Crew

Officers

Officers are specialized crew members (either PCs or NPCs) that have increased capacity to act independently on a ship and can command crew units to increase their effectiveness. PCs can become officers on a ship by being elected by the crew or appointed by an entity with authority over the ship (in the captain’s case) or by being appointed by the captain; in either case, the PC or NPC requires the appropriate naval feat (described later in this document) to be eligible.

A ship does not require any officers apart from the captain to operate, but each officer increases’ the ship’s effectiveness, and a proper crew is never missing more than a couple of officers, and even then probably only because of injury or death.

Boatswain

A ship’s boatswain (pronounced bosun) provides technical advice to the captain and crew and leads repairs and maintenance efforts. In combat, they lead work crews to patch up damage to critical areas of the ship. During travel, they can likewise repair damage sustained by the ship or fashion new equipment, if material is available.

Captain

The captain issues orders, deciding the ship’s course during travel and directing movement and other actions during combat.

Cook

A ship’s cook works with the limited ingredients aboard a ship to make meals. In combat, the cook is best suited to helping the surgeon administer care to the wounded. During travel they help keep morale high, ensuring the crew’s quality in maintained at optimal levels.

First Mate

This specialist keeps the crew’s morale high by providing supervision, encouragement, and discipline. In combat, the first mate acts as a jack of all trades, directing the crew in actions other officers are too occupied to help with. During travel, they maintain morale and discipline.

Marine Lieutenant

The officer in charge of a ship’s marine complement is tasked with leading daily training and coordinating units in battle according to the captain’s orders. In combat, they manoeuvre the crew to act more effectivily during boarding actions. During travel, the lieutenant keeps an eye out for danger and ensures the safety of other officers and important equipment.

Master Gunner

The master gunner directs the artillery crews on board a ship to fire in concert to maximum effect. In combat, they coordinate volleys of attacks to ensure swift victory. During travel they can work to repair or construct new offensive equipment.

Navigator

The navigator plots the ship’s course relying on knowledge of nautical charts and a study of weather and sea conditions. In combat, they help manoeuvre the ship according to the captain’s wishes. During travel, the navigator ensures the ship remains on course and safe from environmental hazards.

Surgeon

The ship’s surgeon tends to injuries, keeps ilnesses from spreading throughout the ship, and oversees sanitation. In combat, the surgeon minimizes casualties and brings wounded crew members back into the fight. During travel, they tend to heavily wounded crew and protect the ship from infectious diseases.

Sailors

Sailors operate ships and their equipment, following the instructions of their officers.

Crew Units

A crew unit is the minimum amount of sailors necessary to effectively carry out a task aboard a ship. A crew unit consists of 4 to 6 sailors. The rules for ships and ship combat will use crew units instead of keeping track of individual crew members and their hit points for semplicity (in cases where the individual statistics of a crewmember may be relevant, use the sailor stats found later in this document.

Ship Actions

Several different ship actions require a minimum number of crew units to be involved for it to succeed, or have an increased effect for each additional increment in the amount of crew units involved to carry it out, up to a specified maximum. The amount for each will be specified in the crew voice of the ship action. For example, if a ship action’s crew voice reads “2 + 2, max 10”, then a minimum of 2 crew units are required to perform the action, and for every 2 additional crew units involved in the action, the effect would be increased by the amount specified; crew units left over that are not sufficient to fill out an increment have no effect on the action, as are any crew units above the action’s maximum (which is the base crew units plus any additional crew units, not just the additional crew units).

 

 

In combat, once a crew unit has been involved in a ship action during any phase, it may not be involved in any other ship actions until the beginning of the next round.

During travel, each crew unit consumes 5 days worth of rations per day.

Quality

A crew’s skill, experience, morale. and health are defined by its quality score. This score can affect a number of general ship activities, like the crew’s ability to notice threats or contend with hazards. A crew starts with a quality score of +4. but that score varies over time, going as low as -10 and as high as +10. It decreases as a crew suffers hardship or endures poor health. It increases if the crew enjoys high morale, has good health care, and receives fair leadership.

Mutiny

A poorly led or mistreated crew might turn against its officers. Once per day, if a crew’s quality score is lower than 0, the captain must make a Charisma (Intimidation or Persuasion) check modified by the crew’s quality score.

