D&D 4E Cannons in 4e?

From my thread in 4th ed forum, just tweak for cannons (damage as per catpaults, usually need line of effect but not always due to arc of fire)

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan...teaching-d-d-4th-edition-bunch-grognards.html


Seige weapons are are hellishly nasty, but only the light ballista, in real life, could target a single guy! unrealistic to suggest they could do otherwise, short of magic, like the "Helmseeker" projectiles in Spelljammer.

You can't use At-Wills or Dailys with them, and logic dictates high damage expression table, but slow to re-load. So it's balanced.

Range would normally be beyond a typical encounter's size, practically oh up to 100 squares! 200 to 400 yards was their typical ranges.
Catapults though, can't fire close up due to their arc of fire, so no shots closer than 10 squares, to allow them to be used on encounters.

make them slow to recharge so:

light ballista crew 2, :3:, Normal Damage Expression High table
medium ballista crew3 :4: Limited Damage Expression Low table, 2 targets in burst 2
heavy ballista :5: Limited Damage Expression Medium Table, 4 targets in burst 3Always crit on unanttended objects

this shows the ballista penetrating multiple attackers, as they did in RL, and shear through objects, even light stone.
Got a pic in one of my books from Pompei where a siege left bloody big holes, like heavy machine gun bullets, in the town's stone wall, from an early seige
An archeaological dig in England found a ballista bolt had went over 200 yards punched through a pallisade log and stuck in the spine of a defender...ick!

light catapult, crew3, :4: Limited Damage Expression Low table, burst 2
medium catapult, crew 4, :5: Limited Damage Expression Medium Table, burst 3
heavy catapult (the big trebuchets) crew 6, :6: Limited Damage Expression, high table, burst 5
Always crit on an unattended object

flaming oil or single stones from such bounce, burst on impact etc and take out an area of effect.

FYI, a cannon in iirc the US Revolutionary War?? took out 47 folk in 1 hit...cannons though on most battlefields were usually lighter 6 to 18 pounders (weight of shell), not the huge set pieces on ships and forts.
trebuchets could throw up to 300lb weight rocks to near 400 yards so they are just as damn nasty to be hit by, lol
such projectiles simply obliterate walls, gates etc, unless massively reinforced.


loss of EACH crew = have to re-roll for recharge and take worst roll per man lost.
losing crew slows attacks down, forcing a re-roll is easier to work out than say, worsening it by 1 on the dice, and the heavy catapult is slowest you can get anyway at :6:, hence, forcing a re-roll and taking the worst, is easier.

the attack roll:
the light ballista alone can fire against living targets (short of say, a Gargantuan entity that's slow!)
the light ballista allows a ranged basic attack versus REFLEX against any visible enemy with line of sight to
with no proficiency bonus, due to fact you can't really "wield" one due to size etc...but on the other hand, it punches clean through armour like a tin can so hits vs Reflex.

however normal weapon feats, weapon focus etc, for ballistae and catapults, would give usual to hit/damage bonuses. Such professional folk would be in high demand in armies, ships, Spelljammers etc

In RL, the light ballistae was often used to snipe and kill enemy officers, or keep firing through doorways etc

Medium and Heavy Ballistae allow a ranged basic attack against creatures in a specific burst area, that they have line of sight to, the attack is against Reflex.

Catapults attack any square within range even those without line of sight or straight line of effect to as they can lob over walls (but that's a DM call).
Catapults though cannot fire closer than 10 squares due to their arcing trajectories.
Catapults' firing captain makes an attack vs every creature within line of effect of burst against Reflex

Catapults aren't as accurate as ballistae, they must be "sighted in" the weapon crew must make a simple complexity skill challenge to hit the right square for the first time. Each failure = off by 1 square. After this initial try, all shots will land on that square.
Alternatively, for simplicity, the catapult's firing captain must make an attack vs AC of 10+ Captain's level, each point of miss = 1 square off. Again, after first shot, any shot at that particular square will be a hit.

so this generally means that catapult's first shot will often miss, as you'd expect. The burst effect still may hit the victim though.

