Shark Battle

[An Enemy Spy]

I'm a new DM on my first real campaign. The setup is that I've got my friend playing a level 3 Barbarian/Sorcrerer Gestalt. I have two DMPC's, an elven ranger who specializes in archery and a gnome cleric. They are going to be in a small boat on the surface of an underground ocean. Unbeknownst to the them but beknownst to us, there is a Huge Shark waiting for them. How do I play this out so that the shark is difficult, but not impossible to beat?

[Human Paragon 3]

This is really, really tough. Water-based enemies can be highly deadly without even trying. I'm assuming your characters don't all have "swim" ranks.

On the one hand, something like this is a cool way to let people with swim actually use it and have fun. On the other hand, you might kill your party.

Having a way for your players to manuever in the water and/or breathe if necessary is a good idea. Maybe give the party a potion or two that makes them into a temporary mer-person. Or have the cleric memorize and cast water breathing.

If you don't mind fudging the rolls, it could be fun to have the shark, once it's down to single digit HP, grab an NPC in its mouth and swim down to the bottom of the sea. Your player has to follow it down, kill the shark (i.e. hit it one last time), and swim back up with the NPC. He will feel totally bad ass.

[yrudoy]

Ironically, this (more or less) actually happened to me. We were at the beginning of a 3.5 campaign (lvl 1 characters) and I was playing a gnome illusionist. At one point, we were at an underground river with a very flimsy bridge over it and something moving in the water. At some point, most of the team was in the water, battering the something (it ended up being a crocodile). We had it down to what the DMs afterword told us was LITERALLY 1 hit point, when it decided to run away and take someone with it. Guess who is small enough to fail most grapple checks?


What ended up happening was that the last person who had a turn before the crocodile swam off with my unconscious body actually managed to score a hit with an improvised ranged weapon, felling the thing. I think I was stabilized at around -8 hit points.

Moral of the story: Level 1 spellcheckers are squishy. And should not be pushed into rivers with crocodiles in them (yes, that happened too...)

[DragonBaneDM]

Opened thread expecting story of two sharks fighting each other. Not gonna try to hide my disappointment.

Don't have the shark try to break the boat until after a few rounds of combat have passed. This builds the suspense and also gives the cleric time to give the party some buffs, and the rage mage and ranger some opputunities for pot shots and spells.

Of course, once that passes, the rage mage is probably gonna end up in the water with the thing.

You know, it's not to late to just have another shark come along and beat this one up... That'd be cool, right? It could have jet packs...and lazers...

[Thrawn183]

Surprisingly you want to fight it in the water. Trying to attack into the water from out of it is...just brutal. Also, piercing weapons.

[Volos]

You could have a balista or harpoon gun on the boat for them to use. I would have a limited range as to which direction it could fire... but sitting in suspense waiting for the thing can be really fun if done correctly. Or you could have it be two smaller sharks. They take turns rising and attacking. When they kill the first one, they think combat is over... then bam! The second shark gets a sucker punch in. Now they have to do it all over again, now paranoid as to how many of those things are in the water.

[An Enemy Spy]

Opened thread expecting story of two sharks fighting each other. Not gonna try to hide my disappointment.

Don't have the shark try to break the boat until after a few rounds of combat have passed. This builds the suspense and also gives the cleric time to give the party some buffs, and the rage mage and ranger some opputunities for pot shots and spells.

Of course, once that passes, the rage mage is probably gonna end up in the water with the thing.

You know, it's not to late to just have another shark come along and beat this one up... That'd be cool, right? It could have jet packs...and lazers...

Frikkin lasers or regular ones?

[Thrawn183]

If they have light weapons, it might actually be easier for them to kill it from the inside out.

[Weasel of Doom]

I think the idea of having a ballista on the front of the boat is a good one as long as it has a limited fire arc and fits the boat (i.e. no ballista on a 10ft rowboat).

Maybe they find a box of alchemists fire in the boat?

I'd probably have the shark circle the boat a couple of times and set up an ominous atmosphere. If he attacks it straightaway I'd have it run off so he thinks he's won really easily then I'd have it swim underneath and slam into the boat forcing strength checks to stay upright. Then either have it keep slamming the boat to try and knock people into the water, try and gnaw its way through from underneath (meaning the pcs can't attack it because the boats in the way) or just leap out of the water and try and drag one of the dmpcs into the water.

