I placed the Naval Combat Rules on the Campaign Information Tab. It's under one of the last spoilers on the page.
That does not bode well.
I still need to place "Naval Actions" but I'm pretty tired, it's been a busy week.
I updated the Naval Actions on the Campaign tab. I still have some details to add to those actions but you should get the idea for the overall concept.
Ok...I think I maxed out how much information that I can put on my Campaign information page. I went and put the details up for the various naval actions and page cuts it off. The list of actions that I put up last night are gone. Frustrating.
I'm going to work on putting it in my dropbox. Expect a delay.
Wow. Nice work Baldwin!
I updated the spreadsheet with ships we've seen as well in the locations tab.
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Here is link to my dropbox with the Naval rules and descriptions.
Naval Combat Rules and Actions
Ignore the embedded coding like [b] or [bigger] in the document that was me making it stand out for the Campaign Thread.
I cleaned up the campaign information tab but I've hit my max of information permitted. So the Naval Action Descriptions are on the attached link for reference.
Note Naval Initiative is not Dex based it is based on character's role on the ship and it's modifier:
Naval Initiative:
Capt = Charisma
Navigator = Intelligence or Wisdom
Chaplain/surgeon = Wisdom or Charisma
Mate = Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma
+5 for me if based on wisdom.
Swivel mounted ballista? We need one of those!
Embri you have quite a target-rich environment. Swivel ballista, sails/rigging/sailors, or the wheel/wheelhouse if they have one. You're also in charge of our naval maneuvers.
Ballista would be best served targeting rigging crew perhaps? Or they can take out the exposed swivel on the foredeck.
Chell might be able to end it with the power o' Quell of course. We COULD escape if she whirlpools and we run, or somehow Chell uses an Anchor token on them, but I can't justify Astri wanting to run now that they're directly attacking us.
+5 for me if based on wisdom.
no idea how I got +4 for you. I'll change it.
Astri, depends on our goal. Get away - Chell's whirlpool. Destroy the Weasel - Balistae target the hull. Sieze the Weasel - Balistae target the rigging... don't let her sail or manuever in anyway, then we grapple and board her.
I'd vote for the latter as Ptahh.
I vote the latter too since we are supposedly close to our target and can offload supplies, victims and prisoners easily enough. Won't waste too much time and we do a good deed.
Agreed with Chell, might as well board the Weasel. We can use our sailors to get her to Sharkjaw, kick all the pirates off in the port, load all her cargo onto the Baron to sell at Shaw, sell the Weasel for whatever (or sell her with the cargo to save time), do our job and then go on our marry way.
We can soften it up with spells or hell might even get them to surrender depending on what Chell manages to do. If Chell opens with the whirlpool and it gets dispelled we know we'll have a caster or two to deal with.
I'd vote for targeting the deck or rigging with the ballista and when the Weasel is softened Embri attempts to Cross the Boards.
Crossing the Boards: Similar to a ram (see below),
crossing the boards allows one ship to effectively grapple
another and allow a boarding party to cross. To perform
a crossing the boards attack, the Navigator targets the
enemy’s bowsprit (or bow, if it doesn’t have a bowsprit) with
his own ship’s bowsprit. The Navigator makes a combat
maneuver check to grapple, using his base attack bonus and
the ship’s Strength modifier.
A Mate can assist the maneuver by ordering crewmen to
use grappling hooks and standard ropes to secure the two
ships together as they cross. For every 5 grappling hooks
used by the Mate, the Navigator gains a +1 bonus on his
CMB (up to a maximum of +4).
In addition, the larger ship (determined by the number
of Hull Locations) gets a bonus to its CMB equal to half the
difference of the number of Hull Locations. For example,
if a ship with 20 Hull Locations attempts to grapple a ship
with 15 Hull Locations, the larger ship gains a +2 size bonus
to its CMB and CMD checks. If successful, both ships are
temporarily disabled; they each drift, moving at one-quarter
the slowest ship’s speed. The ships remain grappled so long
as their bows are crossed, and while crossing the boards
remains effective, crewmembers from either ship can cross
to the other. The grappled ship can attempt to break free on
its Captain’s Naval Initiative.
Can't wait until next level for more high level spells. I really want communal water walk. Imagine Ptahh leading the the boarding party and Sorrin taking up to 7 guys over the edge to climb up the other side and flank.
I also didn't think about the anchor token. I could swim under the ship and anchor them.
Too bad we don't have a ram. Anchor token on enemy ship + Ram = BOOM
Just Sailor 25 to gain advantage.
Take her, you have proof. A trophy!
Sink her, it's all hear say. Smack talk.
Let's take her and prove we got the ballz!
I think I shall name my guys too. What percentage do I use for race and sex? Or I believe Ptahh named them all so if he could pick that's fine too. I believe I have 2 veterans and 3 marines.
