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I couldn't find a thread discussing different methods to utilize magic in Ship-to-Ship combat, so I thought I'd start one. The Advanced Naval Combat rules address more conventional techniques, so here's a forum where people can submit (and shoot down each other's) ideas.
Here are a few I'd like to run by you all:
i) A Paladin be placed in charge of a Siege Weapon team, and use their Divine Bond to enhance the weapon's damage;
ii) One could Summon a Water Elemental onto a ship and order it to "Quench" any fires that start on board;
iii) One could Summon a Giant with the "Rock Catching" ability to intercept indirect fire from enemy catapults.
I look forward to hearing from everyone,
:Byronus
Summon monsters on the enemies boat.
Charm person on the enemy captain, then tell him to stop the ship.
Alter wind and make the ship tilt.
Antipathy on your ship, so nobody can approach.
Edit don't forget the utlity of grease to make people slip into the water or fall off ropes. Magic missile the enemy navigator or his wheel so it jacks up their maneuvering
You could Grease the Rudder/Steering Wheel too, or the Corvus to cripple boarding actions.
sounds like the naval world is ready for the fearsome mithral-clad destroyer.
A single fireball is not likely sufficient to destroy or seriously degrade a large sailing vessel. The crew likely has the resources to control any fires in the masts and rigging well before they destroy the vessel unless the ship is subjected to a continuing sustained attack that prevents them from doing so.
Doubly so with magical firefighting methods, which enter the scene at cantrip level.
The most dangerous locations for a fire aboard ship are below decks, but rowboat bombardment may have trouble starting a fire there.
I think there needs to be more thought put into defenses. In Golarion, sticking spellcasters on naval vessels is probably nothing new and equally creative, magical self-defense measures have most likely been created.
The OP also said Naval Combat and not specifically ship to ship combat. You could have a team of frogmen with access to Air Bubble that swim under ships and either A) leave nasty surprises, or B) do crucial repairs.
Resist fire, iron wood, wind wall, and wall of force can make a ship virtually immune to most offensive magic and physical attacks. Bound elementals to attack and defend/put out fires are a good idea. Even something like minor image can make targeting impossible with line of site.
Control wind is the ultimate in sea combat but call lightning can be great in a storm or with nearby air elementals.
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I think there needs to be more thought put into defenses. In Golarion, sticking spellcasters on naval vessels is probably nothing new and equally creative, magical self-defense measures have most likely been created.
The OP also said Naval Combat and not specifically ship to ship combat. You could have a team of frogmen with access to Air Bubble that swim under ships and either A) leave nasty surprises, or B) do crucial repairs.
I'd think that hiring spellcaster would be REALLY expensive...
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I second the idea of using Wall of Force. It's great for repelling ranged attacks and/or boarders.
Control Water is absolutely brutal against enemy ships.
Black Tentacles can have a similar effect.
Wall of Thorns is a great way to soften up an enemy crew before a boarding action.
Summon a Fire Elemental and have them climb the enemy rigging and burn their sails.
Gunslinger with a musket shoots the enemy pilot.
Haste + Touch of the Sea on the party Barbarian; 'catch' the enemy ship and destroy the rudder/oars.
The Skull & Shackles player's guide has details on how different spells affect ships. There's a lot of interesting stuff in there.
In our S&S campaign, Fog Cloud has worked wonders so far. Cast it on the enemy ship to either split up attackers ("we'll deal with them later") or screen your own party boarders from ranged attacks. Enemy ships can have a lot of crew members with crossbows or other ranged weapons with readied actions.
Another effective tactic is to ram the enemy ship (reduces speed to zero if done well) and then hit it with Warp Wood. That makes it harder for them to escape if they can break away.
I'd think that hiring spellcaster would be REALLY expensive...I think there needs to be more thought put into defenses. In Golarion, sticking spellcasters on naval vessels is probably nothing new and equally creative, magical self-defense measures have most likely been created.
The OP also said Naval Combat and not specifically ship to ship combat. You could have a team of frogmen with access to Air Bubble that swim under ships and either A) leave nasty surprises, or B) do crucial repairs.
Governments should have the budget and resources to accomplish that.
The various non-anchored wall spells are extremely useful, both offensively and defensively (just imagine what a prismatic wall does to a vessel that runs into it), any AoE that damages or obscures vision, summoned water elementals and air elementals are good. Anything that freezes water, or makes keeping your balance harder, is going to have potentially devastating effect, and one scroll of reverse gravity could be really nasty.
If possible, pirates prefer not to risk damaging the ships they raid. They want to plunder the ship before it sinks, or better yet, keep the ship instead of sinking it. Boarding, disabling the rudder, killing the helmsman -- these are great ways to carry out a raid. Targeted spells like magic missile or charm person work well for that, and fog cloud as a smokescreen for boarders is a great idea.
But slinging fireballs around or using wall spells to rip hulls apart is likely to cripple or destroy your prize: like cannons in historical ship-to-ship encounters, these are often saved as last resorts.
I wonder what it'd be like to plop a cleric with the Construct domain onto a ship. I bet it'd be awesome.
.Ya, I see that dot, Mr. Player-of-mine.
If I'm being honest, I personally wouldn't allow many of the ideas suggested here to work, but that is more of balance issue and you know how I am about that.
But I was interested in seeing what ideas people would come up with.
