Spelljammer Combat Example alt (Spelljammer Supplement)

Old Example

This example is from an earlier version of the combat rules, in which spell slot level was added to maneuver checks (instead of spell slots being used to determine if someone has disadvantage).

A party of four 5th-level PCs are crewing a hammership with 14 NPC sailors. They must stop a ship of the line.

The party's wizard has 3 2nd-level spell slots and 2 3rd-level (her 1st-level slots were used during travel).

The ship of the line's helmsman, a 4th-level cleric, has 3 2nd-level slots.

Preparation

Both ship's have a Dexterity of +2. The initiative rolls are 11 (hammership) and 4 (ship of the line). The range is Far (1200 ft.).

The PC wizard is at the spelljammer helm, the fighter is at the bow's ballista, the cleric is at the bow's mangonel, and the rogue is at the center rigging.

Round 1

PCs turn

The PCs take the following actions:

• Wizard: Helm
• Fighter: Direct Weapons
• Cleric: Direct Weapons
• Rogue: Rigging

The rogue (Strength 14) rolls a 12, so fails the Rigging action.

The wizard chooses the Closing maneuver and expends a 2nd-level spell slot. The ship of the line has not yet acted, so it is treated as drifting. The maneuver check is 8 (roll 4, +2 for spell slots, +2 ship's Dexterity): the range remains Far and the hammership's bow faces the ship of the line.

The hammership's weapons are out of range.

Ship of the Line's turn

The helmsman chooses a Controlled Drift, having its center face the hammership. The range is still Far and its weapons are out of range.

Round 2

PCs turn

The PCs repeat their previous actions.

The rogue rolls a 10, so fails the Rigging action.

The wizard again chooses the Closing maneuver, expending another 3rd-level spell slot. The manuever check result is 23 (roll 19, +2 for spell slot, +2 Dexterity). This beats the DC 10 by 5 or more, so she sets the range to Close (120 ft.), intending to ram.

(If the ship of the line had an important NPC on the weapons deck, they might have chosen the Direct Weapons to ready an attack against as a reaction against the ram.)

Ram

The attack bonus +5 (the ship's Dexterity modifier +2, and the wizard's proficiency bonus +3). The roll is 11 for a total of 16, successfully hitting the AC 15 of the ship of the line's center hull.

The damage roll is 8d10 (from the 2nd-level spell slot expended and the hammership's Con modifier of +6) The result is 48 bludgeoning damage.

This is more than the ship of the line's damage threshold of 30, so one center component is damaged. The d6 roll is 4:the weapon deck with 2 ballistas.

The hammership takes half this damage, due to the equipped ram. 24 damage beats the damage threshold of 20, so damages a component in the bow: the crew deck (bunkroom for 2 and the stateroom)

Weapons

The fighter's (Dex 16) Direct Weapons check is 14, and the cleric's (Dex 14) Direct Weapons check is 11, so there is no bonus to the attack rolls.

Since the bow is facing, only the bow's ballista and mangonel can fire. The rates of fire are 3 and 2 respectively. The are both within normal range.

The ballista's grouped attack roll is 14 (roll of 8, +6 attack bonus), so no shots hit. The mangonel's grouped attack roll is 17 (roll of 12, +5 attack bonus). This beats the ship of the line's AC of 15 by 2, so both attacks hit. The damage rolls are 30 and 16, so one component is damaged. The d6 roll is a 3: the weapon deck with 6 light catapults.

Ship of the Line's turn

As the hammership has passed by, and the ship of the line's central weapons have been knocked out, it turns to pursue and use its bow ballistas. It makes a Closing maneuver, the helmsman expending a 2nd-level slot. This is a contested check. The ship of the line's maneuver check is 17 + 2 (spell slot) + 2 (Dexterity) = 21. The wizard rolls for the hammership's manuever check, scoring 12 + 2 (spell slot expended during its last maneuver) + 2 (Dexterity) = 16. The bow faces the target.

The ship of the line succeeds by 5 or more, so chooses to be Engaged (480 ft.)

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