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[Tidal]

He hasn't put it in yet.

[mainiac]

Why do you need to be large size to not take a penalty with a ballista?  Where's that from?

[The Fool]

Ballista are considered large weapons. To anyone who isn't large it is an oversized weapon. It's in the Players Handbook I believe. If someone wants to take the monkey grip feat they can bypass the penalty.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I won't be done the ship drawing due to midterms. I figured out how to do the floors quickly, but to do the lighting takes more time than I'd like while midterms are around the corner.

[Kogan Loloklam]

If more than a single Ballista needs to be manned, the penalty associated with such won't be a big concern. Even so, I'll eventually be large size.

I find the Ballista description suspicious given the fact that the DMG specifies it's just 1 round, and that it's treated as a large heavy crossbow.
In fact, look at the bottom left of page 103. It talks about asterisks, but I didn't see one in that area.
Page 65 in the Heroes of Battle supplement talks a bit about it too. It describes the system similar to what I got from the SRD though, and loading can be preformed all in 1 round according to it.


The justification for how they can all load, besides the Heroes of Battle book, goes into the process.

Let's say you are loading a catapult. You have a winching action, a latching action, and a putting the big rock on the bucket action,

Individual 1 starts his turn by turning the wench
Individual 2 starts his turn by grabbing the latch
Individual 3 starts his turn by grabbing a rock.

Individual 1 completes his move by getting the wench half way.
Individual 2 completes his move by applying the strain on the latch
Individual 3 completes his move by lifting the rock to waist height.

Individual 1 completes his standard by fully winching the thing down
Individual 2 completes his standard by fully connecting the latch to the proper setup
Individual 3 completes his standard by depositing the rock into the basket.

All of these actions require the winchman to be successful winching it down, but as long as the trust for success is there, it is just a matter of getting your job into the proper place on time. It's just like any other crew-served weapon.
A Youtube Example

Also, those who are interested in not having penalties from ballista, consider the ballista proficiency feat in Heroes of Battle.

[dragonshardz]

They would, of course, be made to retract. Not just a detachable mast. I see it as more versatility. It leaves our masts wide open to attack. Any Genre Savvy sailor would love to have immunity to chain shot. Besides, if we're in a battle, we will not need to be quiet. We can just use our propellers. If we need to escape, we can speed up, and raise the mast using engine power. The sails can be unfurled from the deck as they rise.

Chain shot was, IIRc, rarely used for the purpose of fouling rigging and destroying sails. Remember that the cannons of ships were frequently at the same or similar level, and having bowchasers (front-facing cannons) was a rarity. The point of chainshot is to smash REALLY BIG HOLES in the sides of a ship.

[Grek]

I will not be keeping track of how much the ship weighs and neither should you.

Basllista are Huge crossbows, and you take -2 to your attack roll for every size away from Huge you are. If you are Large or larger, you can load a Huge crossbow in one round, otherwise you need 2.

If you take the Rapid Reload feat, you can reduce this loading time by one on the following scale: 2 full rounds -> 1 full round -> move action -> free action.

If more than one person works together at firing a seige weapon, they can divide the required actions between themselves. 2 people (one to load and one to fire) can fire a ballista once per round, 3 people (two to load and one to fire) can fire a light catapult in a single round and 5 people (four to load and one to fire) can fire a heavy catapult in a single round.

[RedWarrior0]

Could a hypothetical Soulbow use hypothetical mind arrows for a ballista?

[Tidal]

I could see an epic-level Soulbow summoning multiple rapid-many-shot mind-ballistae.

[Hitty40]

Are you counting Tall as large?

[Kogan Loloklam]

You talking to me Hitty40?

I was referencing my planned 5th level
which gives me Samurai 1/Troll 4. That makes me large.

[Hitty40]

You talking to me Hitty40?

I was referencing my planned 5th level
which gives me Samurai 1/Troll 4. That makes me large.

Hopefully Grek, as I was wondering if he would count Tall size as Large, or as its' own seperate size.

[RedWarrior0]

Tall and Long are subsets of sizes for determining jumping, reach, and often correlating to carrying capacity.

[Tidal]

Oooh. I don't know if Maptools will work through my VPN- it should... or if I'll need to use it. I'm going to a Con on Friday till Sunday morning. D'ya think that their Internet will be blocked?

Regardless, I'm probably going to be in the ecchi hentai My Little Pony sections out and about for most of the afternoon, so unless it's a bit later (or earlier) than I won't be able to make it.

Actually, how long do you expect the session to go for? I might be able to make it if it doesn't go on for more than an hour or two. Or, how's Sunday? Hmmm. Doesn't really matter, I'll probably make it one way or another without forcing you all to listen to my random musings.

[Hitty40]

I hope we can do it Saturday again, same time.

[Kogan Loloklam]

Edio, I can host the server now and you can see if you can join it. I imagine I'll be doing the hosting regularly if Grek can't get his stuff working.