"Alright!" Eris exclaims as the boat moves in closer to their awaited goal. "Time to put my awesome tech to good use!" Almost instantly after casting mage hand, her gauntlets morph into red, spectral hands that fly out like grapples towards the book before attempting to reel it back in without losing her balance.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Seria (Female Dragon-In-Disguise Sorcerer, Draconic Bloodline)
(Also Princess does have mage hand, but I don’t think she can use it and still fly.)
You can touch a willing caster (e.g. Icarus or Zoide) to transfer attunement to the helm to them; you could also just leave the helm and the ship would be 'adrift'; i.e. largely stationary but without active station-keeping it would slowly drifting out of position and wouldn't be able to dodge any obstacles...]
Leaving the asteroid field proves more difficult than entering it was; you've almost made it out when a small asteroid the size of a large boulder seems to come out of nowhere, too fast for you to dodge or deflect, and tears a nasty gash along the port bow.
Worse, as the Foundling steers clear of the asteroids, another ship appears from behind a large asteroid to starboard. Its sleek frame is painted in a wild shade of pink and is designed to resemble an immense squid. Starlight reflects off the ship's hull—illuminating two turret-mounted ballistae rotating slowly to face your ship!
[On that dramatic note, we'll take an end-of-act-two fade to commercials; you guys breezed through that section quicker than I expected and I haven't had a chance to figure out how ship-to-ship combat works prep the next encounter yet! We'll be back in a couple of days, after these words from our sponsors...]
So here's how I think we'll run this. This is a combination of what little the 5e Spelljammer stuff gives me to work with, some bits of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, some stuff cribbed from board games like Fantasy Flight's X-Wing, and some bits I've just plain made up to try to make sure everyone gets something interesting to do in the play-by-post format.
The nominal crew of a Hammerhead is fifteen, which, if I've done my maths right, is more than the five of you, so I'm going to give you a few NPC shipmates to fill out the action economy a little. We'll use a modified side initiative: each ship rolls a straight d20 for initiative. The round is divided into two sections: Maneuver and Attack. The Captain and Spelljammer act in the Maneuver phase, and everyone else in the Attack phase. In each round, both ships first Maneuver, in initiative order, and then Attack, again in initiative order.
The Captain acts first to issue any general orders for the round, and can use their action normally or take a special Help action by giving one crewmate specific orders: make a DC15 Charisma or Wisdom check; on a success in addition to granting advantage to that crewmate's check or attack roll, it grants a +2 bonus.
The Spelljammer acts next. The Spelljammer moves the ship up to its speed (35ft for the Hammerhead) in any direction (including vertically: space is three-dimensional, though I haven't quite figured out how to represent that on a battle map). Technically flying the ship doesn't use your action or movement, though I'm not sure how much that matters given you have to stay at the helm and maintain concentration to keep control. The Spelljammer can also, as a bonus action, take a gamble: make a ability check using your spellcasting ability; on a 15 or higher the ship's speed is increased by 5ft for this turn, but on a 9 or lower it is decreased by 10ft instead.
In the Attack phase, the remaining player characters act, in no particular order, and then the NPC crewmates. The enemy ship is initially too close for the mangonels, but the ballista can be used to target the ship or its siege weapons; it takes 3 actions to fire, and if (at least) one of those actions is a player character's, you make the attack roll with advantage, and you can choose whether to use the average damage (which is guaranteed to get past the damage threshold) or to roll the damage. Otherwise the NPCs will operate the ballista taking the average damage, unless otherwise ordered by the Captain.
You can also use your normal ranged attacks (weapons and spells), targeting either the enemy ship's siege weapons, or its crew on deck, which might be an equally effective option (you can also target the ship itself, but you might have trouble beating the damage threshold). For simplicity, we'll ignore movement for the moment, and just assume you can move around the ship freely (if we get to the point of needing to zoom in and track individual crew positions on deck (e.g. one crew boards the other's ship) we'll deal with that as required); the range to any target is just the closest distance between any two points of the ships; I'll try to remember to call out the range at the start of each phase. There's also no 'facing'; ships can rotate on their axes as needed to bring their weapons to bear (I'll do Pythagoras to track range but I draw the line at doing calculus to work out ballistic trajectories!).
