I've been tempted to play the Critical Role Gunslinger Fighter sub-class for a while, but its always felt a bit strange mechanically due to the custom firearms and a lack of real options in terms of customisation, as the mechanics of customisation presumably happened mostly as behind the scenes discussion. There are also various issues with balance and some of the mechanics, such as Misfire which, though appropriate, can be more of a hindrance than a benefit to gameplay.
So I decided to take a stab at adapting the Gunslinger firstly to use the simpler Dungeonmaster's Guide firearms, with all the necessary tweaking that entails, as well as changing the trick shots to rebalance, remove and replace some. I've also tried to develop a system of upgrades and an outline for crafting them to give the sub-class a clear equipment progression since firearms cannot usually be found, and there are no magical firearms as standard, though this aspect isn't actually Gunfighter specific (you could use the same crafting guideline for a character that learns Firearms proficiency such as an Artificer).
The idea with the Gunfighter is to capture the same kind of flavour of a Gunslinger; they're a tinkerer but also supremely skilled with their own creations, with trick shots and traits to reflect this. I'll detail in a later post the exact changes from Gunslinger to Gunfighter.
Update:
The Gunfighter sub-class has now been released! You can find it here.
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.
Apologies about the formatting, it looks a lot nicer on the actual homebrew page, but I don't want to share that while I'm still tweaking it.
The complete list of changes from Gunslinger to Gunfighter is as follows:
Firearms Proficiency: Uses DMG firearms, this means your firearms options are a bit weaker (shorter ranged) and more expensive, but lack the Misfire mechanic.
Gunsmith: Grants proficiency in Tinker's Tools, doubled when using them for firearms, making this the ideal sub-class for firearm crafting without some other form of expertise bonus (feat or multi-classing).
Grit: Points of grit are no longer tied to your Wisdom modifier, instead four are awarded at 3rd level, plus one more at 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th and 18th level for a total of nine. You no longer recover a point of grit on a critical or a kill (easily forgotten).
Flourish: This is a new 7th level flavour trait, giving advantage to stylish nonsense like spinning your pistol every time you draw or holster it, replacing Lightning Reload. Can be used for effect with a DM's permission, such as a distraction, or flicking a palm pistol into your hand for surprise or such.
True Grit: Since Rapid Repair was redundant without Misfire, I replaced it with regaining one expended grit point whenever you use Indomitable, so ideal for when you're being pushed to re-roll bad saves (things are getting a bit hairy). You also gain the ability to spend grit to reduce the DC of skill shots (shooting out a lock, cutting a rope etc.); this is pure gunfighter cinematic nonsense, allowing for you to make impossible shots like busting a lock, cutting a rope etc. from a range.
Deadshot: Relocated Vicious Intent (firearm critical hits on 19 or 20).
Masterful Shooter: Allows you to apply two or three trick shots to one firearm attack, which can lead to some strong combinations, but means burning through grit even faster. This is most useful for an opening shot, as having multiple attacks means you can normally just spread out your trick shots. You also regain one grit on a miss, so while you're spending at least two, you won't lose them all if you gamble and lose.
Haemorrhaging Critical: I removed this, as extra effects on a critical are a bit of a pain to track (and easy to forget).
Trick Shots:
Aimed Shot: Renamed Deadeye Shot now requires your bonus action to make it less of a no-brainer, as it limits other abilities, as well as reloading, making it better for an opening shot or when you really need it (enemy has high AC).
Bullying Shot: I removed this as it feels too much like something anybody with a firearm should just be able to do. If I shoot a firearm as part of an intimidation attempt then I would ask my DM for advantage, on the understanding that the tradeoff is the loud noise being made.
Dazing Shot: Disadvantage on all attacks was too powerful I think, and trying to make it just the first gets clunky. Instead I opted to make this a "prevents reactions" ability, only requiring a hit, making it an easy de-buffing trick shot.
Disarming Shot: Removed the 10 foot push on disarmed objects, making this consistent with the Disarming Strike Battle Master manoeuvre. Never made sense really anyway as an item could be heavy and since you're still damaging the target you're most likely shooting their arm or hand, not the item.
Forceful Shot: I removed this as it always felt weird to me. I know Battle Masters have a Pushing Attack that can do the same (including on ranged attacks) but I prefer not to copy too many.
