15 — NAVAL COMBAT SYSTEM (5e / 2024)

Status: Rev 004 — Core + tactic/class difference + monster combat + system loop VALIDATED Dependencies: 14_Deniz_Seyahati (status + crew action point system — same language), 04_Ekipman (ship stats), 09x_Canavarlar (sea monster statblocks) Language: Turkish | System: D&D 5e 2024

0. DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

Naval combat is two layers working linked together: ship-to-ship (range, cannon, maneuver, damage) and character-to-character (deck combat, spells, captain's duel). The goal is to run these not as two separate battles, but as a single scene where one feeds the other.

Refined principle — "all of it together, but not every turn at once": Five tension axes (maneuver, ship damage, crew clash, captain/PC actions, and the range that governs them) are not equally exposed every round. Range is the backbone; it determines which axes come to the fore that round. Combat traces an arc (closing in → cannon duel → broadside), but player decisions steer that arc.

Full consistency with the travel engine (file 14 — Sea Travel): Ship statuses (fire, flooding) and the crew action point pool are taken directly from here. Combat doesn't invent a new language, it adds combat-specific statuses to the existing one.

1. BACKBONE: RANGE

Range is represented by four abstract tiers (anyone who wants can map it to feet):

Range = gear: At each range 2-3 axes are active, not all five at once. This is the core mechanism that prevents the table from being overwhelmed.

2. COMBAT ROUND FLOW

Initiative runs in a single order (characters + enemy ship/crew). Each round two economies run in parallel:

1. Character actions — Player characters take their normal 5e turns (attack, spell, movement, deck maneuvers).
2. Crew action points — Runs ship-level tasks. Pool from file 14: base 2 + ship type points (1–5). Spending examples:

• Cannon salvo: 2 points
• Maneuver (change range / gain a token): 1 point
• Damage control (extinguish status): 1 point normal / 2 points with advantage (file 14 rule)
• Throwing grapple hooks: 1 point

Bridge mechanic (two-layer link): The captain or a PC can spend their own turn (action) as a command to the crew — directing their action to the gun crew, taking the helm, rallying the crew, and the like. This is the seam where the character layer directly affects the ship layer.

3. MANEUVER & POSITION TOKENS

3.1 Maneuver (contested check)

The side wanting to change range or gain position rolls a contested check (usually the captain's relevant skill + the ship's maneuver capability). Wind direction applies a modifier (+ to the windward side, − to the leeward side). The winner shifts the range by one tier or gains a position token.

3.2 Position Tokens (category slot + tier)

Tokens are divided into three categories; only 1 active per category (a cap that prevents table overload — the file 14 status-cap logic). Each token has a tier (I / II), just like status severity:

Maximum active tokens: 3 (1 per category). If the opposing side gains the opposite token, the tier drops first, then flips to the other side. Validated contribution: Good positioning (high total tokens) noticeably strengthens the medium-range salvo (~40% chance of a heavy salvo) — building position translates into winning.

4. SHIP DAMAGE & COMBAT STATUSES

Ship HP base comes from 04_Ekipman. Combat statuses use the file 14 status system (severity, DC-difference threshold, cap of 4), with combat-specific ones added on top:

Two-layer link — ship condition shapes the character scene:

• While Fire is active, boarding combat takes place amid the flames (terrain hazard, relevant saves).
• Flooding tilts the deck (balance/athletics checks, slipping risk).
• Broken Rudder puts the ship at a defenseless angle (gives the enemy a position token opportunity).

5. RANGE GEARS (quick reference)

• Far: Maneuver dominates. Cannons are weak/inaccurate. Time to build tokens and prepare spells. Escape is easiest from here.
• Medium: The sweet spot of the cannon duel. Statuses are born here. Maneuver still matters (position token = heavy salvo).
• Close: Heaviest cannon damage. Boarding hooks get readied. Escape gets harder.
• Broadside: Ships locked together. Crew clash + character duel take the stage. Cannons are out of play; the decision is made on deck.

5B. TACTICAL DEPTH & CLASS DIFFERENCE

Tactic = the right action at the right range

The outcome of the battle depends on the player choosing the tactic suited to their ship and party. Each tactic is strong at a different range and with different character actions:

Validated (equal ships, 6,000 sims/tactic): Cannon 85%, Sabotage 94%, Broadside 76%, Balanced 63% win rate. The right tactic clearly wins; indecisive ("balanced") play is weakest. The impact coefficient of character actions on ship combat was calibrated to K=0.6 — this makes tactic decisive without reducing ship stats to decoration.

