High Seas Adventuring Party

[Naanomi]

Earlier this year, I participated in a brief nautical campaign. It was a lot of fun, but thanks to some... poor decisions... it ended up being a deadly game of Gilligan's Island more than Sinbad; and the whole crew died trying to make it through an underwater dungeon to get a new ship.

Still, the concept was appealing to me and got me thinking about who is best suited to adventure on the high seas. Here are some thoughts:

Races can offer several useful things to a potential seaman. Variant Half-Elf and Water Gensai both offer a swim speed, which has obvious applications for work overboard (both voluntary and accidental!)... the latter (along with Warforged and Air Gensai) also don't worry about breathing. However, I find myself in desperate need of skills in what has to be a more 'self-sufficient' party than normal; and Variant Human and Half-Elf are very tempting. If the GM gives them a pass, flying races have obvious advantages in life on the seas, so Variant Tiefling and Aarakocra both have clear advantages (again, if they are available). Aarakocra talking like a parrot is optional. No race is obviously ill-suited for a sailing life; but nothing else really stands out to me.
While every class brings something to the table, a few stand out as clear winners.
Rangers are great options in any 'wilderness' setting; and just how much is shines here depends on two rulings around Natural Explorer. First, what terrain type the ocean counts as? If Coast covers it all (or most of it) then the results are stellar, though even if it only covers the actual coast it still opens a lot of potential. (Other terrain choices to consider are Arctic, Swamp, and Underdark... for the every present underground sea). The other rule point to consider is how much of the Natural Explorer bonuses count for vehicular movement? Does the ranger need to captain the ship, or can he just be the navigator? Can the whole vehicle ignore difficult terrain? Don't forget that Navigation and Vehicle rolls are likely to be Wisdom or Intelligence rolls (and there is no way to get Expertise in these skills even if you wanted to)!

Both subclasses bring power to the table, the combat bonuses of Hunter are obvious (though selecting between specializing in 'fighting the kraken' and 'fighting the horde of sahuagin/pirates' may be challenging). On the other hand, a Beast-Master's Giant Crab or Blood-Hawk pet may never find a better home than on the sea. Favored Enemy options abound; the sea has Beasts, Elementals, Dragons, Giants, Horrors, and Monstrosities all are clearly represented; though don't discount Undead (ghost ship!), and Humanoids (sahuagin, merfolk, and other prominent sailing races of the campaign).
Not a whole lot to say here other than Storm Sorcerer is the only class who explicitly has sailing referenced in it's abilities with Storm Guide, and the maneuverability of Heart of the Storm and Wind Soul are good for getting around the ship (or abandoning ship!)
Other classes with a lot of potential, though not so obvious as the aforementioned classes
Bards offer Bard Song, the ability to buff up any skill, even untrained skills. Along with Jack-of-All-Trades and a big collection of skills to begin with, this really covers a lot of bases for a party that can't expect to have much NPC assistance during much of their career... and which can buff up the vital Navigation and Vehicle skills that can be difficult to boost. While both have potential, I prefer Lore bard for this: more skills via Bonus Proficiencies and Additional Magic Secrets to pick up the widespread nautical-themed spells. The humor of using Cutting Words to mess up another pilot's Vehicle roll is not lost on me, but the range limitations probably make the potential limited.
In addition to being good swimmers not reliant on armor, the Totem's Aspect of the Beast (Eagle) has no better home than on the open ocean; and the rest of the Eagle abilities also fit well. The mile-long detail vision is so impressive that by itself it earns a spot on my team.
A few other options that don't bring anything super-special to the table mechanically but offer good thematic options:
Cleric: Clerics of sea-Gods (probably Tempest clerics) don't offer anything stellar mechanically that they wouldn't offer to any party, but fit well conceptually
Druid: Moon druids can turn into sea-monsters and Land (Coast) druids are inherently Nautical. Druids also have almost all the 'sea-worthy' spells.
Fighter or Rogue: The classic image of the swashbuckler is iconic enough to earn the Swashbuckler and Battlemaster a place on this list
No class is worthless on the high sea, though anything with Heavy Armor and no Swim Speed can face the threat of sinking when (not if, when) you go overboard.
Monk: Elemental monks have a few unique water-themed abilities, and of course running on water opens up a lot of tactical options
Warlock: Not much specific to say other than lots of Old Ones historically live in the ocean depths