Catapults set up some time beforehand, to defend say, a castle, a bridge etc, will be sighted in beforehand and so WON'T miss, short of an accident.

Crews will often use the Ready action to wait until an enemy reaches a square they have previously sighted in on. On a castle with well drilled troops, they'd be sighted in on every damn square from long practice, on a battlefield etc it's more likely markers would be left, like a pile of stones painted white on the side only the weapon crew can see.
If you combine that with some nasty type of terrain like Blood Rock or even just hindering terrain so they cna't get way quickly, yikes!

for further variation, catapults could throw the equivalent of "grape shot", rather than one or a few larger rocks. That is, to hurl lots of smaller stones the size of half-bricks, to hit more victims, as anti-personnel weapons.
these would increase the burst size 1 step, but reduce the damage down 1 step as well.

In reality, say on the Fields of Pelenor in the Lord of the Rings cycle, firing ruddy great chunks of entire buildings against orc infantry is stupid! :confused:
You can only kill something ONCE (ahem, undeath excepted hehe), so only enough damage to kill or maim one orc, is all ye need,!
It's much better to splatter 100 orcs with 500 half-bricks, than turn 20 to mush with 15' foot of masonry, lol.
same principle is why cluster bombs and napalm are used vs infantry, not ruddy great bunker busters.

so, in the end, damage is based on level, and affects an area :)

The siege weapons should be treated like creatures if they are attacked, the bigger ones would have damage resistance versus AC attacks or lot sof hit points at yer prefference. Area attacks would be more useful. So I'd go DR 5vs AC , and vulnerability 5 vs Fire (dry wood, rope that can easily catch fire, and God help you if you are near a ballistae or mangonel if the rope snaps! Reflex attack or High damage! in burst 1 around wepaon)

The Crew would be minions, except the "weapon captain", who'd always be an artillerist, a trained soldier etc and thus harder to take out. Probably a "Leader" type. With maybe powers like "Quick Load!", encounter, re-roll recharge dice of their weapon.

Fire, hornets nests and other such nasty weapons would leave a zone of fire, poison or other damage until end of the Next round (or longer), equal to the original burst size. Doing 5 hp damage per tier of of the weapon crew to anyone who enters the zone.

Another nasty load is caltrops. while doing no damage to anyone except the unlucky beggar who gets hit in the initial square (usual catapult damage and turned into a human cactus, lol!), these are bags of many hundreds of caltrops, they burst over the area same as typical catapult of it's type does, leaving caltrops that last until end of the encounter (and longer!)

Caltrop damage I leave up to you and depending on which rule you like for them.
personally I like an attack versus Reflex, they can't kill minions, 1 hp otherwise, Slow the victim until they are healed.

I love Spelljammer, I think about such stuff a lot ;)
 

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Oh, sorry. That's the lava rules. I'm unaware of any cannon rules.

The lava rules are in Draconomicon: Chromatic dragons.

You take ongoing 20d6 fire damage for every round you remain in the magma. Characters who extract themselves from the fiery mess take 30 ongoing fire damage and are slowed (save ends both)

You also take appropriate falling damage if you fell into it- as if you'd fallen from a height onto a solid surface.

There's also rules for being damaged by just being near it- 5 fire damage per round, lose one healing surge per minute.

If you're really close (but not actually in it) you have to make a saving throw each round or lose one healing surge- as well as the normal 5 fire damage per round.
 
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The 4e Freeport Companion from Expeditious Retreat has a section on firearms, including the cannon-like "Titan swivel gun." The rules seem to involve straight-up reload times and a misfire table.

I like the idea of using recharge dice to keep track of reloading times, like others have described. Say, a 6 on a d6 equals a reload. A proper crew can roll recharge dice individually, effectively making reloading faster.
 


It helps in settings where a creature is very tough, and fire-resistant, to have something that isn't simply: "The red dragon with Fire Resist 30 dies when pushed into lava, no save" or similar.
 

Hate to repeat myself, but:

In 4E ranged strikers are cannons.

If you want to model a complex mechanical device in 4E, you should always start by searching for powers that can create a similar effect.

4E Magic > Cannon Balls
 

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