An Example of Direct Bombardment

The Huge umber hulk from the earlier example later discovers a community of gnomes and charges to the attack, sending the gnomes scurrying into their burrows. The gnomes have installed several light ballistae and a light cannon for defense. Two ballistae and the cannon take aim at the umber hulk while it dashes about trying to locate its vanished prey. The umber hulk is about 200 yards away from the bombardment engines.

Light ballistae can individually target creatures of any size. The ballistae have medium-range shots. The range imposes a –2 penalty and the scorpion’s movement of 6 imposes an additional –3. The ballistae have adjusted THAC0s of 17. The attack rolls are 5 and 20. The 5 is a miss; because the missile was targeted directly at the umber hulk, the intended point of impact is the umber hulk’s square closest to the ballista. The gnomes roll a scatter die and get an 8, indicating a miss to the left. Now they roll 2d4 for distance and get a 2, so the missile lands two squares away and has no affect on the umber hulk. Fortunately, there were no gnomes in the area to be hit by stray missiles.

The 20 is good enough to score a critical hit against the umber hulk’s effective Armor Class of 10, even with a –5 attack penalty. The umber hulk is a Huge creature, and it suffers 3d6 points of damage (and possibly a severe piercing critical). The damage dice total 11 points of damage.

The light cannon can also target a Huge creature, so the crew aims it at the umber hulk. Its adjusted THAC0 is a 19. The attack roll is an 8, a miss. The scatter roll is a 6, short and dead ahead. The distance roll is only a 2, which just barely places the umber hulk within the shot’s area of effect. The umber hulk has 8+8 Hit Dice, and is allowed a saving throw vs. petrification. It rolls a 4, a failure. The umber hulk suffers 1d12¥5 points of damage (it would have suffered 1d4 points of damage even if it had been successful). The damage roll is an 8, inflicting 40 points of damage, enough to kill it after the 11 points of damage the umber hulk suffered from the ballista bolt.

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