. I'm going to scry on the BBEG and see if I can figure how much time we have on the ticking clock.
Late addition: a beholder will attack the airship while in flight. It should be easy for them to outrun it if they so choose, but if it gets a Telekinesis Ray off: oops, dropped ya.
How are you planning to run the "chase" for this situation? I have not found a good mechanic for chases (not a fan of the DMG version) that I've been happy with.
I shouldn't need to use any special chase rules in this case. The Beholder has a move speed of 20', whereas the airship has a move speed of 60', and can dash for 120' if the helmsman spends his action. If they choose not to fight they'll be in the Beholder's eye ray range for two rounds as the Beholder pops up in front of them, they pass, and move on. (The airship has limited maneuverability, so they can't just turn on a dime and run back the way they came.)
Be prepared for the utterly inevitable phrase "Ramming speed!".
What damage does a dashing airship deal to a beholder?
Thanks for the warning.
The airship is not very maneuverable, so if I wanted to I could just say, "It doesn't work. He dodges." But I think I will give them a shot: melee attack at disadvantage.
Ramming with the spar is somewhat like a lance, so I'll give it 1d12 damage.
The airship's dash speed is 120' per round. 20' per second is equivalent to about 6' of fall damage. Basically the force of this attack is equivalent to if a knight dive-bombed you from 1 story up. I'm willing to double the damage to 2d12, since it will be satisfying to get some decent damage for a cool move. But I don't think it's combat-wrecking.
My players attacked an airship head on last session and stopped moving right in front of it. It has a movement of 40 feet, and is a Gargantuan object, so I let them use their Reaction for a Dexterity saving throw to get out of the way (they had a flying speed of 30 feet). They failed, suffering 1d6 damage for every 10 feet of movement that the airship moved that turn to represent the impact of slamming into the hull.
My next session running Wednesday campaign: The players are beat up, nearly out of resources, and unable to rest heading into the main fight of the quest. I'm very concerned. Considering bringing in a famous guest NPC (old PC of different campaign, well known by some of the players) to heal them and help out a little bit.
I say don't do it. Let them achieve what they achieve based on their own resources. Maybe they should have handled previous encounters differently. Maybe they should have bought a lot of Healing Potions before setting off. Dropping in a powerful NPC right before they take on the boss seems like a Deus Ex Machina to me. I'd be more likely to see if there was any way that they could take a rest, and if not, let the dice fall where they may. Maybe they can't beat the boss here and have to run.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Be prepared for the utterly inevitable phrase "Ramming speed!".
What damage does a dashing airship deal to a beholder?
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Thanks for the warning.
The airship is not very maneuverable, so if I wanted to I could just say, "It doesn't work. He dodges." But I think I will give them a shot: melee attack at disadvantage.
Ramming with the spar is somewhat like a lance, so I'll give it 1d12 damage.
The airship's dash speed is 120' per round. 20' per second is equivalent to about 6' of fall damage. Basically the force of this attack is equivalent to if a knight dive-bombed you from 1 story up. I'm willing to double the damage to 2d12, since it will be satisfying to get some decent damage for a cool move. But I don't think it's combat-wrecking.
Err, just wondering... what powers the airship?
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
It's hung by chains from 4 rocs.
They could attempt an Animal Handling check to get the rocs to attack, but while they're ravenous carnivores, the rocs are big chickens.
My players has spent 30:ish sessions noodling around Secomber, questing and socializing with my metaplot slowly building. But we ended last session with them finally standing before the gates of Waterdeep, where they have lots of stuff to research and people to talk to. I have spent a couple of months doing serious prepwork of developing Waterdeep npc:s, webs of intrigue and political shenanigans.
So my next session will probably be all roleplaying with me spreading lots of intrigue breadcrumbs. Which is fine, me and my players really enjoy the social and roleplaying aspect of gaming.
Main Game:
Is a civil war coming to the pirate city of Bilgewater? The once ruler of Bilgewater, Gangplank, the Reaver King, and the island natives Buhru gather their supporters to take on the pirate queen Miss Fortune for control of the city while the Zoo Crew (the players) are stuck in the middle. Which side does the crew take or is it time to leave the Bilgewater and move on to Saltmarsh.
