Best ways for sahuagin to jump onboard a ship.


Advice


I am thinking of having sharks jump out the water and then the sahuagin jump off their backs on to they PC's ships.

A shark has a shark has +13 to jump due to speed and hasted sahuagin has another +13. A 5th level wand of jump can +20 to both. That makes our total +66. The other 14 should be do able 2 die rolls.

To my fellow DMs what would the sahuagin be able to do after their jump. Would a ride check be need for any of this? Basically I see this a nice surprise round but what do they get if there is no surprise round?


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Or, you could just have them attack at night by climbing up stealthily along the anchor chain, sea anchor rope, rudder, or padded grapples.

I once had a campaign where sahuagin launched a diversionary surface attack on the party's ship while the real attack was happening below; other raiders were boring holes in the hull below the waterline.


Mounts jumping use the lesser of their own Acrobatics or their rider's Ride modifier. So you probably won't get the full benefit out of the Wand of Jump on the shark.


Good to know. We are going to just change the rules so the the jump spell will add to either check and so will any speed bonuses. It will only be a factor if the ride total less then the acro total before bonuses.

A night stealth attack is good idea most times but my paranoid PCs would spot it a mile away and daylight allows longer range for the bow users and the wizard.

Drilling through the hull is not a bad idea. Warp wood needs to high caster level to work but tools take a bit. I think 8 rounds is a good amount to time to take. If the PCs do not want their boat sunk they will need to finish the others before then or deal with them during the grand melee.

Scarab Sages

If you have a Sahuagin Druid or Hunter, give them the Sky Swim spell and cast it on the sharks.


There's no reason sahuagin spellcasters can't cast fly themselves, but I like the coolness effect of them soaring out of the sea and jumping on board.

You can have pairs of them racing along and one give the other a push -- aid another checks are great.

Sahuagin bards can inspire competence instead of inspiring courage, then switch once enough of their guys are on board.

Sahuagin could use lassos to try and grab someone on board and drag them into the sea.

Mass bull's strength on a bunch of the jumpers could help too.


Just as a follow-up to the story about the sahuagin boring a hole in the hull, here's how the encounter ended.

The players fought off the upper engagement, and then discovered that their ship had several large-ish holes in the hull down in the hold. The player running the wizard (first time running a spell caster), had an amazing idea to stop the water flooding into the ship.

He cast Cone of Cold on the streams of water coming through the holes.

He neglected the consider the fact that water expands when it freezes....


That is not such a good idea.

Sky swim on the casters shark. That is a good idea. Makes it much more difficult for the croc to just munch him and looks really cool.

Acrobatics is dex and mass animal buff is to high a level.

I considered a bard but I do not think it is needed for this.

So now I have flying caster who has used 2 3rd level spells. Since can get closer now I think I will give him spell spec scorching ray. He should have 4 shots if we make him and evoker. Still have 3rd level evocation slot open. I could go rime spell and make ice ray that entangles. Ice due to admixture wizard.


Really, cone of cold?


Mathius wrote:
Really, cone of cold?

Yeah, it was kind of hilarious. He was so proud of himself for coming up with the idea, but nobody was nearby to change is mind...


A storm rages in the sea. Lightning cracks and the boat rocks in crests and troths that are half as tall as the ship. The sailors shout orders and tie down the hatches. A few of them attempt to throw the anchor overboard as a wave crashes broadside to the boat. A foamy spray is cast across the deck. As the water settles, the closest give shouts of alarm "Sahuagin!". A flash of lightning reveals 6 of the fishmen spreading out from the main deck. <roll initiative>


A storm? Sharknado!!

Now seriously, Just Do It. It sounds so cool (big sharks jumping aboard the ship carring sahuagins...) that now one will wonder about the mechanics involved.
Just a question, how will you manage the onboard sharks? for movement I mean.


I figured the sharks would fall back into the ocean. Only the Sahuagin will be on board.


Most any kind of sailing ship will rock with the waves and the bow/stern/sides will all come near the water line level. Just have a moderate swell and have the Sahuagin time their jump into the ship with the swell.

Scarab Sages

Mathius wrote:
I figured the sharks would fall back into the ocean. Only the Sahuagin will be on board.

Well, if the sharks have sky swim, they can hold their breath to attack in the air for con rounds before they go back under to breath and come back.


True but mu PCs are only 5th level so I am only giving the casters shark sky swim. Forgot about hold breath but combat should be over before that matters.


My mental picture for this scene is something out of an extraordinarily cheesy, Sailor-Moon style anime, whereupon jumping there's a lens flare, some primary color background change, and then they all land in various poses on the ship.

Kinda like a Sahuagin version of the Ginyu Force from DBZ.


Yeah that works. I like that image.

I think I will have to work a reference or two to the Ginuy force into the fight.

Not sure that a big jump is all that cheesy though. I just to do not want the PCs to be able to knock them all off the side of the ship.


Buffing their CMD is a much easier means to do that than all you're going through if all you have in mind is preventing them being tossed overboard. All boosting jump will do is let them hop back up the next couple of rounds.

Also...it's not like it's a tactic that will stop them for long. Even without the ability to jump back, it will at best take a few out of the fight while the players focus on those that remain. The ones that fell off would climb back on in the next couple of rounds, anyway.

So why discourage them from using a viable tactic that will only be a temporary measure anyway?

I'm assuming this is Skull and Shackles? I'm a player in that right now, and we've dealt with Sahuagins boarding the ship and generally harassing us for a while now. Grindylow are somewhat annoying, but man, Sahuagins are just plain dicks. Maybe I have a bias because we were able to convince a handful of grindylow to join our crew after we killed their matron, but the sahuagins just aren't amenable to either diplomacy or intimidation, the two methods we've used to gather most of our crew.

Anyway, despite the grindylow we faced in the first book using the bullrushing/trip-and-drag tactic against us earlier, we've never thought to do that same technique to the monsters that attacked our ship. We usually just straight-up kill them. Much simpler that way.


We had a Sahuagin recently hail our boats and just ask to come aboard. Once aboard he looked around and stated" Nice ship you got, be a shame if something happen to it . BUt dont worry me and my boys keep the riff raff out of this part of tne Ocean, we consider it a public service."
He then offered his service as a guide through the ocean so our ship did not any reef or run into any problems.


why climb the boat?
should just smash bottom and meet the draylanders in the wet world.

(then again if this is a 5th level party. might be an overkill)


Why makes rolls? Just say it happens and evoke the 'Rule of Cool' with it.


I do not plan to make the rolls but I do not just say things happen without allocating resources to it. Also pretty sure my PCs are going to be doing this regularly once it is done to them. I tend to rule of cool for my PC more often then myself.

Smashing the bottom would be the best but it would be overkill at 5th level My excuse it that they want to sell the boat.

Yes it is SnS. I want to build a nice hatred of these guys so they will go into that place later on.

Also I always need to plan a near TPK for my PCs since they always do something crazy to tip the odds. Besides they have a fast dire zombie croc. I know that will even things up some. It will not help on deck but anything in water is lunch.

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