Advanced Cannon (3.5e Equipment)

The cannon is a siege weapon commonly seen on ships, lined up in a row as to perform simultanous broadside attacks. It is a large iron barrel mounted on a set of wheels, supports, and loading irons. They are prized for carrying a lot of punch in a small space, and needing very little crew to man. Its wheels allow it to be pushed along the ground at a speed of 10 ft as a move action. The advanced cannon differs from the normal cannon 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 Large creature (10 x 10).

Reloading an advanced heavy ballista requires a full-round action. 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.

The pricing assumes a standard D&D world, in some worlds the advanced cannons are standard issue and thus have the price of a normal cannon (6000 gp). Standard cannonballs cost 30 gp each and weigh 25 lbs, but advanced cannonballs also exist, and are used for their hardness-breaking abilities.