Firedrake (3.5e Equipment)

The firedrake is a special type of cannon (often stylized into the form of a fire-breathing dragon) which launches gouts of alchemist fire instead of cannonballs. Its range is fairly short, but it can attack over an area and ignite flammable objects, vehicles, and people. Its useful on wooden objects, but less so on metal. The firedrake comes equipped with wheels allowing it to be pushed around at 10 ft as a move action. It fills the space of a Large creature (10 x 10).

A firedrake has three firing modes, controlled by expanding or contracting its nozzle at the end. It can shoot an area of fire in a 30 ft cone, or a 60 ft line, as a standard action with a Reflex save for half (DC 10 + 1/2 BAB + ranged attack ability modifier). Those who fail the save catch on fire.

Alternatively a thin ray of flame can be fired out to 120 ft as a ranged touch attack. The target gets a Reflex save, but only to avoid catching on fire and not to halve the damage.

Firedrakes use alchemist's fire as fuel, requiring 8 alchemist fires per shot. Reloading it via individual vial would be slow, so most keep a large bottle of alchemist's fire worth 8 vials (160 gp), which takes a full-round action to reload. Most keep a crew of two on hand, one to fire and one to reload so as to fire once every round. Having more than 2 crew lessens the time spend between them. For example a crew of three would spend a standard action (to fire) and can use one move action from each remaining crew to load the bolt. Crew members smaller than its intended size (such as a small creature on a ballista intended for medium) count as half as many crew members, and larger creatures count as twice as many for the purpose of reloading.

Having the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (siege weapons) gives proficiency in all siege weapons, including this one. Being non-proficent gives a -4 on DCs with the area effect spreads.