Fusilade: This is for a pistolero build (lots of pistols), allowing you to gain bonus damage when switching between firearms during a turn – you can use this with muskets, but would need to prepare somehow (lay them out ready to fire).
Lethal Shot: Replacement for Violent Shot; with Misfire removed the damage bonus has been reduced to d6, but you can still spend multiple grit to gamble on a hit and do potentially quite a lot of bonus damage. Maximum grit you can spend on one shot is limited by Wisdom.
Lightning Reload: Trait moved into a trick shot and rejigged. This Trick Shot enables a Gunfighter to burn grit to reload twice per turn or to ignore the Loading property for one firearm for one turn.
Piercing Shot: Reimagined version of this Gunslinger trick shot; works on a target that is covering another within 10 feet, on hit the covered creature takes 1d6 + your WIS in automatic damage.
Powder Blast: This is a "get out of dodge" trick shot usable at the start of your turn against one to three enemies within 5 feet of you (and each other), it deals modest automatic thunder damage and pushes you back five feet to escape attacks of opportunity, at a cost in grit and powder.
Ricochet: This is pure cinematic gunfighter nonsense, allowing you to spend grit to bounce your shot to hit a target you can't hit directly (or might struggle to). It's mostly up to your DM how much grit this will cost, but it potentially lets you bypass cover completely for a couple of grit points, or do something crazy for a few more.
Smokescreen: This is a utility trick shot, letting you create a small area of smoke from your gun as cover. Might be a little weak in terms of realism, but in my mind the grit is the cost of you retroactively remembering to load a special powder mix that's useless as a propellent, but produces lots of smoke.
Surprise Shot: This is a kind of Riposte equivalent, allowing you to shoot a firearm if an attacker misses you with a melee attack. Of course if you're musket-oriented this will be with disadvantage normally, but if you're using a pistol you can ignore that. Either way you also do extra damage equal to WIS if you hit.
Warning Shot: This is a fun addition, as it lets you turn a missed shot into a possible benefit by spending your reaction and a grit point to force the target to take a WIS save or be Frightened of you. The trade off being your reaction, grit and having missed.
Winging Shot: Mostly unchanged except it now requires a Large or smaller target to bring it in line with a Battle Master's Trip Attack.
And then of course there's the list of suggested upgrades, including magical upgrades, and a sample system for crafting (total up the time costs, roll tinker's tools for each hour spent to see if more than an hour's work gets done). The costs of the upgrades probably aren't terribly well balanced; I've tried to keep the total magical upgrade costs in line with magic items of similar strength, without making them a project that takes months of game time to complete, though the rarity of enchanted materials is an easy control mechanism for the DM to use to prevent them being added too early.
I've tried to give a reasonable mix of non-magical upgrades as well, allowing you to boost weapon range or trade range for other benefits, enabling you to upgrade your musket into a sniper rifle, or a blunderbuss, or to make a pepperbox by adding a bunch of barrels to your pistol and so-on. Most upgrades are loosely justifiable for the kind of firearms for the time period represented in Forgotten Realms D&D, as even mad things like gun-blades did actually exist (though they had dubious effectiveness, so these are more fantasy oriented in terms of usefulness).
My intention is that if your character starts at a higher level in order to already be a Gunfighter at the start of a campaign, then your DM might give you one or two weapons with one or two upgrades each, and you'd add to them over the campaign to make them incrementally more useful (and more powerful, with magical upgrades).
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This is a placeholder FAQ for some questions/clarifications I feel take too much space to work into the rules themselves, and which I'll probably add as a comment on the published version:
Gunfighter
General:
Can I use Exandrian firearms with the Gunfighter sub-class? No. These use their own special rules that do not interact well with the Gunfighter, as it was redesigned to operate with the simpler Dungeon Master's Guide firearms instead. The crafting upgrades are intended to allow you to reproduce many of the Exandrian firearms such as a Palm Pistol (concealable), Pepperbox (multiple barrels 6) or Bad News (rifled musket with telescopic sight and magical upgrade adding damage), as well as a wide range of other weapon variations.
How do Dual Wielder and Quickdraw interact? A Gunfighter with Quickdraw and the Dual Wielder feat can stow and draw two pistols per turn.
