Ship combat questions

[Mrakvampire]

Hello All,

Quick question. Is action sequence on the same round below correct:

Pilot uses Full Ahead standard action
Ship immediately moves it's current speed
Pilot makes another Stay the Course move action
Ship immediately move it's current speed

So ship basically makes double move.
Correct?

[Mrakvampire]

Anyone?

[rkotitan]

I believe that is the case.

The line in the opening text of the piloting section in the players guide that says, "Just as in normal combat, a pilot can perform a standard action and a move action each round," seems to indicate that.

I may have been doing it wrong when I ran it.

[Mrakvampire]

It looks like that, BUT the reason why I'm asking this...

If "double movement" is allowed - that means that top speed of sailing ship can be around 180 feet per round = 30 feet per second ~ 17 knots!
It looks too much for such ships...

[Johnico]

Page 9 under Movement says "The maximum speed is the fastest rate the ship can travel per round," so it could be argued that the Maximum Speed number is for the entire round, not per action.

[Mackanstein]

I really think the Stay the Course action is there as an option allowing you to pilot the ship with a move action and do something else as a standard (cast a spell etc.). I've personally never allowed my players to do more than one sailing action per turn in combat.

Then again, that's a judgement call cause I can't find anything conclusive in RAW.

[Purple Dragon Knight]

Ship speed is 30, 60 or 90 per round depending on how much you've accelerated so far (i.e. via full ahead or full astern).

Ship speed remains constant unless accel or decel.

Speed is x2 if the wind is coming directly from behind your ship (wind propulsion ships only)