I have the makeup of crew races listed in the spreadsheet under the ship stats. Ptahh has named all of the veterans/marines, they are at the bottom of the ships stats page. You could steal a few or make up your own, just tell me so I can keep things updated. Gender is yours for the choosing!
I'll take:
Quinn (Male Human Veteran) from 2
Kitt (Female Human Veteran) from 3
Ellynn (Female Human Marine) from 1
Nunann (Male Human Marine) from 2
Wrynndt (Female Tulita Marine) from 3
If Ptahh puts Heath in 3 than they all have the same number of veterans and only missing 1 from squad 2 compared to the others. 6-5-6.
Kitt will be second in command.
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I'm linking the officer positions again. Hopefully you're all familiar with this by now.
Remember there is a 3-person minimum to a location (hull or rigging) for that location to operate properly. Causalities and Losses can pile up quickly. There may be a desire to rush aboard the ship that action is your choosing but be forewarned if officers are not available to command and move men around your own ship it could be disastrous.
Inevitably, crewmembers will die in battle. Hopefully, the Surgeon and his team are skillful enough to patch up the majority of the injured, but in the short term your ship needs to move crewmen around to fill in where casualties occur. Typically, a ship has more crewmen than it needs
— some crewmen are sleeping while others are working. During combat, though, it’s all hands on deck. So, for the first few rounds, casualties likely have no major impact. Sometimes, though, battles are more a war of attrition than a war of dominance, and the ship that’s best prepared to outlast the opponent wins the day.
Crewmen are a resource, and you track them like an archer tracks her arrows or a wizard tracks his spell slots. Throughout your ship, you are required to maintain a minimum number of crewmen to perform tasks such as operating sails, loading and firing ballistae, fighting fires,
and so on. As long as you have enough crewmen to fill all those roles, you don’t have to worry about allocating crewmen. Once the number falls below the minimum, you must make choices about where to assign crewmen; for example, to the guns, the sails, or that repair detail heading
below deck.
During combat, when crewmen move around the ship, change the number of crewmen present in each Location on your Ship Record Sheet. When crew are killed in a Location, note down the number alive and dead in that
Location on your Ship Record Sheet.
At the end of each round, all ships total the number of crewmen left alive. Add in any crewmen recovered by your Surgeon and his team — those crewmen weren’t really dead, just knocked around a bit.
If the number of crew left alive are more than the minimum required for your ship to function, continue the combat if you so desire. If the total is less than the minimum on any ship, the Captain of that ship decides from which areas to take crewmen, how many, and where they go. This crewmen movement happens instantly, before the next round of combat begins. It is considered to have occurred throughout the course of the melee.
Each Location on your ship requires a bare minimum of three crewmen to operate properly. Most likely, before you hit the point where you would need to operate on that level of a skeleton crew, you’ll suffer loses that affect other areas of your ship — not enough marines to man the ballista, not enough sailors to enact the Navigator’s commands, not enough firefighters to go below deck, and so forth. As the losses pile up, the officers — particularly the Captain — need to decide which tasks take priority. If there are only 8 crewmen available and both the Gunnery Sergeant and the Fire Mate need those sailors, the Captain needs to make the decision. Splitting the group in half probably doesn’t help anybody; she needs to make the tough decision of which task is more important right now: loading and firing the cannons, or extinguishing a fire below deck. If she thinks one more volley from her broadsides will lay her enemy low, maybe she opts to let the fire burn and sends the crewmen to the gun deck. If she needs more time, though, perhaps she sends the crewmen below deck to fight the fires. Nobody said the Captain’s job was all sunshine and rainbows; bearing the burden of command isn’t an easy task.
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On the subject of the rule a Mate needs to be in the same or adjacent location, the Message spell can circumvent this.
Message: Any crew in contact with their Mate via this spell can be directed from non-adjacent locations.
In fact, here is the list of new effects for spells in Fire as She Bears. Well, most of them are not so much new as giving some rules or ideas.
The following spells have effects that can be applied
during ship-to-ship combat. Several of these options may
be obvious to some readers, but all are worth pointing out.
Animate Dead
Skeletons and zombies created with animate dead can be
used as crewmen. The controlling necromancer counts as the
undead’s Mate. Non-intelligent undead do not mutiny if their
Mate does not. Unless magical modifications or special circumstances
dictate otherwise, undead function as landsmen.
Animate Objects
This spell can allow the ship or components of it to
complete tasks including firing cannon, bailing water,
extinguishing fires, or managing sails. Each Medium-sized
animated object created counts as a crewman for these tasks.
Animate Rope
Two castings of this spell can be used to raise or lower a
ship’s sails in 5 rounds without the use of crew.
