Shipwright 5e
You have sailed into war on the decks of great ships, patching their hulls with soup bowls and prayers. You once helped build a fishing vessel that single-handedly saved a town from starvation. You have seen a majestic prow in your dreams that you have not been able to replicate in wood. Since childhood, you have loved the water and have been captivated by the many vessels that travel on it.
Source: Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Skill Proficiencies: History, Perception
Tool Proficiencies: Carpenter's tools, Vehicles (water)
Equipment: A set of well-loved carpenter's tools, a blank book, 1 ounce of ink, an ink pen, a set of traveler's clothes, and a leather pouch with 10 gp
Features
I'll patch it!: Provided you have carpenter's tools and wood, you can perform repairs on a water vehicle. When you use this ability, you restore a number of hit points to the hull of a water vehicle equal to 5 × your proficiency modifier. A vehicle cannot be patched by you in this way again until after it has been pulled ashore and fully repaired.
Life at Sea: Your life at sea and in port has shaped you; you can roll on the following table to determine its impact or choose an element that best fits your character.
Life at Sea Table
| d6 | Seas Influence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Grand Designs. You are working on plans and schematics for a new, very fast ship. You must examine as many different kinds of vessels as possible to help ensure the success of your design. |
| 2 | Solid and Sound. You patched up a war galley and prevented it from sinking. The local navy regards you as a friend. |
| 3 | Favored. You insisted on thicker planking for a merchant vessel's hull, which saved it from sinking when it smashed against a reef. You have a standing invitation to visit the merchant's distant mansion. |
| 4 | Master of Armaments. You specialized in designing and mounting defenses for the navy. You easily recognize and determine the quality of such items. |
| 5 | Low Places. You have contacts in the smuggling outfits along the coast; you occasionally repair the criminals' ships in exchange for coin and favors. |
| 6 | Mysteries of the Deep. You experienced an encounter with a possibly divine being while sailing alone. Work with your DM to determine the secret about the deep waters of the sea that this entity revealed to you. |
Suggested Characteristics
Shipwrights are resourceful carpenters and designers. They often have a dedicated spot at the local tavern, since shipwrights are invaluable to coastal communities. Some travel with naval fleets and might serve as officers if their temperament suits it. Shipwrights have an affinity for working with their hands and often perform feats of carpentry that others might deem miraculous.
Shipwright Personality Traits
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I love talking and being heard more than I like to listen. |
| 2 | I'm extremely fond of puzzles. |
| 3 | I thrive under pressure. |
| 4 | I love sketching and designing objects, especially boats. |
| 5 | I'm not afraid of hard work—in fact, I prefer it. |
| 6 | A pipe, an ale, and the smell of the sea: paradise. |
| 7 | I have an endless supply of cautionary tales related to the sea. |
| 8 | I don't mind getting my hands dirty. |
Shipwright Ideals
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Crew. If everyone on deck pitches in, we'll never sink. (Good) |
| 2 | Careful Lines. A ship must be balanced according to the laws of the universe. (Lawful) |
| 3 | Invention. Make what you need out of whatever is at hand. (Chaotic) |
| 4 | Perfection. To measure a being and find it lacking is the greatest disappointment. (Evil) |
| 5 | Reflection. Muddied water always clears in time. (Any) |
| 6 | Hope. The horizon at sea holds the greatest promise. (Any) |
Shipwright Bonds
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I must visit all the oceans of the world and behold the ships that sail there. |
| 2 | Much of the treasure I claim will be used to enrich my community. |
| 3 | I must find a kind of wood rumored to possess magical qualities. |
| 4 | I repair broken things to redeem what's broken in myself. |
| 5 | I will craft a boat capable of sailing through the most dangerous of storms. |
| 6 | A kraken destroyed my masterpiece; its teeth shall adorn my hearth. |
Shipwright Flaws
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I don't know when to throw something away. You never know when it might be useful again. |
| 2 | I get frustrated to the point of distraction by shoddy craftsmanship. |
| 3 | Though I am an excellent crafter, my work tends to look as though it belongs on a ship. |
| 4 | I am so obsessed with sketching my ideas for elaborate inventions that I sometimes forget little thing like eating and sleeping. |
| 5 | I'm judgmental of those who are not skilled with tools of some kind. |
| 6 | I sometimes take things that don't belong to me, especially if they are very well made. |
Should You Be a Shipwright?
