Overview

Ballistae are large artillery weapons capable of firing bolt ammunition long distances. Much like bows, ballistae are capable of inflicting effective damage against Flying Units like Pegasus Knights and Wyvern Riders and cannot be countered.

As a Weapon

In Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and its remake, Shadow Dragon, ballistae are a weapon type employed exclusively by the Ballistician class. There are five types of ballistae in these games:

• Thunderbolt, a ballista that inflicts bonus damage to enemy ballisticians.
• Stonehoist, a standard but inaccurate ballista.
• Hoistflamme, a more accurate, but slightly less durable and weaker ballista as compared to the Stonehoist.
• Arrowspate, a ballista that inflicts bonus damage to flying units.
• Pachyderm, a ballista that inflicts the highest damage against a regular target. It has more accuracy than a Stonehoist, but has low durability.

As weapons, ballistae are capable of attacking at range, but feature lower than average movement, making them slow to maneuver.

As Terrain

In the majority of titles in which ballistae appear, they function as stationary weapons positioned on battlefields as part of the terrain. These ballistae can be used by bow-wielding classes such as the Archer, Sniper, or Marksman.

In The Binding Blade, ballistae are a terrain type that grants 5 avoid. Like forests and other spaces that provide cover, passing through them costs extra movement, and ballista spaces require 2 movement spaces to traverse. The interesting thing is that this applies to flying units as well, making the ballista space the only terrain in the game that affects the movement of fliers.

In Linus's version of The Blazing Blade, Chapter 23, a ballista is positioned next next to Linus himself with an exceptionally long attack range of 15 tiles, sufficient to target a unit visiting the red-roofed house on the southeastern corner of the map.

In games such as Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, there are three variations of the ballista. Bronze Ballistae have normal power, similar in nature to ballistae that appear in earlier titles.. The Iron Ballista is slightly stronger in power and the Killer Ballista comes with an upped critical percentage, increasing the chance of taking out enemy units with one strike. In Radiant Dawn, ballistae do not have weapon effectiveness against Dracoknights.

Ballistae are also present in Fire Emblem: Fates. Similar to other games, they appear as map tiles and can be used for long-ranged attacks by archers.

Weapon Stats

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Gallery

The Ballista, as it appears in the Anthology series of the TCG.

A Killer Ballista in The Binding Blade.

A Ballista in The Blazing Blade.

A Ballista in The Sacred Stones.