Wizards of the Coast recently announced Ghosts of Saltmarsh as the next hardcover adventure for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. This has created a ton of excitement and a flurry of posts and supplements related to adventuring at sea. If you are planning on playing in a seafaring adventure here are some things you should think about before creating your character.

Talk to Your DM

The first thing to do is ask your DM some questions about the campaign. Here’s a short list of things you need to know as you design your PC and figure out their backstory:

1. Should I expect my character to live on a ship or just be on one sometimes?
2. Should I expect my character to be a member of the crew of a ship, or just a passenger?
3. Are there any specific backgrounds that will be beneficial for this campaign?
4. Do you have any homebrew backgrounds available for the campaign?
5. What are your house-rules for swimming, drowning, sinking in armor, holding your breath underwater, and fighting in water?
6. Are there any character options that are off-limits?
7. Sea-faring campaigns often include pirates and pistols (black powder weapons) – will our campaign have those? If so, how does proficiency work with pistols in our campaign?
8. Are there any specific races (e.g. merfolk, tritons, or lizardfolk) or classes (e.g. Rogue swashbucklers and Gunslingers) that are especially suited to our campaign?
9. If I want to play a PC with a non-standard race, class, or background combination, can I explore the options with you?

Now that you have those questions answered, you should remind yourself of some of the resources already available to you in the fifth edition D&D Player’s Handbook. Here are some things that you might want to think about.

Background Considerations

While the sailor background seems the most obvious for a seafaring campaign, there are several other backgrounds that could lend themselves to good use on a ship.

1. The Charlatan can be an asset on a ship since they can forge papers, gamble, and represent the ship’s inhabitants to any level of merchant, noble, or port authority.
2. The Guild Artisan might have familial membership in the Shipwrights and Sailmakers guilds, or maybe Carpenters, Roofers, and Plasterer’s Guild (ships always need some repair), and what ship’s captain would be without a skilled Surveyor and Chartmaker?
3. Perhaps you belong to the Merchant’s Guild and instead of buying and selling your goods via caravan, you contract with the ship to deliver your wares. Be sure to look at all of the backgrounds and see if any of them fit your idea of a sea-loving character.
4. Modifying an Existing Background: If you want to make slight changes to an existing background, ask your DM and offer to work with them to make something you both agree on. For example, the Outlander background is well suited to a person who has lived their life at sea, but you might adjust the starting equipment to include a lobster trap, a fishing pole, and ship’s uniform. You may also want to suggest changing the tool proficiency from a musical instrument to ship’s rigging, ropes, and cargo hooks or navigator’s tools.

Equipment Considerations

Armor: Keep in mind that you might not want to be wearing heavy armor on board the ship. Any type of heavy metal armor might cause you to sink like a stone when in water – check with your DM about how that situation might be adjudicated.

General Equipment: Some pieces of equipment might be commonplace on a ship, and therefore you shouldn’t waste your money purchasing them. For example:

1. Nets
2. Block and tackle
3. Fishing tackle
4. Hooks
5. Magnifying glass (& possibly a spyglass)
6. Chains
7. Manacles
8. Rope (lots of it!)
9. Signal whistles
10. Barrels of freshwater and food
11. Mess hall equipment
12. Navigator’s tools
13. Carpenter’s tools

And many more! Check with your DM to make sure you do not need to personally purchase any of this equipment. Conversely – if you and the other PCs in the party are going to need to equip a whole ship, then the list above can help you make sure you don’t get caught in an embarrassing moment with the NPC crew.

Proficiencies

Speaking of whole ships, remember that proficiency in vehicle (water) is needed if you want to add your proficiency bonus when rolling to control the ship in difficult circumstances. Find a way to gain this proficiency if you care about controlling the ship during a storm, or while guiding it through a narrow inlet, or skillfully coming broadsides when you are in a ship-to-ship battle, or trying to navigate through a sandbar-laden area, or or or… As you can see, I can think of several situations off the top of my head in which you and the other PCs might find it helpful to have that little proficiency bonus bump at a pivotal moment. If your chosen background doesn’t include the vehicle (water) proficiency, ask your DM if you can trade out one of them for this one. Alternatively, you can use the Downtime Training rules on page 187 of the Player’s Handbook to learn how to control the ship and eventually gain proficiency in vehicle (water).

Feats

A few standard feats might be useful depending on the role that you are taking on the ship.