If the check total is between 1 and 9, the crew’s quality score decreases by 1.

If the check total is 0 or lower, the crew mutinies. They become hostile to the officers and might attempt to kill them, imprison them, or throw them overboard. The crew can be cowed into obedience through violence, combat, or offers of treasure or other rewards.

When the DM ends the mutiny, the crew’s quality increases by 1d4.

Shore Leave

Life aboard a ship is a constant wear on the crew. Spending time in port allows the crew to relax an regain its composure.

If a crew’s quality score is 3 or lower, the score increases by 1 for each day the crew spends in port or ashore.

Marines

Marines are crew members specialized in close quarters naval combat. During boarding actions, each marine crew unit grants a bonus to the combat roll for their side, representing their superior training and equipment. The amount is based on their experience level, as shown in the table below.

Marine Effectiveness

Experience Level	Combat roll bonus
Recruit	+1
Proven	+2
Battle Hardened	+3
Elite	+4

However, these same training and equipment impede them in carrying out a ship’s day to day operations. Marine crew units are not eligible to participate in any ship action except Prepare Boaring Action, and cannot operate components.

A ship may carry any amount of marine crew units, which take up the same space and require the same rations as a normal crew unit.

Crew Damage

Being a sailor is a dangerous life, and it is not uncommon for those manning a ship to suffer injury or death, either in combat or by cause of environmental hazards.

A healthy crew unit is active, and can operate equipment and aid officers in performing ship actions, but many effects can lead a crew unit to become injured or dead. An injured crew unit cannot participate in any ship actions; it can be healed using a spell that restores hit points cast at 3rd level; for each level above 3rd, an additional crew unit can be healed. Alternatively, certain actions can be taken in combat or during travel to heal injured crew units. An injured crew unit that gets healed in one of these manners ceases being injured and may immediately return to participating in ship actions.

Dead crew units are hopelessly damaged and cannot be brought back; characters must take on new crew units to replenish their losses.

Keeping Track of Crew Damage

Crew damage can be difficult to keep track of, since it involves three different but interrelated values (Total Crew, Active Crew, and Injured Crew). It is advised that a player separate from the one keeping track of the ship’s hit points be in charge of noting the number of active and injured crew units, as well as their total.

When a crew unit dies, remember to remove that unit both from the total number of crew units and the relevant category (some effects kill injured crew, while more devastating damage may outright slay even healthy crew units). When crew becomes injured, remember to both increase the number of injured crew units and decrease the number of active crew units (but not the total).

If any marines are on board a ship, keep track of them separetely in similar fashion to above.

 

 

Ships

The Basics

Grid Movement

When a ship finds itself in combat or any other situation where the specific position of a ship relative to its surroundings is relevant, utilize the following rules.

Squares

Each square in a grid intended for use by ships is considered to be 200 by 200 feet.

Heading

When on a grid, a ship or creature can have one of eight different headings, represented by the eight squares that share an edge or a corner with the square it is currently occupying. A ship will always be facing one of these eight directions (and its corresponding square). A ship’s heading determines the only square it may move in during its movement. A ship may change its heading by turning during its turn, as described in the ship stat blocks section below.

Points off heading. Sometimes, it is important to know how far a direction is from a ship’s heading: this is measured in how many points off its heading the direction is. To determine how many points off a ship’s heading a direction is, imagine an arrow that points in the desired direction (this must be one of the eight directions available to ships and creatures), then place it in the square the ship is occupying and determine which square it is pointing at, as well as which square the ship’s heading brings it to point at. Finally, count how many squares one must move over from the square pointed at by the ship’s heading (always remaining in the squares adjacent to the ship’s) to reach the square pointed at by the desired direction. The resulting number is how many point off of that ship’s heading the direction is.

A ship (in red) and the eight headings available to it (in black).

Two examples of a ship and its heading (in red) and how many points off its heading adjacent squares are.

Wind

When on a grid, a DM may choose if wind is blowing and in what direction; if the wind is not blowing it is assumed there is enough air circulating to allow ships to move in any direction unimpeded.