Like races, no Class is inherently unsuited for adventuring on a ship, though heavy armor (without a Swim speed) is a risky proposal
Athletics: Swimming, navigating rigging, pushing people overboard, not getting pushed overboard. Normally I prefer Acrobatics (which would also have use with all the ropes) but I lean towards Athletics when a ship and water are central

Nature and Survival are both important when your life depends on your ability to keep alive on the ocean, even if traditional 'tracking' uses of Survival are less apparent

Trading at port is a big part of nautical life, and Persuasion (and/or Deception) have obvious application here (along with Insight)

Perception is important for any adventurer, but having strong look-outs keeping an eye for other ships, land, and underwater threats is perhaps even more important in this style of play

While not offering a whole lot mechanically, especially as more spells come online, but Medicine perhaps has more value here than in other campaigns... treating exotic diseases (perhaps gotten from a lady at port?) and sewing on peg-legs doesn't happen by itself!

Perhaps more than any other concept, the tool skills are important when your life depends on a functioning ship beneath you. Navigation and Water Vehicles are a most obvious: you can't go anywhere if you can't run the ship or figure out where you are going. Artisan Tools have use as well, Carpenter, Weaver, and Cartographer most basically, but Cook, Grog Brewers, and Woodcarvers probably will serve to keep the ship and crew happy. Diversity of languages probably helps world explorers of course. Consider picking up as many of these Tools/Languages as you can on long 'sailing around' downtimes.
Sailor is the most obvious background, offering great skills and surprisingly important tools; and the background trait is a good way to get on the sea before you own your own boat (or when you have lost your own); almost as good is Outlander to keep everyone fed on shore leave (or in the life raft) and a fail-proof navigation tool; however almost any background can be turned to a nautical theme:

Acolyte of a Sea-God is a good way to get some divine support if you lack a cleric; Criminal easily becomes a smuggler or fence with contacts in every seedy port (pro-tip: they are all seedy ports); Artisan seems an odd choice until one considers the value that a good Cartographer might have; there is no reason a Folk Hero to not be a simple fisherman; there may be no better place to be a Hermit than on a deserted island; and a Soldier in the King's Navy may have as much support at sea as a sailor

Consider the potential to switch out skills for a custom background, most obviously for Navigation and Water Vehicles; though many could be adjusted to better fit a sailor's life

Normal adventuring magic generally applies; but be careful with your blasting magic... fire magic may put the other guy's ship out quickly, but tends to sink the loot, and risk taking your own ship down as well! There may also be something to say for scrying magic to bolster and support your exploration of the unknown.

Beyond that there is some obviously 'sea-important' spells stand out.
Guidance, Foresight: every boost to Navigation/Sea Vehicle you can find is nice
Goodberry, Create Food, Hero's Feast: while skills go a long way to solve this, anything to prevent starvation on the life boat or deserted island can't hurt
Message, Animal Messenger, Skywrite
Conjure Animals, Conjure Minor Elemental, Conjure Woodland Beings, Conjure Fey, Planar Ally: Just be aware of new aquatic options that might be at your disposal... or heavy/non-swimming options that lose a lot of potential
Tongues: Talking to new people is important on an unexplored island or exotic trade port
Wind Wall : Surprisingly effective at keeping away arrows, grappling hooks, etc. from your ship
Mend, Fabricate, Creation: Repair the ship, build a new one from scrap, lots of potential here
Control Winds: While Storm Sorcerer comes with some of this built-in; still one of the few spells with obvious sailing potential
Arcane Gate, Teleport: Landing (or boarding) parties were never easier; think about Forbiddence on your ship to prevent similar tactics in a high-magic world
Water Walking, Water Breathing: Niche spells with a lot more potential to be staples
Tsunami, Storm of Vengeance: The only two spells with very clear 'anti-ship' potential on a large scale; for when the enemy navy is after you!


