Weapons for a D&D 5e Pirate Campaign Setting

Pirate Weapons | Naval Combat
Steampunk Weapons | Steampunk Armor | Steampunk Gear

The Seas of Vodari – 5th Edition Swashbuckling & Sorcery

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Everything you need to run exciting seafaring campaigns full of swashbuckling action and magical adventure for Fifth Edition.

The Seas of Vodari is a full-color book that we are offering in hardcover and PDF. This book provides 200+ pages of material for gamemasters to run exciting seafaring campaigns for 5th Edition. Your players will get tons of options for creating characters and you’ll get support to run a world full of swashbuckling action and magical adventure.

Ahoy! This week on the Campaign Trail we set sail on a journey to hunt down Weapons for a D&D 5e Pirate Campaign Setting. As my seafaring campaign nears its end, I’ve been taking a look back at all the materials I created and collected over the course of the campaign. I thought it would be a good idea to share some of my materials with you lubbers that I found useful. While this list is geared towards outfitting swashbuckling pirates and privateers, you could use it to add guns (inspired by those used during the late 18th century) to any campaign, you scallywag.

Notes on the Equipment Table

• I put the weapons that felt most most pirate flavored to me from core D&D 5e on this list such as Rapier and Scimitar and added in some other homebrew weapons.
• My goal for this equipment list is for any DM to be able to add firearms to a campaign as a replacement for the niche that crossbows hold in a more traditional D&D or Pathfinder game. I thought this would be a good way to make sure firearms don’t come in and overpower spells and traditional weapons that most of my players would favor such as swords and bows. You’ll notice that my homebrew firearms borrow from Pathfinder and the D&D 5th editions DMG materials, but have lower damage table guns match up with their equivalent crossbow. For example the Flintlock Pistol matches up nicely with the Light Crossbow, each doing 1d8 piercing damage, but the gun can be held in one hand and the crossbow has a longer range.
• I wanted to have guns be able to do something special without being magical, so I added in my own version of Pathfinder’s scatter and 5E’s burst attack. You can see how I handled this under Special for the flared guns,  Blunderbuss and Dragon.
• You’ll also notice that I set guns to cost less than when you place them into typical fantasy RPG setting. During the Golden Age of Piracy flintlock weapons were commonplace, but were still expensive enough to keep them out of the hands of most commoners.

Pirate Weapons for D&D 5th Edition

Low Damage Version

* The cutlass is a blade traditionally associated with pirates and its damage through the editions has ranged from 1d6 to 1d8. For this list I went with 1d6.

Special

• Bayonet: To attach or remove a bayonet from from a musket is a Use an Object action. Because bayonets are designed for use while attached to a musket. It counts as an improvised weapon that does 1d4 piercing damage (when used by itself).
• Blunderbuss: This weapon can be fired normally or loaded to make a scattering shot, attacking all creatures within a 15 foot cone. Each creature in the cone must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 piercing damage. Using a scatter shot requires pellet ammunition.
• Dragon Pistol: This weapon can be fired normally or loaded to make a scattering shot, attacking all creatures within a 15 foot cone. Each creature in the cone must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 1d4 piercing damage. Using a scatter shot requires pellet ammunition.
• Hook: To attach or remove a hook from the wrist is a Use an Object action.
• Lead Balls: This ammunition is destroyed when used. You do not get to find half of your expended ammunition.
• Pellets: This ammunition is destroyed when used. You do not get to find half of your expended ammunition.

Medium Damage Version

Special

• Blunderbuss: 1d8 piercing damage for scatter shot.
• Dragon Pistol: 1d6 piercing damage for scatter shot.

Check Out My Pirate Adventurers PDF

Ahoy Lubber!

With PIRATE ADVENTURERS you can provide your players with new player character options for 5^th edition to create pirate themed characters. These options can be used to play an entire campaign in a pirate setting, or just to provide a player with more pirate flavored options than provided by core 5^th edition materials.

Allow your players to dive into custom backgrounds, equipment, feats and shipboard roles created just for their swashbuckling pirates and privateers.

Product Information
This product will allow you to provide your players with additional player character options and equipment for your pirate themed world:

• 4 new variant backgrounds for the sailor background
• A boatload of pirate weapons & gear
• 3 new pirate flavored feats
• Shipboard roles for your characters to gain new abilities geared towards naval combat

These materials were designed to be used with 5^th edition rules and can be played directly into your 5^th edition favorite campaign.

Check It Out ›

Please let me know in the comments below what you think of this pirate weapons list. I’m really looking for feedback on which damage type you like better… the lower damage that closely matches crossbow damage or the medium damage that is more typical of firearms you’ll find in the DMG and the medium level damage in Pathfinder. I’ll take any other feedback on design such as damage, flavor text, etc.