Base Class: Rogue
Gunslingers are skilled marksmen who have acquired their skill through hard earned experience rather than official training. Common in high risk environments such as wilderness fringes, lawless towns, and areas prone to monster attacks. Gunslingers value toughness and self-reliance. They choose to live and die by the gun; rather than rely on the absent or impotent authorities. They have established their own code of honour, which they enforce with pistol duels. Some prefer to live by the motto: "shoot first, ask questions later".
Basic Gun Training
Starting when you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with two types of one-handed firearms, pistols and revolvers, allowing you to add your proficiency bonus to attacks made with them.
- Pistols (cost 120g): have a range of 80/320 ft, deal 1d8 piercing damage on hit, and can fire 3 shots before needing to be reloaded as a Bonus action. If you roll a 1 on the d20 attack roll a pistol will jam, requiring you to spend an action clearing it. Pistols are Light weapons and can be used for dual wielding but you cannot clear or reload while dual wielding.
- Revolvers (cost 100g): have a range of 80/320 ft, deal 1d10 piercing damage on hit, and can fire 6 shots before needing to be reloaded as an Action. Revolvers are Light weapons and can be used for dual wielding but you cannot reload while dual wielding.
Gunslinger Code
At 3rd level, choose one code to follow. Evil characters must choose Shoot first, ask questions later. Good characters must choose Honourable Duel.
Honourable Duel
As a Bonus Action, make a Charisma (Persuasion) check contested by the target's Wisdom (Insight). On success the target has disadvantage on attacks that do not target you for 1 minute or until you use this feature again.
Shoot first, ask questions later
You have +3 to your initiative. You have advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks against creature you have fired your gun at.
Magic Shot
At 9th level, your guns/bullets count as magical weapons for purposes of overcoming resistance/immunity to non-magical damage.
Clear Shot
At 13th level, you have improved your ability to hit with ranged attacks. You have advantage on ranged attacks against creatures that are not obscured or behind cover and are not within 5ft of any other creature.
Quick Shot
At 17th level, you have learned to make quick reactions with your guns. When attacked by a creature, you can use your reaction to make a ranged attack against them. Hit or miss they have disadvantage on the triggering attack.
Previous Versions
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2/14/2019 12:40:50 AM
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Posted Apr 16, 2026And have some long rest cap on the quick shot
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Posted Apr 16, 2026Make a feature that allows me to use cunning action to reload my pistol at 3rd level
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Posted Aug 19, 2022Pistols are more complex firearms mechanically since they must mechanically reject the cartridge after each shot, whereas revolvers leave the cartridge in the weapon. This is also why the Pistols can be reloaded as a bonus action - since new ammunition just has to be put into the weapon - whereas revolvers require a full action to reload.
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Posted Aug 16, 2022-
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Posted Jun 18, 2019No real person obeys rules always, but mechanics should reinforce what your characters do most of the time. In this case, most of the time a good character shouldn't be torturing/intimidating other characters. That doesn't mean they can't do it occasionally but the mechanics of their character shouldn't encourage them to do it or make them especially good at doing it. Likewise an Evil character can occasionally be self-sacrificing but they shouldn't be acting self-sacrificially in every single fight nor should they be the most effective character at being self-sacrificing in the party. Hence why I restrict the options.
It's no harsher than the proficiency restrictions for the different classes - a Mastermind Rogue really shouldn't know more about Nature than a Druid, and the Druid shouldn't know more about Arcane magic than a wizard.
PS I couldn't figure out a way to actually limit the options by alignment so its all just flavour text that people are free to ignore if they wish. Just as they are free to interpret "good" and "evil" however they wish. But I stand by the alignment limitations, and if you are playing a "good" character that routinely threatens to blow someone's head/fingers off with their gun, you should really consider whether that character wouldn't be better described as "neutral".
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Posted Jun 17, 2019Well, that's kind of tied into the problem a lot of people have with D&D's alignment system. An evil person can still have people they love, and therefore people they would sacrifice themselves for. A good person can still make use of intimidation, especially if it's against someone they believe is evil and if they're doing it for what they believe is the greater good.
I think it would be fine to not gate the options behind alignment. Then it's up to the player how they use it, and it can be up to the DM whether either one is being used for good or evil.
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Posted Apr 3, 2019The alignment restrictions are there because they make sense. The Honourable Duel feature is putting yourself at risk to protect the rest of the party, which is something Evil characters shouldn't be doing, but Good characters should. Whereas the Shoot First, Ask Questions Later feature encourages torturing your prisoners, which is definitely not something Good characters should be doing.
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Posted Mar 31, 2019I like the gunslinger code abilities but I think its a little annoying that the abilities are alignment restricted.
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Posted Feb 14, 2019Updates for Version 1.1: