Siege Equipment and Structures

The world of adventure is rife with far more dangers than direct person-to-person battle. You might face an engine of war, such as a trebuchet. Terrible blows might break bone or spirit, leaving you to contend with a lengthy recovery. Poisons and diseases lurk in moldering dungeons, cursed crypts, and even stinking alleys. Devious villains might even implement such maladies as weapons in their arsenal.

Structures

Structure Health

The durability of structures, such as bridges, houses, and castles, may come into play at some point on an epic quest, especially in a siege scenario. When determining the HP, armor rating (AR), and the damage threshold (DT) of a structure, use the following table as a guideline. Take into account the specific circumstances of your region. If a castle wall has eroded under high winds or heavy downpours for years already, then consider lowering any of its stats to account for this. Conversely, if a bridge is magically reinforced, then it might have a higher Resist against physical damage or might be Immune to nonmagical damage.

Structural integrity should typically be tracked in 10 ft by 10 ft panels. As the MC, it is your job to rule how the destruction of a portion of a structure impacts the rest of the structure. Knocking a 10 ft square hole in the side of a stone wall might cause the wall above it to crumble, or the wall portion above the hole might remain in place, held firm by the intact walls on either side.

*Note that any damage reduction (DR) is applied after determining DT. All inanimate materials are Immune to psychic damage.

Damage Reduction (DR)

If a creature or structure has Damage Reduction (DR) X, they subtract their DR number from all damage they take, unless they are Vulnerable to the type of damage that they are taking. If damage specifies that it ignores Resist, it also ignores DR. The DR number may be followed by a weapon tag, magic source, or damage type. This means that creature takes full damage from a weapon with that tag or damage type.

For example, a creature with DR 5/Fire would take full damage from fire, and subtract 5 from all other sources of damage. A creature with DR 15/Silvered would take full damage from silvered weapons, and subtract 15 from all other damage.

Damage Threshold (DT) Damage Threshold (DT) is a very rare defense that is typically seen on structures and vehicles. DT determines how much damage a creature must deal at once to deal any damage at all.

For example, if a stone wall has DT 15, and a player deals 14 damage to it, it instead takes 0. If a player deals 16 damage, conversely, then the stone wall takes all 16 damage because its DT 15 was overcome.

For the purposes of overcoming DT, “damage dealt at once” is determined by a single expenditure of AP. Each expenditure of AP for an attack is a new roll against DT; you cannot stack attacks to overcome DT..

For example: A spell deals multiple damage sources, such as 2d8 fire damage and 2d8 blunt damage. Since that spell is one expenditure of AP, add them together to determine if it overcomes DT. A player makes two maul attacks against a stone wall on the same turn. Because these are two expenditures of AP, do not add the damage together from the two attacks to determine if they overcome DT.


Material	Depth	HP	AR	REF	FORT	DT	Extras
Plaster	1 in	10	7	7	7	-	-
Plaster	6 in	20	7	7	7	-	-
Thatch	1 in	10	8	7	8	-	Vulnerable Fire 2
Thatch	6 in	20	8	7	8	-	Vulnerable Fire 2
Soft Wood (e.g. pine)	1 in	20	9	7	9	5	DR 3/Sharp or Fire
Soft Wood (e.g. pine)	6 in	40	9	7	9	5	DR 3/Sharp or Fire
Soft Wood (e.g. pine)	1 ft	80	9	7	9	10	DR 3/Sharp or Fire
Hard Wood (e.g. oak)	1 in	40	10	7	12	5	DR 5/Sharp
Hard Wood (e.g. oak)	6 in	80	10	7	12	10	DR 5/Sharp
Hard Wood (e.g. oak)	1 ft	120	10	7	12	10	DR 5/Sharp
Brick	6 in	40	12	7	10	5	Immune Toxic DR 5/Blunt
Brick	1 ft	80	12	7	10	10	Immune Toxic DR 5/Blunt
Iron	1 in	40	16	7	16	10	Immune Toxic DR 5/Fire or Corrosive
Iron	6 in	80	16	7	16	15	Immune Toxic DR 10/Fire or Corrosive
Iron	1 ft	120	16	7	16	25	Immune Toxic DR 15/Fire or Corrosive
Stone	1 in	40	14	7	14	10	Immune Toxic DR 3
Stone	6 in	80	14	7	14	15	Immune Toxic DR 6
Stone	1 ft	120	14	7	14	25	Immune Toxic DR 12
Stone	5ft	160	14	7	14	40	Immune Toxic DR 20

Siege Equipment

Castles and fortified towns are usually well-defended, and arrows might not suffice to penetrate thick stone walls. Whether your heroes purchase and use siege equipment or must fight against it, these machines can significantly increase the tension in a combat scene.

