Ship Actions

Ship Actions are explained in detail here

## General Gunning

Most siege engines require 3 actions to fire: Load, Aim, and Fire. The
Gunners will be making the attacks. I have all the stats on the siege weapons.

**Reload a Weapon (action):**
Reloading a cannon often requires more than one round’s worth of ship-based
actions. The times given in the table in the “Equipping Your Ship” section assumes a full complement of crew available to perform the necessary tasks. For each missing crewman, extend the time by one round. Reloading is Automatic as long as the weapon is manned and does not require PC involvement.

**Fire the Weapon  Supervised (action):** On the Master Gunner’s command, the crew assigned to a cannon can fire the weapon. The Master gunner decides upon the target. The Gunner rolls an attack roll and adds his dexterity bonus and the Master Gunner’s proficiency bonus to reflect the Master Gunner’s hands on
involvement.

**Fire the Weapon Freely (action):** With a Fire at will command, the crew assigned to a cannon can fire the weapon. The gunner decides upon the target usually poorly. The Gunner rolls an attack roll and adds his dexterity bonus and his proficiency bonus to the attack.

Note: NPC proficiency’s modifier and dex bonus is most likely different/lower than the player characters. The bonus in the dmg are not used for ship weapons and would be used for trained land use for on land.

## Ramming

A ship may attempt to ram another object or ship with its bow.

1. A ship must move at least 30

feet and end with its forward square in a square adjacent to the target.

1. Attack: Pilot Check versus the AC of the other ship. If a ship is stationary the ram has has advantage as the pilot can line up the perfect ram.
2. Damage: Use the ship’s ram damage, the ramming ship takes three-quarters of the damage to itself. If

 the ship’s speed is higher than 30 add an additional 2d8 for every
 increment of 30 feet above 30 speed.

1. Example: A sailing ship was moving at 90 speed. It does 8d8 + 4d8 = 12d8 = 54 bludgeoning damage to

 the enemy ship, 40 bludgeoning damage to attacking ship

1. A ship can be outfitted with a ram on its forward facing. A ship equipped with a ram increases the

 damage by 2d8, and it only takes half damage. See Ram under Ship
 improvements and equipment

1. Any creatures adjacent to or in that square are thrown back 10 feet, taking 1d6 damage and are knocked

 prone.

1. The ramming ship’s speed is reduced to 0.

If a ship collides with another ship or a solid object (an immobile
structure with a damage threshold of 5 or more), it rams the object, regardless
of the pilot’s intent. There is no attack check for this; its effects happen
automatically. When a ship rams a solid object, to determine how much damage
both the solid object and the ship take, allow the ship to enter the solid
object’s space. The ship will only travel through that space if the damage is
enough to destroy the solid object; in all other cases, the ship takes the
damage and its speed is immediately reduced to 0 as it comes to a sudden stop
directly in front of the solid object.

## Shearing

A ship may attempt to shear off the oars of an opposing ship, if the
target ship uses oars for muscle propulsion. To attempt a shearing maneuver:

1. A ship must be adjacent to the target’s forward or rear square and move along the side of the target for a number of adjacent squares equal to the target ship’s

 number of squares.

1. Opposed Pilot checks.

The shearer as disadvantage on this check as the opposing ship vears away or tucks in their oars.

1. If the check is successful,the ship shears the target’s oars. The target’s oars take damage that

 reduces their hit points to half their maximum hit point total and they
 gain the broken condition, (halving their speed with oars). If the
 target ship is in motion, and is traveling faster than its new maximum
 speed, it automatically decelerates to its new maximum speed. A ship that
 does not use oars for muscle propulsion is unaffected by a shearing
 maneuver.

## Fire

Fire is an ever-present danger on every wooden ship, but
while most ships are not in danger of going up in flames from a dropped torch
or lantern, alchemical or magical fires can be much more dangerous. Note that
many instantaneous fire spells do not automatically catch a ship on fire, but
those that deal fire damage over multiple rounds have a better chance of
causing a fire on board a ship.

When a ship takes fire damage (such as from alchemist’s fire,
flaming arrows, certain spells, and other effects at the GM’s discretion), The
ship takes one level of fire per 10 fire damage minimum one. If an attack consists of multiple sources of fire damage add them before determining fire levels.  For each Level of fire damage the ship takes
2d6 fire damage a turn. There is unlimited possible levels of fire damage.

Unless an attack specifically targets a ship’s means of
propulsion (such as sails), it is assumed that such attacks affect the
structure of a ship itself.

Once a ship has caught fire, it automatically takes 2d6
points of fire damage per fire level per round (ignoring damage threshold) as the
fire spreads. Fire damage in this way can generate fire levels as it spreads.

### Extinguish (action)

A Mate can attempt a Constitution saving throw. The DC is 12
+ 1 for every level of fire the ship
has. If his saving throw is successful, the Mate and his crew extinguish
1 level of fire. For every 2 that you surpass the check extinguish another
level of fire.

Failure on the Constitution saving throw indicates that the
Mate and his crew fail to make any progress; failure by more than 5 (including
rolls of a natural 1) indicates that the Mate and his crew failed to extinguish
the fire and the mate also take 2d6 points of fire damage in the process.

## Grappling

When the crew of one ship wishes to board an enemy ship and
attack its crew, they must first grapple the other ship. To grapple, the two ships must be within 30 feet of one another (adjacent on the naval battle map). Doing so requires the use of grappling hooks and ropes long enough to reach from your ship to the enemy ship. The Mate initiating the action commands the crew and makes the necessary checks.

Initiate Grapple: If a ship is disabled (meaning either their hull or propulsion is in the broken condition) or if both pilots want to grapple, grappling is automatically successful. The two crews throw out grappling lines and draw the ships together. If both ships are reduced to a speed of 0 as the result of ramming, they are also considered grappled.

If only one pilot wants to grapple:

The Pilot must position thee ship for a mate to initiate a grapple on the round.

1. If the target ship is in position for the Mate to initiate a grapple, the Mate can make a Grapple Check, this is an Athletics check with Proficiency. This check represents the entire crew’s efforts to land grappling lines and ect without them being thrown off.

Grappled Condition: The speed of both ships is reduced to 0.
(accelerate) Unless there are situational factors saying otherwise.

Turning and fleeing are impossible without breaking a grapple. Assume that all the ropes, hooks, and so forth are being used (and defended against) in the most proficient way possible. A grappled ship can be boarded by the attacking vessel. If one of the vessels is much larger, (Two Steps) then the controlling vessel can move half speed as they are dragging the other. (Imagine Big ship and its dingy)

Breaking a Grapple:

1. As an action the a mate of a grappled ship can attempt to break.
2. Both mates make opposed grapple checks. The the one initiating the check has disadvantage.
3. If the check is successful, the crew has cut the grappling lines and the freed ship may now move as normal.