Once the direction of the wind has been determined (either through choice or randomly), it applies unvaried to every square on the map, except those that are in dead calm (because they are somehow enclosed or magically becalmed).

Dead Calm: in certain areas, there may be no movement at all in the air that allows ships to move using their sails. In such areas, any ship components that have a wind modifier have their speed and current speed reduced to 0.

The direction of the wind relative to a ship affects it in one of three ways:

Wind Astern: when the direction of the wind the 0 or 1 point off of a ship’s heading, that ship has the wind astern. Ships with a current speed of at least 1 add each of their Movement components’ wind modifiers to those components’ current speeds if they begin their turn with wind astern.

Wind Abeam: when the direction of the wind is 2 points off a ship’s heading, that ship has the wind abeam. Any character attempting a check using navigator’s tools has disadvantage if their ship begins its turn with wind abeam.

Head-to Wind: when the direction of the wind is 3 or 4 points off a ship’s heading, that ship has head-to wind. Ships with a current speed of at least 1 subtract each of their Movement components’ wind modifiers from those components’ current speeds if they begin their turn with head-to wind. A ship’s sailing speed cannot be reduced below 0.

Travel

When travelling outside of combat, a ship has a speed in miles per hour equal to twice its speed in squares, as determined by its movement components.

Wind

During travel, a ship with a sailing speed may have its speed modified by the wind as normal. Determine the

 

 

direction of the wind relative to the ship’s travel heading and apply the relevant wind modifier to its sailing speed, then calculate its travel speed.

Tacking: a ship’s captain may attempt to negate the effects of a head-to wind by performing an Intelligence check with navigator’s tools, adding the ship’s Dexterity modifier, for each hour of travel. The difficulty of the check varies as detailed below:

Tacking DC

Wind Strength	DC
Light Breeze	15
Moderate Breeze	20
Wind	25
Gale	30
Hurricane	Automatic failure

If the check fails, the ship remains affected by the wind’s modifier to its speed and suffers the following damage, depending on the strength of the wind:

Tacking complications

Wind Strength	Ship Damage	Crew Damage
Light Breeze	xd10	xd6
Moderate Breeze	xd10	xd6
Wind	xd10	xd6
Gale	xd10	xd6
Hurricane	xd10	xd6

Any damage suffered in this way by a ship is allocated to its movement component (choose randomly if there is more than one. If a ship has no movement component with more than 0 hit points, it receives damage to its control component, or, barring that, to its hull.

If a ship’s crew take any damage, half of the affected crew units (rounding down) die, while the rest become injured.

Facing

The innate structure of ships usually means that some parts are more sturdy than others. In addition, naval weapons are generally too cumbersome to be quickly repositioned, so they can only fire from where they are mounted on a ship. This makes knowing where a ship is in relation to another ship’s facing: you’re usually safe when aft of an enemy, but should expect a full broadside if you’re in their side arc!

To determine a ship’s facing, draw four lines that run from its center to the center of the squares that are 1 and 3 points off its heading. This creates four arcs around the ship:
Prow Arc. Contains the square that is 0 points off the ship’s heading.
Side Arcs. Contain the squares that are 2 points off the ships heading.

Port and Starboard: most of the time, a ship won’t be affected on or be able to affect both of its sides, but one. The left side of a ship relative to its heading is its port arc, while the one to the right is its tarboard arc.
Aft Arc. Contains the square that is 4 points off the ship’s heading

Two examples of a ship and its prow, side, and aft arcs.

In Combat

Many ship-mounted weapons have limited arcs of fire. A ship’s stat block will list which arcs weapon spaces can target. Weapons mounted in those spaces can only target creatures or objects that occupy a square in their available arcs.

When a ship occupies a square that lies within more than one arcs of fire, the ship with the highest semanship value (see Ship Combat for more details) decides which arc the ship occupies relative to the enemy ship.

When firing a weapon, a ship attacks the facing of its target it is currently in. For instance, a ship targets another ship that

lies within its side (port) arc. The target ship is headed straight for the firing ship, which means it is being fired at from its prow arc. This means the firing ship will need to beat the AC of the target’s hull for its prow arc, and can only target it with weapons that can fire in its port arc.

