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View Full Version : Precision Animated Ballista Construct -- PEACH!



Gavinfoxx
2013-02-10, 09:15 PM
Noticing there is a dearth of craftable golems that are good for the ranged artificer, and oftentimes better than the homunculus arbalester, I decided to create a CR 5 Construct that is a very high quality animated ballista. What do you guys think? Is this CR 5 appropriate?

Animated Precision Ballista, 6 hd, using a Masterwork Huge Light Crossbow as base
Challenge Rating 5 (Higher if party is starting at extreme range, which benefits this creature, or the creature has a defensible position, or if it is given various improvement options)

These mindless antipersonnel weapons were made to be the perfect long range marksmen, capable of picking off an armored general standing under partial cover of a castle's battlements, in very dim light, at 240 feet away. With their ability to see extremely far in very low light (but not total darkness), their immense range, their capability of extremely rapid, pinpoint fire, and their capability of ignoring most forms of cover, these constructs can, if not moving while firing, fire their entire 20 bolt holster in one minute, a bolt firing roughly every three seconds. They are, however, almost completely helpless in melee, and they further require a sentient operator to help target them appropriately and to be a spotter, as they are normally incapable of seeing anything intentionally hidden, and have difficulty with complex commands.


Precision Animated Ballista
Medium Construct
Hit Dice: 6d10+20 (53 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 30 ft., Swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 20 (+4 Dex +6 natural), Touch 14, Flat-footed 16
BAB/Grapple: +4/+3
Attack: Slam +3 melee (1d6-1) or Huge Mwk Light Crossbow +6 ranged (3d6+6/19-20)
Full Attack: Slam +3 melee (1d6-1) or Huge Mwk Light Crossbow +6/+6 ranged (3d6+6/19-20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities: Construct traits, field repairable, linked to gem, receive enhancement, self-loading, siege weapon, works underwater
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +6, Will -3
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 18, Con —, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1
Skills: —
Feats: Point Blank ShotB, Precise ShotB, Rapid ReloadB, Rapid ShotB, Improved Rapid ShotB*, Improved Precise ShotB, Far ShotB, Weapon Focus (Light Crossbow)B, Crossbow SniperB**, Dead EyeB***
Environment: Any Land or Water
Organization: Solitary, Squad (2-4), Platoon (4-8) or Company (9-16)
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: Special (See Text)
Alignment: Always Neutral
Advancement: Special (See Text)
Level Adjustment: —

Oversized Weapon(Ex): This creature wields it's own integrated Huge Light Crossbow without penalty.

Siege Weapon(Ex): This weapon's projectiles are such that it qualifies as a Siege Weapon for effects and spells that turn away normal arrows, but not ballista bolts. Some effects, like hurricane-force winds, may still deflect the shot, at the DM's discretion.

Self loading (Ex): Due to the Rapid Reload feat and the animated arms that the creature has, each reloading action is a free action where it loads itself, which does not provoke an attack of opportunity. Note it only has a 20-bolt quiver, generally stocked with bolts sized for a huge creature, or javelins sized for a medium or small creature, unless this quiver is (rarely) magically enchanted.

Superior Low Light Vision (Ex): Can see four times as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of low illumination.

Receive Enhancement (Ex): The crossbow built into the construct can be magically enhanced as if it were a normal masterwork weapon. The costs for enhancing the weapon with enhancement bonuses and other special qualities are independent of those associated with constructing or advancing the creature.

Field Repairable (Su): These weapons were made to be sturdy weapons of war, and the magic in them was made to be resilient, such that they are able to get working after destruction with the use of an army's logistical resources. As long as seven days have not passed since the construct has become inert from hit point damage, but is not wholly destroyed, they can be repaired with minimal fuss in one of two ways: Either a half an hour has to be taken to repair them, where a DC 18 Craft: Weaponsmithing, Craft: Bowmaking, or Craft Carpentry check has to be made AND there needs to be one casting of "Mending" and one casting of "Repair Minor Damage****" has to be cast into them, OR that same DC 18 craft check has to be made, and 50 gp worth of repair parts specific to the creature has to be expended. When 'repaired into working order', the creature starts with 1 hit point. Also, more powerful versions of either mending or the repair damage spells will work equally as well, such as Make Whole, though there is no benefit to using those. However, after the seven days, more involved and exotic means are required to get it back in working order, generally involving things similar to the requirements of creating it anew in the first place, at the DM's discretion.