1. Alert would be good if you often find yourself serving as the watchmaster in the crow’s nest.
2. Inspiring Leader may be helpful if you are the Captain or First Mate.
3. Mobile will be useful if you envision your character climbing/running up and down the rigging lines and nets on the ship to quickly secure the sails.
4. Tough will offer a great thematic, and generally useful benefit.
5. Tavern Brawler, similar to Tough, this is very thematic for a life-at-sea campaign.

Spells

There are several spells that are particularly useful when you are at sea. If you want to create and play a spellcasting PC, be sure to review these and decide if any of these are to your liking. Make a plan for how you might use these spells in the day to day running of a ship. Here is a list of helpful spells; I have put the page numbers from the Player’s Handbook in parentheses after each spell so that you can find them easily:

1. Control Water (227)
2. Control Weather (228)
3. Create Food and Water (229)
4. Fabricate (239)
5. Grease (246)
6. Gust of Wind (248)
7. Mending (259)
8. Move Earth (263)
9. Purify Food and Drink (270)
10. Water Breathing (287)
11. Water Walk (287)

Of course there are a ton of other spells that could be useful, but I am trying to give you the idea that you can tailor your choices toward a sea-based campaign and really match your character theme to the game.

Important Reminders

The fifth edition Player’s Handbook contains a wealth of information that will be useful to you. Before going to other sources, I recommend brushing up on the rules contained in the main play document for the game (the PHB is the main document, in case you didn’t catch that).

The rules for swimming and Suffocating (drowning) are found on pages 182-183 of the Player’s Handbook – review those and ask your DM if they have any house-rules. Yes, I know I mentioned the question about house rules already, but it never hurts to encourage communication between players and DMs.

The rules for underwater combat are found on page 198 of the Player’s Handbook – review those and ask your DM if they have any house-rules (ditto what I said above).

Other Official Sources

There are a couple of other official sources that you can use to help create your character. Here is a list of some of the items you may look for if you have access to these sources:

Volo’s Guide to Monsters contains two of the races I mentioned earlier in this post – Tritons and Lizardfolk – as playable races. These two races are well suited to life on the sea. Lizardfolk have tough natural armor, a swimming speed of 30 feet, and can hold their breath for up to 15 minutes. Tritons have a swimming speed of 30 feet, can communicate with water-breathing beasts, and can themselves breath underwater (and out of the water as well). These characteristics make these two races very effective when playing in a water-based environment – the swimming speed alone is a huge advantage if you need to get somewhere at a decent pace while fighting waves.

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything contains several character options that are thematically suited to a life of seas and storms. Speaking of storms, the Barbarian class has the Path of the Storm Herald, which, among other things, allows the barbarian to breath underwater starting at 6th level (they also gain a swim speed) if they choose ‘sea’ as their chosen Storm Aura environment. The druid section of Xanathar’s Guide has tables with creatures you have likely seen on shore and underwater, thereby giving a druid the chance to Wild Shape into an appropriate set of creatures. Storm Sorcery gives a sorcerer the ability to control the direction of wind and rain, and is thematically appropriate to a seafaring game. Page 82 of Xanathar’s guide expands the usefulness of vehicle (water) proficiency from simply knowing how to control the vehicle in tough conditions, to knowing everything a professional sailor would know about the ship, repairs, equipment, knot tying, and islands/the sea. And lastly, there are a few spells that could be of use to a sailor: Control Winds (152), Maelstrom (160), Mold Earth (162), and Shape Water (164).

DMsGuild and DriveThruRPG Sources

If your DM is willing to let you look at un-official content, you might want to take a look at some of the offerings by DMsGuild and DriveThruRPG authors. I have a couple of recommendations, but there are many other supplements that might be useful to you. If you have the time, you might want to check these three supplements out and then go looking for more on your own.

Blackpowder Pirates by David Adams, offers several new archetypes for sea-based characters. It also leans on the Gunslinger class rules by the same author.

Call from the Deep: Races & Feats by JVC Parry contains 4 sea-based player races, including Merfolk and Sahuagin(!!). This supplement also includes several feats that will work well in a sea campaign – including Net Master, Sea Legs, and Navigator.

Pirate Adventurers by Shawn Ellesworth of Tribality.com is a great, short supplement that contains a few variant backgrounds, some shipboard equipment explanations, three new feats, and quick and simple explanations of crew roles on a ship.

I hope that this article is helpful to you – at least giving you a start on what to look at and consider when planning a to create a character for your seafaring D&D game.

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Until Next Time, I wish you good gaming!

~DMSamuel