Class Difference: ship tonnage is king

Character actions tip the balance between ships of similar power, but cannot overcome a class difference. This is a deliberate design decision and has been validated by simulation.

Example — Sloop (strong party) vs Man o' War (8,000 sims):

• Victory: ~0% — A 70 HP sloop cannot beat a 200 HP + 4-cannon warship on its own. The man o' war's overwhelming manpower and firepower sinks the sloop before it can complete its sabotage.
• Escape: ~15% — The agile sloop can save itself with its speed advantage (if its rudder is intact, at critical HP). Not victory, but survival.
• Defeated: ~85% — The expected outcome.

Design principle: A sloop attacking a giant ship alone is foolish, and the system honestly punishes it. The "epic small-ship victory" doesn't live in the single-combat math — it lives in the narrative layer: a fleet (multiple sloops), an environmental advantage (luring into shallows, a storm), a sabotage mission (sneaking aboard at night), or weakening the man o' war beforehand. The DM opens these paths through narrative; a single-ship duel does not provide them.

(Note: a "moment of fate" — unlocking victory with a Nat-20 critical sabotage — was tested and rejected: since the sloop doesn't survive long enough to use the moment of fate, it didn't move victory off of 0%, it only added complexity. Simplicity was preserved.)

6. EXAMPLE COMBAT FLOW (mechanical walkthrough)

Player ship (Sailing Ship, action points 5) vs a pirate brig, wind in the player's favor.

1. Far: Maneuver via captain's command (2 turns) → Windward I + Superior Speed I tokens. Range closes to Medium.
2. Medium: First salvo (2 points) — with the token bonus, a heavy salvo, Fire breaks out on the pirate ship. The pirate returns fire, the player's ship loses HP.
3. Medium→Close: The pirate can't extinguish the fire (it worsens). The player's PC targets the pirate's rudder with a spell → Broken Rudder, the pirate can't maneuver.
4. Broadside: The players lock together and leap onto the deck — a character duel. Since Fire is still active, the fight happens amid the flames (Dex saves). Crew action points run the crew clash at broadside.
5. The pirate captain falls / surrenders → the battle ends in ~5-6 rounds.

6B. SEA MONSTER COMBAT

Ship-to-ship combat relies on the range backbone (two ships open/close distance). A sea monster behaves differently: it doesn't race for position, it closes in, dives, wraps around, goes underneath. This section adapts the range backbone to the monster and adds monster-specific hazards. The status language, action points, and telegraph rule come directly from ship combat.

6B.1 Monster Class = Complexity Tier

The monster's CR and size determine which rules unlock (graduated complexity — small threat, simple rule; giant threat, rich rule):

6B.2 Four Monster-specific Hazards

Dive / Surface (every class). Instead of range, the monster has two states: Surface (visible, targetable) and Dive (lost, untargetable). While on the Surface it dives ~28% of the time; it comes up from a Dive with a sudden strike (range resets, advantage on the hit). This is the core tension that sets monster combat apart from ship combat: not a distance race, but hunter-prey uncertainty. A diving monster cannot be hit — players must force it to the surface or wait.

Grapple / Wrap (medium+). The monster grips the ship → Flooding status (file 14/15 status language) + ongoing damage. Escaping the grapple takes an action (~45% success). While the grapple lasts, player damage output drops (tight space, balance).

Multi-part Target (giant only). Tentacle / head / body are targeted separately. This is a boss-phase mechanic: players can first break the tentacles to prevent grapple, then bear down on the body. Meaningless on a small monster.

Size Pressure (giant only). A giant monster deals serious damage in a single hit (~×1.8 normal). But a mandatory telegraph turn applies: a big hit is always telegraphed 1 turn in advance (the monster winds up — water surges, a shadow grows). On that telegraph turn the monster makes a half-damage normal attack (not a free turn, but not a full turn either — the boss system rule). This prevents sudden death while preserving the threat.

6B.3 Escape Window

The telegraph turn opens a window for the players. A fast ship (higher speed than the monster), at critical HP, can attempt escape on the telegraph turn (~55%). This is the "you picked the wrong prey, now get out" mechanic — a sailing ship can't beat a kraken but can slip away with its speed (the same philosophy as the sloop's escape in ship combat).

