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Hi All,
So for a home pirate campaign I will be in, I decided to man the cannons of our ship as a Siege Mage. Siege mage gives up alot of stuff for the ability to bond with cannons, but I am not sure how it would work in combat with the currently worded rules. The siege engine page can be found here:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/combat/siegeengines.html
So every siege engine has a crew, aim, and load sections to it. So lets take the fiends mouth cannon as an example. It has 3 Crew, a 3 load speed, and 1 aim action.
Would the 3 Full Round load actions be split up amongst the crew? or does it take the entirety of the crew 3 full rounds to load, 1 full round to aim, and then I assume a standard action to fire.
Can I use more crew to make this process faster?
Does the cannon count as a firearm with regards to feats, like vital strike, rapid reload, and other stuff?
Any help would be helpful, thanks!
"The rest of the crew members are required to spend actions and make checks in order for a siege engine to function"
The Load and Aim actions can be split amongst the crew. Aim actions only have to be done when picking a new target (or area) to attack.
More crew won't increase the load and aim actions unless specifically stated in the siege engine's description.
"Proficiency: Siege engines are exotic weapons." & "A creature that is proficient in firearms is also proficient in siege firearms" indicate that yes, siege firarms count as firearms
and
"Siege engines do not gain the benefit of critical feats the crew or the crew leader may have" would indicate that other all feats do apply to siege engines.
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OK Cool, thanks for the reply.
I now have some other questions:
A Large creature counts as 4 medium humanoids for purposes of handling Siege Engines. Could a Large creature control the siege engine by himself, and do the 3 rounds of loading and 1 round of aiming in a single round, since he counts as 4 equivalent medium creatures?
Siege mage eventually gains the ability to load, aim, and fire a siege engine by themselves through a magical bond.:
At 1st level, a siege mage can bond with a single siege engine within 30 feet and line of sight as a standard action. He can utilize the power of this link to aim and fire the siege engine remotely (as long as he's within 30 feet), though it still requires a crew to reload the siege engine. At 10th level, he can reload, aim, and fire the siege engine purely by the power of this link, and no longer needs a crew to control the siege engine. It still takes the normal required amount of time and actions to control a siege engine in this manner. This ability replaces arcane bond. The siege mage can end this bond with a free action. A siege mage can bond with a siege engine in this manner a number of times per day equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) but can only be bonded with one siege engine at a time.
If I drink an enlarge person potion, would I be able to do the aiming and loading of the siege engine as a large creature, only taking 1 round to do so?
Thanks
Assuming you're using the Fiend's Mouth Cannon, 3 full-round actions to load, 1 more to aim, and (presumably) a standard action to fire.
After being enlarged, you would count as 4 crew (of the 3 required). It would still take the same number and type of actions to load, aim, and fire the siege engine. However, since you count as the entire crew, you would be able to move it by yourself with a move action rather than all three crew members taking a move action.
Additionally, consider the following:
"Direct-Fire Ranged Siege Engines: Direct-fire weapons launch their projectiles on a relatively flat trajectory, allowing them to more easily target creatures or pummel barriers directly in front of them.
A direct-fire weapon uses a normal attack roll, with the normal penalty for nonproficient use. In addition, a direct-fire weapon takes a –2 attack roll penalty per size category that the weapon is larger than the creature aiming it. Creatures that have ranks in Knowledge (engineering) or use a targeting platform (see below) are not adversely affected by their size when firing direct-fire ranged siege engines.
Sheer manpower can also reduce the penalties for size. Increasing the crew of these weapons by 1 or more can reduce the attack roll penalty for creature size: as long as an extra crew member is no smaller than three size categories smaller than the direct-fire weapon, it can reduce the penalty due to the aiming creature's size by 2. For example, a Huge ballista fired by a Medium creature that is part of a crew of two (the creature aiming the ballista and someone to help position it) takes only a –2 penalty on attack rolls."
As an enlarged person, you count as 1 size category smaller than the cannon (-2 size penalty to the attack), but you also count as 1 extra crew member (count as 4 crew for the 3 required) which negates the -2 size penalty!