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Shipwright hits a sweet spot for me as a niche option some tables will have a blast with while others will find it close to useless. It's a background aimed at a specific setting and meaningfully contributes towards adventuring in that setting. In a world of islands and seafaring, it's a fantastic fit. In a world of dark dungeons and underground adventure, it's going to be Perception and not much else.
Features: Life at Sea and I’ll Patch It!
Life at Sea provides you with some life events that can alter how your character approaches the world. These results honestly feel closer to Bonds than an actual feature, as they mainly just tie you to something the world the DM can work with to make your character fit into the story and world around you. I love these kinds of tables, but they don’t add a lot of mechanical juice to your sheet that will assist you regularly in adventuring.
I’ll Patch It!, on the other hand, is a unique little feature I find deeply interesting. It's a once per “repair” quick fix on a water vehicle that restores 10-30 hit points. It doesn’t specify how long it takes, though, making it a nebulous, case-dependent kind of feature that may take an action, a minute, or longer depending on your DM.
In games where you’re sailing around a vessel and getting into conflict in open waters, this ability is a major asset.
Objects use unique mechanics when determining how they take damage, including a Damage Threshold, preventing many objects from taking small increments of damage. Large ships still only have 300 hit points- smaller vessels that lack a damage threshold are most likely to benefit from this. Fixing 20 hit points on a 300 hit point vessel often isn’t going to have that high of an impact.
Ultimately this feature will find itself a home in a small subset of games; at those games, though, where a sailboat-sized ship moves a group around a series of islands or down and around major rivers and lakes, I can see this being a major pulling factor that compels artificers and wizards towards this background.
Skills
Perception usually will be the most commonly used skill at the table; everyone can benefit from having it. Getting it through your background can be convenient, and opens up this option to characters with a high Wisdom score like Rangers, Druids, and Monks who want to be the eyes and ears of the party.
History, on the other hand, is one of the least used skills in all of 5th Edition. It is reliant on your DM wanting to gate elements of play behind worldbuilding often tangential at best to the current situation. Many adventures will never call for a History check.
Other Proficiencies
Not only does Shipwright offer carpenter’s tools, which can be a fun and flavorful tool set to help engage with wood and wooden structures, but it also offers water vehicles, giving you everything you’d need to actively aid in all elements of sailing. These two clearly want you to be at a table where your ship is your home, and you want to augment and improve it over time.
Equipment
Don’t sleep on ink and books; having a tool to jot down information and pass it along can come up surprisingly often, especially in social or espionage-focused games. Even having markers you can use over large areas can help you detect magic, duplicates, and forgeries.
Otherwise, it sets you up with the tools you’d expect. I’m a fan.
Bonus Tables
The Seas Influence table presents you with fantastic backstory opportunities.Past that, though, a lot of the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws match what I’d expect any old artisan to have. “I’m extremely fond of puzzles”, “I don’t mind getting my hands dirty”, “I love talking and being heard more than I like to listen”, “I’m judgemental of those who are not skille with tools of some kind”, and “I repair broken things to redeem what’s broken in myself” all loosely match somebody using tools. While not as general as some tables, these are still a bit generic for my taste.
The bonds read more as “goals” than bonds to me; you want to take revenge on a kraken, craft the world’s sturdiest boat, visit all the oceans of the world, find a special kind of wood. None of these tie you to a person or people. They’re still decent motivating factors that can contribute towards creating your personality.
Ideals boil down to shipmate ideals smashed together with guild aristan ideals. Crew, invention, perfection, etc.
Most of these aren’t anything to write home about, but there are some unique options among them unique to shipwright.
Closing Thoughts
I’d expect at tables focused on naval exploration Shipwright will play superbly. It gets everything it needs to contribute in a unique way to the adventure. Obviously, it’ll be substantially worse when you aren’t working with water vehicles, but at least Perception and Carpenter’s Tools offer some consistent utility agnostic of the environment.
This is the kind of background built for a setting and style- I’d highly consider it when those match what this wants.
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