Works Underwater (Ex): It was discovered, quite by accident, that this weapon works perfectly fine underwater -- it seems to be able to swim surprisingly well, if slowly compared to some creatures, and it can fire, albeit at very short range (quarter all the range increments) underwater, and it turned out to have neutral bouyancy. There has been at least one instance of these creatures being used, with specialized adamantine bolts, to sink lighter ships from underwater by a clever commander!

Linked to Gem (Su): This creature follows the exact telepathic commands of whomever is carrying a gem that each creature is attuned to (being considered 'carrying' requires intentionally holding the gem for a single minute), and the 100 gp gem is included in the cost of creating the Construct. The commands need to be formulated a certain way, with a particular structure (DC 10 Arcana or DC 10 intelligence check to determine without instruction in the 'trick' of it) and require at least a swift action to tell it to do something. The person holding and attuned to the gem can also telepathically receive small tactical updates from the creature, generally from a small list of battle-specific phrases like 'target acquired', 'target lost', 'defending area', 'weapon ineffective', 'require ammunition', 'receiving damage', and so on, in a language chosen when the creature is created. If the gem is ever separated from the construct by more than half a mile or destroyed, the connection between the construct and that gem is lost, and the construct either continues to do the last order it was told to continue doing, or does nothing other than sit there and defend itself until a new connection is forged, requiring any gem worth 100 gp, 200 gp worth of ritual items, and a 2 hour ritual requiring the casting of the Lesser Telepathic Bond**** spell as part of the ritual, which has to take place within 60 feet of the construct with line of effect to the creature. The gem's connection to the creature is also lost if the creature is destroyed for over seven days without being repaired, requiring the aforementioned ritual to be performed before it will follow commands. This linking ritual can even be done in strange situations, such as when the creature is already linked to an existing gem, or when the creature was rendered inert under 7 days ago, provided it is repaired to working order before its seven days are up. Knowing about this ritual is a DC 20 Knowledge Arcana check, and figuring it out by closely examining the runes on the object requires Read Magic and a DC 20 Spellcraft check to reverse engineer the ritual. Further, by adding an extra half-hour and 50 gp worth of ritual items per person, extra people can be 'linked' to the gem, up to 5 at a time, to act as secondary controllers should the main person be incapacitated or unavailable. They need only take the gem from the current controller to begin giving new instructions to the creatures, and are under the same restriction as far as distance and such as the main controller.

Required to create: Craft Construct, Caster level 8, Arcane Eye, Lesser Telepathic Bond****, Low Light Vision****, 12,000 gp (700 gp of this is generally the mundane masterwork huge ballista, the associated stands and wheels, and the parts that would be made into reloading arms and the worth-100-gp gem associated with it), 864 xp. Additionally, a DC 18 Craft: Weaponsmithing, Craft: Bowmaking, or Craft: Carpentry check is required in the construction of this item, even if the 700 gp of parts are already provided, as changing it into a construct always requires altering the pieces. Also see Options for extra crafting options and Advancement for advancement options.

Advancement: Per hit dice, does not get bigger, each hit dice adds 1 point of natural armor, every 4 hit dice increases dex by 1 (the first level of this is already included, note that creature gets 1.5x dex bonus to damage, from Crossbow Sniper and Dead Eye), and advances BAB as a cleric. 2000 Gp and 160 xp are required to be invested per hit dice added. Note this creature specifically does get iterative attacks at appropriate hit dice advancements, but does not get feats as it advances hit dice. Also note that it can only have at most, two hit dice less than the caster level of the person who is advancing it at any given time. Hit points gained per hit dice are always 5.5 on per HD (D10 Construct, and it already has 20 bonus hit points gained from its size increase from tiny to small to medium). Every 4 hit dice increase the challenge rating of this creature by 1.

