Player's Guide

Space Combat

When spelljammers of hostile allegiance meet, they are likely to go to battle, or the weaker one will try to flee. Will the ships meet at all? When can they see each other? How do battles in space work. You will find the answers to those questions below.

Visibility And Encounters

Space is vast. Unless people fly along busy trade routes, the only way to find something is using locate... and find the path spells. If something big and dangerous enough to cause harm to the ship, the spelljamming helm automatically slows it down to tactical speed. The detection range of a helm is almost 30 Miles and in theory humans can see that far, if nothing is in the way. On the other hand space is relatively dark and spelljammers are relatively small. (The largest ships have about 100 metric tons, which is like 25 metres long and 4 meters wide, if the ship is relatively flat.)

The actual range of sight depends on the size of the ship, and the quality of the senses of the observer. Characters with low-light vision are able of seeing another ship at twice the given distance. The phlogiston of the World Ocean severely limits visibity, as do other hazards, such as asteroid fields, or Nebulae. Within the phlogiston, visibility is reduced to 300 Meters, because the material obscures all beyond that sight. Nebulae can be better or even worse, depending on their type and structure. The table below assumes visibility is not obstruced.

Combat Basics

Combat Round: A combat round in space combat works the same as in any other fight. A ship may move and do its attack in one round. Since the move of the ship and the crew are independet of each other, the ship may use all of its offensive weapons pointing into the right direction (assuming they are ready) in the same round it moves. The length of rounds does not change.

Battle Grid: Originaly spelljammer used a 2-dimensional hex grid. One ship that can be powered by a major helm fits into a single field. Only very special ships, which are powered by special helms take more space than that. The difference to the typical square combat grid may help to point out, that space combat is different from ground combat. It is possible to use a square grid instead, as it is done in the basic D&D combat system. Add +1 to any turning rating in that case.

TM: The tactical movement rating of a ship says, how many hexes it can move in a round, assuming it moves in a straigh line. Once its turns, another important statistic comes into play. Basic TM is defined by the ship, then half the caster (or manifester) level of the helmsman is added to get the final result.

TR: The turning rate of a ship says, how many points of TM it takes a ship to turn to the next face of the hex. Most ship have a TR of one or two, but particularly large ships may have higherratings. If a ship has a higher TR, than it has TM, then it takes several rounds to make that turn. Write down the beginning of the turn and count down, until the manoeuvre is done.

Initative: is determined in Space Combat, using the ability modifier of the helmsman. Instead of dexterity, the modifier used is the one central to the helmsman's mystic energy drained. A cleric uses wisdom, a bard or sorcerer charisma and a wizard or psion uses inteligence.

Attacks: Unless a ship is engaged in a boarding manoeuvre, only the siege weapons and mystics on board can attack, using ranged attacks. In space catapults take a normal attack roll to fire. Besides ranged attacks, ships may try several special aggressive and defensive manoeuvres (see below).

Saving Throws and SI: A spelljammer gains saving throws boni of its own (given in the ship's description), or uses those of the helmsman, whichever is higher in that area. Spelljammers are subject to destruction from massive structural damage. How much structural damage a ship can take is determined by its structural integrity rating (SI). Once it is reduced to zero, the ship falls apart.

Special Manoeuvres

Besides just trying to get close to each other, or avoid each other, spelljammers may perform several special manoeuvers. All of the descriptions below assume, the ships are both in free space. What exactly happens, if the ships are in a larger gravity well is left to the DM.

Boarding: If two ships are in the same hex, the crew of the one just moving may attempt to board (or try a wing shear, see below). Successfully boarding requires the crew to make successful use rope checks with their grappling hooks. If they succeed, the ships are considered grappled and cannot move individually until disengaged. The following combat is described below.

Dodge: The crew may try to move the ship in an erratic way, making it harder to it. Doing so requires a successful DC 20 Profession (Spelljammer) check from the navigator, and a DC 15 Profession (Void Sailor) check from the rigging or wing crew. The intention to dodge must be anounnced in the beginning of the round. The cost for every move action (entering another hex or turning increases by +1). If the checks are successful, the ship gains a +5 bonus to AC. The crew also suffers a -10 penalty to all ranged attack rolls, because the erratic movement makes the aim uncertain and it is difficult to hit anything. It is not possible to dodge and ram at the same time.

Ram: If the ship is equipped with a ram (most spelljammers are), using it to engage the enemy ship and going into personal combat is quite common strategy. Ramming requires a ship to go in a straight line at the enemy vessel for at least four hexes and reach the hex of the enemy with its move action. Basic damage for dodging is one dice, which is always dealt on a successful ram. Add one dice for every difference in size categry between the ramming ship and the target. Add an additional dice for every hex run in a straight line towards the target, up to a maximum of 7 dice. The navigator has to succeed on an attack roll to actually hit the target vessel.

Wing Shear: Thie manoeuvre is only feasible, if the ship has hard wings. It moves over the space of another ship, trying to damage the rigging (or wings) of the other ship. The navigator must succeed a DC 20 Profession (Spelljammer) check from the navigator, and the wing crew on a DC 15 Profession (Void Sailor) check to execute this action. Both the wing used and the target rigging take ??? points of damage.

Ranged Combat

There are two ways to make ranged attacks, using magic and using the ship's siege weapons. Neither do a lot of damage to a ship, unless the attacker manages to score a critical hit. Spells do a bit more damage, but most ship hava a huge number of hit points, so the most common strategy in space combat is to aim at the enemy ship's wings or rigging to prepare for ramming and boarding. Unlike catapults on land, those used in space combat require a basic attack roll against the AC of the ship it is aimed at. Catapult stones fly in a straight line in space, making aiming a lot easier.

Ready For Boarding!

Most battles between spelljammers are likely to end with the melee of boarding, starting with either a ramming, or a boarding manoeuvre. (See above.) When two ships meet in that way, their gravity planes mingle and become one, which can be quite disorienting for the crew. It is essentially not possible for two ships to meet on the same gravity plane in combat, due to the violence of combat manoeuvres, the need to avoid the wings when trying to board, and the three-dimensional nature of those battles, which a playable combat system cannot truly represent.

Everyone has to make a reflex saving throw to keep on standing, its DC depending on the severety of the shift. All, who fail the save are knocked down. If both ships are of the same size, the new gravity plane is a median between the gravity planes of the two ships. If one ship is smaller, the gravity of the smaller ship has less effect on that of the larger, shifting it only by a smaller degree. The first number is the save DC for the crew of the larger ship, the second number the save DC for the crew of the smaller ship.

Crew Stats: The DM (and the players!) will want to concentrate on the fight of their characters and the enemy champion, once a ship has been boarded. Yet most of the crew (except the current helmsman) will be involved in the fight, making it necessary to handle a large number of combatants, which is very ungainly using standard D&D combat rules, which are optimised for skirmishes. Instead the crew of each ship is given standard stats for BAB, AC, Damage, Initative and the hit points of the crew are summed up, rolling only once for the crew (unless the enemies are monsters or otherwise powerful enough to be handled indivdually).

The crew loses one member, each time enough hit points are removed from the total to kill one. It may be useful to maintain different statistics blocks for sailors and marines, if there is a significant difference. (Marines are usually elite troops.) Each block of troops acts in only one action, leaving the battle focussed on the heroes and enemy champions.