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woodwwad
Learned Scribe

USA
267 Posts

Posted - 31 Dec 2009 :  07:18:59  Show Profile  Visit woodwwad's Homepage Send woodwwad a Private Message  Reply with Quote  Delete Topic
as of 1368, what is the weapons aboard a ship in D&D forgotten realms? Do they have cannons, if not, what is their most devistating weapon?

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Hoondatha
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Posted - 31 Dec 2009 :  08:13:48  Show Profile  Visit Hoondatha's Homepage Send Hoondatha a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Cannon, no. At least not of the Napoleanic era that probably comes to mind when you think of ship-board cannon. What the Realms do have, in a very few places, are bombards, which are really, really primitive cannons.

The only places that has any sort of gunsmithing is Lantana (handguns) and Thay (bombards). As per the Spellbound box, a Thayan Bombard comes in two sizes: light and heavy. They're described as shooting spheres of burning liquid made by the Red Wizards. Heavy bombards deal 10d10 damage and have a good chance of holing a ship, while light bombards cause 5d10 damage and have a lesser chance. Most are used to guard harbors and the like, but there is at least one magically-created ship, the Red Scourge, that mounts 24 light bombards.

If you include Spelljammer, then there's always the possibility of importing Giff bombards and smokepowder from wildspace. Those bombards do 1d6 hull points, 2d10 damage to people, at cost 20,000 gp (import and smokepowder costs not included). You'd probably also have to import trained gunners to work the weapons. And hope they don't blow up on you.

That said, bombards are the extreme exception. Maybe two or three ships on the entire planet have them. For everyone else, you're going to have either catapults of ballistae, with the rare Greek fire projector. If you want to make them scarier, take a look through some of the spelljammer materials (especially the War Captain's Companion) for things like enchanted war machines and mageshot: enchanted ammo.

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Zanan
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Germany
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Posted - 31 Dec 2009 :  13:23:42  Show Profile  Visit Zanan's Homepage Send Zanan a Private Message  Reply with Quote
They usually have mages and wizards on board, folk specialized in maritime warfare. That would be fireballs to blast an enemies sails into orbit, watery spells to protect a ship from exactly that and so on.

That aside, you could double-check on the DMG or the Arms & Equipment Guide for more info on D&D ships and their weaponry.

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wintermute27
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Posted - 31 Dec 2009 :  14:55:24  Show Profile  Visit wintermute27's Homepage Send wintermute27 a Private Message  Reply with Quote
If you're playing 3rd edition, Stormwrack is a great resource when it comes to ship combat and weaponry.

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Knight of the Gate
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624 Posts

Posted - 31 Dec 2009 :  16:49:50  Show Profile Send Knight of the Gate a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Unapproachable East has more information (along with 3.x stats) on Thayan Bombards. It lists numerous types of ammunition for them, including (iirc, I am AFB) gas bombs, incendiary bombs, et.al.

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Hoondatha
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2449 Posts

Posted - 31 Dec 2009 :  17:38:51  Show Profile  Visit Hoondatha's Homepage Send Hoondatha a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Two other 2e sources are Of Ships and the Sea, and the earlier, Realms-specific Pirates of the Fallen Stars. Both deal with ship-to-ship combat, as well as explosive combat magics that often serve as heavy hitters.

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woodwwad
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USA
267 Posts

Posted - 31 Dec 2009 :  21:38:30  Show Profile  Visit woodwwad's Homepage Send woodwwad a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I'm not a big user of ships in my games. Basically one of the first scenes in the next FR game I'm writing is off the coast of Balder's Gate a ways. A pirate ship attacks a merchant vessel and both vessels are destroyed in the battle. One of the pcs will be a pirate and the others will be on the other ship. They and a few npcs will avoid being killed and find themselves on an island, through different ways. That's where the adventure will begin. I know that's not too far from Lantana, so I didn't know if it was too much to assume that a pirate would have those. Basically I wanted to make sure I was true to the theme of 1368 realms. I figured cannons would be a no go. And no, no spelljammer stuff to be used in this. Although, I'm thinking of using some of it, although, I'm not a big fan. I am using Mind Flayers later in this game. I suppose I'll be using ballistae for their weapons. The ship to ship fight isn't going to be dice rolling, it'll just be description so weapon stats aren't important, just the way they look and the damage they do. And I for theme, I don't think I'm going to have a lot of wizards on the boats. The only casters are going to be the PCs. The pc pirate is a druid/rogue. And there will be a Bard and a wizard on the other boat, but they'll both be 1st or 2nd level at this time.


