Looking for machines of war and destruction for C&C

[pactmaster]

In an upcoming episode, my players will be finding themselves on the outskirts of a siege and I plan on them coming across an abandoned repeating crossbow/bolt thrower ala Warhammer fantasy. Are there any suggestions for different sizes/aspects for different races? There will be goblinoids, kobolds, elves and dwarfs involved. I was somewhat thinking of the dwarfs having an axe or hammer thrower, the elves having spear throwing devices and the goblins and kobolds with wicked (if smaller) weapons that utilize poison and other nasty concoctions.
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[bighara]

I like all those ideas, except maybe the axe/hammer lobber. If you want to make an anti-personnel war machine, there are more efficient and cheaper ways (catapults with baskets full of softball-sized rocks or bundles of arrows, etc.). Why give a perfectly good axe to your foe?
Don't have my books in front of me, but is ballista covered in the PHB weapons? If not, a conversion from D&D shouldn't be too tough. For a siege catapult/rock-lobber, use a stone giant out of M&T (3d10, Range: 510'). For the poison, have it be a burning clay jug full of poison-soaked pitch that explodes on impact, releasing a cloud like a green dragon's breath weapon. Give them all ranges of at least a few hundred feet and a RoF of maybe 1 shot per 3-4 rounds (with a crew of at least 3 or so working the machine).

[pactmaster]

Thank you, bighara, for the advice.

The reason I suggested an axe/hammer thrower is pure Warhammer: the orange mohawked screaming madmen, the dwarf Trollslayers, have such a device (which seems to go against their wanting to die honorably in combat-unless giving your enemy an axe is meant to spur close combat, which any dwarf worth his salt wouldn't be opposed to).
_________________
Deserve has nothing to do with it, if you think you're entitled. You're not.

--Stephen Chenault

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

J. R. R. Tolkien

[Aladar]

There is always the old TSR "Chainmail".
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[bighara]

pactmaster wrote:
Thank you, bighara, for the advice.

The reason I suggested an axe/hammer thrower is pure Warhammer: the orange mohawked screaming madmen, the dwarf Trollslayers, have such a device (which seems to go against their wanting to die honorably in combat-unless giving your enemy an axe is meant to spur close combat, which any dwarf worth his salt wouldn't be opposed to).

Heh, yeah. I've seen the lobber. I was assuming a less "comic" battlefield. Don't get me wrong, I love the Warhammer World (at least WFRP). Heck, I run a Giant Slayer PC about to lose his only Fate Point going after a Great Unclean One underneath Marienburg.
For Mass Combat rules, I'm told the CKG will have some of that.

I forgot to mention the D&D Rules Cyclopedia for War Machine (mass battles) and siege combat rules. You could check there as well (PDF available at Paizo if you don't own a hard copy).

[pactmaster]

Thanks again, guys. I have time to get a device ready, I am not in a big rush-I just got another campaign going with five players and they are going into the C&C conversion of In Search of the Unknown mixed with The Keep on the Borderlands, so it will be a while before the party gets close to mass combat.
_________________
Deserve has nothing to do with it, if you think you're entitled. You're not.

--Stephen Chenault

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

J. R. R. Tolkien