Any official rules for ballistas and catapults?

[JoelF]

True, but what about a catapult?

I know you can just fudge it and determine what you want it to be mid-game, but it would be nice to have it as part of the stats. Siege engines are worth targeting with area of effect spells, etc in ways that weapons aren't.

 

[FrostedMini1337]

Have you checked Arms and Equipment? It gives rules for ships and whatnot and may have this stuff in it too.

The issue is that they are so large that you would do damage to sections like ships (if you say they are large as they are in the dmg, we houserules them to be larger) because you can destroy part of it, and make it non-working, but it could be relatively minor amount of work to fix it.

 

[frankthedm]

Can you sneak attack with a ballista?

By the Raw yes. Though I would hope most DMs would say "no" due to how unwieldy the ballista is.

I'd rather make ballista and catapults use ranged touch attacks.

I'm leery of having the attack ignore all physical armor. The 8 points of “armor punch” I feel represents the “STR” a projectile of that potency would have without completely negating the chance of enough armor stopping the bolt.

 

[Ranger REG]

I'm leery of having the attack ignore all physical armor.

Well, I dunno. We could experiment. You wear the armor and I'll set up the ballista.

 

[frankthedm]

Well, I dunno. We could experiment. You wear the armor and I'll set up the ballista.

Main reason why i house ruled the armor ignore is 8 points, unenchanted full plate is tin foil to the balilsta bolt.

Remember a huge giant could pick up said balista and use as a his heavy crossbow, which it is. If the ballista gets through all armor, that is a bit overboard. Full plate +4, tower sheild +3 and a Amulet of natural armor +3 might be enough to slow the bolt down a bit.

The damage is a bit heavy, but so is the opportunity cost in losing a full round to reload.

house rules...
Medium Heavy Crossbow 1d8+2, 2 point armor punch.
Large Heavy Crossbow 2d6+4, 4 point armor punch.
Huge Heavy Crossbow 3d6+8, 8 point armor punch.

 

[Goldmoon]

I steal his pants!

I'm glad someone got it.