Friends, a question about 5e siege weapons. For a ballista, the DMG says it takes one action to load, one action to aim, and one action to fire. If you have three people operating it, can you do that in a single round? Thankyou! Yes
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) December 8, 2018
Yes
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) December 8, 2018
Wouldn’t that mean it’s default crew size is 3? If you wan to fire once per round
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) December 8, 2018
Just ran an encounter where my players had a ballista tower they where fighting 2 adult dragons from. The ballista was on the top floor and I mentioned they could have loaded one shot, but to aim and fire they would need two people at least to operate. I made it where if only 2 people where shooting, it would be with disadvantage on their to hit roll. If 3 people were operating it could be safe to say that under correct instructions from the shooter they can adjust the ballista with more ease, making it a normal shot.
With the third reloading still took a turn in this one shot I’m mentioning. Almost didn’t make full circle.