Seafaring Adventure

Random Encounters at Sea Visibility

d12+d8 Encounter
2 Ghost ship
3 A friendly and curious bronze dragon
4 Whirlpool (25% chance that the whirlpool is a
portal to the Elemental Plane of Water
5 A huge dark shape circles the vessel several times
before disappearing completly underwater
6 Passing warship (friendly or hostile)
7-8 Pirate ship (hostile)
9-10 Passing merchant ship (galley or sailing ship)
11-12 Killer whale sighting
13-14 Floating debris
15 Longship crewed by hostile berserkers
16 A very small enchanted moving island (25%
chance its inhabited, 10% chance there is
treasure roll on random treasure table suitable for
party's level
17 Iceberg (easily avoided if seen from a distance)
18 Sahuagin boarding party
19 NPC in water clinging to debris
20 Seamonster (such as dragon turtle or kraken)
Weather At Sea
Check the Weather table below. If weather conditions
indicate both a strong wind and heavy rain, they combine to
make a storm with high waves. A crew caught in a storm
loses sight of all landmarks (unless there's a lighthouse or
other bright feature), and ability checks made to navigate
during the storm have disadvantage.
In a dead calm (no wind) ships can't move under sail and
must be rowed. A ship sailing against strong wind moves at
half speed.
Weather
d20 Temperature
1-14 Normal for the season
15-17 1d4 x 10 degrees Fahrenheit colder than normal
18-20 1d4 x 10 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than normal
d20 Wind
1-12 None
13-17 Light
18-20 Strong
d20 Precipitation
1-12 None
13-17 Light rain or light snowfall
18-20 Heavy rain or heavy snowfall
A relatively calm sea offers great visibility. From a crow's
nest, a lookout can spot another ship or coastline up to 10
miles away, assuming clear skies. Overcast skies reduce it to
5 miles. Rain and fog reduce visibility just like they do on
land.
Strong Wind
A strong wind imposes disadvantage on ranged weapon
attack rolls and wisdom (Perception) checks based on
hearing. A strong wind also extinguishes open flames,
disperses fog and makes flying by nonmagical means nearly
impossible. A flying creature in a strong wind must land at
the end of its turn or fall.
Sailing and Rowing
Characters can row a boat for 8 hours per day, or
can row longer at the risk of exhaustion (as per the
rules for forced march in chapter 8 of the PHB). A
fully crewed sailing vessel can sail all day, assuming
its sailors work in shifts.
Swimming
Unless aided by magic, a character can't swim for a full 8
hours per day. After each hour of swimming, a character must
succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or gain one
level of exhaustion.
A creature that has swimming speed-including a character
with a ring of swimming or a similar magic-can swim all day
without penalty and uses the normal forced march rules in
the PHB.
Swimming through deep water is similar to traveling at
high altitudes, because of the waters pressure and cold
temperature. For a creature without swiming speed, each
hour spent swimming at a depth greater than 100 feet counts
as 2 hours for the purpose of exhaustion. Swimming for an
hour at a depth greater than 200 feet counts as 4 hours.
Navigation
Seagoing vessels stay close to shore when they
can, because navigation is easier when landmarks
are visible. As long as a ship is within sight of land,
there is no chance of the vessel becoming lost.
Otherwise, a ship's navigator must rely on dead
reckoning (tracking the direction and distance of
the ship's travel) or the sun and stars. DC 10
Wisdom (survival) check to see if party becomes
lost. If they do the navigator spends 1d6 hours
trying to correct course.

PART 1 |Seafaring and Underwater

Adventuring 1
 Frigid Water Random Undersea encounters
A creature can be immersed in frigid water for a d12+d8 Encounter
number of minutes equal to its Constitution score 2 Sunken ship covered in barnacles(25% chance
before suffering ill effects. Each additional minute the ship contains treasure; roll randomly on
spent in frigid water requires the creature to treasure tables in chapter 7 of DMG
succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or
gain one level of exhaustion. Creatures with 3 Sunken ship with reef sharks (shallow waters) or
hunter sharks (deep waters). (50% chance that
resistance or immunity to cold damage ship contains treasure, roll randomly on treasures
automatically succeed on the saving throw, as do table in chapter 7 DMG
creatures who are naturally adapted to living in ice
cold water. 4 Bed of giant oysters (each oyster has a 1%
chance of having a 5,ooo gp pearl inside)
5 An underwater mountain that seems to be
breathing it's a sleeping collosus
Underwater Combat 6 Sunken ruin (uninhabited)
When making a melee weapon attack, a creature that
doesn't have swimming speed (either natural or granted by 7 Sunken ruin (inhabited or haunted)
magic) has disadvantage on the attack roll unless the weapon 8 Sunken statue or monolith
is a dagger, javelin, shortsword, spear or trident. 9 Friendly and curious giant seahorse
When making a ranged weapon attack the attack
automatically misses a target beyond normal range. Even in 10 Patrol of friendly merfolk
normal range the attack rolls have disadvantage unless the 11 Patrol of hostile merrow (coastal waters) or
weapon is a crossbow, a net, or a weapon that is thrown like a sahuagin (deep waters)
javelin (including a spear, trident or dart). Creatures and 12 An enormous kelp bed (roll again on table to
objects fully immersed in water have resistance to fire determine what's hidden in the kelp bed
damage.
13 Undersea cave (empty)
14 Undersea cave sea hag lair)
Underwater Visibility
Visibility underwater depends on water clarity and 15 Giant shark
the available light. Unless the character have light 16 Undersea cave (giant octopus lair)
sources, use the Underewater Encounter Distance
table to determune the distance at which 17 Swarm of quippers
characters underwater become aware of a possible 18 Bronze dragon searching for treasure
encounter.
19 Storm giant walking along ocean floor
20 Sunken treasure chest (25% chance it contains
something of value; roll treasure randomly using
Underwater Encounter Distance the treasure tables in chapter 7 DMG
Conditions Encounter distance
Clear water, bright light 60 ft.
Clear water, dim light 30 ft.
Murky water, or no light 10 ft.
Airborne And Waterborne Vehicles
Ship Cost Speed Crew Passengers Cargo (tons) AC HP Damage Threshold
Airship 20,000 gp 8 mph 10 20 1 13 300 --
Galley 30,000 gp 4 mph 80 -- 150 15 500 20
Keelboat 3,000 gp 1 mph 1 6 1/2 15 100 10
Longship 10,000 gp 3 mph 40 150 10 15 300 15
Rowboat 50 gp 1 1/2 mph 1 3 -- 11 50 --
Sailing ship 10,000 gp 2 mph 20 20 100 15 300 15
Warship 25,000 2 1/2 mph 60 60 200 15 500 20

PART 1 | Seafaring and Underwater

2 Adventuring