PF - Fodder Cannon Idea - Firing Flying Friends At Foes From Afar

[unseenmage]

So, you and a friend have been launched via siege weapon over the enemy encampment with the aim of getting you as much height as possible.

Your rings of Featherfall work perfectly and you're now able to gently float down to the ground.

You both have your ranged weapons out and ready to fire.

How many shots can you get off before landfall?

This idea came from a convo with my IRL group. Using Leadership followers to transport, assemble, and fire a party of two PCs over and into enemy territory.

Some Qs and concerns.
What's the best siege weapon for this job?
What's the bet ranged weapon for the falling PCs?
How to not be shot back at?
Is there time to pull boulders out of extradimensional.storage or similar for bombardment?

Can we get really weird and shoot shrunken siege weapons with siege weapons that then fire another siege weapon?


What ways would you make this scene awesome Playground? And on which side of the GM screen?

[legomaster00156]

Feather Fall issues a specific descent speed of 60 feet a round. How many shots you get off, as well as many of your other questions, depends on from what height you start falling and your level/build.

[vasilidor]

Use a trebuchet. they have the best range, so can arguably get you higher.

[Jack_Simth]

How many shots can you get off before landfall?

(Height Achieved / Rate of Descent) * Rate of Fire.

Featherfall has a fixed rate of descent: 60 feet/round.

Your rate of fire is going to be well known.

What's NOT known is how high you get. Sorry. DM will need to make a call there, I can't find any good references.

So if you end up 180 feet high, and have two shots per round, you get six shots off (per person). If you end up 120 feet high, and have two shots per round, you get four shots off (per person).

Note that the problems with firing when levitating may apply (see the spell, Levitate). Also getting launched is hard. The cannons for human cannonball acts are VERY carefully constructed.




This idea came from a convo with my IRL group. Using Leadership followers to transport, assemble, and fire a party of two PCs over and into enemy territory.

Some Qs and concerns.
What's the best siege weapon for this job?
What's the bet ranged weapon for the falling PCs?
Spells.


How to not be shot back at?
Be invisible (preferably "Greater Invisibility").


Is there time to pull boulders out of extradimensional.storage or similar for bombardment?
Yes.
In advance:
Shrink Item the boulders, put them in the bag of holding.
When in position: Have one PC invert bag of holding.
Have the other (the caster of Shrink item) pop off an area Dispel Magic. One round, no sweat.


Can we get really weird and shoot shrunken siege weapons with siege weapons that then fire another siege weapon?
The big catch is that you'd also have to fire the crew.... well, or animate the engine with magic or something.


What ways would you make this scene awesome Playground? And on which side of the GM screen?
Describe it? The idea is fundamentally nifty (until it gets overdone, anyway), and it'll work equally well from either side.

[TheStranger]

As noted, maximum height is firmly in the realm of DM discretion. However, the easy answer, which is consistent with most D&D conventions, is to ignore air resistance, in which case you can assume a parabolic trajectory and apply some high school physics (or google “ballistic trajectory calculator”) to determine your maximum height based on your maximum range. Note that you’ll reach that height halfway to your maximum range, so plan accordingly.

If your DM believes in air resistance, that’s to your benefit since achieving the same range should require a higher trajectory that peaks closer to the target. So in that case you’ll be able to launch from farther away and take more actions in the air.

Another ruling that your DM will need to make is how feather fall affects your horizontal movement. Does it arrest it entirely, slow it to 60’/round, or not affect it at all? In the latter case, you’ll hit the ground (or a tree, or a wall) falling at 60’/round but moving horizontally at somewhere over 100 mph, which will either ruin your day or not matter at all because there are no rules for it.

Also, as previously noted, there are no rules for taking damage during launch, but if your DM considers real-world physics sudden acceleration is just as painful as sudden deceleration. Test flights at a less-lethal speed/height may be called for.

As for not getting shot at in the air, greater invisibility is probably your best bet if you can do it. A mundane option would be to use a tower shield for full cover. Rule of cool dictates that you ride it in like a surfboard and jump clear just before it hits the ground.

[Twurps]

There's a bow designed specifically for aerial combat: The Footbow (Races of the Wild).
Using your feat to 'hold' the bow means you have 2 hands free to draw it, and can add 1,5x str. to your damage output just as when wielding a melee weapon 2 handed.

As for the height: you can use the basic math that 'TheStranger' suggested below, but the result would be how high you get, when the aim of the shot is to get very far. Usually this means shooting an object (or person) in roughly a 45degree angle. now you might still want to get a certain distance as part of the 'infiltrating enemy territory', but IF you can close to the point where you don't need to traverse that much horizontal distance, increasing the upward slope would also increase the maximum height you can achieve. Angling 60-70 degrees up should make a huge difference.

On a trebuchet, that's as simple as changing the release point. Historically, trebuchets not being mobile at all, this method was used to 'dail in' the range of the trebuchet to hit the target. And in theory it is as simple as just changing the angle of the holding pin you attach the sling to. (I say in theory, because I remember never being able to get this right back in the days building my 3ft toy trebuchet.) Another advantage I see with a trebuchet is that it takes more time than things like canons and crosbows/balista's to get the projectile to maximum velocity. which should translate to lower maximum G force being applied. (though you probably want this handwaved anyway, because IRL it would still be deadly, and in d&d there's no rules for it)

Finally, on the downward path. Raptorans (who incidentally like footbows a lot) have the ability to 'glide' downward during their fall, controlling amount and direction of the horizontal movement they make. I'm assuming you're not raptoran, but maybe you can craft a wingsuit-like outfit combined with the featherfalling to get the same result?

[Mnemius]

Since you said pathfinder, see if you can get your rings upgraded to mythic featherfall... Puts a cool aoe out when you land.