I'm looking for a little insight for anyone with experience with a Gunslinger and advice to which path to take at 3rd level. I understand the play what is fun for me but at this point I am somewhat interested in others experiences. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.
Is Matthew's gunslinger available in here? If so I haven't found it yet.
I'll go out on a limb and say: not yet.
I expect to see the Gunslinger and the College of Maestro make their appearance when the Homebrew Sublcass system goes live on the site, as otherwise the "Critical Role" content slider in the character creator would feel a tad redundant given we currently only have the Blood Hunter :P
In any case, should it not become available then, I suspect at least 5 version will find their way to the publication queue in the first 10 minutes of the feature being available.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I really hope they get Matts gunslinger in. Im playing it in my game. Im playing as a Hafling gunslinger, since then i can reroll those nasty 1s. Matts gunslingerclass is not the most powerfull one, but as a fighter you get a lot of feats and its fun to ask the DM how far is it? and they answer like 300 feet, "well then im taking a shot". if you are building a gunslinger (after Mercers class) always go dex and then wis (for the grit). I personally have a stout hafling with dex,>con,>wis>int>cha>str because I like playing bulky characters, and as a fighter you get a nice hit die and proficiency with every weapon, so you are quite versitile. I have no problem being in the middle of the fray and if i misfire I just have to make due with my shortsword.
I'm currently playing a Half Orc Gunslinger by the name of Daichi and yeah, it's a fun class. Lucky rolls have let me go for feats on my first two levels (sharpshooter and a homebrew version of crossbow expert that works with a pistol instead of a handcrossbow. And minus the loading bit as thats a core and fun mechanic of the gunslinger anyway.)
I ended up choosing champion and ignored its features and put the gunslinger features in the notes. It works, but you dont get that cool counter for grit points.
Eventually planning to multi with a monk to see if Gunfu is possible xD
Thanks for the replies everyone. I have been pouring through different guides trying to find as much info as possible. Since Mercers version is not listed on here I am frankensteing my build for now. I hope to eventually get a more concrete look at his version. I'm not trying to min/max anything for it. I'm just wanting to make sure it's going to be effective and be a liability.
Mage Press has a decent Gunslinger from the Weird West. I really like the build. Unfortunately, the Gunslinger is a Class of it's own, not a subclass like Mercer's Gunslinger (available now as a subclass of Fighter). I am trying to play around with figuring out how to add it in, but not sure if I can modify a class for a character in that way or not. May need to either use a Barbarian or Monk to get the risk die. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Hopefully I'm not necro'ing this thread for you, but I've been playing Matt Mercer's gunslinger for over a year now, presently at character level 12, multiclasses with three levels of Deep Stalker ranger.
I will say this about the class: early on you'll have a ton of damage, especially if your DM lets you get ahold of a scattergun. Soon, however, that damage will drop off. Access to magical weapons can be difficult unless you're able to craft them yourself, or you're playing in a setting where A) guns already exist, and B) magical guns are common enough that you might find them as treasure from downed enemies.
The biggest hurdle the class faces, is that it takes what I refer to as the "Fighter Paradox" and kicks it into overdrive. It's long been known that people who play fighters detest the optional rule of critical failures. It punishes fighters more than any other class to have something even worse than missing happen when we roll a natural 1, because we're taking many more attacks. Under normal circumstances, there's a 5% chance for a critical miss, and a 5% chance for a critical success, and the more times you swing that axe/sword/hammer/gnome, the more times you're likely to experience either. To impose anything more, particularly to a fighter, than a miss on a natural 1 means that as the character levels and becomes more powerful and competent, they somehow get MORE clumsy and inexperienced with the weapon. It's completely counter-intuitive that a level 20 fighter drops his sword or hits his enemies more often than he did at level 1.
Now, when it comes to the Gunslinger, we have the "Misfire" rating on our guns. Take a Scattergun, or Bad News - the sniper rifle - for examples, with Misfire scores of 3. This means that any dice roll of 1, 2, or 3 creates a scenario where you must now sacrifice your entire next round's action in an attempt to fix the gun (up until gunslinger level 10, where you can make that attempt with a bonus action if you have a grit point to spend on it - many times you won't) or use a different gun and hope that the same thing doesn't happen, or you'll spend two rounds of combat doing nothing but making tinkering checks and probably watching your party either have all of the fun, or die. Firing a gun with a misfire score of 3 means that you have a 5% chance of critically hitting, thereby replenishing a point of grit and probably doing some nice damage, but a 15% chance of costing you your current turn and the following turn. The more attacks you take, the worse your odds get, and the worse your fighter will perform as the levels increase.