If I start a campaign as a level 3 Gunfighter, can I take a firearm as a martial weapon? Ask your DM – while you could argue that a firearm should be a valid martial weapon choice for a Gunfighter, they are technically their own category of weapon. Also keep in mind that firearms are much more expensive than other starting equipment (a hand crossbow is 75 gp, a pistol is 250 gp).
Tricks Shots:
Can I combine a Fusillade with other trick shots? Not until you gain the Masterful Shooter feature. This is because a Fusillade is a trick shot that applies to every attack you make during the turn.
How do I maximise the damage of a Fusillade? While the per-shot damage bonus of a Fusillade is small, it applies to every attack you make during the turn, which means the more you can make the better. To get the most out of a Fusillade you will need multiple pistols with holsters (so that you can draw them as a free action) and lanyards (so you can drop them as a free action without losing them), and will want to use an Action Surge to double your attacks. If all of your pistols are Lightweight (or you have the Dual Wilder feat) then you may also use an off-hand pistol for one additional attack. This means that from 5th level you can fire four or five attacks in a single turn dealing up to 4-5 extra damage for one point of grit or up to 16-20 for four grit, from 11th level you can fire six or seven attacks in a turn, dealing up to 6-7 damage for one grit or up to +30-35 for five grit, and at 20th you can fire eight or nine, dealing up to 8-9 damage for one grit or up to +40-45 damage for five grit. Further Wisdom bonuses will allow you spend even more grit. While it's a costly ability to maximise, the extra damage could be decisive, and since you won't normally be able to do it more than once in a combat it can be worth doing before piling in to fight with a melee weapon.
Does a Piercing Shot hit two targets? Yes and no. You only roll to hit the first target, in which case your shot pierces through it and also damages the second creature (which should be behind the first). For the purposes of various other rules you haven't separately attacked or hit the second target, you've just inflicted damage upon it, so are unaffected by a critical hit or other bonuses or conditions to your firearm attack, you likewise can't deal Lethal Shot damage to both targets once you gain Masterful Shooter – only the first would be affected.
Which objects and surfaces are suitable for the Ricochet trick shot? Generally anything that is solid and won't absorb the impact of the shot, typically metal, hard crystal, or hard non-porous stone such as obsidian or granite. Cinematically metal will be the most common with pots and pans, shields, signs etc. on walls or even held by enemies providing possible ricochet opportunities, but this is ultimately your DM's decision.
Can I use a Ricochet trick shot with a blunderbuss/dragon? Yes, however your DM may wish to be more strict about which objects and surfaces you can use, as a cluster of shot fired against a curved surface would scatter rather than ricochet in the same direction. A simple ruling might be that it will cost one additional point of grit unless the ricochet is a simple one (a single bounce from a flat angled surface).
Can I use a single bounce Ricochet trick shot for free when my weapon has Runes of Guiding? No. To use the trick shot you must spend at least one point of grit, the Runes of Guiding give you an additional bounce for free – for one point of grit you get up to two bounces, for two you get up three and so-on.
Which is better, a Battle Master's Manoeuvres or a Gunfighter's Trick Shots? Generally, speaking Manoeuvres are better as they add their superiority die, usually dealing additional damage. Manoeuvres also trigger retroactively in many cases, i.e- upon hitting, whereas most trick shots are triggered before the attack roll so can miss, while those that can't are a little weaker overall. A Gunfighter will eventually gain more points of grit in total (9 vs 6), but fewer Trick Shots (6 vs 8) and their Trick Shots do not get stronger (a Battle Master's superiority die increases from d6 to d12). Trick Shots can do some things that manoeuvres can't, and vice versa, and while most trick shots are only useful at range, most manoeuvres can be used for both melee and ranged combat. Overall trick shots are weaker, and more of a gamble, but while a Battle Master is all about their manoeuvres (and the extra damage these do), a Gunfighter has other bonuses including a better tool proficiency plus further bonuses (Quickdraw, True Grit etc.), so overall it should balance out. If you want flexibility, go a Battle Master, if you want to focus on gunplay (or need a specific trick shot), go a Gunfighter.
Firearms and Upgrades
General:
If I am moved against my will, does that prevent firing from stationary? If you are forced to move during your own turn for whatever reason, then you will be unable to fire from stationary. However if you are moved or pushed during an enemy turn this does not prevent you from doing so, unless you no longer meet any other conditions (e.g- a weapon with Hook & Fork is no longer hooked onto cover).