6B.4 "Fair Prey" Economy — Validated Balance

Monster hunting rests on the same principle as ROI in trade and class difference in ship combat: party power + ship tonnage must match the monster's CR. A bad match is punished.

Validated (4,000 sims/matchup, with the telegraph half-damage rule):

The Sailing (36%) vs Warship (93%) gap delivers the "bring a warship to a kraken" message clearly. The telegraph half-damage rule brought sudden sinking down from 35% to 11% (without giving away a free turn). A weak party attacking giant prey is harshly punished, but the escape door remains open.

6B.5 Bridge to the Boss System — How to Design a Giant Monster

Giant sea monsters connect to the existing boss design system (the multi-phase boss skeleton) — a boss system is not invented from scratch. When bossing a sea monster, the following sea-specific layers are added to the standard boss steps:

1. Make phase triggers sea-specific: Phase transition at an HP threshold is standard; for a sea monster the transition moment can overlap with a dive (the monster dives, emerges different in the new phase).
2. Assign one monster-hazard per phase: Phase 1 dive + normal attack; Phase 2 grapple kicks in (Flooding pressure); Phase 3 size pressure + multi-part target unlock. Hazards unlock gradually, not all from the start.
3. The telegraph turn for size pressure is MANDATORY: The telegraph/half-damage rule from the boss system cannot be dropped here — simulation showed sudden sinking climbing to 19-35% without a telegraph. Every big hit from a giant monster must be telegraphed.
4. Preserve the escape window: No matter how strong the boss is, the telegraph turn must give the players an escape/prep opportunity. No "death without warning."
5. The difficulty layer also applies to the monster: The boss difficulty system (Easy/Normal/Hard/Deadly) is also layered onto the sea monster — but structural change (adding hazards to phases) comes before numeric multipliers (the boss principle).
6. CR = ship/party matchup guide: The monster's CR should indicate which ship+party combination can hunt it (the §6B.4 table is the guide). This is what informs the "fair prey" decision for the DM and for the Monster Hunting profession (Trade §3.4).

Consistency: This bridge makes the sea monster speak the same language, simultaneously, with ship combat (range/status/telegraph), the boss system (phases/difficulty), the Monster Hunting profession (CR matchup), and Sea Travel (file 14) events (monster encounters). Four systems meet in a single monster.

6C. SYSTEM LOOP — POST-COMBAT LINKS

Naval combat is not isolated; its outcome flows into the Alarm, Salvage, and Monster Hunting systems. This section closes those links.

6C.1 Combat → Alarm (witness + zone)

A battle's effect on Alarm (Sea Travel §5A) depends on two things: the type of battle and whether a witness remains.

In pirate/Authority combat:

• In Authority waters (reactive zone): Every clash leaves a trace — noise, witnesses, wreckage. Even if the battle is won, Alarm +1 (you disrupted order). Even if the losing side is wiped out, the incident gets heard about.
• Open sea / proactive zone: Only a surviving/fleeing enemy carries word → Alarm +1. If you wipe out the enemy entirely (no witness), it leaves no Alarm. This answers the question "does a fleeing enemy leave an Alarm?": yes, but only in a proactive zone and only if it survives.

Consistency: This is an extension of the reactive/proactive zone distinction from §5A into combat — not a new rule, but the existing Alarm principle applied to combat outcomes.

6C.2 Action → Alarm (legitimacy axis)

Alarm is determined by action, not profession. The legitimacy axis:

• Legitimate / pro-Authority action (completing a licensed bounty, clearing a threat from the zone, turning someone in to Authority) → Alarm −1 or the zone's Alarm drops. You did Authority's job.
• Unlawful / trace-leaving action (smuggling, plunder, unlicensed violence, a civilian target) → Alarm +1. You left a trace.

So the same character gets a different result depending on behavior: a legitimate bounty hunter lowers Alarm; the same person running an illegal job raises it. There is no such thing as "unlicensed bounty hunting" — that's already unlawful (the smuggling side). This is consistent with the "behavior determines outcome" principle.

6C.3 Combat → Salvage (wreck)

Every sunk/defeated ship leaves a wreck — an opportunity for the Salvage profession (Trade §3.3). The wreck's value scales with the size of the battle and ship tonnage (a warship wreck ≫ a sloop wreck). Wreck contents: lost cargo, equipment, occasionally a magic item. Looting a wreck takes time (diving) and carries its own risk (rival divers, deep-water hazard, zone Alarm).

(Note: A ship wreck ≠ a monster carcass. A monster carcass is a separate "harvest" event — see §6C.4.)