I'm sure that Misfire was added to mitigate some of the frontloaded damage that the class has, and it's true that burst damage scales down for melee classes in 5e at the higher levels anyway. However, consider that a level 12 Barbarian with a +2 great axe rolls a d12 for damage, likely has a +5 from STR, adds +3 from rage, and takes +10 from Great Weapon Master. Their damage per swing, outside of a couple niche weapons, outperforms the Gunslinger per hit. The weapons that change that for the Gunslinger are more prone to break, while the Barbarian just swings again. That being said, obviously, the Barbarian needs to be in melee range while the Gunslinger doesn't. However, a properly built totem barbarian thrives in the middle of a pack, and the fighter always seems to find their way to it one way or another.
All of this being said though, I still think it's the most fun class I've played. I've built John Wick (DM let me use crossbow expert with guns) - a grappling, sharpshooting assassin that killed one of his early arc's bbeg's in a single action-surged round, and few things are cooler than grappling an enemy, shoving them to the ground, and delivering a shot while keeping them from moving so you can target others. My advice is to pick a multiclass that will you can take up to three levels in, but no more, and that will grant you something other than combat abilities. If your DM is permissive, spend downtime trying to tinker up some ways to reduce misfire scores, as they'll hamper you in the late game. Most of all, understand where you're going to have trouble during combat, and find ways to be versatile when inevitably your plans A, B, C, and D all, very literally, fall apart on you!
I started rolling up a Gunslinger, and selected Halfling, because of the DEX bonus, and, I've never really played one before.
The Lucky reroll of a 1 is a nice workaround for the misfire deal, for pistols and such, as Ellieboi said. Maybe, since as Notlol says that it's kind of silly that as he gets better / attacks more, the chance of misfire goes up, perhaps my DM can find me a ring of Luck? Whatever - I can deal with that later, or multi-dip into some other level for added stuff.
Question: where are the Grit points? Is that mechanically something like Key points here?
Again I want to thank everyone for their insight. Notlol I have my Gunslinger ready to go as soon as I can get him into the action. I agree the misfire does seem to punish the Gunslinger for having a lot of damage out put. I have joined a campaign where we were lacking melee characters so I've had to put the hail of bullets on hold.
Am I the only one who gets rejected for using this class? I swear most DM's are like "Everything BUT GUNSLINGER!"
I get the "no guns in D&D" rule for some games. But, if you think my Gnome gunslinger is a murder hobo then you're crazy. I really like making crazy gadgets I could use on enemies. However, it's not like I'm making a Deagle. (I had a player ask me to craft a Deagle for them.) The most I make is Net launchers and Flask launchers. Not even counting the pistol and scattershot I carry.
I think most of this issue with the "Gunslinger" concept is the immersion breaking aspect of it. In a time period of swords and bows are the main idea of most D&D campaigns having the pistol and scattershot isn't widely ideal for most hardcore role players. With that being said DM's should be willing to work with their players to help fit in their character designs and concepts. There are ways to make everything inclusive.
So far I would be okay with pirate style weapons. But when a murder hobo Cleric asks me to craft a Deagle. I feel that breaks the immersion. I build launchers or gadgets to aid me against things that are bigger than me (Rock Gnome gunslinger). But yeah "Craft me 2 M16s and bless them, so I can have Holy M16s." ruins the fun of being in a fantasy. Sure Sharpshoot marksmen fighters are great but even that's broken.
All in all, I'm not a magic user. I hate magic in D&D so I tend to stay away from heavy magic classes. Yet, Gunslinger sounds interesting to run. Not looking to be Percy but a Rock Raccoon Gnome starts to turn heads in the game.
I'm looking for a little insight for anyone with experience with a Gunslinger and advice to which path to take at 3rd level. I understand the play what is fun for me but at this point I am somewhat interested in others experiences. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.