I forgot Arcane Cannon. Is perfectly suited here.
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Wands, potions and other disposable magic items are easy buy or create and don't require any or very little training to use. A small troop of low-level shock troops with wands and maxed UMD could wreak havoc on enemies or save you from certain defeat.
I'm more interested in siege weapons that could take the place of cannons in campaigns that don't have gunpowder and firearms. Magical, mechanical or alchemical siege engines that could be crafted without a spellcaster would ft the bill.
SM
Magic also makes salvage possible after a ship has been sunk. It may be easier to sink a ship, and then bring up anything of value after the fact. Water Breathing + Floating Disk makes it easy to bring up very heavy things, or have a druid wildshape into a giant octopus to bring any valuables up.
Perhaps someone could cast "Make Whole" to repair a sunken vessel, and magically make it buoyant to get it to the surface?
:Byronus
Dotting.
Silly mundanes.
Ships for wearing. Constructs beat up barges, deliver goods.
Animate the ship and give it a fly speed. Paint the bottom blue. Profit.
Since I have a druid in Skull and Shackles, I have been looking up tricks for naval combat. Here is what I have come up with so far.
Control Water - easy to outmaneuver a stationary ship
Repel Wood - fun spell to disrupt an enemy ship's positioning
Woodshape/Warp Wood - good for destroying rudders, opening holes in the keel, etc
Mad Monkeys - a lot of objects on the ship for them to destroy
Moonstruck - target the biggest guy on the enemy crew, give him claws, rage and confusion, and sail away to let the other crew deal with him
Old Salt's Curse - debilitate a single person by making them sickened when on the water. Good for eliminating a rival captain.
Epidemic - biological warfare at its finest. Infect the crew with bubonic plague and sail away to let the disease take its toll on the crew.
Fire Seeds - sneak aboard the enemy ship (made easy with Woodshape/Wild Shape), find their powder room (or just the hold if they have flammable things), and plant a bunch of Holly Berry Bombs. GTFO and detonate their powder hold.
Creeping Doom - hard for the enemy crew to continue sailing the ship when they are dealing with centipede swarms
Transmute Metal to Wood - all the metal components are now wooden. Of somewhat limited use depending on ship design.
Blood Mist- enrage the entire enemy crew and let them tear each other apart
Dimension Door + Anchor Feather Token.
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Perhaps someone could cast "Make Whole" to repair a sunken vessel, and magically make it buoyant to get it to the surface?
:Byronus
This is a good idea, but there is an existing spell for that.
SalvageSadly, it's 9th level. Ships are big and water is heavy.
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Since I have a druid in Skull and Shackles, I have been looking up tricks for naval combat. Here is what I have come up with so far.
<ideas>
Awesome ideas.
I also have a Druid (Storm) in Skull & Shackles; level 4 so far.My solution to the pursuit/maneuvering issue is more practical. I took Skilled Driver, Expert Driver, Skill Focus: Profession Sailor, Heart of the Sea, Besmara's Blessing, and other minor things to boost sailing checks.
I'm the pilot. A salty old sea captain.
He's only really very good at one thing, but wow, he is ever good at that one thing.
Use Animate Objects on the ship's rigging (specifically the cordage). Could be used defensively or offensively.
Though, would that be counted as several objects, or one big whole?
My solution to the pursuit/maneuvering issue is more practical. I took Skilled Driver, Expert Driver, Skill Focus: Profession Sailor, Heart of the Sea, Besmara's Blessing, and other minor things to boost sailing checks.
I'm the pilot. A salty old sea captain.He's only really very good at one thing, but wow, he is ever good at that one thing.
Slight derail . . . That was my original plan for my druid. Still plan to take Skill Focus (at some point), and I already have Besmara's Blessing. However, my party kind of needed me to be more combat heavy after our cavalier dropped, and since I am the Captain (and the only PC possessing both Int and Wis), spending a feat for Wild Speech is kind of required. Also, I am level 8 with a +20 Prof: Sailor with no extra bonuses and the last time we did a Prof: Sailor challenge, my DM told me I was able to pass the check with all potential penalties with a 3 on the die.
Was planning on using this little gem in a mythic seafaring game I have coming up.
Use this to sail into the wild blue or tag an enemy ship and have it do a barrel roll! Fun stuff:)
Use Animate Objects on the ship's rigging (specifically the cordage). Could be used defensively or offensively.
Though, would that be counted as several objects, or one big whole?
Animate Rope should be all you need. Also, which rope to pull? That's what Profession(Sailor) is for.
Sounds like naval warfare in a magical universe would resemble modern submarine warfare. The emphasis is on stealth above all, because once they detect you, they can kill you with frightening speed.
Then again, nations would just use Teleportation Circles for transport and Scry & Fry for power projection.
Sounds like naval warfare in a magical universe would resemble modern submarine warfare. The emphasis is on stealth above all, because once they detect you, they can kill you with frightening speed.
Then again, nations would just use Teleportation Circles for transport and Scry & Fry for power projection.
I think a lot of nations would mostly employ magical items and give certain sailors proper training (UMD) in their use. Having actual casters on board would probably be reserved for high value escorts and assault/specialized war ships.
If they were trained as sailors, I'd have casters on small, highly manueverable vessels instead of the big warships. Well, offensive casters on the small, speedy vessels, and casters like artificers or transmuters on bigger ships.