There are multiple ways to succeed at this encounter; they don't all involve destroying the enemy ship.
Whew, that sure was a wall of text. Any questions/suggestions/etc before we get into it?]
Honestly, the way you explained this complex mode of battle, I'll have to admit: that was exceptionally well done. And yes, no question from me whatsoever.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Seria (Female Dragon-In-Disguise Sorcerer, Draconic Bloodline)
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
The squid ship bears down on you, close enough already that you can hear its captain shouting orders to open fire on you! As you raise the alarm, the off-duty crew emerges from the cabins belowdecks. Armed with scimitars and light crossbows, two take up defensive poisitions at the entrance to the chart room and helm cabin, and five more report to the main deck and castles, ready to assist with operating the ship's weaponry.
The enemy ship draws parallel to you, maintaining their 50' range.
[Flighty Foundling Maneuver, Captain Zoide's turn; I'll also say while the enemy ship moves into position you have a few moments to discuss your options with the crew; someone could also make, e.g. an Arcana check to see what they know about the Squid class, or Insight to predict the enemy behavior, etc]
"Alright!" Eris exclaims as the boat moves in closer to their awaited goal. "Time to put my awesome tech to good use!" Almost instantly after casting mage hand, her gauntlets morph into red, spectral hands that fly out like grapples towards the book before attempting to reel it back in without losing her balance.
Seria (Female Dragon-In-Disguise Sorcerer, Draconic Bloodline)
[Moot points now, but for the sake of it:
This would be an option, it would take some skillful flying and might risk some damage to the ship from larger pieces of debris.
You can touch a willing caster (e.g. Icarus or Zoide) to transfer attunement to the helm to them; you could also just leave the helm and the ship would be 'adrift'; i.e. largely stationary but without active station-keeping it would slowly drifting out of position and wouldn't be able to dodge any obstacles...]
[Eris, make a DC13... let's say Sleight of Hand check to grab the logbook and bring it back to you.]
Sleight of hand: 19
Seria (Female Dragon-In-Disguise Sorcerer, Draconic Bloodline)
Eris easily grabs the logbook with her spectral fingers. Logbook in hand, it's time to make your way back out of the asteroid field.
[Same group skill check as on the way in.]
Icarus: Acro: 20
D&D since 1984
Princess: Survival 10
Eris Acro as she helps navigate out: 17
Seria (Female Dragon-In-Disguise Sorcerer, Draconic Bloodline)
Da'Kal continues to keep the deck debris free.
Athletics 10
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Leaving the asteroid field proves more difficult than entering it was; you've almost made it out when a small asteroid the size of a large boulder seems to come out of nowhere, too fast for you to dodge or deflect, and tears a nasty gash along the port bow.
Worse, as the Foundling steers clear of the asteroids, another ship appears from behind a large asteroid to starboard. Its sleek frame is painted in a wild shade of pink and is designed to resemble an immense squid. Starlight reflects off the ship's hull—illuminating two turret-mounted ballistae rotating slowly to face your ship!
[On that dramatic note, we'll take an end-of-act-two fade to commercials; you guys breezed through that section quicker than I expected and I haven't had a chance to
figure out how ship-to-ship combat worksprep the next encounter yet! We'll be back in a couple of days, after these words from our sponsors...][Ship-to-ship combat
So here's how I think we'll run this. This is a combination of what little the 5e Spelljammer stuff gives me to work with, some bits of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, some stuff cribbed from board games like Fantasy Flight's X-Wing, and some bits I've just plain made up to try to make sure everyone gets something interesting to do in the play-by-post format.