Options: This creature can be crafted with "Exotic Materials": Dragonbone and Serrenwood composite construction of the arms of the bow, Livewood most everything else, Aurorum, Mithral, Greensteel and Truesteel metallic parts, alchemical treatments to the wood, pearlsteel treatment for the steels, putting an advanced crossbow sight on the stock of the crossbow and enchanting the creature to be able to see through the sight, etc. If this option is chosen, give it +10 more hit points, give all of its attacks the Ghost Touch Property (so this aspect, like the construct itself, will function in an antimagic field), increase the critical threat range of the bolt attack to 18-20 instead of 19-20, give it fast healing 1, gives it 1 higher point of natural armor, gives it damage reduction 2/adamantine, makes the slam attack also count as masterwork (increasing it's chance to hit by +1), increase the range increment of the bolt attack to 140 feet, add one extra point of piercing damage to it's bolt attacks, and allow it to treat enemies as if they were two range increments closer for its bolt attack. Then add +3000 gp and +216 xp to the base cost of the creature for all the strange materials and difficulty working with them, and add Repair Critical Damage*** to the spells needed in the crafting of it, and the craft DC needed to create the non masterwork component increases to 20 and the craft DC for the masterwork component increases to 25. Generally, these "Fancy" versions were almost always enchanted, and generally built "extra accurate and tough" with a few more hit dice added, and were generally at least as +1 Bane weapons, usually bane against whatever horde the purchaser was fighting -- usually goblinoid, orc, or human. Occasionally, some bold military commanders commissioned that the crossbow part was actually given intelligence, and the control gem placed as part of the crossbow, thus giving these creatures true sentient-level decision making capabilities like any other soldier, and often enabling them to actually have a chance to spot hiding and sneaking enemies, as it both bypasses the restriction on sight range of normal sentient magic items (though Darkvision and similar still has the limited range), and can popularly gain access to abilities like Spot, Listen, a Wisdom Score, and Faerie Fire. Various magic and mundane enhancements impact the challenge rating of the creature, at the DM's discretion. Extremely rarely, the hopper is given enchantments normally meant for arrow quivers of one sort or another, albeit modified (increase the base cost for typically arrow-only magical quivers, like the endless 'Quiver of Plenty'******, by half again for this modification) for the appropriate size bolts.

Treasure: This creature generally does not have treasure as such, but enterprising individuals might be able to salvage the gem and the masterwork (and often magical) Huge Light Crossbow. The 'exotic materials' Masterwork Huge Light Crossbow, at a minimum, counts as being made of Serrenwood, and is usually worth at least 1000 gp, and has a nonmagical version of the Ghost Touch property. Additionally, if not utterly destroyed, it is generally possible to salvage ~200 gp worth of exotic materials from the other parts of this version of the creature. However, the wisest form of treasure taken from these sorts of creatures is generally 'the creature itself', as fully working examples of this creature often can go for at least the gp price of creating the creature and its crossbow. This creature generally has a quiver which carries 20 bolts sized for a Huge Crossbow, or normal Javelins, or Javelins sized for a small character--it works equally well with any of those ammunition loads. Sometimes it is supplied with more exotic versions of these bolts, for whatever reason might be considered necessary. These forms of ammunition have to be refilled in its quiver for it to continue firing, but if given specific enough instructions, the creatures are capable of refilling their own quivers with nearby, easily reachable bolts, and more bolts might be nearby to wherever these creatures are found.

*From Complete Warrior
**From Player's Handbook II
***From Dragon Handbook Volume 1
****From Spell Compendium
*****From Magic Item Compendium
******From Dragon Magazine #328

FreakyCheeseMan
2013-02-10, 09:21 PM
Nordom's gonna be maaaaad.

