Hand Onager (Weapon)

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Hand Onager 2-Hand Projectile / Exotic [edit]
Hand Onager
Cost Sm Dmg Med Dmg Large Dmg Crit Range Wt Type
250 gp see ammo see ammo see ammo see ammo see ammo 18 lbs Piercing (physical, common) or by ammunition
Weapon Qualities: Handy, Massive, Mighty, Non-Melee
The hand onager is a powerful ranged weapon rarely seen in use. A hand onager uses twisted skeins of spider silk to place tension upon a pair of sturdy wooden arms. It is treated as a heavy crossbow and a siege weapon to determine what feats are usable with it. Unlike lesser crossbow-class weapons, a hand onager may never be fired one-handed under any circumstances. A hand onager fires the same ammo a heavy crossbow fires, but with significantly greater force. A large part of this is due to the fact that a hand onager does not keep the bowstring under tension when it is not cocked, so it can be made with much heavier draw weights without worrying about breaking the string. Even more important, for a given size, a hand onager can be drawn back much further than a crossbow, and the longer length of draw allows it to shoot much harder even at the same draw weight. In addition, a hand onager can be obtained in Mighty versions at a price of 250gp per Strength plus.

Load: Cranking back the arms of a hand onager to reload can be performed with either a move action or an attack action. The reload time can be reduced by taking the Rapid Reload (Feat).

The hand onager belongs to the "Crossbows" and "Siege Engines" weapon groups

Show / Hide Ammunition Types
Simple, effective, and deadly.
Ammo Type Cost Sm Dmg Med Dmg Large Dmg Crit Range Wt Type
Crossbow Bolt 1 sp each 2d6 2d8 3d8 19-20 / x2 120 ft 0.1 lbs each Piercing (physical, common)
Weapon Qualities: Expendable
Crossbow bolts are thick, graceless things compared to arrows. In keeping with the simplicity of the crossbow, the bolts are not sophisticated, either. Arrows must be carefully made with just the right amount of flex, or spine, in the long, slim shafts. Bolts are far too thick and short to flex, even under the brutal firing conditions of heavy crossbows or hand onagers. Bolts have simple conical tips hammered of mild steel, massive shafts of heavy, cheap woods like greenheart, swamp oak, or sycamore, and durable fletching made of thin sections of cherry or pine. They take little to no skill to make, but they do have to be consistently made, so they are all the same size. Despite their low sophistication, nobody can argue that bolts lack in power, and they have won many, many battles.
Hurts as much coming out as going in.
Ammo Type Cost Sm Dmg Med Dmg Large Dmg Crit Range Wt Type
Barbed Bolt 5 gp each 2d8 2d10 4d8 19-20 / x2 80 ft 0.25 lbs each Piercing (physical, common)
Weapon Qualities: Expendable
Barbed crossbow bolts are just about the nastiest things you'll ever see. They are stout, brutal devices, whose wicked barbs make the terrible wounds already inflicted by a crossbow much, much worse. Unlike normal bolts, barbed bolts are difficult to make and thus are expensive. They are typically made of the same woods as arrows, although in a thick, strong, graceless fashion, and are often fletched with thin shavings of horn or turtle shell. The massive barbed heads require considerable skill to forge and sharpen. Barbed bolts are heavier than standard bolts, and cannot be fired as far as standard bolts. Pointing a crossbow loaded with a barbed bolt at a someone is a very clear statement that you mean business.
Admit it. You were expecting a boxing glove on the end, weren't you?
Ammo Type Cost Sm Dmg Med Dmg Large Dmg Crit Range Wt Type
Blunt Bolt 5 cp each 2d6 2d8 3d8 19-20 / x2 60 ft 0.1 lbs each Bludgeoning (physical, common)
Weapon Qualities: Expendable
Blunt crossbow bolts have the simple conical tip of mild steel replaced by a small round bit of glued-on iron that covers the end of the thick wooden shaft. This means blunt bolts can be made without a blacksmith, just punched out bits of iron. As a result, the cost of blunt crossbow bolts is half that of standard bolts. Blunt bolts weigh the same and do the same amount of damage as regular bolts, although the range is halved. In a hand onager, blunt bolts grant the weapon the Sunder quality at range, since the Hand Onager is also a Siege Weapon.