Siege equipment is a little like the weapons and armor that an adventurer might use, but has more intricacies.

Ranged

A typical siege weapon will have the Ranged property, which is functionally the same as any weapon’s Ranged property.

Ammunition

All nonmagical siege weapons will have the Ammunition tag. Unlike normal weapons, a number of AP will be listed immediately after the ammunition type. It takes that many AP to load a siege weapon. A siege weapon cannot make a ranged attack if it is not loaded.

A siege weapon lists the type of ammunition it uses: a ball or a bolt. A standard ball or bolt will deal the damage listed by the weapon, but specialty ammunition will have other effects.

Reload

Many siege weapons have a Reload feature. After it is fired, a creature must spend the appropriate number of AP to set the weapon for usage again, whereupon ammunition can be applied.

Area of Effect

Ammunition fired from a siege weapon generally causes a shockwave of blunt force, a hail of sharp blades, or an explosion of fire or other elemental energy. The AOE column specifies a radius (from the point of contact) or a line or cone (drawn from the siege weapon) to a target point within range. The attack is made against every creature in that area.

Heft and Speed

Siege equipment is large and cumbersome. A Heft score provides an abstract way of measuring the amount of force it takes to move that equipment.

When a number of creatures collectively pull or push the equipment, they must spend 3 of their AP on a turn to move it. A creature must count as Medium or larger for the purposes of lifting, dragging, and carrying to contribute. When a creature contributes to moving a siege engine, add its STR to a collective pool. At the start of its next turn, the creature removes its STR from the pool unless it uses its turn to move the engine again.

If a humanoid counts as Large or larger for the purposes of lifting, dragging, and carrying, they can add double their STR.

When the collective pool of STR meets or exceeds 1⁄2 of a siege engine’s Heft score, the creatures that contributed may move the equipment up to 1⁄2 its speed; if they achieve a total of equal to or greater than the equipment’s Heft, then it moves its total speed. Any creature that contributed to moving the equipment immediately moves with it when this occurs.

Health and Armor

Siege equipment has HP, AR, REF, and FORT just like any creature. Most siege equipment also has DT or other forms of resistance to damage. It does not have ANT, LOG, or WILL, however, and cannot be affected by any ability or attack that would target those defenses.

Attack Bonus

When making an attack with a siege weapon, choose AWR or INT. For every 3 points you have in that attribute, add +1 to your attack roll. Additionally, for every 4 points you have in the Vehicles* [land] skill, add +1 to your attack roll.

This will generally mean that attacks with a siege weapon have much lower modifiers than attacks with a normal weapon. This is intentional; siege weapons are devastating when used on easy-to-hit targets such as buildings, but are not as effective against individual targets. Furthermore, many siege weapons still deal half damage even if they miss.

Crit Fails

Siege engines are very particular mechanisms and many things can go wrong with them. They crit fail on a roll of 1 or 2. When they crit fail, they no longer function until they are repaired by a craftsperson with the relevant skill set.

Examples of Siege Equipment

Trebuchet (Automatic)

Costs

Armies might implement one or more of these items when they lay siege to an enemy city.

Item	Cost
Ballista	4000
Ballista (Portable)	1500
Battering Ram	1000
Catapult	5000
Siege Tower	8000
Trebuchet	9000
Trebuchet (Autmoatic)	20,000
Watch Tower (Stone)	25,000
Watch Tower (Wood)	6000

Specialty Ammunition

Besieging armies often bring specialty ammunition on their military expeditions, enhancing their siege weapons. Here are some example specialty munitions that an army might implement. Siege weapons can only use specialty ammunition if the ammunition is categorized as the same type (a ballista cannot fire any type of ball, for example).


Ammunition	Type	AOE	Damage	Cost
Beehive	Ball	20 ft radius	6d4 sharp and it spawns a Swarm of Insects	1
Boling Oil Pot	Ball	10 ft radius	4d6 sharp and Burning (1d6)	10
Buckshot Balls	Ball	60 ft cone	8d4 blunt	4
Cluster Grenades	Ball	40 ft radius	3d6 fire	50
Diseased Corpse	Ball	-	2d10 blunt and the disease (typically Boil Plague) might spread	1 soul
Frag Cannonball	Ball	20 ft radius	3d10 blunt and 4d6 fire	40
Hail Bolt	Bolt	30 ft radius	3d8 sharp	40
Lightning Bolt	Bolt	500 ft line	3d10 lightning	80
Weighted Net	Ball or Bolt	5 ft radius	2d6 blunt and targets are Restrained (escape DC 14)	5
Weighted Razor Net	Ball or Bolt	5 ft radius	2d6 sharp, targets are Restrained (escape DC 14), and targets are Bleeding (1d6) while Restrained	30

*Updated to Print 2