I love the idea of gunslingers in high fantasy. There are wizards who studied for years for their powers, chad sorcerers who inherited magic, honor bound knights, fighting monks, druids, etc and then there is just some guy named Cleet or something that has gun and an itchy trigger finger. Someone sneaks up on the party, the wizard prepares a world ending spell, the barbarian breaks a wall, monk gets into a stance, the bard starts strumming, paladin prepares smite, and then Cleet just goes bang and its dead.
Honestly? This could be applied to fighters in general. Every other class has some kind of special power that makes them powerful or cool, and fighters just pick up a piece of metal and kill a god.
Honestly? This could be applied to fighters in general. Every other class has some kind of special power that makes them powerful or cool, and fighters just pick up a piece of metal and kill a god.
Rogues as well in general really, they do sneaky attacks but, specific subclasses like soul knife and arcane trickster aside, generally are just hitting people with weapons.
I don't think it's so outlandish; they say necessity is the mother of all invention, so if you're a boring normy in a world of wizards and dragons, why not develop better weapons to fight with?
Plus they're not "just some guy"; the Gunslinger theme includes weaponsmithing with Tinker's Tools proficiency and the ability to craft ammo and guns, so these are people who have set out to make their weapons, or make them better. It implies more dedication than a trip down to Walmart to buy an AR-15.
I'm playing an Eberron one-shot soon as Bullette, the Minotauress Gunslinger. I'm using some homebrew (see Gunfighter and Brute Minotaur), but basically the idea is that she learned her craft from a gnome artificer who rebelled against the idea that firearms should be made (and mostly used by) artificers, and that they should be usable (and craftable) without magic to level the playing field. When her mentor died, Bullette decided to continue the work by taking the weapons out for "field testing".
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Thank you for the feedback! when I said just some guy I was generalizing what they are, at least for me, normally played as. Your character is a super cool btw
I know it was a comedic exaggeration, and so this little tangent is probably unnecessary but it happened to prick my 'fighters are only boring and generic if you make them that' bone.
Fighters really aren't 'just some guy' in general. You could start that way at level 1, afterall a level 1 in any class should still be relatively inexperienced even if they've learned a few spells etc.
But say a level 10-12 level gunslinger at the end of the campaign facing down the BBEG isn't 'some guy with a gun and an itch trigger finger' but more like a Clint Eastwood character, John WIck, Revy from Black Lagoon, or a million other cool ways you could spin them.
The problem here isn’t characterizing a gunslinger as some guy with a gun and an itch trigger finger, it’s generalizing people with guns as just some guy with an itchy trigger finger…
Thank you for the feedback! when I said just some guy I was generalizing what they are, at least for me, normally played as. Your character is a super cool btw
Thanks! I should clarify I was trying to be tongue in cheek as well (I'm just bad at conveying it in text), heh.
But I think the problem you're sort of alluding to isn't really specific to Gunslinger; as MilestoGo_24 saysthe same is true of most fighters, especially any with a bow or crossbow as they also "just" shoot the monster. Even Barbarians are a little bit more mechanically special thanks to their unique (and in some cases pseudo-magical) rage state, whereas the fighter just fights. What makes them special is being good at fighting; I love the class, but it's definitely a bit one note mechanically, and while action surge feels great to use at the right moment, when it comes down to it it's really just more fighting.
So it's a funny thing about fighters overall, plus maybe the non-magical Rogue sub-classes, as what they do is basically just skill, there's no magic or anything "special" involved (though Uncanny Dodge maybe implies Rogues have luck on their side).
We do have some exceptions like Arcane Archer, Eldritch Knight and Rune Knight, but Gunslinger is more like a specialised Battle Master so falls squarely into the "normy" category.