A ship (in red) firing weapons from its side arc at an enemy ship (in blue) which receives the hit in its prow arc.

 

 

Ship Stat Blocks

Basic Statistics

A ship has three main parts, basic statistics, components, and action options. Ships can’t take any actions on their own. Without effort from its crew, a ship might drift on the water, come to a stop, or careen out of control.

Size

Most ships are Large, Huge, or Gargantuan. A ship’s size category is determined by its ength or width, whichever is longer. For instance, a ship that is 10 feet long and 20 feet wide would use the size category that has a 20-foot width, which means the ship is gargantuan.

Height and Draft. A ship’s height represents the distance from the surface of the water to its deck; its draft is the minimum depth of water required for it to navigate.

Firing Decks. The amount of decks aboard a ship primarily dedicated to housing weapons. Some heavier ship weapons can only be mounted on certain firing decks (the number will be specified on the weapon).

The higher the number of a firing deck, the further down it is from a ship’s main deck.

Cargo Capacity

A ship’s stat block indicates how much cargo it can carry. a vessel can’t move -or might even start taking on water- if its cargo exceeds this capacity.

Creature Capacity

The maximum amount of crew units the ship can carry. Every 5 non-crew passengers or portion thereof occupy the same space as one crew unit. Officers are counted individually, as each has their own cabin.

Ability Scores

A ship has six abilit scores (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Inelligence, Wisdom and Charisma)and the corresponding modifiers.

The Strength of a ship expresses its size and weight. Dexterity represent’s a ship’s ease of handling. A ship’s Constitution covers its durability and the quality of its construction.Ships usually have 0 in Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. If a ship has 0 in a score, it automatically fails any ability check or saving throw that uses that score.

Vulnerabilities, Resistances, and Immunities

A ship’s vulnerabilities, resistances, and immunities apply to all its components, unless otherwise noted in the stat block. Ships are typically immune to poison and psychic damage.

Ships are also usually immune to the following conditions: blinded, charmed, deafened, exhaustion, frightened, incapacitated, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, stunned, and unconsious.

Components

Hull. A ship’s hull is its basic frame, on which the other components are mounted.
Control. A control component is used to steer the ship.
Movement. A movement component is the element of the ship that enables it to move, such as a set of sails or oars, and has a specific speed (expressed in squares per round).
Weapon. A ship capable of being used in combat has one or more weapon components, each of which is operated separetely. Each weapon mount is a part of a specific deck, which is important to determine if certain weapons can be mounted there. Any weapon mount without a specified deck is assumed to be mounted on the main deck.

A ship’s components might have special rules, as described in the stat block.

Armor Class

A component has an Armor Class. Its AC reflects the materials used to construct it and any defensive plating used to augment its toughness. Different facings on a ship may have different ACs.

Hit Points

A ship component is destroyed and becomes unusable when it drops to 0 hit points. A ship is wrecked if its hull is destroyed.

A ship doesn’t have Hit Dice.

Damage Threshold

If a ship component has a damage threshold, that threshold apears after its hit points. A component has immunity to all damage unless it takes an amount of damage that equals or exceeds its threshold, in which case it takes damage as normal. Damage that fails to bypass the threshold is considered superficial and doesn’t reduce the component’s hit point.

Crew

The amount of crew units necessary for the ship to be able to use a component. Each crew unit that is occupied operating a component is not available to operate any others. Keep track of how crew units are assigned during the turn so as to know when there aren’t enough to perform a given task.

Speed

When a ship’s component has a speed value, that is the maximum amount of current speed that component can have at any given time.

A component’s current speed indicates how far its ship must move during its Movement Phase.

A ship’s current speed is the sum of the current speeds of all of its components. Certain modifiers, such

 

 

as the wind, can also affect the a ship’s total current speed.

Turn Rate

The amount of squares a ship must move before its control

component gains the ability to turn and by how many points it may change its heading each time: for example, a ship that has a control component with a turn rate of 2/1 must move at least two squares before it is allowed to change its heading by one point.

This amount does not stack, so the ship above would not be able to turn twice in a row if it moved 4 squares in a straight line on its turn. However, once a ship

turns, it may do so again in the same turn, provided it moves the required distance after the previous turn.