In the end I think my four-man party would be something like (all with tweaked custom background skill-lists):
Water Gensai /// Sailor /// Ranger (Beastmaster)
Half-Elf /// Criminal /// Bard (Lore)
Variant Human /// Outlander /// Barbarian (Totem)
Half-Elf /// Soldier /// Sorcerer (Storm)

[Coidzor]

Ending up on Gilligan's Isle is always a risk with D&D, I think, but on the high seas especially. :smallamused:

Sorry the game fell apart, but these are some nice thoughts here. I'm currently preparing to run a bit of a nautical game, so this is quite relevant to my interests, thank you. :smallbiggrin:

(I've actually, ah, still got to figure out the vehicle rules and Navigation and the like, come to think of it...:smallredface:)

[raspin]

I've got one starting soon. For navigation have a look at stormrack. I used this and then simplified it.

I'm currently working on the sea combat aspect as you can't do nautical without the occasional sea battle. The ships will have various ballistae and small catapults rather than cannon. If you Google "5e nautical battles" a chap has done a lot of the work but it's a bit over complex. Again maybe a good idea to simplify it depending on your group. You could easily end up playing the equivalent of a war game which is fine if you all want to.

You also need to think about crew, supplies, wages and morale, cargo space and ship stats.

Again, I'd recommend coming up with something and then seeing how much more simple you can make it. I wanted a nautical adventure; not for it to degrade into too much nautical bookkeeping, so I've tried to make sure things flow quickly.

Classwise, any cha based class , ike paladin, would make a good bosun/quarter master to keep the crew in line. A character with high int (investigation) and prof with navigation tools is a good pilot.

[Renvir]

A campaign I ran recently took place on a not that small island. The campaign was maybe 25% on water or the coast but they did a bunch of sailing around the island and I noticed a few things came up more often than normal:

1 - Swimming (duh). Interestingly the Paladin and Fighter were easily the best swimmers on paper based on high strength and con scores. But, their heavy gear meant the bard, ranger, and monk swam circles around them. The wizard was kinda hopeless until she learned water breathing.

2 - Suffocation. Several crew members were lost to suffocation and their names are carved into the mast of the ship.

3 - Money. No one had proficiency with water vehicles and when their first ship sank they decided it was worth it to find an NPC to sail their ship for them. They eventually had a small crew on retainer and that combined with repairs, supplies, dock fees, etc. meant the majority of their funds went to keeping their ship in shape. To avoid constant bookkeeping we determined a cost structure for everything that boiled down to X gold per day and Y gold for each HP of ship repairs.

At the end of the day I'd say the OP is pretty spot on for classes, skills, etc. I'd probably give Druids more love because there are a lot of situations where turning into any kind of sea creature or bird will give your party more options to overcome obstacles at sea. I'm currently playing as a Tempest Cleric and I'd like to get out to sea and use some of those Tempesty powers on the open water.

[Vogonjeltz]

No class is worthless on the high sea, though anything with Heavy Armor and no Swim Speed can face the threat of sinking when (not if, when) you go overboard.

Heavy armor and lack of swim speed actually have no impact on sink or swim. It would be purely an Athletics check if there were difficult swimming conditions, otherwise no check is necessary and if you're proficient and have the necessary str score, the character wouldn't even be inconvenienced regardless of the armor worn (there's even a magical plate for swimming underwater iirc).

[Laserlight]

I believe you missed Alter Self, L2 spell for wizards and sorcerers, which offers: "Aquatic Adaptation. You adapt your body to an aquatic environment, sprouting gills, and growing webbing between your fingers. You can breathe underwater and gain a swimming speed equal to your walking speed" which lasts, with Concentration, up to an hour.

[Naanomi]

I believe you missed Alter Self, L2 spell for wizards and sorcerers, which offers: "Aquatic Adaptation. You adapt your body to an aquatic environment, sprouting gills, and growing webbing between your fingers. You can breathe underwater and gain a swimming speed equal to your walking speed" which lasts, with Concentration, up to an hour.
Yes I did! And Old One warlocks who can cast it at will in service to their masters under the waves appreciate your pointing it out

[Regitnui]

I'm heading off on a pirate adventure soon, so the ideas here are very appreciated. I'd also like to put in what little I've worked out about ship combat.

Primarily, the fight should come down to boarding or being boarded at some point. In that case, the simplest thing is to treat the ships as static battlefield, with 'overboard' being considered the same way you would a lava pit or crevasse. In other words; a instant 'KO' for most enemies, though the crafty player or DM may exploit it.

For sinking or attacking a ship directly, it'll be a bit like calling your shots. Give each part of the ship and AC and/or DC to hit, and fire away. The hull should be treated like a wooden wall, so anything that could damage a wooden wall over distance should be allowed some chance to break open a hull. For the sails or ropes, you'd consider what damages cloth.

