D&D 5E Any advice for better vehicle rules?

[Argyle King]

I am currently a player in a campaign which has quickly evolved into a game involving a lot of vehicle combat. In particular, ship-to-ship combat between sailing vessels is common.

One thing I've noticed is that the rules is pretty vague (and often a bit odd*) when it comes to vehicles. The DM is doing a pretty good job of improvising, but there are still times when the game stalls a bit while the group figures out how to handle something like aiming at the sails of an enemy ship or using chain-shot to target the mast of a ship.

(*I have seen the other thread noting D&D vehicle speeds, as an example.e)

I'm interested in hearing how others have handled vehicle combat. If there is something I can share with my current DM to maybe alleviate some of the grind which comes from being unsure of how to do certain things or if I can gather a few ideas to use for when I DM a game, advice would be greatly appreciated.

Particular issues are as follows: Does D&D treat the entire vehicle as one creature for the sake of HP or would different sections of a ship have their own HP? How much does enchanting a vehicle cost? In D&D worlds, how do you ensure that vehicles and structures aren't easily blown apart by D&D-style magic? What are the vehicle speeds based upon?

In my own head, I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to steal some of the ship combat actions from Edge of The Empire and use them in D&D to give characters something to do.

 

[Imaculata]

Does D&D treat the entire vehicle as one creature for the sake of HP or would different sections of a ship have their own HP?

The latter is how third edition handled ship damage, specifically in the book Stormwrack. And then you would need to "hole" a certain number of sections, before the vessel had to make a sinking check. A holed section would also flood, causing adjacent sections to immediately drop to half hitpoints. Its not a perfect system, especially once it got to multiple ships fighting at the same time. But for one on one battles it did the job.

How much does enchanting a vehicle cost?

Depends on the enchantment, and presumably the size of the vehicle. If the vehicle has sections, you could charge a fixed amount per section.

In D&D worlds, how do you ensure that vehicles and structures aren't easily blown apart by D&D-style magic?

By having a mage onboard your vehicle to counter any offensive spells. Apart from that, upgrading sections of your vehicle with fireproof coating would also give the vehicle a certain degree of fire resistance. But depending on the size of the vehicle, that could be quite costly. Magic is where vehicular combat becomes interesting. A Fireball for example, is especially scary when used against a sailing vessel. But obviously in a world where such magic is known, ships would prepare accordingly.

 

[Argyle King]

I think I still have Stormwrack somewhere. It sounds as though it may be worthwhile to take a look at it and see if I can port some of those rules into 5th Edition.

 

[aco175]

Each section of ship has a number of HP and AC. Some areas are easy to hit, but have high HP and others may be easy to hit and have low HP, like sails. Crits may damage things to slow speed and make repairs necessary.

 

[Imaculata]

Can you crit an object though? I don't think you can.

But yes, sails have less HP than the hull of a ship does. And as more riggings of a ship are destroyed, the mobility of the ship is greatly reduced. This makes sail-hunting an effective strategy, as it was back in the day. A few sessions ago my players found themselves in just such a situation.



Enemy vessels ambushed their fleet from the fog, and tried to box them in from both sides. Then they would open fire on the rigging of their ship, to try and put them dead in the water. The enemy vessels would load their cannons with sail-cutters, two cannonballs connected end to end with a chain. I added a houserule so that such ammunition does double damage to rigging, at the cost of range. Once all rigging is destroyed on a ship, a boarding action soon follows, and its back to regular DnD combat.

Its funny how with the right rules, you can actually encourage historical strategies for naval combat.

(As a side note: coming up with names for pirate ships is one of the most entertaining things to do when prepping a pirate campaign)