6C.4 Monster Combat → Harvest (separate system)

When a sea monster is defeated it leaves a carcass — different from a wreck, a separately-ruled harvest event tied to the Monster Hunting profession (Trade §3.4).

• Product: Monster Parts (value 4, magic/crafting component). Quantity and quality depend on the monster's CR and class (giant monster ≫ small).
• Harvest requires time/skill: Processing the carcass requires a check; failure can spoil the parts. The carcass must be processed at sea before it sinks (time pressure).
• Difference from wreck: Wreck = human-made (cargo, gear, Salvage profession); carcass = organic (parts, harvest, Monster Hunting profession). Different profession, different resource, different rule.

7. REVISION HISTORY

• Rev 001 — Core skeleton: range backbone (4 tiers, optional feet), parallel round flow (character action + crew action points, bridge/command mechanic), maneuver & position tokens (3 categories × tier, cap of 3), combat statuses (combat-specific additions to the file 14 status language), two-layer link rules, example combat flow. Duration balance validated by Python simulation: the initial calibration battles ran 9-14 rounds (too long); once the damage/HP ratio and token impact were raised, they settled into the ideal band — across all three tactics ~90-94% of battles end in 4-8 rounds, no sudden endings or dragging out (3,000 sims/tactic).
• Rev 002 — Tactical depth and class difference validated (§5B). By adding character deck actions to the model, it was proven that tactic choice determines the outcome (equal ships: cannon 85% / sabotage 94% / broadside 76% / balanced 63%; K=0.6). Class difference test: even with a strong party, a sloop can't beat a man o' war (victory ~0%, escape ~15%, defeat ~85%) — this is the deliberate and validated consequence of the "ship tonnage is king" principle. Attempts to force a victory — sabotage buffing (broke equal-ship balance) and a moment-of-fate/Nat-20 mechanic (stayed at 0% since the sloop doesn't survive long enough to use it) — were rejected; simplicity was preserved. The epic small-ship victory was left to the narrative layer (fleet, environment, sabotage mission). 6,000-8,000 sims/scenario.
• Rev 003 — Sea Monster Combat engine added (§6B). The range backbone was adapted to the monster (Surface/Dive state, range reset), the four monster-specific hazards were distributed across CR thresholds (dive for every class, grapple for medium+, multi-part+size pressure for giant only), small/medium/giant = graduated complexity. The mandatory telegraph turn + half-damage rule (from the boss system) was applied to size pressure: simulation showed sudden sinking without telegraph at 19-35%, and half-damage telegraph brought it down to 11% (without giving a free turn — after swinging between two extremes, the midpoint held). The "fair prey" economy was validated (4,000 sims/matchup): party+ship must match the monster's CR, sailing vs giant 36% / warship vs giant 93% → the "bring the right ship" message; the escape window gives a fast ship the "wrong prey, get out" option. A 6-step "how to design a sea monster" bridge was added to the boss system (phase-dive overlap, hazard-to-phase assignment, mandatory telegraph, escape, difficulty, CR matchup). Specific boss statblocks were left to the boss system.
• Rev 004 — System loop closed (§6C). Combat→Alarm link: monster combat leaves no Alarm; pirate/Authority combat depends on zone+witness (every clash +1 in Authority waters, only a surviving/fleeing enemy +1 in open sea) — the question "does a fleeing enemy leave an Alarm?" was answered. Action→Alarm legitimacy axis: Alarm is determined by behavior, not profession (legitimate/pro-Authority −1, unlawful/trace-leaving +1); the "unlicensed bounty hunting = unlawful" contradiction was resolved. Combat→Salvage: every sunk ship leaves a wreck (value scales with tonnage). Monster→Harvest: a monster carcass is a separate system (Monster Parts, different from a wreck — organic vs. human-made). This section was a consistency seam, not a simulation; an extension of the existing Alarm reactive/proactive principle to combat outcomes.

8. UNVALIDATED / NEXT SESSION

• Surrender conditions: The escape threshold and Alarm link (§6C) have been written; surrender (morale, captain falling) conditions could be detailed further.
• Multi-ship combat: the 2+ ship (fleet) case — how do initiative and range scale? (This is the main path to the epic small-ship victory.)
• Character action catalog: a concrete example spell/ability list for each tactic (marksman, sabotage, boarding duel).
• Reward/loot: post-combat capture, repair cost, crew recovery.