I don't know if people are that interested in suggestions for how Balistas could work as opposed to how they currently do but I have some ideas and thought id share them.

My main idea for players is simply that if a Balista is within a ward then it should not fire on anyone white listed by the Ward.

My idea for monsters is that you have to put up a trophy, either in some sort of inventory connected to the Balista or on a holder within a certain distance from the balista. Then the balista will shoot at either the targets that can drop the trophy or anything else.

I think it would work for balencing if you have to put a trophy up for a balista to target the same creatures, since you would have to get the trophy first this way and then you can have the balista due the work in the future.

Just some thoughts I had on it.

Although I like the idea of using these in PVP so I wouldn't want to have them not functioning against other players which don't drop trophies so I would like a combination of both of these systems if possible.

Alternatively, you could buff the damage by a ton and make them a mountable weapon instead of an automatic one. This is not ideal in my opinion but its better than getting sniped by your own balistas.