To wintermute27, I do know about Stormwrack and have been trying to get a copy of it but all the copies I've found on ebay close for over $20 which is just too much for a 3/3.5 book on ebay. And it's more than that on amazon. If I can get ahold of that book, I'm certainly going to use it.

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sfdragon
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2285 Posts

Posted - 31 Dec 2009 :  22:46:52  Show Profile Send sfdragon a Private Message  Reply with Quote
one of the drizzt novels, had A pirate ship that had a smoke powder ship board weapon.... likely to be a bombard.

and most ships would have as weapons, balistas and similar styled weapons.

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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High

Australia
31701 Posts

Posted - 31 Dec 2009 :  23:41:40  Show Profile Send The Sage a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Zanan

They usually have mages and wizards on board, folk specialized in maritime warfare. That would be fireballs to blast an enemies sails into orbit, watery spells to protect a ship from exactly that and so on.
Shipboard wizards are rare and there are usually much worse things at sea to worry about. Most ships, regardless of magic, aren't warships and don't attempt to fight heavily armed attackers. The exceptions will, yes, have their own magical protections [wards, proofs against fire, etc.] and/or mages [who have access to many more defensive magics than counterspells].

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The Sage
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Australia
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Posted - 31 Dec 2009 :  23:42:27  Show Profile Send The Sage a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Hoondatha

Two other 2e sources are Of Ships and the Sea, and the earlier, Realms-specific Pirates of the Fallen Stars. Both deal with ship-to-ship combat, as well as explosive combat magics that often serve as heavy hitters.

The Corsairs of the Great Sea is also a useful supplement, from the "Al-Qadim" product line, featuring lore on pirates and ships operating in the Zakharan setting.

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Hoondatha
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USA
2449 Posts

Posted - 01 Jan 2010 :  01:27:45  Show Profile  Visit Hoondatha's Homepage Send Hoondatha a Private Message  Reply with Quote
For your scenario, there are a couple of good options. The first is a lengthy ballistae battle, that batters both hulls beyond repair. More likely, since we're talking pirates, is a ramming attack gone badly awry. Not only does the ram hole the merchantman, but it does the same for the pirate ship and they both go down. Alternately, you could set them both alight with catapults throwing balls of flaming pitch. Finally, if you wanted bombards, you could have the pirates batter the merchantman into pieces and then have the powder magazine explode.

Of all the options, if it were me I'd go with the ram attack running awry. All the others are much more the province of the ships of navies, not a pirate and its prey. But hopefully this gives you some ideas.

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woodwwad
Learned Scribe

USA
267 Posts

Posted - 01 Jan 2010 :  03:01:04  Show Profile  Visit woodwwad's Homepage Send woodwwad a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Hoondatha

For your scenario, there are a couple of good options. The first is a lengthy ballistae battle, that batters both hulls beyond repair. More likely, since we're talking pirates, is a ramming attack gone badly awry. Not only does the ram hole the merchantman, but it does the same for the pirate ship and they both go down. Alternately, you could set them both alight with catapults throwing balls of flaming pitch. Finally, if you wanted bombards, you could have the pirates batter the merchantman into pieces and then have the powder magazine explode.

Of all the options, if it were me I'd go with the ram attack running awry. All the others are much more the province of the ships of navies, not a pirate and its prey. But hopefully this gives you some ideas.

ballistae battle is what I was thinking of going with. The Pirates attacking, trying to board. The pirate ships mast taking a bad hit and breaking while the pirates are on the attack. The ram idea might find some use to me though, so thanks for that idea.

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Kentinal
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Posted - 01 Jan 2010 :  03:30:00  Show Profile Send Kentinal a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Some larger ships also have light catapults.
Ship ramming in general was galleys so designed for such attack, a sailed ship ramming another tends to insure sinking of both. In real world about one half of sailed ships the sailors could not swim. Of those that could unless close to land they would not survive long.

Mundane attacks clearly the most likely tactic.
This can include flaming arrows to set sails on fire.
Hulling the hull near water line to cripple the ship, sinking the ship before treasure recovered makes no sense.

Ship to ship combat short of sinking one or both does require the ability to board and defeat the crew of the other. Of course a captain of one ship could surrender with terms if the best estimate is that full battle would be worst.