Seriously, though, I like it. Can't really speak to the balance, but I'd probably build a couple of these if I were an artificer. They could be cool enemies, for the right type of villainous lair, too.

TuggyNE
2013-02-11, 01:57 AM
Full attack should be +8/+8, I think.

Other than that, seems good. :smallsmile:

Gavinfoxx
2013-02-12, 07:37 PM
Full attack should be +8/+8, I think.

Other than that, seems good. :smallsmile:

(Breakdown of attack bonus: +1 Masterwork, +4 Dex, +1 Weapon Focus, +4 BAB (as Cleric))

Did I mess anything up??

TuggyNE
2013-02-13, 12:21 AM
(Breakdown of attack bonus: +1 Masterwork, +4 Dex, +1 Weapon Focus, +4 BAB (as Cleric))

Did I mess anything up??

Rapid Shot sticks -2 on all attacks.

Gavinfoxx
2013-02-15, 03:47 PM
Rapid Shot sticks -2 on all attacks.

Improved Rapid Shot says hi.

TuggyNE
2013-02-15, 08:15 PM
Improved Rapid Shot says hi.

Ahh, fair enough, I didn't see that for some reason. :smallredface:

DORNWARAXE
2013-02-16, 12:41 PM
Last year I used a Siege Mage with several animated siege engines as his traveling assault unit.
It was great, they didn't know what hit them until it was to late.

Gavinfoxx
2013-03-26, 11:30 PM
Would Ranged Weapon Mastery Piercing be too much?

Debihuman
2013-03-27, 01:19 AM
Feats: Does not gain feats from hit dice. Instead, every version of this creature has the following feats and only the following feats, even if they do not meet the prerequisites for them: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Reload, Rapid Shot, Improved Rapid Shot*, Improved Precise Shot, Far Shot, Weapon Focus: Light Crossbow, Crossbow Sniper**, Dead Eye***

Does it have all of these feats? With an Int -all of its feats would be bonus feats.

It's a lot of feats for 6 HD.

Wisdom is too low. Should be 14 if it uses any tactics at all. And a -1 Wisdom means its Will save is -3.

This is what it looks like in standard format

Animated Precision Ballista Golem
Medium Construct
Hit Dice: 6d10+20 (53 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 30 ft., Swim 30 ft.
Armor Class: 20 (+4 Dex +6 natural), Touch 14, Flat-footed 16
BAB/Grapple: +4/+3
Attack: Slam +3 melee (1d6-1) or Huge Mwk Light Crossbow +6 ranged (3d6+6/19-20)
Full Attack: Slam +3 melee (1d6-1) or Huge Mwk Light Crossbow +6/+6 ranged (3d6+6/19-20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities: Construct traits, field repairable, linked to gem, receive enhancement, self-loading, siege weapon, works underwater
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +6, Will -3
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 18, Con —, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1
Skills: —
Feats: Point Blank ShotB, Precise ShotB, Rapid ReloadB, Rapid ShotB, Improved Rapid ShotB*, Improved Precise ShotB, Far ShotB, Weapon Focus (Light Crossbow)B, Crossbow SniperB**, Dead EyeB***
Environment: Any Land or Water
Organization: Solitary, Squad (2-4), Platoon (4-8) or Company (9-16)
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: Special (See Text)
Alignment: Always Neutral
Advancement: Special (See Text)
Level Adjustment: —


Best way to defeat this: set up a dummy target and let it attack that until it runs out of ammo. Mirror image is perfect for this. It's probably fooled by silent image too.

Debby

[Changelog: corrected attack line to include -4 penalty to attack since it is using an oversized weapon (-2 per size increment) and updated organizaiton line.]

Gavinfoxx
2013-03-27, 03:13 AM
It's a nonsentient, mindless construct. It does not use any tactics at all, instead following orders blindly... If you want to give it a Wisdom score, make it a sentient magic item...

