- Oct 10, 2009 We came across an old ballista; I wanted to mount it to our wagon as an awesome mobile firebase. Then I looked up the rules governing siege weapons (DMG pg 255). Ballista take 3 actions to fire and does 3d10 damage if it hits. I feel this is ridiculously low for something you have to roll around on a cart, probably with a draft horse and 1 or 2.
- Animated Ballista is a CR 2, Unaligned construct in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition (D&D 5e).
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Cost: 1000 gp Like the crossbow, except bigger and mounted on a stand. Before it can be fired, it must be loaded and aimed. It takes one action to load the weapon, one action to aim it, and one action to fire it.
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- 1Description
| Ballista Bolt | |
|---|---|
| Is fired out of the Balista. | |
| Weapon | |
| Type | Ammo |
| Ammo for | |
| Ammo used | 1 |
| Ranged damage | 350-750 |
| Item | |
| Weight | 0,4 - 20 |
| Stack size | 50 |
| Added in | v1.0 |
Spawn Command | |
| Crafting | |
| Skill Tree | Artillery |
| Prerequisites | |
| Crafted in | |
| Ingredients | |
Resources breakdown 16 × Metal | |
Ballista Bolt is one of the types of Ammunition or Ammo used with Weapons in ATLAS. The Ballista Bolt is a craftable item.
Weapons are used to deal damage to Creatures and, in some instances, other players or other Structure. Different weapons have different attack values, and are therefore more or less effective.
You need to unlock via the Artillery discipline skill tree. Unlock the Skill
Siege Studies
Structure Damage[edit | edit source]
A direct hit will do the following damage:
- 750 Damage to Wood Structures
- 25 Damage to Stone Structures
- 22,500 Damage to the eye weak-spot on a Cyclops
- 750 Damage body hit on Cyclops
- 750 Damage to Whales (ca 30 hits to kill a Whale)
Spawn command: cheat gfi ballistaarrow 1 1 0
3.5e Ballista
Dnd 5e Siege Weapons
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Retrieved from 'https://atlas.gamepedia.com/Ballista_Bolt?oldid=44107'
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Seeing as my next campaign is going to focus more on surface world skirmishes than dungeons, I want to include things like ballistas in the tactical mix. The 5e DMG provides rules for them, but they are honestly so perfunctory they need to be expanded on for actual play.
Here's my version of a D&D relevant ballista. Design goals:
- Not meant to be super realistic
- Can be operated by one character with Martial Ranged Weapon proficiency
- Ballistas are basically intended to be used by NPC forces, but a PC can take control of one and use it against their enemies.
- Semi-portable, but really meant to be left static
- I intend to eventually write up a Siege Weapon Master feat of some sort that makes ballistas and mangonel scale up with the levels. I don't expect any players to take it, but then I can slap it onto NPCs.
Tell me what you think?
Weapon: Ballista
Martial Ranged Weapon
Cost: 200gp, damage: 3d10 piercing, weight: 300 lb., range: 120/480
Heavy, Loading, Two-Handed
A ballista is not carried like a normal weapon. Instead, it is treated as a large object on the battlefield. It comes with wheels to facilitate relocation, but it is still cumbersome. A character using a ballista can move it when they move, but their speed is halved. A ballista cannot be fired during any round it was moved.
To use an unattended ballista, a character must move into its space, which counts as difficult terrain and provides half cover. He may immediately spend an action to fire. If an enemy moves into the ballista’s space as well, attacks made with the ballista have disadvantage. An enemy can attempt to take control of the ballista by spending an action to make a contested Strength (Athletics) check against the current user’s Strength (Athletics).
Firing the ballista follows all the usual rules of a two-handed ranged weapon with the Loading property, except that enemies merely standing next to the ballista's space do not impose disadvantage on attack rolls.
A ballista bolt can hit multiple targets that are lined up in a row, like a line spell. Each target requires an individual attack roll. Such an attack will hit the shooter’s allies if they are in the line. Alternatively, the shooter can arc the bolt to hit only a single target.
Here's my version of a D&D relevant ballista. Design goals:
- Not meant to be super realistic
- Can be operated by one character with Martial Ranged Weapon proficiency
- Ballistas are basically intended to be used by NPC forces, but a PC can take control of one and use it against their enemies.
- Semi-portable, but really meant to be left static
- I intend to eventually write up a Siege Weapon Master feat of some sort that makes ballistas and mangonel scale up with the levels. I don't expect any players to take it, but then I can slap it onto NPCs.
Tell me what you think?
Weapon: Ballista
Martial Ranged Weapon
Cost: 200gp, damage: 3d10 piercing, weight: 300 lb., range: 120/480
Heavy, Loading, Two-Handed
A ballista is not carried like a normal weapon. Instead, it is treated as a large object on the battlefield. It comes with wheels to facilitate relocation, but it is still cumbersome. A character using a ballista can move it when they move, but their speed is halved. A ballista cannot be fired during any round it was moved.
To use an unattended ballista, a character must move into its space, which counts as difficult terrain and provides half cover. He may immediately spend an action to fire. If an enemy moves into the ballista’s space as well, attacks made with the ballista have disadvantage. An enemy can attempt to take control of the ballista by spending an action to make a contested Strength (Athletics) check against the current user’s Strength (Athletics).
Firing the ballista follows all the usual rules of a two-handed ranged weapon with the Loading property, except that enemies merely standing next to the ballista's space do not impose disadvantage on attack rolls.
A ballista bolt can hit multiple targets that are lined up in a row, like a line spell. Each target requires an individual attack roll. Such an attack will hit the shooter’s allies if they are in the line. Alternatively, the shooter can arc the bolt to hit only a single target.