F.9 Ship Weapons
Ships depend on having powerful weapons even more than martial characters do. They use weapon upgrades as their primary method of scaling damage rather than maneuvers or other special attacks. The number of weapons a ship can have is limited based on its size, as seen in Table F.4: Ship Size.
There are two ways that a GM can choose to use ship weapons. Real siege weapons used on ships had high crew requirements, slow firing rates, and extreme range. In practice, this can reduce ship combat to a slog of tracking reload times across multiple weapons and carefully maneuvering ship range to make the best use of varying weapon types. For GMs who want more realistic and unique ship combat, use the weapons listed in Table F.6: Realistic Ship Weapons. For GMs who want ship combat to feel simpler and more similar to regular combat, use the weapons listed in Table F.5: Simplified Ship Weapons.
The simplified ship weapons listed in the table normally attack Armor defense. Magical simplified ship weapons use the same statistics as regular ship weapons, except that that they have the Fixed (200) and Mystic tags instead of Projectile (200/600). In addition, they can attack Fortitude, Reflex, or Mental defense instead of Armor defense.
| Name | Damage | Targeting | Tags | Ship Size | Item Rank (Cost) |
| Rock sling | 1d6 +1 per 2 power |
One target | Projectile (200/600) | Medium | 2 (200 gp) |
| Scorpion | 1d8 +1 per 2 power | One target | Projectile (200/600) | Large | 3 (1,000 gp) |
| Ballista | 1d8 +1 per power | One target | Projectile (200/600) | Huge | 4 (5,000 gp) |
| Catapult | 1d10 plus 1d6 per 3 power | One target | Projectile (200/600) | Gargantuan | 5 (25,000 gp) |
| Mangonel | 1d8 plus 1d8 per 3 power | One target | Projectile (200/600) | Gargantuan | 6 (125,000 gp) |
| Trebuchet | 2d8 plus 1d8 per 3 power | One target | Projectile (200/600) | Colossal | 7 (625,000 gp) |
| Name | Damage | Defense | Tags | Crew | Ship Size | Item Rank (Cost) |
| Rock sling | 1d8 +1 per power | Armor | Projectile (60/180), Slow Reload (1) |
1 | Medium | 2 (200 gp) |
| Springald | 1d6 +1 per 2 power | Armor | Projectile (120/360), Slow Reload (1) | 1 | Large | 2 (200 gp) |
| Lightning caller ✨ | 3d6 | Reflex | Electricity, Fixed (200), Mystic, Slow Load (1) | 3 | Large | 3 (1,000 gp) |
| Scorpion | 1d8 +1 per power | Armor | Projectile (200/600), Slow Reload (2) | 1 | Huge | 3 (1,000 gp) |
| Onager | 1d8 +1 per power | Armor | Projectile (300/900), Slow Reload (3) | 8 | Gargantuan | 3 (1,000 gp) |
| Torsion ballista | 1d8 per 3 power | Armor | Projectile (300/900), Slow Load (2) | 3 | Huge | 4 (5,000 gp) |
| Flame caller ✨ | 4d6 | Reflex | Fire, Fixed (200), Mystic, Slow Load (1) | 3 | Large | 4 (5,000 gp) |
| Acid caller ✨ | 5d10 | Fortitude Acid, | Fixed (200), Mystic, Slow Load (1) | 3 | Large | 5 (25,000 gp) |
| Polybolos | 1d8 +1 per power | Armor | Projectile (90/270) | 3 | Huge | 5 (25,000 gp) |
| Mangonel | 1d8 plus 1d8 per 3 power | Armor | Projectile (300/900), Slow Reload (2) | 20 | Gargantuan | 5 (25,000 gp) |
| Storm caller ✨ | 5d10 | Reflex | Electricity, Fixed (200), Mystic, Slow Load (1) | 3 | Large | 6 (125,000 gp) |
| Trebuchet | 1d6 plus 1d6 per 2 power | Armor | Projectile (400/1200), Slow Reload (3) | 10 | Gargantuan | 6 (125,000 gp) |
| Meteor caller ✨ | 7d10 | Reflex | Fire, Fixed (200), Mystic, Slow Load (1) | 3 | Large | 7 (625,000 gp) |
F.9.1 Ship Weapon Tags
Some weapon tags only apply to ship weapons.
Fixed: This weapon has a single fixed range limit. That number is given in parentheses, such as Fixed (200), and represents a number of feet of range. The weapon never suffers a longshot penalty, but it cannot be used at all outside of its listed range.
Mystic: This weapon can only be crewed by creatures capable of casting spells. The minimum spell rank of each creature must be no more than two ranks lower than this weapon’s item rank.
Slow Load: This weapon requires multiple rounds to load before it can fire for the first time. The number of rounds required to finish loading before it can be fired is indicated in its description. For example, a weapon with Slow Load (1) could be fired every other round. Only rounds where the weapon is being fully crewed count towards this load time. If the weapon is not fired during the round after its loading time is completed, the loading is wasted, and the weapon must be loaded again before it can fire.
Slow Reload: This weapon requires multiple rounds to after being fired. The number of rounds required to finish reloading is indicated in its description. For example, a weapon with Slow Reload (1) could be fired every other round. Only rounds where the weapon is being fully crewed count towards this reload time. The weapon can sustain its load for an arbitrary amount of time in combat before being fired.