The main thing (assuming your friend is as new to playing as you are to dming and you want to attract him to the game) is to make him the hero. You don't want your dmpcs to steal the limelight or he might begin to feel like he's just there to watch you play with yourself.
Whether this means one of the dmpcs gets dragged underwater and he has to swim under and save him or he gets swallowed whole (an ability huge sharks don't have but could be cool to adapt from the dire shark if you feel up to it) and then rages and cuts his way out in a shower of gore doesn't really matter as long he enjoys it.

Oh and play up the way the way the shark looms out of the darkness and the light from their torches bounces off the water only illuminating, be descriptive.

Out of curiosity, why is the party in an underground ocean ('cause it sounds pretty cool)?

Also, here's a picture of a shark because they're cool.
http://dummidumbwit.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/great_white_shark_south_africa6.jpg

I don't think I could get the impact of something like this across via description though

[An Enemy Spy]

If they have light weapons, it might actually be easier for them to kill it from the inside out.

He's swinging a Greataxe. Not exactly the lightest thing around.

[An Enemy Spy]

I think the idea of having a ballista on the front of the boat is a good one as long as it has a limited fire arc and fits the boat (i.e. no ballista on a 10ft rowboat).

Maybe they find a box of alchemists fire in the boat?

I'd probably have the shark circle the boat a couple of times and set up an ominous atmosphere. If he attacks it straightaway I'd have it run off so he thinks he's won really easily then I'd have it swim underneath and slam into the boat forcing strength checks to stay upright. Then either have it keep slamming the boat to try and knock people into the water, try and gnaw its way through from underneath (meaning the pcs can't attack it because the boats in the way) or just leap out of the water and try and drag one of the dmpcs into the water.

The main thing (assuming your friend is as new to playing as you are to dming and you want to attract him to the game) is to make him the hero. You don't want your dmpcs to steal the limelight or he might begin to feel like he's just there to watch you play with yourself.
Whether this means one of the dmpcs gets dragged underwater and he has to swim under and save him or he gets swallowed whole (an ability huge sharks don't have but could be cool to adapt from the dire shark if you feel up to it) and then rages and cuts his way out in a shower of gore doesn't really matter as long he enjoys it.

Oh and play up the way the way the shark looms out of the darkness and the light from their torches bounces off the water only illuminating, be descriptive.

Out of curiosity, why is the party in an underground ocean ('cause it sounds pretty cool)?

Also, here's a picture of a shark because they're cool.
http://dummidumbwit.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/great_white_shark_south_africa6.jpg

I don't think I could get the impact of something like this across via description though

They're in an underground ocean because I needed a reason to work a shark into the adventure.

[hamishspence]

They're in an underground ocean because I needed a reason to work a shark into the adventure.

Maybe parts of the underground ocean could be naturally acidic- with the ship being acid-proofed (maybe via having a high Hardness), but the players being somewhat nervous about falling in.

"The only thing worse than a pool of acid, is a pool of acid with a shark in it".

And one could have Acidborn Sharks from Dungeonscape:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/dungeonscape_gallery/102767.jpg

[big teej]

well.... I know what I'm doing next time I need to freak out my players...


thankyou very much :smallbiggrin:


3 sessions after the traumatic shark experience

"hey guys.... you know that a bullette is also known as a land shark right?"

[The Glyphstone]

Don't forget to play the Jaws theme during the fight.

[An Enemy Spy]

They're on a rickety little rowboat that's only just better than driftwood so a ballista is pretty much out of the question.

[WinceRind]

Well... They're gonna need a bigger boat.

Yeaaaaaaaaaaargh.

On topic, I am not very familiar with mechanics concerned to fighting creatures in water. The actual option of swimming while fighting seems like a bad idea giving all the limiting factors... Again, I don't know if there's some kind of penalty on swinging an axe while in water (which would make total sense) but either way swim is hardly a skill most people heavily specialize in unless we're talking about very specific campaigns...

So, uh, I think the only good option that will not end in most of the party dying might be fighting off the boat with bows and arrows. If the boat sinks, you're kind of boned anyways without any Deus Ex Machina on your part. I mean, an ocean and what not.

Perhaps having the players lure the shark above water (I mean, to make it actually show itself out of water, because I'd imagine being underwater would at least give you some level of concealment) somehow while all the capable ranged fighters pellet it with, well, whatever they can find might be a decent strategy. That's what I'd do, anyways, if I didn't have some way to escape easily like flying away.

Edit: Then again, there are some pretty game-changing spells out there. What spells does the gnome cleric have prepared? And the barbarian/sorcerer, for that matter? I assume Blindness/Deafness spell would work fine on a shark... Or a plethora of others.

Does the shark have to be killed in the first place? Can it be subdued and escaped from, or is the shore too far away to make that a possibility?