"Occasionally, some bold military commanders commissioned that the crossbow part was actually given intelligence, and the control gem placed as part of the crossbow, thus giving these creatures true sentient-level decision making capabilities like any other soldier, and often enabling them to actually have a chance to spot hiding and sneaking enemies, as it both bypasses the restriction on sight range of normal sentient magic items, and can popularly gain access to abilities like Spot, Listen, a Wisdom Score, and Faerie Fire."

That would replace the Wisdom score with one from this list:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/intelligentItems.htm

It has exceptionally low Wisdom because it requires someone to be actively directing it via the control gem... it is NOT a guard; it's a precision ballista, intended to be used in a military context, that still needs someone there to direct and target it.

I suppose I can clarify that even if it is sentient, the bonus feats don't change. And yes, all the feats are bonus feats or racial or whatever. You HAVE to do that many feats if you want to get respectable damage without class features, to actually be able to be a credible threat!

Debihuman
2013-03-27, 06:15 AM
It's a nonsentient, mindless construct. It does not use any tactics at all, instead following orders blindly

Then expect clever PCs to outsmart its orders. When you design a creature with a glass jaw, expect the PCs to take advantage of it. When you start throwing a lot of damage at a party because that's the only capability a creature has, then I start to question the design. I'm not overly fond of giving it Huge weapons but one thing you did forget was that an oversized weapon incurs a penalty.

"A creature can’t make optimum use of a weapon that isn’t properly sized for it. A cumulative -2 penalty applies on attack rolls for each size category of difference between the size of its intended wielder and the size of its actual wielder." A Medium creature wielding a Huge weapon takes -4 penalty to hit.

It needs the Oversized Weapon special ability otherwise. See Titan for wording.


It has exceptionally low Wisdom because it requires someone to be actively directing it via the control gem... it is NOT a guard; it's a precision ballista, intended to be used in a military context, that still needs someone there to direct and target it.

Actually what you said was this: "This creature follows the telepathic commands of whomever is carrying a gem that each creature is attuned to (being considered 'carrying' requires intentionally holding the gem for a single minute), and the 100 gp gem is included in the cost of creating the Construct. The commands need to be formulated a certain way, and require at least a swift action to tell it to do something."

So telling it to "guard" is possible, not optimal, but possible. Of course, the party could target the guy with the gem rather than PABC. The problem will be getting to him before PABC can attack. Sleep works and he can't give orders while he's sleeping and that's when someone would take the gem.



So if you find the gem, you can command it yourself. That's a simple locate object spell since the gem carrier has to be within 1/2 mile of the construct.

I like that it takes telepathic commands. The problem is that the one in charge isn't necessarily able to discern the party's tactics as the PABC can't relay information back.


I suppose I can clarify that even if it is sentient, the bonus feats don't change.

That's what I thought. I just put a superscript B in the feats to note them.


You HAVE to do that many feats if you want to get respectable damage without class features, to actually be able to be a credible threat!

It wouldn't have class features any way since it doesn't have a class. I actually like all the bonus feats but I'm not sure that's enough to make it a "credible" threat. It's capable of dishing out a lot of damage, but it doesn't have the defense to back it up.

As long as the party can use guerrilla tactics and keep out of range, they have the advantage. The big thing will be keeping out of range of the deadly bolts. This means setting it up with dummy targets. Will it differentiate a scarecrow from a living target or a mirror image? Probably not.

At worst you go for brute force: take a large rock and fly above it and drop. It's not elegant but it will do in a pinch.

Boring math stuff here:
A 100 pound rock dropped from 480 feet causes 16d6 points of damage when it lands (Average damage 56 points). It takes 6 rounds to fly that high up, another minute to fly 400 feet to where the PABC is. Once the rock is dropped, it's a numbers game. Str 13 can carry a 100-lb, rock as a Medium load. If it hits, it's good night.

