I was just wondering, could it be practical? Is it possible to carry a siege weapon around as your main mode of attack?
Horse / yak draw wagon with the siege weapon mounted to it. Either leadership or hired minions to aid with reloading.
Alternatively, with the assistance of a necromancer you could have an undead siege team to assist with transport and reloading.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Alternatively, with the assistance of a necromancer you could have an undead siege team to assist with transport and reloading.
That is the most metal thing I've ever heard
What material is allowed? Core only, Pathfinder only, 3pp, 3.5?
Is it RAW only or are slight house rules allowed (such as Rapid Reload reducing reload time by a round or something?)
What levels are we talking about? At low levels, damage dice (the only boon of siege weapons) are more important than at higher levels.
And most importantly: What campaign type? In a campaign with a lot of open battles where you are prepared for the combat, it will be far more useful than in a dungeon crawl.
I can see it being usable at low levels, in a campaign focusing on open areas and that's kind of low-magic and so on, if you DO NOT rely completely on it. For a switch hitter it might work but not EVERY turn.
Seeing the Ultimate Combat rules for firearms, I'm more confused than before though... What do they mean with a ballista being "large"? It's described in core as a "huge heavy crossbow, because of this -4 on attacks". If it's now considered large, does that override it to a -2? That's a HUGE power up. And in that case, is the heavy ballista -4? Or is the light ballista still -4 and the heavy -6?
Anyway, 3d8 damage is fat for ranged damage at low levels. Low rate of attacks is a severe issue - you need one or two reloaders and a few ballista mounted on a wagon.
EDIT: All in all, I don't think siege weapons as main mode of attack is very useful at all. You'd be better of with a character that has siege engine as a side hobby, it'll still be a very useful skill in some circumstances but when you're ambushed by orcs, a trebuchet isn't very useful.
Thanks :)
Now I am going to pen together the Siege Necromancer...
Ballista + "true strike"...
Seige Mage, and the Arcane Cannon spell.
Depends on what level you're playing at. If you start at 5+, yes, it is insanely easy to play the concept. Just take Craft Construct and make a living siege engine, or make your own crew. Wizards can grab Craft Construct at level 5 with their bonus feats.
Below that? I hope you define Crossbows as siege weapons, otherwise you're out of luck for the most part.
If you have a Ranger and Wizard in the Party, cast Floating Disk, have the ranger hop on, and have the ranger just make full attacks while the Wizard steers him around on the disk. It's a low-level, man-powered siege engine.
I did this in a game once, but my DM also let me construct a custom shoulder mounted rocket launcher that could also be modified into a mortar launcher. I like the idea of a team hauling around a siege weapon, but it's not something that would of flown in the games i've played in.
Ultimately I think it comes down to your GM working with your concept. RAW, it sounds easy, but expensive.
The restrictions on how often this would be useful really relegates it to "cool sidekick Npc" status in my eyes rather then an idea for a PC.