Yeah, not much, but I'm confident I can get something working off that.

[PIELIKEI]

Some spells you might have forgotten:
Create/Destroy Water: Many people forget that it's easy to dehydrate at sea. Having clean water on hand is useful, plus if your ship has a hole in it, destroying 10 gallons of water at a time goes a long way towards not sinking. Oh and to put out fires which brings me to my second spell.
Fireball (read as spell with range that ignites): Nothing should strike fear into a sailor more than the fireball spell. Any ship made of wood is almost instantly doomed, any ship carrying gunpowder gets blown to hell and back. In a ship vs ship campaign, fireball is king.
Control Water: Yeah... it's a good thing to have.
Firestorm/Icestorm/Wall of Fire/Force: Ships coming after you? Large sea creatures? The answer to your controlling needs.
Fly: Why swim?
Conjure Woodland Beings/Minor Elemental/Barrage: Boarding parties are a lot easier... Fighting monsters are a lot easier... Conjuration makes everything easier
Shatter: Damages everything from grappling hooks and planks to cannons and ships.
Conjure Woodland Beings/Elementals: Yes... boarding parties have been easier. Plus also works against sea creatures as these can fly/swim
Eldritch blast, Firebolt, Bonfire, Sacrid Flame: Never underestimate long range cantrips. Especially those that can set things on fire. Or push things back. Or don't require you to make an attack roll.

[Finieous]

I played a sea-elf (homebrew/converted) tempest cleric to 18th level in such a campaign. For the class, the main difference from other campaigns was call lightning. When you're outside most of the time, it's an extraordinarily good ranged mini-AoE damage-over-time spell, and you can maximize the damage a time or two per short rest. After the domain spells run out at 9th level, druid gets access to far more thematically appropriate spells. Outdoor flight with no concentration was nice at 17th level, though.

[EvilAnagram]

I don't see anything about the mariner fighting style, which works extremely well on seafaring adventures.

[EvanescentHero]

I don't see anything about the mariner fighting style, which works extremely well on seafaring adventures.

The OP didn't use anything from UA, otherwise the minotaur race likely would've been mentioned as well.

[Naanomi]

The OP didn't use anything from UA, otherwise the minotaur race likely would've been mentioned as well.
Yeah UA doesn't fly in my local tables so I often don't think of it

[Laserlight]

Fireball (read as spell with range that ignites): Nothing should strike fear into a sailor more than the fireball spell. Any ship made of wood is almost instantly doomed, any ship carrying gunpowder gets blown to hell and back. In a ship vs ship campaign, fireball is king.


"Almost instantly doomed" is probably overstating things. I have an acquaintance who is a naval historian, who said:

Fires were probably fairly common in action on board wooden fighting ships but they rarely caused the loss of the ship. Except under some special circusmtances, an uncontrollable fire that eventually got to the magazine and blew up the ship occurred in fleet actions perhaps once in 20 or 30 battles; Achille at Trafalgar and Orient in Aboukir Bay are the only examples that come immediately to mind. There were also a few cases in single-ship actions, but the frequency was far less; Dartmouth vs. Glorioso in 1747, Randolph vs. Yarmouth in 1778, Quebec vs. Surveillante, also in 1778 come to mind, and there might have been others, but the frequency is probably closer to 2% than to 3% or 5%.

I know of other cases of ships' catching fire in action but putting the fire out. At the Battle of Toulon (1744), the French flagship, Terrible, had a fire in her quarter galleries but extinguished it. A Spanish ship caught fire twice at the Battle of Havana (1748), but the British flagship was using mortars that were firing explosive shells, so that's a special case. A Dutch ship caught fire at the Battle of Camperdown and put it out, but then surrendered because magazine had been deliberately flooded, and she could no longer shoot back.

The fire on HMXMS Terrible at Toulon is not mentioned in general accounts of the battle, even detailed ones—I've seen it only in an article about ships named "Terrible" in a series of articles in the French Revue Maritime et Coloniale, "Nos bâtiments de guerre et leurs ancêtres" ("Our warships and their ancestors"), published in 1900–03. It clearly did very little damage. Such quickly extinguished fires were probably fairly common, but those that did no notable damage should not be included in a combat simulation system....Major fires that were noticed from other ships and that did substantial damage or caused the loss of a ship were dramatic and thus beloved by novelists and sensationalists, but they were extremely rare.
--Albert Parker

I also know of cases where a ship was set alight by a lightning strike to the rigging. The usual result was rigging damage, which might be dangerous if one was about to go into combat and needed full maneuverability, but otherwise was just a laborious repair.

