Like FP said, please remove revealing bio lines.

Given effectively unlimited prep time and a level three cleric, I suggest casting darkness on a rock and throwing it onboard the enemy ship. Suddendly, they can't see where to jump to board us, and finding the rock is going to be hard in pitch blackness...
After that, sanctuary is a good spell if you are worried about getting carved up.

Of course, don't let me tell you what to do; this is just a suggestion and should not be treated as an instruction.

The moment they are in range, I'll be tossing them a few fiery presents, which would help immensly if they couldnt see where the fires were :)

Well I don't have darkness or sancutary prepared. I've got two other spell though that should help us all out.

Been awefully quiet here today, didnt want to post just again, since its not that long since the last post.

Btw are alchemist fire vials not 1d6 of fire damage each?

Yes, I wanted to rely on our mage to help but he's being quiet too. We need ranged weaponry!

I got 4 pistols and plenty plenty of bullets. Plus my 10 vials of alchemist fire, which should hopefully wreak havoc on the hunters rigging

I was thinking a little more along the lines of fireballs. Zorlax can cast level 6 spells with scrolls & the cap'n has a bunch of scrolls below decks.

I'm handy with them too (not too handy, but UMD checks are hard. Either way, a few of the others saw me use a scroll of invisibility.

Okay. I'm back from vacation. I see we've encountered the hunters. Give me a little bit to read up and I'll post.

level 6 Fireballs? How come I haven't heard of these yet. The best I can do is a few globs of acid and webbing. Mayeb mess with their sails a little, but by the time they get that close we'd better have a good plan going.

OOC: We don't actually know these are the hunters yet? We are going in with thoughts of taking the ship, I assume. What do we have in the way of mundane ranged weapons. I assume there are bows and crossbows. Do we have a balista? (sp?) Aurlin can you fly over them and drop some "bombs" on them? That might be the best place for the invisiblity spell. Imagine Aurlin dopping 4 or 5 A.Fires on them, appearing right over their mainmast. I intend to web them right before they board. So give me space when they get close. I assume I'll be able to tell. That will be the spell I have ready.

[Private to DM N1NJ4C0W: Well I wanted to ID the belt and ring. The boots I'm going to take my chances with (don them) and see if I notice anything about them. ]

Aurlin can levitate & if he's pushed with just the right amount of force he can attack those sails.
We don't have a balista, that's why Blackmane places so much importance on Zorlax' position.
We do, however have scrolls and a wand of read magic below decks for artillery support. I'll get back to you on the other details as I'm really busy in RL right now.

Let's talk tactics; the pirate crew is sure to have done so in the past and will certaintly have tactics for ship-vs-ship battles.

Ideally we can capture the enemy ship and kill off it's entire crew, but failing that, we want to survive.

Opponents will either go for a melee assault or try to kill us off with ranged weaponry.

Ranged attacks we can deal with by having everyone get behind cover and return fire - that's about the best we can do however.

Melee attacks we can
A) Do some damage as they try to close with us

Ranged weapons, alchemists fire, spells - you name it. Fly Aurlin over to their mast and cut loose the sails - he can jump back with levitate and we sail away if we must retreat, use ranged weapons if we outgun them, and board them if we don't.

B) Make it hard for them to get on board

Caltrops - who has a bag?
I'll be laying mine down in a likely landing zone if it looks like we're going to get boarded. Nothing like caltrops to irritate boarders, especially since they probably won't see them until it's too late.

Tanglefoot bags are also great - it basically takes one opponent out of the game. Pick someone wearing the heaviest armor and throw it.

C) Bull-rush them overboard

Anything that lets you push your opponent around really, since once you are in the water with your armor and weapons that't basically the end for you (-1 to swim checks per 5lb carried, and double armor check penalty - a chain shirt is -9 to swim checks)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:57, Thu 06 July 2006.

well I was planning on debuffing them with my first spell and then using hold person on the biggest baddest looking fighter. hopefully his saves will be low enough and he'll roll low enough that he'll be helpless for three rounds. After that I'd fall in as support fighter and expend the rest of my spells as spontaneouis healing if need be, keeping obscuring mist in reserve. I can deal some serious damage in the right conditions, like the fight with the yuan-ti we just had, if I get some decent rolls.