A ship with a turn rate of 2/1 moves and changes its heading twice.

Ship Combat

Phases

Each round is divided into four phases:

• Seamanship
• Movement
• Shooting
• Boarding

A round of naval combat lasts roughly a minute, or ten rounds of normal combat.

Seamanship phase

In this phase, the captains of opposing ships attempt to outsmart each other to gain the upper hand in the following phases.

Each ship’s captain makes an Intelligence (Navigator’s Tools) check, a Wisdom (Insight) and an Intelligence (Deception) check. Write down each ship’s results for each check and add them together to determine the total for each ship. This total is called the Seamanship Value.

Once all seamanship values have been determined, order each ship from highest to lowest. This is the Order of Battle, which determines when each ship can choose to act during subsequent phases in this round.

The Seamanship Phase then ends.

Order of Battle

In both the Movement and Shooting phases, beginning from the ship with the highest Seamanship Value, each captain decides if they wish to activate their ship. If not, the ship with the next lowest Seamanship Value has a chance to activate or not, until all ships have had their chance.

If the ship that is being given the chance to activate has the lowest seamanship value out of all ships that have not been activated yet, that ship must activate.

Once any ship is activated, place a mark near it in the order of battle to indicate that it has. When that ship’s activation has ended, repeat the process above, ignoring any ship that has already been activated in the current phase.

Once all ships in the order of battle have been activated, the current phase ends, and the next phase begins.

Activation

If the ship is activated, all creatures on their ship may take one of the actions available to them in the current phase. Once a creature has acted in any phase, it may not take another action in that phase or subsequent phases until the beginning of the next round.

Some ship actions have prerequisites: a character may not attempt the action if they do not meet its prerequisites. Some actions also have a crew value. This is the minimum number of active crew units that are needed to perform the action; an action cannot be performed if the minimum number of crew units are not involved. Take note of the number of crew units involved in the actions of each character: any such crew units are unable to participate in any other actions in any phase or operate any ship components until the end of the current round, just as a character would.

When an action targets a ship’s component, that component cannot be targeted as part of any other action until the end of the current round.

Mandatory Actions. A ship’s components will specify under which conditions they force a ship to take a mandatory action and what it entails. If a ship fails to take a mandatory action, the component the action originated from immediately falls to 0 hit points, and the ship’s hull takes damage equal to half its hit point maximum.

Ending Activation. Once all characters on a ship have taken an action or decided not to act in the current phase, that ship’s activation ends.

 

 

Movement Phase

In this phase ships manoeuvre to reach the optimal position from which to fire on, hide from, or otherwise confound their enemies.

Officers have the following actions available to them during this phase:

Activate Special Equipment

Prerequisite: varies.
Component: 1 Special.
Crew: as many as needed to operate the targeted component.
Effect: the character activates the effect of a special piece of equipment aboard the ship. See page x for more details on special equipment.

Adjust Bearing

Prerequisite: proficiency with Water Vehicles. Component: 1 Movement.
Crew: indicated on the target component.
Effect: The next time the ship turns during this movement phase, the ship may either do so after having moved one less square than normally required or may changed its heading by one additional point.

If this action is taken more than once in the same phase, each subsequent use after the first allows the ship to apply the effect above to one additional turn it makes during its move.

Adjust Speed

Prerequisite: proficiency with Water Vehicles. Component: 1 Movement.
Crew: indicated on the target component.
Effect: the ship furls or unfurls additional sails. Increase or decrease the current speed of one of the ship’s components by 1.

Brace for Impact!

Prerequisite: none.
Component: none.
Crew: every crew unit on the ship.
Effect: until the beginning of the boarding phase, any effect that would cause any number of crew units to become injured or dead only causes half as many to be injured or die.

Cast Spell

Prerequisite: the ability to cast at least one spell. Component: none.
Crew: none.
Effect: the character casts a spell. See page x for more information on spellcasting on ships.

Jury-Rig Repairs

Prerequisite: Mending cantrip or proficiency with Carpenter’s Tools.
Component: any 1.
Crew: up to the character’s proficiency bonus.
Effect: at the end of the phase, the target component regains a number of hit points equal to x x the character’s total bonus for Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence (character’s choice) skill checks using carpenter’s tools or the character’s spellcasting attack bonus. Add x to the total for each crew unit involved in the action.