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Dalor Darden
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USA
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Posted - 08 Jan 2010 :  05:12:11  Show Profile Send Dalor Darden a Private Message  Reply with Quote
While perhaps off topic from where you were going with this, I would note that the Airships of Halruaa have wand wielders aboard who are fully capable of blasting an enemy ship to pieces.

I did have a player who's Rogue decided that he wanted to commission for his ship a projectile shot from his ship that used something akin to Javelins of Lightning. He only had a few of them, but it was pretty sweet when he used them. Of course, this is the same Rogue that later thought it would be "Sweet!" to try and actually STEAL the Temple in the Sky above the Flaming Tower and use it against the Zhentarim...despite the fact that he had no idea how he would steer the thing!

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skychrome
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713 Posts

Posted - 08 Jan 2010 :  12:52:41  Show Profile  Visit skychrome's Homepage Send skychrome a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Dalor Darden
[]...to try and actually STEAL the Temple in the Sky above the Flaming Tower and use it against the Zhentarim...despite the fact that he had no idea how he would steer the thing!


Just out of curiosity: the Temple in the Sky above the Flaming Tower... what and where are these two?

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Jorkens
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Norway
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Posted - 08 Jan 2010 :  14:38:06  Show Profile Send Jorkens a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The Flaming Tower is a fire giant built Zenthish stronghold in the Dales (Daggerdale?). The Temple of the Sky was a floating temple attached to the tower and the centre of a strong beholder cult. I seem to remember the Knights of Myth Drannor killed the beholder leading the cult many years ago.
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skychrome
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713 Posts

Posted - 08 Jan 2010 :  17:01:03  Show Profile  Visit skychrome's Homepage Send skychrome a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Jorkens

The Flaming Tower is a fire giant built Zenthish stronghold in the Dales (Daggerdale?). The Temple of the Sky was a floating temple attached to the tower and the centre of a strong beholder cult. I seem to remember the Knights of Myth Drannor killed the beholder leading the cult many years ago.


Interesting! In which sources do I find more background on this?

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Jorkens
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Norway
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Posted - 08 Jan 2010 :  18:20:46  Show Profile Send Jorkens a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by skychrome

quote:
Originally posted by Jorkens

The Flaming Tower is a fire giant built Zenthish stronghold in the Dales (Daggerdale?). The Temple of the Sky was a floating temple attached to the tower and the centre of a strong beholder cult. I seem to remember the Knights of Myth Drannor killed the beholder leading the cult many years ago.


Interesting! In which sources do I find more background on this?



There is quite a bit in the Ruins of Zenthil Keep box if I remember correctly, including simple maps and details about the situation as of now (or is my brain playing tricks on me?), the 1ed. campaign setting probably has some mentions also, but it cant be much.
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Hoondatha
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USA
2449 Posts

Posted - 08 Jan 2010 :  22:19:47  Show Profile  Visit Hoondatha's Homepage Send Hoondatha a Private Message  Reply with Quote
If you've got access to some of the older FR novels, check out Finder's Bane. The main characters get imprisoned in the Temple midway through the book, and there's lots of creeping about inside it before they escape.

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skychrome
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713 Posts

Posted - 11 Jan 2010 :  13:43:14  Show Profile  Visit skychrome's Homepage Send skychrome a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Ah, great! In fact I got Finders Bane somewhere, along with other FR novels that I still have to read. Will check it out as soon as I go back to reading FR novels.
Thanks for the info!

"You make an intriguing offer, one that is very tempting. It would seem that I have little alternative than to answer thusly: DISINTEGRATE!" Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick 625

Edited by - skychrome on 11 Jan 2010 13:48:02
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Halidan
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USA
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Posted - 04 Feb 2010 :  18:52:43  Show Profile  Visit Halidan's Homepage Send Halidan a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The real problem with stealing the Temple of the Sky is that it doesn't stear. At least according to my reading of the various lore about the hollowed out rock, it simply floats with the winds.

When the Knight cut it loose from the Flamming Tower, the Zhents had to first track it down and then get it back into place. Unfortunatly, there are no details on how they did this, but if the rock in bouyant, then a strong team of 12+ draft horses (or maybe 40 mules) and a long enough chain should do the trick. I'd suspect that the Zhents would have had to use their famous sky mages to track down the missing pebble in the first place.

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