My pirate party recently lit a ship on fire with fire bolt and fireball, which are said to light flammable objects on fire. I was wondering if there any official rules about how to adjudicate damage to something that is on fire, like a ship. Anybody have info on that?
The Dungeon Master's Guide has rules for improvised damage (Chapter 8, Combat Continued, Improvised Damage), including "1d10: Burned by coals, hit by a falling bookcase, pricked by a poison needle", "2d10: Being struck by lightning, stumbling into a fire pit" or "18d10: Being submerged in lava, being hit by a crashing flying fortress".
There's also the Siege Equipment chapter which might help in showing how much damage bludgeoning/piercing damage may do to a structure. Consider also looking at Vehicles themselves, their resistances and hit points, as well as the cargo on them that's causing fire to spread or be extinguished.
Other than that, without looking at other Dungeon Masters' own experiences with this, there's not much officially published material that helps with ship battles, at least in 5th Edition.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
I'm not specifically looking for the rules of the ships, I have material on that, more looking for how much damage a fire does after being ignited by one of those spells. The improvised damage might be the closest to what I'm looking for, thanks!
I'm not specifically looking for the rules of the ships, I have material on that, more looking for how much damage a fire does after being ignited by one of those spells. The improvised damage might be the closest to what I'm looking for, thanks!
Righto. Unfortunately I think this is largely one of those things where you'll have to rely more on narrative than gameplay. You might have random tables set up to determine the following:
Which part of the ship is hit
What cargo is on fire
Where it spreads to from the initial hit (see Infestation's d4 for directions of where it will go)
How the crew reacts to this
But beyond that and improvised damage there's not much else I could suggest. I'm glad to have helped, I wish I could offer more advice. Best of luck with the game, it sounds fun!
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
Are you referring to the damage to the ship, or damage to the people on the ship?
If the former, consider that it can take a while for a fire to really deal damage to wood. Treated oak (and damp treated oak at that, assuming it's not a sky ship) is significantly more fire-resistant than steel - the surface burns, but the core of it remains solid.
The main things which will destroy a ship when it comes to fire are:
flammable cargo - if the oil barrels or gunpowder get caught up in the fire, it will burn a lot hotter.
structural damage - the wood of the beams which support the shape of the ship will burn through before the floor does, so the ship will collapse and then sink.
It's also worth noting that ships used tar to waterproof the hull, so that will also affect it (though will likely be where the water is so not so much). Tar (pitch) barrels will be on board though, and they're flammable.
Question is, do you want realism or percieved realism? Most people would expect a flaming wooden ship to "die" in a few rounds, where in reality it might burn for an hour or so before becoming too weak to hold itself together!
I'd be inclined to use 2d10, but split the ship into 3 sections, so if all 3 are on fire it's 6d10.
I have a group that loves to light things on fire. I’ve improvised a rule that seems to work well. I mark the map with the fire based on the size of fire they created. Then each round of combat I roll a d6 and the fire grows in radius by that many feet. I do this for each fire that was started. All the players, NPC’s, and monsters naturally try to avoid the burning areas and before long the whole thing is engulfed in flame. If anyone gets caught in the flame, I use the oil flask damage as a guide which is a d10 each round.
Eventually the whole structure is engulfed in flames and everyone is out or caught in it and dead. At that point it doesn’t really matter much the hit points of the structure because it’s going down eventually.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
My pirate party recently lit a ship on fire with fire bolt and fireball, which are said to light flammable objects on fire. I was wondering if there any official rules about how to adjudicate damage to something that is on fire, like a ship. Anybody have info on that?
The Dungeon Master's Guide has rules for improvised damage (Chapter 8, Combat Continued, Improvised Damage), including "1d10: Burned by coals, hit by a falling bookcase, pricked by a poison needle", "2d10: Being struck by lightning, stumbling into a fire pit" or "18d10: Being submerged in lava, being hit by a crashing flying fortress".
There's also the Siege Equipment chapter which might help in showing how much damage bludgeoning/piercing damage may do to a structure. Consider also looking at Vehicles themselves, their resistances and hit points, as well as the cargo on them that's causing fire to spread or be extinguished.
Other than that, without looking at other Dungeon Masters' own experiences with this, there's not much officially published material that helps with ship battles, at least in 5th Edition.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
I'm not specifically looking for the rules of the ships, I have material on that, more looking for how much damage a fire does after being ignited by one of those spells. The improvised damage might be the closest to what I'm looking for, thanks!
Righto. Unfortunately I think this is largely one of those things where you'll have to rely more on narrative than gameplay. You might have random tables set up to determine the following:
But beyond that and improvised damage there's not much else I could suggest. I'm glad to have helped, I wish I could offer more advice. Best of luck with the game, it sounds fun!
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
Are you referring to the damage to the ship, or damage to the people on the ship?
If the former, consider that it can take a while for a fire to really deal damage to wood. Treated oak (and damp treated oak at that, assuming it's not a sky ship) is significantly more fire-resistant than steel - the surface burns, but the core of it remains solid.
The main things which will destroy a ship when it comes to fire are:
It's also worth noting that ships used tar to waterproof the hull, so that will also affect it (though will likely be where the water is so not so much). Tar (pitch) barrels will be on board though, and they're flammable.
Question is, do you want realism or percieved realism? Most people would expect a flaming wooden ship to "die" in a few rounds, where in reality it might burn for an hour or so before becoming too weak to hold itself together!
I'd be inclined to use 2d10, but split the ship into 3 sections, so if all 3 are on fire it's 6d10.
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!
I have a group that loves to light things on fire. I’ve improvised a rule that seems to work well. I mark the map with the fire based on the size of fire they created. Then each round of combat I roll a d6 and the fire grows in radius by that many feet. I do this for each fire that was started. All the players, NPC’s, and monsters naturally try to avoid the burning areas and before long the whole thing is engulfed in flame. If anyone gets caught in the flame, I use the oil flask damage as a guide which is a d10 each round.
Eventually the whole structure is engulfed in flames and everyone is out or caught in it and dead. At that point it doesn’t really matter much the hit points of the structure because it’s going down eventually.