So title says it all how would I edit a vehicle/vessel in the homebrew system. And I'm looking for the simplest way to do this. For reference working on a campaign that is pirate themed and wanted to throw in some cool magic ships. Any advice would be appreciated thank you.
Unfortunately we can't currently create/edit custom vehicles; the only way to do it is to create a monster and try to make it as much like a vehicle as possible. For example, here's a sailing ship that I customised to add cannons and some other tweaks:
Travel Pace. 5 miles per hour (120 miles per day).
Actions
On its turn, the ship can take 3 actions, choosing from the options below. It can take only 2 actions if it has fewer than 20 crew and only 1 action if it has fewer than 10. It can't take these actions if it has fewer than 3 crew.
Fire Bow Chasers. The ship fires bow chasers.
Fire Broadside (1/turn). The ship fires its broadside cannon(s) to port or starboard.
Move. The ship can use its helm to move with its sails.
Hull
Armor Class. 15
Hit Points. 350 (damage threshold 15)
Control: Helm
Armor Class. 18
Hit Points. 60
Move up to the speed of the ship's sails, with one 90-degree turn. If the helm is destroyed, the ship can't turn.
Movement: Sails
Armor Class. 12
Hit Points. 100; -5 ft. speed per 25 damage taken.
Speed (water). 45 ft.; 15 ft. while sailing into the wind; 60 ft. while sailing with the wind.
Weapon: Bow Chaser (2)
Armor Class. 15
Firing Arc. Forward only.
Hit Points. 50.
Ranged Weapon Attack:+6 to hit, range 120/480 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d10) bludgeoning damage.
Weapon: Broadside Cannon (5 per side)
Armor Class. 15
Firing Arc. Port or starboard only.
Hit Points. 60.
Ranged Weapon Attack:+6 to hit, range 120/480 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (4d10) bludgeoning damage.
The main issues are that you can't set ability scores on a monster to 0, including passive perception, and there's no vehicle type (so I opted for construct), but it works well enough to run it.
To replicate the red headings for hull, movement etc. you should just be able to copy/paste them from the block above into your own monster's Actions box, but it can be a bit fidgety (it's best to copy/paste some of the text from above and below as well if you can).
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Folks would still be happy to see this as a feature. we can homebrew something as deep in the background as custom races and classes, but we can't even click on a "customize" button on a ship - something that is just begging to be named, refitted, and customized. Spelljammer has always felt like Mad Max instead of a mass-produced space navy game. Let us play like it!
I think the main reason this hasn't been implemented is that 5e has no consistent rules for vehicle stat blocks. Saltmarsh, Descent into Avernus, and Spelljammer present three different archetypes and I'm sure others are hidden among the adventures. I'm secretly hoping the 2024 books bring them all and in the darkness bind them present a more unified set of rules for vehicles.
I think the main reason this hasn't been implemented is that 5e has no consistent rules for vehicle stat blocks. Saltmarsh, Descent into Avernus, and Spelljammer present three different archetypes and I'm sure others are hidden among the adventures. I'm secretly hoping the 2024 books bring them all and in the darkness bind them present a more unified set of rules for vehicles.
Yeah that's a great point. At least the text copies well into an item block.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So title says it all how would I edit a vehicle/vessel in the homebrew system. And I'm looking for the simplest way to do this. For reference working on a campaign that is pirate themed and wanted to throw in some cool magic ships. Any advice would be appreciated thank you.
Unfortunately we can't currently create/edit custom vehicles; the only way to do it is to create a monster and try to make it as much like a vehicle as possible. For example, here's a sailing ship that I customised to add cannons and some other tweaks:
Creature Capacity. 40 crew, 10 passengers
Cargo Capacity. 50 tons
Travel Pace. 5 miles per hour (120 miles per day).
On its turn, the ship can take 3 actions, choosing from the options below. It can take only 2 actions if it has fewer than 20 crew and only 1 action if it has fewer than 10. It can't take these actions if it has fewer than 3 crew.
Fire Bow Chasers. The ship fires bow chasers.
Fire Broadside (1/turn). The ship fires its broadside cannon(s) to port or starboard.
Move. The ship can use its helm to move with its sails.
Armor Class. 15
Hit Points. 350 (damage threshold 15)
Armor Class. 18
Hit Points. 60
Move up to the speed of the ship's sails, with one 90-degree turn. If the helm is destroyed, the ship can't turn.
Armor Class. 12
Hit Points. 100; -5 ft. speed per 25 damage taken.
Speed (water). 45 ft.; 15 ft. while sailing into the wind; 60 ft. while sailing with the wind.
Armor Class. 15
Firing Arc. Forward only.
Hit Points. 50.
Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 120/480 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d10) bludgeoning damage.
Armor Class. 15
Firing Arc. Port or starboard only.
Hit Points. 60.
Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 120/480 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (4d10) bludgeoning damage.
The main issues are that you can't set ability scores on a monster to 0, including passive perception, and there's no vehicle type (so I opted for construct), but it works well enough to run it.
To replicate the red headings for hull, movement etc. you should just be able to copy/paste them from the block above into your own monster's Actions box, but it can be a bit fidgety (it's best to copy/paste some of the text from above and below as well if you can).
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
.... the hard way it is then oh joy.....
Folks would still be happy to see this as a feature. we can homebrew something as deep in the background as custom races and classes, but we can't even click on a "customize" button on a ship - something that is just begging to be named, refitted, and customized. Spelljammer has always felt like Mad Max instead of a mass-produced space navy game. Let us play like it!
I think the main reason this hasn't been implemented is that 5e has no consistent rules for vehicle stat blocks. Saltmarsh, Descent into Avernus, and Spelljammer present three different archetypes and I'm sure others are hidden among the adventures. I'm secretly hoping the 2024 books
bring them all and in the darkness bind thempresent a more unified set of rules for vehicles.Yeah that's a great point. At least the text copies well into an item block.