The nominal crew of a Hammerhead is fifteen, which, if I've done my maths right, is more than the five of you, so I'm going to give you a few NPC shipmates to fill out the action economy a little. We'll use a modified side initiative: each ship rolls a straight d20 for initiative. The round is divided into two sections: Maneuver and Attack. The Captain and Spelljammer act in the Maneuver phase, and everyone else in the Attack phase. In each round, both ships first Maneuver, in initiative order, and then Attack, again in initiative order.
The Captain acts first to issue any general orders for the round, and can use their action normally or take a special Help action by giving one crewmate specific orders: make a DC15 Charisma or Wisdom check; on a success in addition to granting advantage to that crewmate's check or attack roll, it grants a +2 bonus.
The Spelljammer acts next. The Spelljammer moves the ship up to its speed (35ft for the Hammerhead) in any direction (including vertically: space is three-dimensional, though I haven't quite figured out how to represent that on a battle map). Technically flying the ship doesn't use your action or movement, though I'm not sure how much that matters given you have to stay at the helm and maintain concentration to keep control. The Spelljammer can also, as a bonus action, take a gamble: make a ability check using your spellcasting ability; on a 15 or higher the ship's speed is increased by 5ft for this turn, but on a 9 or lower it is decreased by 10ft instead.
In the Attack phase, the remaining player characters act, in no particular order, and then the NPC crewmates. The enemy ship is initially too close for the mangonels, but the ballista can be used to target the ship or its siege weapons; it takes 3 actions to fire, and if (at least) one of those actions is a player character's, you make the attack roll with advantage, and you can choose whether to use the average damage (which is guaranteed to get past the damage threshold) or to roll the damage. Otherwise the NPCs will operate the ballista taking the average damage, unless otherwise ordered by the Captain.
You can also use your normal ranged attacks (weapons and spells), targeting either the enemy ship's siege weapons, or its crew on deck, which might be an equally effective option (you can also target the ship itself, but you might have trouble beating the damage threshold). For simplicity, we'll ignore movement for the moment, and just assume you can move around the ship freely (if we get to the point of needing to zoom in and track individual crew positions on deck (e.g. one crew boards the other's ship) we'll deal with that as required); the range to any target is just the closest distance between any two points of the ships; I'll try to remember to call out the range at the start of each phase. There's also no 'facing'; ships can rotate on their axes as needed to bring their weapons to bear (I'll do Pythagoras to track range but I draw the line at doing calculus to work out ballistic trajectories!).
There are multiple ways to succeed at this encounter; they don't all involve destroying the enemy ship.
Whew, that sure was a wall of text. Any questions/suggestions/etc before we get into it?]
All sounds good to me
@DM - Great Job on instructing us on this complex actions!!! Thank you!
D&D since 1984
Honestly, the way you explained this complex mode of battle, I'll have to admit: that was exceptionally well done. And yes, no question from me whatsoever.
Seria (Female Dragon-In-Disguise Sorcerer, Draconic Bloodline)
Fire away =)
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
The squid ship bears down on you, close enough already that you can hear its captain shouting orders to open fire on you! As you raise the alarm, the off-duty crew emerges from the cabins belowdecks. Armed with scimitars and light crossbows, two take up defensive poisitions at the entrance to the chart room and helm cabin, and five more report to the main deck and castles, ready to assist with operating the ship's weaponry.
[Initiative: Flighty Foundling 16; Squid ship 7]
[Current range: 50ft]
[Squid ship Maneuver:]
The enemy ship draws parallel to you, maintaining their 50' range.
[Flighty Foundling Maneuver, Captain Zoide's turn; I'll also say while the enemy ship moves into position you have a few moments to discuss your options with the crew; someone could also make, e.g. an Arcana check to see what they know about the Squid class, or Insight to predict the enemy behavior, etc]
23 Arcana to identify squid ship.