I expect this to be a heavy role-playing session as the party will discuss if they should get involved. The party knows Miss Fortune and has worked with her in the past, though not always on amicable terms still they have witnessed her benevolent rule of the city. The rumors of Gangplank had circled around the game for several months now always mention the once ruler is in hiding after a failed assassination attempt by Miss Fortune nearly killed him. Recently the party has been approached by Gangplank and the Buhru to join his side for the upcoming civil war and the party 'politely' declined his offer. Now the party is reconsidering who they trust, Gangplank, and help retake the city or alert, Miss Fortune of the Rever King return, as they have taken the time to learn more about these two rulers and what may be best for Bilgewater.
Given this group's history, I'm guessing they will leave the island and head off to Saltmarsh, which I've planned so far. If not...well that takes things in a whole new direction as I will have to create a major, major political theme adventure.
They still haven't faced the Beholder, since we ended the session early, but they have spotted the drow army and deduced they're marching on Moonpool. They're going back to warn the Moonpudlians. If they escape the Beholder's gaze and the drow army's thunder cannons.
They find a way to lure the Beholder to the Drow army to have them attack each other.
The Beholder is working for the drow army. But anything's possible. We have some high-charisma characters.
ONE of my campaigns I am super hyped for as our previous session was a great role play one and the party are facing a trial with some character plot coming in!
The other we’re on the sixth session of the final chapter of Tomb of Annihilation and I am TIRED.
Tomb really intimidated me to the point where I didn’t run it.
Party just found a Chuul hidden in a cave on the river by the town the adventure is based around currently. It had grabbed a dockworker from the small harbour and dragged it away.
They killed one and another appeared and then disappeared under a pool of water in this cave. So one of 3 things will happen.
Party chase underwater and find 2 Chuul under there fight them, the aim of the encounter is to prepare them for the dangers and difficulties of underwater combat (there is an aboleth looming in the background).
Party tell me they are taking a short rest, Chuul hit and run interrupting said rest meaning they hopefully give chase underwater.
Party retreat to recover head back to town, return to find Chuul gone, in a few sessions time more attacks on dock workers and party lose standing with town :).
Main Game:
Setting sail on the Hyena the Zoo Crew have left Bilgewater for their destination to Waterdeep.
A Storm. A Shipwreck. Sahuagin. Capture.
Now a contest of champions.
Making the journey to Waterdeep a little more eventful. In the last session, I ran an old DDB encounter of the week (EotW) (https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/441-encounter-of-the-week-sharkfin-shipwreck) to crash the ship and to be capture by Sahuagins. Now, I'm following up on the sequel EotW (https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/485-encounter-of-the-week-coral-colosseum) where the party will have to fight for their lives in a water battle arena against Veterans, Hunter Sharks, and a Giant Shark.
I see this is going to be an interesting session as the EotW tailers this multi-tier arena combat with the assumption the characters are going to be willing to fight their opponents and not try to escape from Sahuagins by taking their captures head-on. While in the first combat in the area the players do not have any of their gear there are still two magic users that have Cantrips, VS spells and a Monk that can put some hurt on whomever they end up facing. It's not until the second combat with the Sharks where they get their gear back where they are more likely to go off-script and try to capture the Sahuagin leader and force their exit. I've placed enough Sahuagin in the area so hopefully, if the party does try to take on their captors it will be pretty lopsided combat.
I think I've worked out all the possible scenarios the party can throw me that are not covered in the EotW. Still, this group of players has a tendency to surprise me with their actions so maybe any of this prep will not have been enough.
They ran from the drow army and the Beholder, but not before it got off several scary eye rays and the drow thundercannons took out a couple of their rocs.
They're signed up to hold back the drow army to protect their spellcasters' flank while they bombard the drow front lines. However, before that, they want to do a little prep. They might be looking for some spells for the wizard to copy, shopping for improved weapons, and following up on a plot line they left hanging.