Chill / Heat Metal
This spell will make a cannon expand or contract slightly,
making it useless in battle for the duration of the spell.
Continual Flame
This spell is used for lighting within the powder
magazines of ships to remove the need for candles or
torches, thus removing the risk of accidental explosions.
Control Weather
This spell enables complete control of wind direction
and force, and the spellcaster is able to adjust it every round
on his ship-based initiative. If two spellcasters have control
weather active simultaneously, then resolve conflicts with
an opposed caster level check.
Control Winds
This spell enables complete control of wind direction and
force for one ship, and ignores prevailing conditions. If two
spellcasters have control winds active and are competing for
control in the same area, they make opposed caster level
checks to determine who prevails. Control weather trumps
control winds if both are active in the same area.
Create Food and Water
The bland nature of the food created by this spell does
not encourage your crew over an extended period. If you
are using this spell exclusively to provide food for your crew,
your ship suffers a –1 penalty to Loyalty checks (but see
prestidigitation below).
Dimension Door
This spell is useful for beginning small-scale boarding
actions on an enemy ship, allowing your boarders to gain
access below-decks to sabotage critical locations such as the
powder magazine or steerage.
Disintegrate
Ship locations are considered unattended objects for the
purposes of this spell and therefore always take full damage.
Fabricate
This spell can repair locations at the rate of 40 hit points
per caster level. A successful DC 20 Craft (shipbuilding)
check is required for each 40 points of repairs.
Gust of Wind
This spell can fill 1 Rigging Location with a Moderate
force wind in the direction of caster’s choosing for 1 minute.
Message
Any crew in contact with their Mate via this spell can be
directed from non-adjacent locations.
Quench
This spell completely extinguishes flames in 1 Location
per caster level.
Prestidigitation
When used in conjunction with create food and water,
this spell allows the caster to flavor the gruel created as she
desires. If prestidigitation is used every time, it removes the
–1 Loyalty penalty.
Summon Swarm
This spell can also be used to summon a swarm of
woodworms or termites. Treat these vermin as a spider
swarm that has no poison and deals 2d6 damage to wooden
targets (including hull and Rigging Locations) per round,
ignoring hardness. These insects may not attack the Below
Waterline Location.
Transmute Metal to Wood
Cannons and other gunpowder weapons transmuted
into wood will not fire.
Warp Wood
To warp a Location requires the equivalent of warping
32 Small objects. Once warped, a Location is considered
destroyed (if a Rigging Location) or breached (if a Hull
Location) and in both cases is brought to 0 hit points.
Warping the Below Waterline Location deals 1d6 points of
damage per caster level.
Whispering Wind
Captains in a fleet often use this spell for direct ship-toship
communications.
That will work well with a spellcaster and some of her targeted crew (up to the her spell level) but that won't run 20 men crew. At 7th level a spellcaster can message 7 people. The spellcaster will have some choices whether they want to include PCs or just communicate with the crew, in a message.
I never noticed the number of people/level on message, I thought you could only message one person at a time.
Now EVERYONE gets a two-way radio to Astri, yaaaaaaay.
Loads of information. Where do I find required number of free for different parts of the ship, specifically number to operate the ballistae?
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It takes 1 crew to fire and aim a light ballista. It takes 1 round to load a light ballista, 0 rounds to aim. 3d8 piercing damage 19-20/x2 crit, and 120ft range.
5 of our veterans have siege operating experience. Baldwin gave them exotic weapon prof: siege and naval gunnery.
We have 24 ballista bolts currently.
Baldwin posted this for the dice:
Lt ballista
[dice=siege gunner, siege engineer, naval gunnery bab, dex mod ]1d20+3+3[dice ;[dice=damage]3d8[/dice
I might need one more considering the surgeon role. I can stabilize one person per round plus one per 2 crew under me. 5 crew means I have a buffer if 1 gets killed but 6 means an extra stabilize. I'll stand mid-ship and have 3 on the poop deck and 2 near the catapult in the picture we used last time, that way I can monitor all of them.
Also, we get our normal set of actions plus a navel action right? Or do we have to use an action based on the navel action chosen? Like Assessment is a standard action. I can't use a standard action if I use Assessment.
Also, Abundant Ammunition and ballista bolts?
The naval actions are separate from your normal actions.
You can also take a form of Naval movement, kinda, before your action.
To help keep the action flowing, officers (and crewmen accompanying them) can take special movement on their Naval Initiative, at the end of which they can perform a Naval Action.
Determine the officer’s maximum running distance, keeping in mind that this can be affected by wearing medium or heavy armor, carrying a medium or heavy load, or possessing the Run feat. Divide this maximum running distance by 20 to determine the number of Locations an officer and her crew can move through during the officer’s Naval Initiative. To accomplish this, the officer must make a DC 20 Profession (sailor) check.
