Fighter Archetype: Heavy Gunner
A Heavy Gunner can be the lone sentry on a tower wall defending their city against invasion, or can command a detachment of semi-mobile bombardiers preparing to siege. Some rush into battle marking targets for their crew to bombard from afar. While others stay back, lay traps, and use (relatively) smaller, lighter weapons to turn the tide of battle.
Bonus Proficiencies
At the 3rd level your study of artillery weapons grants you proficiency with Tinkering tools or Smith tools. You also gain proficiency in all Artillery weapons if for whatever reason you did not already have it. An Artillery weapon is any ranged weapon that is required to be mounted on a vehicle or fixed to a surface to use. These are weapons with the Stationary or Recoil properties and include most of the Siege weapons from the DMG (p. 255) and a few weapons created to make this subclass more enjoyable. All Artillery weapons are listed in a table at the end of this document.
Bombardier
By the 3rd level your practice with artillery weapons has aided you greatly. When making a ranged weapon attack with an Artillery weapon, you can use your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your bonus to hit and damage. You can add the bonus to damage even if the weapon damage normally doesn't include a bonus. If the artillery weapon requires a saving throw, you can use your Heavy Gunner DC ( 8 + intelligence mod + proficiency bonus) instead. When you take the Attack action, you can use one of your attacks to Set, Load, or Aim an artillery weapon.
You can also ignore the loading property for crossbows.
Quick Gunner
At the 3rd level, you learn how to effect objects at a distance. Once per Short or Long Rest, through your skill and careful planning, you can use your Bonus Action to Interact with an Object within 30 ft. of you. This may be whipping a rope around to open a door, kicking a stone to set off a hairpin trigger, or having that second bolt fall right into place on a crossbow. When you interact with a Loaded crossbow or a Ready artillery weapon in this way, you can cause it to make a ranged weapon attack against a target using your intelligence modifier for attack and damage.
When you reach the 7th, 10th, 15th, and 18th levels in this class you gain one additional use of this ability per Short or Long Rest.
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Gunner's Instincts
At the 7th level, your instincts have honed enough to mitigated some common disadvantages gunners often face.
When a creatures makes an attack against you with advantage, you can use your reaction to make a single melee weapon attack against them. You may draw a melee weapon as part of this attack. You ignore any disadvantage you would have on this attack.
When there is a ranged attack against a target you can see within reach, you can use your Reaction to give advantage to the ranged attack.
Lastly, when any creature within 30ft of you moves or makes an attack, you can use your Reaction to use your Quick Gunner ability.
Reinforced Weaponry
At the 7th level, you learn how to best use and protect your expensive weaponry.
You can spend 4 hours and 25gp worth of silver to add silver tips to 10 pieces of non-magical ammunition or one non-magical melee weapon. Ammunition and weapons that are silvered in this way are considered magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance and immunity.
You can spend 4 hours and 25gp worth of adamantine to strengthen the weak points of 10 pieces of non-magical ammunition or one non-magical weapon. Ammunition and weapons that are fortified in this way are considered magical for the purpose of durability and resisting damage. They are immune to effects which damage non-magical items (such as an Ooze's Corrode Metal feature). If treated as breakable objects, they now have an AC of 23 and resistance against all damage.
(DM Note: The official rules offer little clarity to the special durability of magic items. In practice you should treat an adamantine reinforced Light Ballista the same as a magical Longbow. To save your players' money you may rule that artillery ammunition already is sturdy and usually doesn't break unless it is being used as a siege weapon.)
Battery Training
By the 10th level, your experience with artillery weapons has taught you how to prepare them quickly. You can now Set, Load, or Aim an artillery weapon as a bonus action and you only need 1 free hand to do so.
In addition, you can spend 30 mins (which can be done during a short or long rest) instructing a number of creatures equal to 1 + your intelligence modifier (minimum 2) on how to rapidly ready your weapons. A creature must have a minimum intelligence of 6 to gain any benefit. Until the end of their next long rest, these creatures only need one free hand to ready an artillery weapon and can use a Bonus Action to attempt to do so. For their Bonus Action they may attempt a DC 10 Intelligence check to Set the weapon, a DC 10 Strength check to Load the weapon, or a DC 10 Dexterity check to Aim the weapon. Creatures proficient in artillery weapons can add their proficiency bonus to these skill check. On a failure, nothing happens. If a creature receives this benefit 3 times in a week, the benefit lasts for 1 month.
Overloaded
At the 15th level, your experiments with artillery weapons allows you to safely push them past their limits. When you use an Action to load an artillery weapon, you can overload it by placing 2 pieces of ammunition instead of one. When this weapon is fired, it makes two ranged weapon attacks at the same target, each attack at disadvantage.
Focus Fire
At the 18th level you are a master of commanding artillery strikes. Once per Short or Long Rest, when you use your Quick Gunner ability you can cause any number of loaded crossbows and artillery weapons within 30ft of you to fire at once. You can also allow any number of creatures within 30ft to make a single ranged weapon attack. All of these attacks must be against the same target.
Artillery Weapons
An artillery weapon is any martial ranged weapon that requires being mounted on a vehicle or fixed to a solid surface in order to use. There are examples of these in the Dungeon Master Guide (DMG) on page 255. They are mainly used by NPCs as most players can find something better to do with their turn than loading a cannon. However with enough planning and teamwork, they can effectively make used to make combat more interesting for the players.
The DMG describes each artillery weapon and its stats with a paragraph of text. The following properties were invented as a way to express this information in a simplified way.