Take the Helm

Prerequisite: proficiency with Water Vehicles. Component: 1 Control.
Crew: indicated on the target component.
Effect: an officer directs the ship’s course. When the ship moves in this phase, it may turn any number of times, so long as it moves by the amount indicated on the component’s turn rate before each turn and each turn changes the ship’s heading by no more than the amount indicated on the target component.

Tend to the Wounded

Prerequisite: proficiency in Medicine.
Component: none.
Crew: up to the character’s Proficiency Bonus.
Effect: the character can target a number of injured crew units equal to their proficiency bonus. If the targeted crew units are injured, they cease beaing injured and return to being active. Add 1 to the amount of crew units that can be targeted by this effect for each crew unit involved in the action.

Shooting Phase

In this phase ships let loose with their arsenal of weapons to disable, sink, or demoralize their enemies.

Creatures have the following actions available to them during this phase:

Activate Special Equipment

Prerequisite: varies.
Component: 1 Special.
Crew: as many as needed to operate the targeted component.
Effect: the character activates the effect of a special piece of equipment aboard the ship. See page x for more details on special equipment.

Cast Spell

Prerequisite: the ability to cast at least one spell. Component: none.
Crew: none.
Effect: the character casts a spell. See page x for more information on spellcasting on ships.

Direct Gunners

Prerequisite: proficiency with Siege Weapons. Component: up to the character’s Proficiency Bonus Weapons.
Crew: as many as needed to operate the targeted components.
Effect: Each targeted component can make an attack against a valid target, with Advantage.

 

 

Fire Broadside!

Prerequisite: none.
Component: any number of Weapons.
Crew: as many as needed to operate the targeted components.
Effect: each targeted component can make an attack against a valid target.

Operate Weapon

Prerequisite: proficiency with Siege Weapons. Component: 1 Weapon.
Crew: 1 unit.
Effect: the character takes direct control of one of the ship’s weapons. The character immediately makes an attack with that weapon against a valid target.

While atacking in this manner, the character can choose to target individual components on a ship without suffering disadvantage on the attack roll. Furthermore, the attack automatically counts as a critical hit if it hits.

Prepare Boarding Party

Prerequisite: the character’s ship is adjacent to a hostile enemy ship.
Component: none.
Crew: up to the character’s Proficiency Bonus.
Effect: the character targets a hostile ship that is in a square adjacent to theirs. The target ship and the character’s ship become engaged in boarding (see below for details). Each crew unit and character participating in this action becomes eligible to fight in boarding actions for this phase.

Marines can be targeted as participants for this action, even though they normally cannot take part in ship actions.

Boarding Phase

It is common practice in naval warfare to close the distance with an enemy vessel after inflict significant damage to board it and take its cargo, or even the entire vessel, as a prize. If any ship is engaged in boarding with any other ship at the beginning of this phase, combat ensues.

Boarding a Ship

When two ships become engaged in boarding through the Prepare Boarding Party action, both ships reduce the speed and wind bonuses of all their movement components to 0.

At the end of the boarding phase, a ship may end its engagement against any ship that it is currently boarding and that it won its boarding action against.

Boarding Actions

During a boarding action, ship crews, numbering from dozens to hundreds of individuals, clash. To represent this, the active ship and each ship engaged in boarding with it selects any number of crew units that are eligible to fight in boarding actions to form a boarding party. If a ship is engaged with more than one hostile ship, it must divide its eligible crew units into multiple boarding parties to fight against each one of its enemies. Boarding parties can potentially consist of 0 crew units, representing an utter lack of resistance on one of the fight’s fronts. A crew unit can only be a part of a single boarding party each round.

Once boarding parties have been determined, each opposing boarding party rolls a d6 and adds the number of crew units in their boarding party. If any marines are present in a boarding party, each unit of marines adds a bonus to this roll based on their experience level. Add the totals for each boarding party together.

The side with the higher total wins and suffers light losses: subtract the difference in scores from the amount rolled on the enemy’s d6. The result is the amount of crew units from the winning side that become injured.

