[Pathfinder] Tank Driving Wizard

[Crasical]

I just noticed the PFSRD has an archetype for wizards called the Siege Mage, who specializes in using/controlling Siege Engines. Now, Siege engines are usually either immobile or slow, but -that- page mentions that some Siege Engines are mounted on Vehicles... Well, you can see the train of thought going on here. A Heavy chariot can mount three animated skeletons, the necromancer, and a cannon, the wizard using his move action to pilot the chariot and his standard to fire the bonded cannon.

So how do you use a tank in a fantasy world for fun and profit? How can we get this thing moving under it's own power without having easily-killed animals pulling it? Obviously, you won't be dungeon-delving while piloting a tank, but.. I'm sure there are some possibilities here. I just can't think of any. :smallfrown:

[legomaster00156]

Holy Iomedae, you just created one of the coolest character concepts ever.
Let's see. You need to bar off 3 schools. Evocation's an obvious choice (when you're hurling 6d6 damage every turn with no save or SR, blasting is even more inferior than usual). You may also consider getting rid of Enchantment and Universal Divination.
Now, carry a Wand of Mount (yes, seriously) to cover all of the chariot-pulling needs. Try to keep up an Antimagic Field whenever you can afford to (if you're firing a mundane weapon, might as well keep the enemy spellslingers away). Obviously, keep the summoned horses out of the AMF.
I think it's reasonable to try and create a spell to increase a siege weapon's damage/distance (or, if you can't create one, stick with good ol' Magic Siege Engine).
I realize none of this actually answers your questions the way you expected it to. Meh, I'm basically just trying to powergame the heck out of this concept.

[Crasical]

Yeah, it's interesting, but I don't know if it's actually any good. Most places I've found discussing the Siege Mage basically say they'd be glad if they saw an enemy wizard messing around with Siege Engines instead of casting.

[legomaster00156]

Oh, make no mistake. At any level past where you get, say, 4th-level spells, siege engines will be inferior to casting. At level 7, an Empowered Lightning Bolt (7d6 + 50%, REF half) will obviously do more damage than a cannon ball (6d6, must hit AC), and be easier on the action economy, too (standard action vs. standard action to fire plus full-round action to reload). That doesn't stop it from being a formidable opponent.
If this is an NPC enemy, play up on a Wizard's intelligence. Make sure to stick the tank in the very back, probably behind a 5-foot wall and with more cannons accompanying it. In addition, build a trench in front of the wall, about 10 feet deep. Have about 20 low-CR enemies to distract the PC's, while the Wizard and more minions fire the cannons. While the PC's struggle to get past the trench-wall combination after they wipe out the distractions (Dispel Magic if they cast Fly or a similar spell), abandon the battle using the tank's superior mobility, leaving the PC's alone to deal with the trench-wall combination and the remaining cannon-firing monsters.

[Randomguy]

Can you still make invisibility permanent on objects in pathfinder? Because walking up to an enemy city with an invisible catapult in tow would be awesome.

Also, it lets you use something so huge it shrinks down to the size of a boulder that can be launched by a catapult via shrink item. To calculate the damage: Heavy catapult stones weigh 90 pounds and deal 8d6 damage. Using the complete warrior table for improvised weapon damage, you can tell that a 90 pound object should normally do 3d6 damage. Extrapolating on the table, for an object to do 8d6 damage it needs to weigh between 1601 and 3200 pounds.
This means that the heavy catapult either multiplies the objects effective mass by 17.789 or multiplies the damage dice dealt by 2.67 (or 2 and 2/3).
Shrink item lets you launch something that, when the command word is said, becomes an object that weighs 360 000 pounds (So it weighed 90 pounds while shrunken, when it was launched). This would normally do 16d6 damage. If you amplify it by damage dice from being launched, it would do 42d6 damage (rounded down). If you amplify it by weight, it would do only 20d6 damage. The hard part is finding something that weighs 360 000 pounds and finding a DM that lets you try this without hitting you with a PHB.

There's also wizardy goodness that lets you launch other things, created with magic. Huge vials of alchemists fire or acid. Ditherbombs (from dragon magic), if your DM allows them.

To pull the tank, you could mount the entire thing on a large enough magic carpet, you could shrink it with shrink item, you could summon up some people or phantom steeds to pull it for you or you could hit the tank with animate object. Even if it can't fire itself (though there's an animate weapon spell for that in complete mage, if that's aloud) it can still move on it's own.