They are however a lot of fun to play, and sometimes in an outlandish group what you need is a "straight man" fighter who just gets down to business while the rest are throwing out all the weird and wonderful nonsense. Of course you can still play an outlandish fighter in terms of who they are, how they behave etc., but mechanically they'll still be a bread and butter "wade in and make stuff be not alive any longer" type.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Yeah, I get what you mean lol, I just made the thread as a joke. In my party, we have this really annoying guy who has some very... dislikable opinions but we try to keep those out of the game. To annoy him I have my gunslinger not ad-here to the standard societal norms of a tough-guy gunslinger and I made him fruity as hell. Brokeback mountain style lol. He says the time period I based my character off of (French Revolution, 1832 one.) the gunslinger would be taken out into the streets and killed. I just annoy him with my character's choices as much as possible. He's a lower class revolutionary joining the party after getting lost in a skirmish, intent on returning back as soon as they finish the dungeon, he came back to find his revolution has failed and the monarchy and upper class is still in complete control. All his friends are dead, he kinda has a les miserables empty chairs at empty tables scene. The party felt bad and kinda put off the entire main story to help with the revolution. They weren't really doing much anyway as we had just started but now they're in the middle of fighting a war. Problem dude doesn't want to help but begrudgingly oes cuz the rest of the party is.
Yeah, I get what you mean lol, I just made the thread as a joke. In my party, we have this really annoying guy who has some very... dislikable opinions but we try to keep those out of the game. To annoy him I have my gunslinger not ad-here to the standard societal norms of a tough-guy gunslinger and I made him fruity as hell. Brokeback mountain style lol. He says the time period I based my character off of (French Revolution, 1832 one.) the gunslinger would be taken out into the streets and killed. I just annoy him with my character's choices as much as possible. He's a lower class revolutionary joining the party after getting lost in a skirmish, intent on returning back as soon as they finish the dungeon, he came back to find his revolution has failed and the monarchy and upper class is still in complete control. All his friends are dead, he kinda has a les miserables empty chairs at empty tables scene. The party felt bad and kinda put off the entire main story to help with the revolution. They weren't really doing much anyway as we had just started but now they're in the middle of fighting a war. Problem dude doesn't want to help but begrudgingly oes cuz the rest of the party is.
Personally I think this is a really cool character concept. And it's not like the Forgotten Realms/5E actually tries to be historically accurate in the first place anyway.
Yeah, I get what you mean lol, I just made the thread as a joke. In my party, we have this really annoying guy who has some very... dislikable opinions but we try to keep those out of the game. To annoy him I have my gunslinger not ad-here to the standard societal norms of a tough-guy gunslinger and I made him fruity as hell. Brokeback mountain style lol. He says the time period I based my character off of (French Revolution, 1832 one.) the gunslinger would be taken out into the streets and killed. I just annoy him with my character's choices as much as possible. He's a lower class revolutionary joining the party after getting lost in a skirmish, intent on returning back as soon as they finish the dungeon, he came back to find his revolution has failed and the monarchy and upper class is still in complete control. All his friends are dead, he kinda has a les miserables empty chairs at empty tables scene. The party felt bad and kinda put off the entire main story to help with the revolution. They weren't really doing much anyway as we had just started but now they're in the middle of fighting a war. Problem dude doesn't want to help but begrudgingly oes cuz the rest of the party is.
He's actually wrong about what would happen to your character during that time, Assuming they avoided a few certain kinds of behaviors in any public fashion. Being Foppish or a Dandy weren't uncommon traits to barely in the closet men in certain levels of society... and some straight men trying to avoid having to deal with certain things or wealthy enough not to have to.
I don't know exactly how you portray your character, just a kind of vague sense based on a very basic description idea. But it's just something that struck me enough for some reason to kind of correct.
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I love the idea of gunslingers in high fantasy. There are wizards who studied for years for their powers, chad sorcerers who inherited magic, honor bound knights, fighting monks, druids, etc and then there is just some guy named Cleet or something that has gun and an itchy trigger finger. Someone sneaks up on the party, the wizard prepares a world ending spell, the barbarian breaks a wall, monk gets into a stance, the bard starts strumming, paladin prepares smite, and then Cleet just goes bang and its dead.
Honestly? This could be applied to fighters in general. Every other class has some kind of special power that makes them powerful or cool, and fighters just pick up a piece of metal and kill a god.
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Ah, well, it depends. You can get Arcane Gunslinger Artificers, Barbarians that simply head-butt, and similar.
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Rogues as well in general really, they do sneaky attacks but, specific subclasses like soul knife and arcane trickster aside, generally are just hitting people with weapons.
I don't think it's so outlandish; they say necessity is the mother of all invention, so if you're a boring normy in a world of wizards and dragons, why not develop better weapons to fight with?
