Siege Lens

This device, invented by the Siegemaster during a rare moment of simple inspiration, appears as a giant magnifying lens, mounted on a wheeled platform.

Ultimate Equipment Guide II

Author Greg Lynch, J. C. Alvarez
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2005

The magnifying glass is secured to a long, wooden arm, which may be aimed and positioned with relative ease. The glass focuses sunlight to the point it deals fire damage to any target it is aimed at, providing a cheap and deadly weapon in an ingenious way, despite its drawbacks: not only is the device useless during the night, even in daylight it must be positioned so it does take advantage from the sunrays, which may take quite a bit of time and effort.

Therefore, even though highly specialised, a siege lens is an effective and deadly weapon, obtained from an apparently harmless device. A typical siege lens has the same size and general shape of a catapult, with the difference its arm ends in a seven-foot diameter lens.

During the late morning and noon hours, positioning a siege lens so it can deal damage takes one minute. At any other daylight hour, the task requires 1d6 minutes (1d6 times ten rounds). If there is no natural sunlight, it is impossible to make effective use of a siege lens. Once a siege lens has been properly positioned, aiming it takes one additional full-round action. At least two crewmembers are required to position and aim a siege lens.

An aimed siege lens deals progressive damage to a single creature or object on the square it is aimed at. The damage dealt each round is determined by the time the siege lens remains aiming at the same square, according to the Siege Lens Damage table.

Any target damaged by a siege lens has a cumulative 10% chance per round of catching on fire, as detailed in the SRD.

If a target moves from the affected square, the siege lens must be re-aimed so as to affect that target again; therefore, a siege lens is best used to affect stationary targets. Each time a siege lens is aimed at a new square, the round and damage count starts over.

Siege Lens: 1,000 gp; Dmg (see text); Critical -; Range -; Typical Crew 4

Siege Lens Damage
Round Number1	Fire Damage Per Round
1-2	1
3-4	1d2
5-6	1d3
7-8	1d4
9	1d6