Hoat is fairly well set up to grapple/pin/throw people overboard.

I wonder if we should quickly pile up random piles of items at the side of the ship when they try to board (give them 'difficult terrain' to get over).

If we lay a long net (think cargo net/climbing rigging) on the ground from one end of the ship to the other it will catch their feet and make movement tricky (try walking over a net with big holes while concentrating on something else - your foot catches every step or two, and you risk falling over).

That might cause cries of "Metagaming!" You're supposed to be doing the boarding, not them.

Well, if we do figure out that they are equipped to board *us* (for example, see that they are coming towards us rather than running for it), it may be a wise idea.
Also, most boats have cargo nets that can be draped over the sides (to help get on legitimately, recover overboard men, etc). Those nets would probably be easy to pull up & over (not sure what the details are of the boat).

We're in a standard Caravel (the 'Sailing Ship' from the PHB equipment lists if you don't have Stormwrack) while the hunters are in a custom vessel.

I'm tellin' ya, these hunters have some tactics that will MESS. US. UP.

Well If things start getting really ugly, when they board I could always cast obscruing mist and then we could set our ship on fire. Afterwards we all run to thier ship and sail it away leaving them stranded on our ship. It'll work especially well if zorlax has an illusion spell that could make him look like the enemies captain.

That's what I was scared of. How's my swim check looking...

If the fight goes badly, my hope is we can set their sails alight & make a run for it.

It's times like this I would like to be a caster - throwing "Scare" into the enemy ranks is a favorite, as would darkness, web and color spray.

Hmm then we better start getting creative.... Let our chaotic nature shine through and turn about that ram their custom made heap of timber!

Seriously though, a clarification in game on who they are, prey/predator would solve all our "metagaming" problems.

As they say, why fight fair

How about waterbreathing/swimming, hacksaw and their rudder?

Or better yet, waterbreating/swimming, Waterproof keg of smokepowder, and their Rudder/keel.

Aurlin as a flying bomber wouldnt last long I think, unless he is that much higher up in the air, he would simply be shot down.

Or...abandon ship, dive under it, and over take theirs from behind while they are aboard ours which we have convinently disabled.

Caltrops are a decent enough idea, but ultimately rather futile since it only slows the process down, we need them off our ship and to disable theirs.

We could all just surrender the moment they comes close to us, and wreak their element of tactics... then once they are unsure on what to do we attack... or simply use invisibility to sneak a good lockpick along with the group... then over take the ship again, when they leave half of their crew to run it (doubt they would sink a good ship like the rose). This would be a decent enough backup plan.

Or we could just make a "run" for it, hoping to outdistance them, this plan atleast gives us extra time to prepare, in the worst case scenario.

combine running with waterbreathing/swimming idea #1 and time the disabling too a time where we are shall we say close to shore or a reef...going at it full "steam" then watch as they fail to turn and run ashore (like this idea).

The only problem I can see with this plan is our lack of water-breathing spells, unless someone hasn't mentioned that they have them.

We don't get time to prepare spells, and that is a significant disadvantage - had Aurlin known he would be defending the ship he could have prepared spells like web and darkness.

Important: Anyone with silent image, NOW is the time to speak up. Silent image would enable us to create an entire second boat (with a duration of concentration) to scare off the invaders. Nothing worse than a second boatload of pirates showing up half-way through the encounter...

Anyone with grease, speak up.

Anyone with cause fear or scare, speak up.

Anyone with summon swarm?

Personally I think the silent image trick would do a great job. It is long range, too - over 500 ft at our level.

[Private to GM: Can I spend DM XP's to find something in the ship's stores? Like a case of spell scrolls?]

Actually I think ramming might be our best option right now. According to fox paws his ship has weapons with far longer range than ours and he is planning on ponding us pretty hard. A headlong charge with a fire or two fired a couple rounds before we close with them will not only do a lot of damage, but break up what ever formation they might have, send them into disarray and give us the edge we need to clear thier decks and give us time to either cripple thier ship or capture it if we are feeling lucky.