Are you using Matthew Mercers Gunslinger for 5e? or some other make?
Fake it til you make it.
Is Matthew's gunslinger available in here? If so I haven't found it yet.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I really hope they get Matts gunslinger in. Im playing it in my game. Im playing as a Hafling gunslinger, since then i can reroll those nasty 1s. Matts gunslingerclass is not the most powerfull one, but as a fighter you get a lot of feats and its fun to ask the DM how far is it? and they answer like 300 feet, "well then im taking a shot". if you are building a gunslinger (after Mercers class) always go dex and then wis (for the grit). I personally have a stout hafling with dex,>con,>wis>int>cha>str because I like playing bulky characters, and as a fighter you get a nice hit die and proficiency with every weapon, so you are quite versitile. I have no problem being in the middle of the fray and if i misfire I just have to make due with my shortsword.
Fake it til you make it.
I'm currently playing a Half Orc Gunslinger by the name of Daichi and yeah, it's a fun class. Lucky rolls have let me go for feats on my first two levels (sharpshooter and a homebrew version of crossbow expert that works with a pistol instead of a handcrossbow. And minus the loading bit as thats a core and fun mechanic of the gunslinger anyway.)
I ended up choosing champion and ignored its features and put the gunslinger features in the notes. It works, but you dont get that cool counter for grit points.
Eventually planning to multi with a monk to see if Gunfu is possible xD
Thanks for the replies everyone. I have been pouring through different guides trying to find as much info as possible. Since Mercers version is not listed on here I am frankensteing my build for now. I hope to eventually get a more concrete look at his version. I'm not trying to min/max anything for it. I'm just wanting to make sure it's going to be effective and be a liability.
If you want the achatype on paper here’s a Dropbox link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/82o72v47ddc8lzz/Gunslinger 5E.docx?dl=0
Mage Press has a decent Gunslinger from the Weird West. I really like the build. Unfortunately, the Gunslinger is a Class of it's own, not a subclass like Mercer's Gunslinger (available now as a subclass of Fighter). I am trying to play around with figuring out how to add it in, but not sure if I can modify a class for a character in that way or not. May need to either use a Barbarian or Monk to get the risk die. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
the gunslinger class is out now.
Where cause every time I find it... I t goes straight to fighter... Wtf?!?!?
Gunslinger is an archetype/subclass of Fighter - you select it once you reach 3rd level as a Fighter.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/classes/Gunslinger
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Thanks everyone for their input on this. I've had a delay in getting the character fleshed out, so I am just know getting back around to building him.
Hopefully I'm not necro'ing this thread for you, but I've been playing Matt Mercer's gunslinger for over a year now, presently at character level 12, multiclasses with three levels of Deep Stalker ranger.
I will say this about the class: early on you'll have a ton of damage, especially if your DM lets you get ahold of a scattergun. Soon, however, that damage will drop off. Access to magical weapons can be difficult unless you're able to craft them yourself, or you're playing in a setting where A) guns already exist, and B) magical guns are common enough that you might find them as treasure from downed enemies.
The biggest hurdle the class faces, is that it takes what I refer to as the "Fighter Paradox" and kicks it into overdrive. It's long been known that people who play fighters detest the optional rule of critical failures. It punishes fighters more than any other class to have something even worse than missing happen when we roll a natural 1, because we're taking many more attacks. Under normal circumstances, there's a 5% chance for a critical miss, and a 5% chance for a critical success, and the more times you swing that axe/sword/hammer/gnome, the more times you're likely to experience either. To impose anything more, particularly to a fighter, than a miss on a natural 1 means that as the character levels and becomes more powerful and competent, they somehow get MORE clumsy and inexperienced with the weapon. It's completely counter-intuitive that a level 20 fighter drops his sword or hits his enemies more often than he did at level 1.