Loading (0,1,2,3,etc…) Because of the complexity of this weapon, you can fire only one piece of ammunition from it when you use your Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction to fire it, regardless of the number of attacks you normally make. Weapons with the property Loading (1), Loading (2), etc… require the indicated number of separate actions to Load the weapon before it is Ready to fire. Weapons with the two-handed property require two hands to Load.
Recoil Because of the recoil of this weapon, it must be set into the ground or otherwise fixed to a vehicle or solid surface before it can be used properly. A separate action is required to Set the weapon into the ground before it is Ready to fire. The weapon is able to freely rotate, but each time it is moved it must be Set into the ground again before it is Ready to fire. Weapons with the two-handed property require two hands to Set it into the ground.
Aim (1,2,3,etc…) The immobility of this weapon means that it needs to be Aimed before it is Ready to fire. Weapons with the property Aim (1), Aim (2), etc… require the indicated number of separate actions to Aim before the weapon is Ready to fire. Weapons with the two-handed property require two hands to Aim.
Cumbersome Any weapon with the Cumbersome property usually has wheels attached. When traveling long distances it is impossible to maintain a fast past or to stay stealthy while towing this weapon along. It is intended to be disassembled and reassembled on site. Both tasks take 10 mins.
Stationary Cannot be moved without being disassembled and reassembled.
Range A weapon that can be used to make a ranged Attack has a range in parentheses after the Ammunition or thrown property. The range lists two numbers. The first is the weapon’s normal range in feet, and the second indicates the weapon’s long range. When attacking a target beyond normal range, you have disadvantage on the Attack roll. You can’t Attack a target beyond the weapon’s long range. If 3 numbers are listed, the first number is the weapons minimum range, the second indicates the weapons normal range, and the third is the weapons long range. No attacks can be made against targets closer than the minimum range.
Siege Weapons with the siege property deal double damage to buildings.
Artillery Weapons
| Name | Size | Cost | Damage | Weight | Properties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Crossbow | Tiny Object | 50gp | 1d10 piercing | 18lb | Ammunition (range 100/400), Heavy, Loading, Two-handed |
| Light Ballista | Small Object | 150gp | 3d6 piercing |
40lb | Ammunition (range 100/400), Recoil, Loading (1), Two-handed |
| Small Cannon | 300gp | 4d10 bludgeoning | 100lb | Ammunition (range 300/600), Recoil, Loading (1), Aim (1), Siege, Cumbersome, Two-handed | |
| Ballista | Large AC 15 Hit Points: |
3d10 piercing | Ammunition (range 120/480), Stationary, Loading (1), Aim (1), Two-handed | ||
| Cannon | Large Object AC 19 Hit Points: 75 |
8d10 bludgeoning | Ammunition (range 600/2400), Stationary, Loading (1), Aim (1), Siege, Two-handed | ||
| Mangonel | Large Object AC 15 Hit Points: 100 |
5d10 bludgeoning | Ammunition (range 60/200/800), Stationary, Loading (2), |
||
| Trebuchet | Huge Object AC 15 |
8d10 bludgeoning | Ammunition (range 60/300/1200), Stationary, Loading (2), |
The heavy crossbow is added to this table because it can be transformed into an artillery weapon using a bipod. The Light Ballista and Small Cannon are two weapons which were invented to make this subclass more enjoyable. The last four weapons of the table are pulled directly from the DMG. No cost or weight were listed for these items and I did not make a guess for what these values would be.
Common Items
Bipod This set of two foldable legs can be attached to a Heavy Crossbow. It costs 10gp and weighs 2lb. When wielding a heavy crossbow with a bipod attached you can extend the legs and drop prone to have the weapon loose the Heavy property and gain the Recoil property. This effectively makes the heavy crossbow into an artillery weapon.
Ballista Bolt A set of 20 weighs 10lb and costs 5gp. This ammunition can be used for any Ballista.
Cannon Ball A set of 10 weighs 40lb and costs 10gp. This ammunition can be used for any Cannon.
Weapons as Breakable Objects
Most weapons are Tiny Objects. As per the DMG objects have their AC determined by their material and their hit points determined by their size and whether they are fragile or resilient. Objects can also have damage thresholds and resistances, immunities, or vulnerabilities to various damage types.
Technically a non-magical Heavy Crossbow is a tiny object made out of wood. The DMG suggests that tiny objects made out of wood should have an AC of 15 and 1d4 or 2d4 hit points depending on how fragile or durable it is. The DMG offers even less guidance for magical objects. All it suggests is that magical objects have resistance to all damage. If a DM strictly sticks to these guidelines then players and NPCs would constantly be having their weapons destroyed.
This would probably result players very upset that 'you' keep breaking their crossbow every time they try to use it, or worse, that 'you' broke their brand new magical weapon. Clearly in practice the game is not played this way. Most DMs do not treat handheld weapons the same as other breakable objects.
Stationary weapons on the other hand are often treated as breakable objects because they deal tremendous damage, provide excellent cover, and are usually manned by minions. Because of this, the DMG provides AC and hit points for their stationary artillery weapons.
In the middle ground are the weapons with the Recoil property. Have a conversation with your DM or players about how often and in what circumstances these weapons can break. Can a Light Ballista survive a Fire Ball? Maybe just barely, but a Small Cannon is durable probably takes more than just a Fire Ball to destroy it. If your table doesn't like these heuristics and wants hard numbers, then let me suggest the following: Light Ballista AC 15 with 25 Hit Points, Small Cannon AC 19 with 38 hit points. Once weapons are reinforced with Adamantine, their AC becomes 23.