Advanced Heavy Ballista (3.5e Equipment)

The ballista is a siege weapon which is in essence a ground mounted huge heavy crossbow. However it typically can't be wielded as a weapon, and requires a crew to maintain and load. Its frame has wheels enabling it to be pushed along the ground at a speed of 5 ft as a move action. The advanced heavy ballista differs from the normal heavy ballista in being made with new and more modern construction techniques to pull out more bang for the buck and ease in reloading. It fills the space of a Huge creature (15 x 15).

Reloading an advanced heavy ballista requires two full-round actions. Most keep a crew of three on hand, one to fire and two to reload so as to fire once every round. Having more than 3 crew lessens the time spend between them. For example a crew of five 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.

The pricing assumes a standard D&D world, in some worlds the advanced ballistas are standard issue and thus have the price of a normal heavy ballista (800 gp).