The side with the lower total loses and suffers heavy losses: a number of crew units equal to the difference in score between them and the winning side becomes injured. An additional d6 die outright.

If a boarding party would lose more crew members to injury or death than are currently in it, the excess damage is instead dealt to crew units from its ship that are not engaged in boarding.

Characters in boarding actions

Any character that is eligible to fight in boarding actions may join a boarding party. When a character joins a boarding party, they add a bonus to its combat roll based on their levels in a given class. To calculate this bonus, first calculate the character’s combat level by adding together the levels they have in each class as shown in the table below:

Character Combat Level

For levels in	Combat Level
Artificer, Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, or Rogue	+1
Bard, Druid, Cleric, or Warlock	+1/2
Sorcerer or Wizard	+1/4

Once a character’s combat level is determined (rounding up fractions), use the table below to calculate the bonus they add to their side’s combat roll for this boarding action.

Character Combat Roll Bonus

Combat Level	Combat Roll Bonus
1-4	+2
5-8	+3
9-12	+4
13-16	+5
17+	+6

 

 

Characters can take damage to reduce the amount of casualties suffered from their crew. For each crew unit that would become injured during a boarding action, a character involved in that same boarding action can instead roll one of their hit dice and subtract the number rolled from their current hit points (if a character has more than one kind of hit die, they must roll the largest they have). Each time a character does this, reduce the number of crew units that would become injured by one. For each crew unit that would die during a boarding action, characters may do the same thing, but they must add their Constitution modifier to the roll of their hit die.

If characters consistently allow their crew to soak up damage while keeping themselves out of danger, consider lowering the crew’s quality score to reflect the souring mood of subordinates sacrificed by officers with no care for their wellbeing.

Monsters and NPCs in boarding actions

If any notable monsters or NPCs with a challenge rating above 0 are participating in a boarding action, add twice their challenge rating to their side’s combat roll.

Attacks and Damage

Ship weapon attacks

When a ship attacks with one of its weapons, add the ship’s crew quality modifier to the roll.

When a character attacks with a ship weapon they add their Dexterity or Intelligence modifier (their choice) to the roll, plus their proficiency bonus if they are proficient with siege weapons.

Targeting components

When a ship is targeted by a ranged attack, unless otherwise specified, the attack is made against its hull.

When declaring a ranged attack against a ship, an attacker may instead target one of the target ship’s other components, but if they do so, the attack is made with disadvantage, and the target component gains resistance to all damage suffered from the attack.

A creature that makes a melee attack against a ship may target any component in reach with no penalties.

Crew Damage

Whenever a ship suffers 1 point of crew damage, 1 active crew unit becomes injured, or 1 injured crew unit dies (target ship’s choice). For every x damage suffered by a single attack, a ship suffers 1 point of crew damage.

Officer Damage

For each point of crew damage inflicted on a ship as the result of an attack, all officers on a ship must pass a Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, they suffer piercing damage equal to half the damage rolled on the attack dice. On a success, they suffer no damage. The DC for the saving throw is 8 + the attack bonus for the attack that triggered the save.

Critical hits

Whenever a ship suffers a critical hit, in addition to all normal effects, 1 of the ship’s weapon components (determined randomly) is disabled and cannot be used againt until repaired, and the ship suffers 1 point of crew damage.

In addition, components other that the ship’s hull do not gain the damage resistance they usually would against ranged attack targeting them if those attacks score a critical hit (they do however retain any damage resistances listed on their stat block).

Raking

When a ship is targeted by a ranged attack that originates from its prow arc, that attack will score a critical hit on a roll of 18-20.

When a ship is targeted by a ranged attack that originates from its aft arc, that attack will score a critical hit on a roll of 16-20.

 

 

Sample Ships

 

 

Rough Drafts

Naval feats

Captain

You gain proficiency with water vehicles.

You can take the Fire Broadside! action during the shooting phase even if you have taken another action during the movement phase, but only if that action was Take the Helm.

Carpenter

You gain proficiency with carpenter’s tools or learn the Mending cantrip.

When taking the Jury-Rig Repairs action, you may also target a number of disabled weapon components equal to your proficiency modifier and restore them to full efficiency. As normal, these components cannot be targeted by other actions until the end of the current round.