The problem that I see is that it's a threat only because it can so much damage. Siege weapons normally take out big targets, throwing boulders rather than bolts. At 5th level, the party should have the smarts to out wit it. If not, they're likely to take a lot of damage.

Debby

anddrevew
2013-03-27, 12:18 PM
Its really good and an very interesting.I like it just due to its copyright and property laws infringement.

Gavinfoxx
2013-03-27, 02:44 PM
Then expect clever PCs to outsmart its orders. When you design a creature with a glass jaw, expect the PCs to take advantage of it. When you start throwing a lot of damage at a party because that's the only capability a creature has, then I start to question the design. I'm not overly fond of giving it Huge weapons but one thing you did forget was that an oversized weapon incurs a penalty.

Well, yes. It's not meant to be used alone. It's meant to be part of an army. Or, alternatively, for the player characters to make, themselves! It is supposed to have an officer, or a player character controlling it. If it is 'alone', something went very, very wrong at the army. Hence the Linked to Gem bit. Make sense? And this creature is intended to not have the oversized weapons penalty. If you want to make it a credible threat on it's own, you really need to:

1.) Maybe advance the HD, as mentioned
2.) Make the Exotic Materials bit happen
3.) Make the weapon magical, as mentioned
4.) Make the weapon Sentient, putting the high stat into wisdom, and the benefits to help it notice things, as mentioned
5.) Give it an infinite quiver, as mentioned

Also, the one in charge is supposed to generally be very, very, very near the ballista. Notice the range on the gem thing? Any encounter will generally have an officer / technician / guard with them. These are stupid, mindless drones... unless you make them smart people.

Gavinfoxx
2013-03-27, 02:55 PM
Going to be adding some of your adjustments...

Debihuman
2013-03-27, 05:30 PM
Then the CR is way off since you need to include the CR of the person controlling it too in the encounter. That's why there's an organization line on the Stat block.

Debby.

Gavinfoxx
2013-03-28, 01:47 AM
But the CR of the encounter is always different than the CR of a creature... if that encounter has that creature and other credible therats in the encounter!

darklink_shadow
2013-03-28, 05:12 AM
Aye, creature Cr and encounter Cr are different. It looks fine, but very very abusable.

I wouldn't let my players build them, but I might let them salvage one of they didn't kill the 4 I threw at them, with other golems defending them.

If they rolled well, I'd let them rebuild one, amd have a defective gem that let anyone control the golem, no ritual needed.

Npcs don't abuse things any more than the dm let's them, so players need to be whacked or given a more tame version.

Debihuman
2013-03-28, 07:02 AM
But the CR of the encounter is always different than the CR of a creature... if that encounter has that creature and other credible threats in the encounter!

I guess I was thinking the gem carrier acted like a summoned creature and would be included in PABC's construction but that probably shouldn't be the case.

In going with a military theme, what do you think of this organization?

Organization: Solitary, Squad (2-4), Platoon (4-8) or Company (9-16)

Debby

darklink_shadow
2013-03-28, 07:11 AM
Your organization is no good.


Solitary is never.

His organization would always include others, meaning it needs a list of the others in his company.

Probably more like...

1 with 1 level 2 human expert.
2 with 2 level 2 experts and a .... tank guy


Etc.

Debihuman
2013-03-28, 07:29 AM
Actually, it can be solitary PABC would be one that isn't controlled. That's a perfectly valid scenario. The others would include various military positions. Nonetheless, these can follow their last orders without the necessity of their gem carrier (or the gem carrier could simply be a non-combatant).

If you prefer you could use this:

Organization: Solitary (or with noncombatant gem carrier), Squad (2-4 with noncombatant gem carriers and four 1st level warriors), Platoon (4-8 with noncombatant gem carriers and eight 3rd level fighters) or Company (9-16 with noncombatant gem carriers, sixteen 5th level fighters and one 8th level fighter)

Debby

Gavinfoxx
2014-04-05, 09:44 PM
So, has anyone used these in a game? How did it go?