Granted, if one ship has a powerful fire sorcerer and the enemy ship doesn't have a caster who can oppose him, then the enemy is probably in for a bad day. But if most of the fighting ships of Kingdom A have casters, then presumably Kingdom B will make sure they also have casters on board, so it evens out.

[PIELIKEI]

"Almost instantly doomed" is probably overstating things. I have an acquaintance who is a naval historian, who said:

Fires were probably fairly common in action on board wooden fighting ships but they rarely caused the loss of the ship. Except under some special circusmtances, an uncontrollable fire that eventually got to the magazine and blew up the ship occurred in fleet actions perhaps once in 20 or 30 battles; Achille at Trafalgar and Orient in Aboukir Bay are the only examples that come immediately to mind. There were also a few cases in single-ship actions, but the frequency was far less; Dartmouth vs. Glorioso in 1747, Randolph vs. Yarmouth in 1778, Quebec vs. Surveillante, also in 1778 come to mind, and there might have been others, but the frequency is probably closer to 2% than to 3% or 5%.

I know of other cases of ships' catching fire in action but putting the fire out. At the Battle of Toulon (1744), the French flagship, Terrible, had a fire in her quarter galleries but extinguished it. A Spanish ship caught fire twice at the Battle of Havana (1748), but the British flagship was using mortars that were firing explosive shells, so that's a special case. A Dutch ship caught fire at the Battle of Camperdown and put it out, but then surrendered because magazine had been deliberately flooded, and she could no longer shoot back.

The fire on HMXMS Terrible at Toulon is not mentioned in general accounts of the battle, even detailed ones—I've seen it only in an article about ships named "Terrible" in a series of articles in the French Revue Maritime et Coloniale, "Nos bâtiments de guerre et leurs ancêtres" ("Our warships and their ancestors"), published in 1900–03. It clearly did very little damage. Such quickly extinguished fires were probably fairly common, but those that did no notable damage should not be included in a combat simulation system....Major fires that were noticed from other ships and that did substantial damage or caused the loss of a ship were dramatic and thus beloved by novelists and sensationalists, but they were extremely rare.
--Albert Parker

I also know of cases where a ship was set alight by a lightning strike to the rigging. The usual result was rigging damage, which might be dangerous if one was about to go into combat and needed full maneuverability, but otherwise was just a laborious repair.

Granted, if one ship has a powerful fire sorcerer and the enemy ship doesn't have a caster who can oppose him, then the enemy is probably in for a bad day. But if most of the fighting ships of Kingdom A have casters, then presumably Kingdom B will make sure they also have casters on board, so it evens out.

That is probably true, but remember, lightning and other fires in the real world were nearly single targed and surface only. A fireball is a 20 ft radius sphere. Which means that not only has a 40 foot circle just caught on fire anywhere on the ship. In addition, I would imagine shooting at a cannon would send the cannonballs rolling and its damn hard to stop a cannonball from stopping once it has started. Also wall of fire is a 4th level spell and that is 60 ft of your ship just caught on fire. Or just cut your ship in half straight down to the mag. The problem isn't with the fact that the ship is catching on fire, problem is that large portions of the ship is catching on fire every 6 seconds (a turn).

In terms of cantrips, Firebolt has a range of 120 ft. Create Bonfire has a range of 60 ft but cannot miss (as the ship can't make a dex save). That is a new fire popping onto your ship every 6 seconds within a massive range

But yes, instantly is an overexaggeration

[Regitnui]

I'll highly recommend the Buccaneer's Bestiary (http://www.dmsguild.com/product/176625/The-Buccaneers-Bestiary) to anyone running a nautical campaign. It's got a few old classics, like the Caller of the Deep, a few giant animals that can seriously menace an entire ship (a giant starfish!) and a good number of nautical NPCs, including a ship's mage, officers and sailors. It is set in a nonstandard setting; the Dark Carribbean, but is easily adapted.