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Remember to look at the naval rules under the information tab.
The rules use the same exact initiative order, even when “the-whole-ship-is-involved” naval combat actions occur at the same time as “small scale” actions like melee or spell-casting against a single foe. Consequently, an officer — especially a PC in the role of an officer — may take two distinct kinds of action every time it is her turn in the initiative order: she has the option to take her regular action (standard + move, in its various permutations), plus she may also opt to take a naval action, which affects the ship as a whole and its combat with the opposing ship.
Order of Play
Naval combat plays out much like standard combat, and the actions the Captain and officers perform take place within the standard initiative order. The following is a quick guide to the order of play, followed by details for each step.
1. Determine if the ship furthest upwind can Claim the Weather Gauge
2. Roll for Initiative twice: once for normal initiative and a second time for Naval Initiative.
3. Perform Actions in order of initiative, highest to lowest. On normal initiative, perform actions from the Pathfinder Core Rulebook and other sourcebooks. On Naval Initiative, perform naval actions. More on Naval Actions will follow.
4. At the end of the round, before the new round starts, apply the Effects of Damage and any destroyed Locations to the ship
5. Count Casualties
6. Move Crewmen between Locations as desired
7. If any ship stole the weather gauge during the round, apply bonuses accordingly
Essentially the PCs and important NPC/Enemy have their normal turn in order of initiative. (full round, standard + move, and so forth).
Then there is the Naval Initiative which which is when the officers(PCs) act in their Leadership capacity to get their crew acts in accordance to the orders give.
I can definitely see how casters and crew on a ship would be the first to be targeted repeatedly. Melee doesn't really happen as long as there is gap between ships. When spells are tossed at 400 feet + 40 feet per level there's 680 feet of distance that a 7th level caster can operate under. A lot of death can occur in the 6 rounds, or so, it would take a ship to close that gap. Roughly half that if the two ships are closing on each other.
Will a ballista, you can target individuals I believe...
Might do less damage to the vessel as well as help lighten the load when we board.
School event, be back in a bit!
It takes 1 crew to fire and aim a light ballista.
I had most of that info. What don't know is how many men=1 crew. 5, 10, 20?
Because if it is twenty, that is most of our marines/veterans. I can pull them as soon as we get in range to grapple or board.
For a single light ballista a crew is 2 people. One aims and fires, the second person loads. Since you have 2 light ballista per side of the ship a full crew would be 4 men per side or 8 crew if all weapons are manned.
Any magic to protect Captain Donovan?
Ptahh, you want to control both functions... Boarding and Gunnery?
Do we have folks that can shoot crossbows?
Astri did you mark off the dead marines from the spreadsheet?
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- Sorrin/Bri the ship has 21 sailors/able seaman on the spreadsheet. at lest 12 need to be in the rigging. Where are you directing the other 9 to be? Any extras in the rigging?
- Sorrin/Ptahh/chell there are a total of 23 marines/veterans. 5 are stretcher bearers. Can I assume you have 8 below deck to crew and replace crew for the ballista. That leave 10 men for boarding duty.
- Astri - 4 of the 14 landlubbers are your fireteam. That leaves 10 landlubbers to fill in.
I did, and I added Fiosa as a landsman crew member.
I think Donovan will be fine, he's at least a level or two higher than us, maybe more.
I haven't figured out what class he is though, but I know he has improved unarmed strike and used to wield the adamantine warhammer Malestrom, which is now in the possession of Sargent Darenar for some reason. He might be a fighter or rogue or something who knows.
The lubbers are good with a bucket at least!
Do we have folks that can shoot crossbows?
I don't think you have many crossbows. I'll have to check what gear the recruits came aboard with.
There's a LOT we still need to buy for both the ship and crew, especially the marines/veterans. When we get back to Shaw there's going to be some serious shoppping.
Ptahh, you want to control both functions... Boarding and Gunnery?
Do we have folks that can shoot crossbows?
If you want to be with the gunnery, great! I'll focus on the marines on the deck.
You two can always switch back and forth as well.
Once Astri (or Bri, she gets it sooner) gets access to Dimension Door let's just say there will be some fun times teleporting aboard enemy vessels, and you'll both be needed most likely.
Link to previous crew coding stats
Astri do you have a link to post on what gear I gave the recruits? I know I mentioned it, I just didn't see it in my cursory review of the discussion thread.
Will be out of pocket tonight and good part of tomorrow with family stuff.
I'm offering the choice because Sorrin is less likely to fall into the water if there's any chance of that.
And I didn't want you having to split your time, possible and having to choose.
I'll be busy tonight.
Looks like most people will be offline tonight.
I'll be off line most the day.