Ship of Fools

6th-level enchantment

Casting Time:1 action
Range:500 feet
Components:V, S, M (a relic such as a finger bone or piece of jewelry from someone who died happy)
Duration:Concentration, up to 1 hour
Classes: bard, sorcerer, warlock, wizard

You fog the minds of sailors and crew aboard a single vessel, creating confusion and delay in every task needed to keep the ship going. Shouted orders become gibberish, sailors trip, slip, and fall, riggers pulls the wrong lines or tug back and forth rather than working together, the navigator cannot read the charts, rowers pull out of sync, and so on. All ability checks made to perform sailing-related tasks, such as Strength (Athletics) checks to climb rigging, Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks to maintain balance aboard the ship, or Intelligence checks to recall lore about sailing, have disadvantage. Crew members cannot benefit from working together to gain advantage or from the Help action in combat. The ship and surrounding waters are considered lightly obscured for members of the crew.

Finally, the ship’s speed is halved and there is a 25% chance every round that the ship takes an unexpected turn 45 degrees in either direction.

The captain of the target ship (or the helmsman or pilot, if no captain is aboard) makes a Wisdom saving throw for the crew of the vessel they command. If the save fails, the entire crew is affected as above. Passengers who are not members of the crew can attempt their own saving throws, as can player characters. A successful save results in a -2 penalty on sailing-related ability checks instead of the penalties above.

If a captain has failed the save but is knocked unconscious or otherwise rendered helpless, a character that previously saved against the spell can take command of the ship and attempt a Wisdom saving throw to reduce the spell’s effect (if the original captain failed their save), or to end it entirely (if the original captain saved successfully). If the new captain fails this save, the ship of fools remains in effect as before.