First Mate

You are the captain’s right hand, supporting and directing other officers and the crew they’re leading.

You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill. Once per round, when another officer takes an action during the movement phase, you may choose to aid that officer. Any crew units targeted by that officer’s action remain eligible to be targeted by any subsequent orders as if they hadn’t been targeted by any actions.

Marine Sergeant

When you take the Prepare Boarding Party action, any crew units you target are eligible to be targeted to carry out other actions during the shooting phase. No crew unit can be a part of more than one boarding party.

Additionally, if you take the Prepare Boarding Party action and target only marine crew units when doing so, you may take the same action one additional time, targeting different units. This effect does not repeat, regardless of what crew units were targeted by the order the second time.

During the boarding phase, you can roll the boarding dice twice and choose which to use when your boarding party fights.

Master Gunner

You’ve mastered drilling your firing crews to reload rapidly and unleash accurate volleys in a fraction of the time the average gun crew takes.

You gain proficiency with siege weapons. In addition, any crew units and Weapon components targeted by Direct Gunners actions you take remain eligible to be targeted by Fire Broadside! actions in the same phase.

Navigator

You gain proficiency with water vehicles.

When you take the Adjust Bearing or Adjust Speed actions during the movement phase, you may take either one of those actions immediately after resolving the first action, and you may target the same Movement component targeted by the previous action. You must target new crew units to operate the component when you use this additional action.

Ship’s Cook

A well-fed crew is usually a happy crew, and you’ve learned to leverage this to keep the ship running as smoothly as possible.

You gain proficiency with cook’s utensils. So long as you have access to enough rations for the entire crew, the quality of your ship’s crew increases by 1 each day at dawn (to a maximum of +5).

Ship’s Mage

Prerequisite: at least one spell slot.

Whenever you take a ship action and expend a spell slot, for the purposes of resolving that action, you can treat the spell slot as if it were one level higher that the one you expended.

Ship’s Surgeon

You gain proficiency in the Medicine skill.

When you issue the Tend to the Wounded order in the movement phase, you may immediately issue the same order again, but if you do so, after resolving the order, a number of injured crew units equal to your proficiency bonus die.

 

 

Naval weapons

Weapon properties

Firing deck: a ship may only equip this weapon in a weapon mount that is on a firing deck that has a value equal to or higher than the one listed in this weapon’s description.

Range increments: Ships usually mount weapons that have ranges much longer than those of conventional adventuring weapons and spells. Range increments reflect the gradual decrease in accuracy tied to a target’s distance and size.

When firing a weapon with this property at a creature or object, apply a cumulative penalty to the attack roll based on the target’s size, as shown in the table below, for every 200 ft of distance between it and the target.

Weapons with this property cannot target Tiny creatures.

Range increment penalty

Target size	Attack Roll Penalty
Tiny	untargetable
Small	-10
Medium	-8
Large	-5
Huge	-3
Gargantuan	-2

Siege weapon: this weapon deals double damage to objects.

Stationary: this weapon is mounted in a fixed position and is difficult to target without moving the whole platform (or ship) it is mounted on. Attacks made with this weapon against creatures have disadvantage.

Special Equipment

Magical stuff

• +1d4 to defensive spell effects.
• +1d4 to offensive spell effects.
• +1d4 to movement spell effects.

Boarding

diminish number of crew lost in losing boarding actions.

Ammunition

• Grapeshot: deals 1 crew damage and 0 hull damage on a hit, range 600 ft.
• Chain shot: no disadvantage for targeting Movement components.

 

 

Naval spellcasting

Defense

Roll a number of d4s equal to half the level of the spell slots you expend (rounding up). You gain a number of defense charges equal to the total sum of the dice rolled. Whenever your ship is hit by an attack, you can expend one charge and give the ship resistance to that attack. You may use this feature after knowing which part of the ship was hit.

Offense

Roll a number of d4s equal to the spell slot you expend. The total is the number of active crew units that are injures, or of injured crew units that are killed, in any combination (target ship’s choice). You can do this in the shooting or Boarding phase.

Movement

Roll a number of d4s equal to the level of the spell slot you expend. The total is added to your ship’s seamanship value at the beginning of the next round.