Now, when it comes to the Gunslinger, we have the "Misfire" rating on our guns. Take a Scattergun, or Bad News - the sniper rifle - for examples, with Misfire scores of 3. This means that any dice roll of 1, 2, or 3 creates a scenario where you must now sacrifice your entire next round's action in an attempt to fix the gun (up until gunslinger level 10, where you can make that attempt with a bonus action if you have a grit point to spend on it - many times you won't) or use a different gun and hope that the same thing doesn't happen, or you'll spend two rounds of combat doing nothing but making tinkering checks and probably watching your party either have all of the fun, or die. Firing a gun with a misfire score of 3 means that you have a 5% chance of critically hitting, thereby replenishing a point of grit and probably doing some nice damage, but a 15% chance of costing you your current turn and the following turn. The more attacks you take, the worse your odds get, and the worse your fighter will perform as the levels increase.
I'm sure that Misfire was added to mitigate some of the frontloaded damage that the class has, and it's true that burst damage scales down for melee classes in 5e at the higher levels anyway. However, consider that a level 12 Barbarian with a +2 great axe rolls a d12 for damage, likely has a +5 from STR, adds +3 from rage, and takes +10 from Great Weapon Master. Their damage per swing, outside of a couple niche weapons, outperforms the Gunslinger per hit. The weapons that change that for the Gunslinger are more prone to break, while the Barbarian just swings again. That being said, obviously, the Barbarian needs to be in melee range while the Gunslinger doesn't. However, a properly built totem barbarian thrives in the middle of a pack, and the fighter always seems to find their way to it one way or another.
All of this being said though, I still think it's the most fun class I've played. I've built John Wick (DM let me use crossbow expert with guns) - a grappling, sharpshooting assassin that killed one of his early arc's bbeg's in a single action-surged round, and few things are cooler than grappling an enemy, shoving them to the ground, and delivering a shot while keeping them from moving so you can target others. My advice is to pick a multiclass that will you can take up to three levels in, but no more, and that will grant you something other than combat abilities. If your DM is permissive, spend downtime trying to tinker up some ways to reduce misfire scores, as they'll hamper you in the late game. Most of all, understand where you're going to have trouble during combat, and find ways to be versatile when inevitably your plans A, B, C, and D all, very literally, fall apart on you!
I started rolling up a Gunslinger, and selected Halfling, because of the DEX bonus, and, I've never really played one before.
The Lucky reroll of a 1 is a nice workaround for the misfire deal, for pistols and such, as Ellieboi said. Maybe, since as Notlol says that it's kind of silly that as he gets better / attacks more, the chance of misfire goes up, perhaps my DM can find me a ring of Luck? Whatever - I can deal with that later, or multi-dip into some other level for added stuff.
Question: where are the Grit points? Is that mechanically something like Key points here?
Again I want to thank everyone for their insight. Notlol I have my Gunslinger ready to go as soon as I can get him into the action. I agree the misfire does seem to punish the Gunslinger for having a lot of damage out put. I have joined a campaign where we were lacking melee characters so I've had to put the hail of bullets on hold.
Am I the only one who gets rejected for using this class? I swear most DM's are like "Everything BUT GUNSLINGER!"
I get the "no guns in D&D" rule for some games. But, if you think my Gnome gunslinger is a murder hobo then you're crazy. I really like making crazy gadgets I could use on enemies. However, it's not like I'm making a Deagle. (I had a player ask me to craft a Deagle for them.) The most I make is Net launchers and Flask launchers. Not even counting the pistol and scattershot I carry.
I think most of this issue with the "Gunslinger" concept is the immersion breaking aspect of it. In a time period of swords and bows are the main idea of most D&D campaigns having the pistol and scattershot isn't widely ideal for most hardcore role players. With that being said DM's should be willing to work with their players to help fit in their character designs and concepts. There are ways to make everything inclusive.
So far I would be okay with pirate style weapons. But when a murder hobo Cleric asks me to craft a Deagle. I feel that breaks the immersion. I build launchers or gadgets to aid me against things that are bigger than me (Rock Gnome gunslinger). But yeah "Craft me 2 M16s and bless them, so I can have Holy M16s." ruins the fun of being in a fantasy. Sure Sharpshoot marksmen fighters are great but even that's broken.
All in all, I'm not a magic user. I hate magic in D&D so I tend to stay away from heavy magic classes. Yet, Gunslinger sounds interesting to run. Not looking to be Percy but a Rock Raccoon Gnome starts to turn heads in the game.
I agree. Holy M-16s are a bit much. Gunslinger has a lot of good qualities. I look forward to running mine sometime soon.