Definitely looking forward to my next session. Players have been dealing with a lot of social interactions and scheming between fights for the last several adventures, so I'm throwing them into a good old fashioned dungeon dive to change things up a bit.
The dungeon dwellers themselves are nothing the PCs can't handle, but I am also going to have rival parties of treasure seekers showing up at intervals to challenge them for the main prize. The entire dungeon is an LSAT style logic game (but a relatively easy one) that must be solved in order to enter the central chamber. And there are ninjas...
Very excited to see how my players react to the puzzle, and I will have to be quick on the VTT controls to ensure things don't get bogged down, as there are a lot of moving parts.
Well, I have two different groups running my Drow Civil War campaign (all kids, nieces and nephews). And we play on a VERY irregular schedule. Two are doing a reskinned combination of Lost Caverns of Tsjocanth and White Plume Mountain and another four are doing a Shrine of the Kuo-Toa thing. Also, I have one player and a demon NPC who were ditched in Sigil and they'll need to get some resolution and be brought back into the mix somehow.
I can't say how far either group will get by when. But this is the stage of the campaign, where I wanted to introduce some big magic items that we'll still have around for the finale, whenever that happens and whoever is there. So The Necropolis of the Drow is a natural place to find an artifact, I just need to settle on which. At the Kuo-Toa shrine, I took a page from one of the quests in ROTFM.
Dr Albruf Mazinkaiser was one of the greatest gnomes in his field when he was kidnapped in a raid on the Underdark trading city of Zondernaam. All of his fellow captives were eaten alive in a sacrifice to one of the Kuo-Toas' ineffable deities, but Mazinkaiser escaped and hid in the temple. He quickly realized that they were completely blind (I just wanted them to have blindsense instead of darkvision), not particularly bright, and crazy as a cut snake. For years, he lived among them in disguise, learning their language and even becoming something of a holy man. He sent his followers out through the Underdark to gather very specific sacrifices to please the Large Metal God of Horrible Vengeance. Essentially, in Tony Stark fashion, Mazinkaiser has built The Mighty Servant of Leuk-O and is about to power it up and destroy his captors and probably also Zondernaam for never looking for him.
My next session running Wednesday campaign: The players are beat up, nearly out of resources, and unable to rest heading into the main fight of the quest. I'm very concerned. Considering bringing in a famous guest NPC (old PC of different campaign, well known by some of the players) to heal them and help out a little bit.
My next session running Friday campaign: The players are currently exploring sahaugin caves, and I know they can clear it out with no problem. They will level immediately afterward, which will mean level 10, and I'm really excited. After that, they will receive two new quest options, and they are pretty interesting.
My session Sunday as a player: We are exploring goblin caves, attempting to find kidnapped villagers. Hopefully my 3rd level tabaxi monk will be able to catch arrows and use 'Furry of Blows' with her 'Kitty Points'
My session playing in Saturday campaign: We are about to unfreeze the mouth of a very icy human in the tunnel near the cistern beneath a castle. We are chasing a powerful spellcaster who ran away from us last combat and is ahead of us by about 5 minutes.
I play a lot of DND.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
In the game I play in, we cheated past the puzzle by stone shaping the seal to the next level.
The DM is heavily hinting that we better long rest before we face the final boss, even though we're still in the dungeon. I'm going to scry on the BBEG and see if I can figure how much time we have on the ticking clock.
My players attacked an airship head on last session and stopped moving right in front of it. It has a movement of 40 feet, and is a Gargantuan object, so I let them use their Reaction for a Dexterity saving throw to get out of the way (they had a flying speed of 30 feet). They failed, suffering 1d6 damage for every 10 feet of movement that the airship moved that turn to represent the impact of slamming into the hull.
I say don't do it. Let them achieve what they achieve based on their own resources. Maybe they should have handled previous encounters differently. Maybe they should have bought a lot of Healing Potions before setting off. Dropping in a powerful NPC right before they take on the boss seems like a Deus Ex Machina to me. I'd be more likely to see if there was any way that they could take a rest, and if not, let the dice fall where they may. Maybe they can't beat the boss here and have to run.