Plus they're not "just some guy"; the Gunslinger theme includes weaponsmithing with Tinker's Tools proficiency and the ability to craft ammo and guns, so these are people who have set out to make their weapons, or make them better. It implies more dedication than a trip down to Walmart to buy an AR-15.
I'm playing an Eberron one-shot soon as Bullette, the Minotauress Gunslinger. I'm using some homebrew (see Gunfighter and Brute Minotaur), but basically the idea is that she learned her craft from a gnome artificer who rebelled against the idea that firearms should be made (and mostly used by) artificers, and that they should be usable (and craftable) without magic to level the playing field. When her mentor died, Bullette decided to continue the work by taking the weapons out for "field testing".
So there's your "some guy" 😘
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Thank you for the feedback! when I said just some guy I was generalizing what they are, at least for me, normally played as. Your character is a super cool btw
I know it was a comedic exaggeration, and so this little tangent is probably unnecessary but it happened to prick my 'fighters are only boring and generic if you make them that' bone.
Fighters really aren't 'just some guy' in general. You could start that way at level 1, afterall a level 1 in any class should still be relatively inexperienced even if they've learned a few spells etc.
But say a level 10-12 level gunslinger at the end of the campaign facing down the BBEG isn't 'some guy with a gun and an itch trigger finger' but more like a Clint Eastwood character, John WIck, Revy from Black Lagoon, or a million other cool ways you could spin them.
The problem here isn’t characterizing a gunslinger as some guy with a gun and an itch trigger finger, it’s generalizing people with guns as just some guy with an itchy trigger finger…
Thanks! I should clarify I was trying to be tongue in cheek as well (I'm just bad at conveying it in text), heh.
But I think the problem you're sort of alluding to isn't really specific to Gunslinger; as MilestoGo_24 says the same is true of most fighters, especially any with a bow or crossbow as they also "just" shoot the monster. Even Barbarians are a little bit more mechanically special thanks to their unique (and in some cases pseudo-magical) rage state, whereas the fighter just fights. What makes them special is being good at fighting; I love the class, but it's definitely a bit one note mechanically, and while action surge feels great to use at the right moment, when it comes down to it it's really just more fighting.
So it's a funny thing about fighters overall, plus maybe the non-magical Rogue sub-classes, as what they do is basically just skill, there's no magic or anything "special" involved (though Uncanny Dodge maybe implies Rogues have luck on their side).
We do have some exceptions like Arcane Archer, Eldritch Knight and Rune Knight, but Gunslinger is more like a specialised Battle Master so falls squarely into the "normy" category.
They are however a lot of fun to play, and sometimes in an outlandish group what you need is a "straight man" fighter who just gets down to business while the rest are throwing out all the weird and wonderful nonsense. Of course you can still play an outlandish fighter in terms of who they are, how they behave etc., but mechanically they'll still be a bread and butter "wade in and make stuff be not alive any longer" type.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Yeah, I get what you mean lol, I just made the thread as a joke. In my party, we have this really annoying guy who has some very... dislikable opinions but we try to keep those out of the game. To annoy him I have my gunslinger not ad-here to the standard societal norms of a tough-guy gunslinger and I made him fruity as hell. Brokeback mountain style lol. He says the time period I based my character off of (French Revolution, 1832 one.) the gunslinger would be taken out into the streets and killed. I just annoy him with my character's choices as much as possible. He's a lower class revolutionary joining the party after getting lost in a skirmish, intent on returning back as soon as they finish the dungeon, he came back to find his revolution has failed and the monarchy and upper class is still in complete control. All his friends are dead, he kinda has a les miserables empty chairs at empty tables scene. The party felt bad and kinda put off the entire main story to help with the revolution. They weren't really doing much anyway as we had just started but now they're in the middle of fighting a war. Problem dude doesn't want to help but begrudgingly oes cuz the rest of the party is.
Personally I think this is a really cool character concept. And it's not like the Forgotten Realms/5E actually tries to be historically accurate in the first place anyway.
He's actually wrong about what would happen to your character during that time, Assuming they avoided a few certain kinds of behaviors in any public fashion. Being Foppish or a Dandy weren't uncommon traits to barely in the closet men in certain levels of society... and some straight men trying to avoid having to deal with certain things or wealthy enough not to have to.
I don't know exactly how you portray your character, just a kind of vague sense based on a very basic description idea. But it's just something that struck me enough for some reason to kind of correct.