What Are The Skills Needed For Sailing DND

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[deleted] • 5y Join 
What are the skills needed for sailing?

5th Edition
Sorry guys but I'm working a lot and don't have time
to find it in the PHB. I'm a new DM and was thinking
of how to justify having this diverse party all together
and I realized their characters could very reasonably
be on a ship together. What kind of rolls should I use
for things like knowing how to navigate? Or if a PC
asks if they can use the stars, is that Nature? If the
need to steer the ship in a pinch, would you do a
straight dex check to change the sails and wisdom to
man the wheel?
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WhiteFox550 5y 
Have you met... The tool proficiencies?! =D
Navigator's Tools let you chart a course and

follow charts.
Vehicles (water) covers sailing vessels.
If they hit a rough patch and damge their ship,

they might use Carpenter's tools.
And you can definitely cover off in various

ways with the more mainstream skills. My
recommendation is to throw a problem at the
party, and let them tell you what skill they want
to use and how they want to use it. If it makes
sense let them. Perception, Athletics, History,
Nature, and Survival are all good fallbacks.
These kind of odd situations is also a good

reason for downtime training. Let your players
spend gold and time to build skill and tool
proficiencies
24 Reply
BrentNewhall DM 5y 
You might not want to make a lot of rolls. To
quote the rules (emphasis mine):
An ability check tests a character's or

monster's innate talent and training in
an effort to overcome a challenge.
Normal operation of a ship shouldn't be a

challenge to a sailor.
Either the ship has a crew besides the PCs, in

which case the PCs don't need to roll, or the
PCs deliberately bought the ship, in which
case it's unlikely that none of them know
anything about sailing. They would have
brushed up on the topic before going on
board.
If the ship is fundamentally a mode of

transportation, then just let the PCs operate it;
no rolls necessarily.
3 Reply
[deleted]  5y 
This is good advice. My DM (I play in his
campaign and he plays in mine, about four
players each) is way more experienced and
he told me it helps keep the story moving to
try and coast without rolls
6 Reply
Brom0nk 5y 
It is very good advice. People get mad at
me when I DM sometimes because I don't
ask for a lot of rolls. I just use a lot of their
passive skills. If a paladin has a 15
passive persuasion, why does he need to
roll to have the inn keeper tell him about
whats going on in town? The DC is so low
that there's really no point and it's not a
dire situation.
Same thing should go with sailors on a

boat. If they do it EVERY DAY, they can't
really mess up that bad. You can have
players roll, but it's not going to
accomplish much. If you really want them
to roll something, have them make a
check where if they roll high, they did a
great job and maybe get somewhere 3
hours faster or gain inspiration. If they roll
low, they still get it done, but it was
sloppy and they had an off day.
1 Reply
GrymDraig DM 5y 
Survival is typically the skill used for
navigation. Survival is also used to identify and
avoid natural hazards.
Nature doesn't necessarily give knowledge of

using the locations of stars for direction, but it
would be useful to tell if a storm is rolling in or
to identify sea creatures.
Most of the manual labor on a ship like

hoisting sails typically involves physical
strength, so I think Athletics skill checks would
be appropriate.
For steering the ship to avoid danger, I think

Wisdom is appropriate. The real test here is
determining the right direction, not necessarily
that the wheel is difficult to turn.
Climbing ropes and rigging could be athletics

or acrobatics at your discretion.
In addition, there are two tool proficiencies

that add to this:
Vehicles (Water). If you have proficiency with

a certain kind of vehicle (land or water), you
can add your proficiency bonus to any check
you make to control that kind of vehicle in
difficult circumstances.
Navigator's tools. This set of instruments is

used for navigation at sea. Proficiency with
navigator's tools lets you chart a ship's course
and follow navigation charts. In addition, these
tools allow you to add your proficiency bonus
to any ability check you make to avoid getting
lost at sea.
The sailor background comes with both of

these proficiencies.
2 Reply
This helps SO much, you're awesome. One
last question, is the Sailor background the
only means to get water vehicle proficiency?
And what kind of bonus is that?
2 Reply
GrymDraig DM 5y 
Tool proficiencies allow you to add your
Proficiency bonus to any relevant check.
This is the same proficiency bonus on
your character sheet that you add to
attack rolls and skill checks.
The sailor is the only background in the

Player's Handbook that comes with those
built in. Technically, since the Player's
Handbook says you can customize
backgrounds, anybody can get those two
tool proficiencies. I would only allow this
if it makes sense with their character
concept, though.
There is also an Unearthed Arcana article

about Waterborne Adventures with
additional player options that you might
find useful. Note that both the Storm
Sorcerer and the Swashbuckler Rogue
were updated in Xanathar's Guide to
Everything, so you should probably use
those versions.
1 Reply
BuddergolemXD Warlock 5y 
Ironically I’m in the same situation as you, were
going to continue our session later and we’re
going to need to sail, I would say a Intelligence
check would be required to understand how to
work the ship and maybe Wisdom checks to
keep it under control, also do any of them have
vehicle proficiency?
1 Reply
None, to be honest we've only used horse
and carriage. I'll just make sure they are part
of a crew of npcs who can pick up their
slack
1 Reply
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r/DnD Use App

What are the skills needed for sailing?

Rebel Moon, only on Netflix, December

netflix.com.au Learn More

9 Comments sorted by Best ˇ

Navigator's Tools let you chart a course and

Vehicles (water) covers sailing vessels.

If they hit a rough patch and damge their ship,

And you can definitely cover off in various

These kind of odd situations is also a good

An ability check tests a character's or

Normal operation of a ship shouldn't be a

Either the ship has a crew besides the PCs, in

If the ship is fundamentally a mode of

Same thing should go with sailors on a

Nature doesn't necessarily give knowledge of

Most of the manual labor on a ship like

For steering the ship to avoid danger, I think

Climbing ropes and rigging could be athletics

In addition, there are two tool proficiencies

Vehicles (Water). If you have proficiency with

Navigator's tools. This set of instruments is

The sailor background comes with both of

The sailor is the only background in the

There is also an Unearthed Arcana article

Top posts of May 18th, 2018

Top posts of May, 2018

Top posts of 2018

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