Bombard

Bombard(Cannon)
Basic Information
Value	20,000 gp
Statistics
Range	1,000 yds (2 hexes)
Damage - Hull	1d6 hull points
Damage - Crew	2d10 hit points
Crew	3
Rate of Fire	1/3 rounds
Special	Critical hit on a 20.

A Bombard (or cannon) is a type of heavy weapon mounted on various spelljamming ships in the Spelljammer campaign setting.

"Trooper, what's better than a Regulation Ballista, single mount?
A Regulation Bombard, with powder, sir!"
- An example of Giff military humor.

Description

A typical bombard has a short, thick barrel cast from bronze and is mounted on a rigid wooden base. It is designed to launch a stone or metal ball (known as shot]) at high speed at a target vessel, using an explosive magical substance known as smokepowder. A single shot from a bombard requires at least 10 charges of smokepowder, and produces a great deal of heat and debris inside the barrel which need to be cooled and cleared before the weapon can be fired again, accounting for its slow rate of fire. Bombards are fixed in position once mounted (unless mounted in a turret), but can be remounted in a new position within 10 to 40 minutes.

Bombards are relatively rare in the Known Spheres, both because of their unreliability and because the chemical or magical reactions on which they depend varies from world to world, and from sphere to sphere. Smoke powder (also known as gunpowder) may work perfectly fine in one sphere, only to be inert in the next. Another reason for their scarcity is that smokepowder is relatively unstable, and does not travel well. A hit on a ship that carries a bombard has a chance of igniting the smoke powder magazine, causing an explosion (which is, of course, especially catastrophic in the phlogiston). The scarcity of smoke powder ensures that bombards remain impractical when compared to ballistae and catapults.

Magical Bombards

As with standard weapons, a bombard may be enchanted with an enhancement bonus, ranging from +1 to +3. For most enchanted bombards, the enhancement affects both accuracy and damage, but in about a third, the enchantment enhances the weapon's range. Magical bombards have the same chance of backfiring, but are not destroyed in the resulting explosion.

Below is a list of enchanted bombards and their relative costs.

Bombard	+1	+2	+3
	50,000 gp	100,000 gp	200,000 gp

Appendix

See Also

• Bombard shot
• Mage shot
• Giff gun

External Links

• Bombard article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.