Outfitting a Siege Mage.


Advice


This is for a Cohort, who will be level 5. Starting GP is 3,450 gp, and I have 2.1k saved up from my own character.

One piece of equipment he will have is a mobile ballista. This will be on a wondrous item that's basically Super Awesome Floating Disk, and there will be two Medium sized constructs reloading and aiming the thing.

The light ballista costs 166.7 gp to make.

The floating disk bit costs something like 2k to make. I think there was a GM ruled "Awesomeness Discount", because I know this thing can be made for less than the starting NPC gold at this level. It moves where I want it too.

The constructs are about 100 gp each to make

So, that's about...2,366.7 gp.

Which means I have about...2,583.3 gp that I'm willing to spend to outfit him.

Feats: Siege Engineer, Craft Wondrous, Craft Magical Arms and Armor, Craft constructs, and...one more.

Race is Gnome.

So! Other than spells, what are some interesting (non-big 6) things to get him?


Gotta have a spyglass.


Oils for specific effects on the ammo.


Big 6?

Tanglefoot bags/Soverign Glue/Thunderstone/Alchemist Flask/Web/Net tipped bolts to fire at people.

Grapplinghook bolts, and regular bolts with barbs and ropes attached that you can fire at people and proceed to drag back to you, sometimes with the people in tow!

Any amount of special magic arrows turned into ballista bolts!

Sczarni

Whats his class?


Lurk3r wrote:
Gotta have a spyglass.

My main has one. We can share!

Ossian666, siege mage wizard archetype. Read it and weep.


ossian666 wrote:
Whats his class?

Barbarian of course, what else would he be?


Battlement shield is nice, but way expensive. 16,180 for a +2 tower shield that can turn into a fortified 10x10 wall


Isn't there a portable wall in 3.5?

Sczarni

Brambleman wrote:
Isn't there a portable wall in 3.5?

There is one in Pathfinder as well.

Quote:
Siege Mage is a Wizard archetype, so no reason to get huffy, there is only one spell list

Wasn't familiar with it, so asked a question so I could attempt to be helpful and I get a snide remark that was completely unnecessary. So you know what? I think I will get huffy. For all I knew it was a different spell list. I'd rather clarify than type and be wrong and useless.


Although...come to think of it, since the siege mage is a gnome and he made the thing, he could take the Master Tinkerer racial trait to get proficiency with the thing...then use a familiar to order the firing of the ballista.

That would mean he wouldn't need to be a siege mage. But I still need Craft Wondrous, Craft Magical Arms/Armor, and Craft Construct by level 5. And none of the base familiars could be used to fire this thing where I wanted, not even Monkey.

Need telepathy for that, which I could get with a ...homunculus! which I can craft!

Thinking aloud here, but if anyone has something to add, please feel free.


ossian666 wrote:
I'd rather clarify than type and be wrong and useless.

I like to do both.


Gruuuu wrote:
ossian666 wrote:
I'd rather clarify than type and be wrong and useless.
I like to do both.

Also my preference. ;-)


I'm now probably going to be ditching Siege Mage, now that I recalled the homunculus bit.

So now I need to pick a school. Leaning towards Divination Scryer for the +init, as well as the the little sensor thing. I can imagine it could be useful for indirect firing, or scouting. Although I could just have another homunculus for scouting...hmm.

The Exchange

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You could have a permanent Anthropomorphic Animal spell cast on an animal (the spell doesn't change the animal's type), then bind the animal as a familiar. A donkey rat, goat, or pig all start at small size, so chuck in a permanent Enlarge Person once they're your familiar and you can have yourself a medium-sized lieutenant... with thumbs (and the ability to speak)!

'Elevation thirty degrees, Lieutenant Porkinstein... fire!'

Depending on how loose your DM is willing to play with the definition of 'aim and fire' in the Siege Engine Bond class feature text, you could remotely operate a battering ram - any old fallen log you find could do - find yourself a colossal giant redwood and do 10d6 damage in melee (-4 for the improvised ram penalty, of course...)!


ProfPotts wrote:

You could have a permanent Anthropomorphic Animal spell cast on an animal (the spell doesn't change the animal's type), then bind the animal as a familiar. A donkey rat, goat, or pig all start at small size, so chuck in a permanent Enlarge Person once they're your familiar and you can have yourself a medium-sized lieutenant... with thumbs (and the ability to speak)!

'Elevation thirty degrees, Lieutenant Porkinstein... fire!'

Depending on how loose your DM is willing to play with the definition of 'aim and fire' in the Siege Engine Bond class feature text, you could remotely operate a battering ram - any old fallen log you find could do - find yourself a colossal giant redwood and do 10d6 damage in melee (-4 for the improvised ram penalty, of course...)!

Improved familiar can accomplish the same thing. Many have thumbs and the elementals can have whatever body shape you want. My air elemental is a little genie like humanoid. Humanoid upper body cloud shaped lower.

Edit: of course "Lt. Porkenstein" would be awesome.


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I think I'll just stick with the homunculus, since they have thumbs etc.

I'm not sure if I want a bonded object or a familiar (and just bind the homunculus to be my familiar at level 7).

I think I'll make the homunculus porcine though, and name him Lt. Porkenstein!


Cheapy wrote:

I think I'll just stick with the homunculus, since they have thumbs etc.

I'm not sure if I want a bonded object or a familiar (and just bind the homunculus to be my familiar at level 7).

I think I'll make the homunculus porcine though, and name him Lt. Porkenstein!

to the best of my knowledge you can have a homunculus without having it as a familiar. it's still yours to command, and it's still telepathically linked to you, just doesn't get the benifits of being a familiar.

so go siege mage, and build your homunculus... then have two ultra-mobile siege weapons at your command. win win.


If he's 5th level then he just needs the spell shrink item.

I recommend the following:

An Expedition Pavilion, because going from siege to siege means living out of a tent, so you might as well to it in style.

A Fortifying Stone, a cheap way to add hit points and hardness to your siege engine.

The spell Book Ward because it makes a object immune to fire and acid for days, and burning is a common way to deal with siege engines.


i think a siege engine will weigh in at over 100 lb. So a fortifying stone is out.


Brambleman wrote:
i think a siege engine will weigh in at over 100 lb. So a fortifying stone is out.

Ballistas might fall just under...I'll ask my GM.


If a Pavilion tent weighs in at 50 pounds then a ballista is under 100.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

I removed a post. Don't be a jerk.

The Exchange

If it helps at all, the old 3.5 book 'Heroes of Battle' had a light ballista as a medium object weighing in at 400lbs, and a heavy ballista as a huge object weighing 2,000lbs. In both cases each ballista bolt weighed 6lbs each.


I ended up scrapping the idea after realizing I'd have all of +3 to hit.

But thanks!

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