Do I still have disadvantage when shooting a firearm while prone? Yes. Even with a firearm, shooting from prone isn't easy as the position limits your ability to adjust your aim. However, the Bipod upgrades enable you to fire a musket while prone and stationary against reasonably distant targets in front of you, ideal for sniping ambushed enemies.
What does an improvised bipod cost? It depends what you're using, and if you already have it. A fully improvised bipod can be as simple as two arrows or sharpened sticks – if you already have these to hand then there is no cost to using them, other than the turn it takes to set up. Something more purpose made will require a longer time to make (or have made) as decided by your DM, though it needn't be expensive (20g [5g] for example).
Can I use a Hook & Fork while Prone? Yes. Assume a vertical fork is either telescopic, or has a removable top piece with its own spike for placement on the ground, while a fork designed to go into the ground at an angle can be placed horizontally on the ground to provide support.
Are lanyards and holsters the ultimate fashion statement? This combination is very in for the pistolero about town who wants to fire multiple pistols in a single turn. Holsters enable you to draw the pistols, and lanyards let you to freely drop them without losing any. Trés Chic!
What's the difference between shot and shot? This is an unfortunate terminology issue that exists in the firearms world – it is common to refer to firing a firearm as taking a "shot", but it's also common to refer to pellet based weapons as firing "shot" (as in a shotgun). I considered trying to find other terms to keep these separate but it means diving into terminology that's less familiar to people. As a general rule, when "shot" refers to an attack, it means any firearm weapon attack, while "shot" ammunition refers to ammunition usable in firearms with the Flared Muzzle upgrade, hopefully it should always be obvious which is meant within each rule.
Is my DM a jerk for not letting me craft an upgrade or special weapon? Probably not. The DM's word is law in D&D – ask them why they aren't allowing an upgrade/special weapon and whether they will allow it at a later level. Firearm crafting, especially magical upgrades and special weapons, is not intended to be completed too early, and should be limited in line with other player's access to magic items and upgraded gear. Special weapons are not intended to be crafted before level 10 at the earliest, and even then they may not be balanced.
Can I fire a Volley Gun using the extra Action from the Haste? No. A volley gun does not fire using the Attack action, it instead makes multiple firearm attacks using its own unique Action. It could however be fired using a Fighter's Action Surge or similar ability, though the time it takes to reload is the same (it is best fired once then dropped/stowed in order to fire something else).
Magical:
Is a weapon with magical upgrade(s) a magic weapon? Only if the upgrade specifies as such. A weapon with Heated Ammunition for example has an enchantment upon it (and may appear to Detect Magic) but is otherwise not a magic weapon, and so does not bypass non-magical resistances, and its bonus damage is not magical (the magic is heating otherwise ordinary ammunition). However a weapon with Runes of Force is explicitly a magic weapon dealing (magical) force damage.
What curse/enchantment is required upon gem dust? It doesn't matter – the gem dust is merely a power source to the runes inscribed upon the weapon, the runes themselves are what produce the effect. It is assumed that such gem dust exists or is created as a power source to enchantments/runes, so no specific enchantment/curse exists upon the dust itself, and even if there were, the process of inscribing it into runes would break the enchantment/curse, though your DM may wish to rule otherwise. 😈
Do Runes of Tracking/Vengeance require concentration? While Hunter's Mark or Hex cast using these runes do not require concentration checks, they still occupy your concentration. You are still the one casting and maintaining the spell, you are using the power within the runes to provide the spell, the magical energy to cast it and to aid in your concentration.
Can I cast the spell granted by Runes of Tracking/Vengeance additional times using spell slots? No. Spells granted by these runes do not count as known spells for your class; you must learn them by other means (usually multi-classing) to cast them additional times.
What does "obscured from view" mean for Runes of Radiance, exactly? Anything that makes the creature harder or impossible to see by visual means – this means you effectively bypass partial (but not full) cover, smoke, darkness, and even invisibility, however effects that fully move a target to the ethereal plane will apply as normal, as the target isn't just invisible; they are beyond your reality.
Do Runes of Dampening make a shot impossible to detect? Not exactly. These runes only prevent the shooter from producing an obvious sign of their location. The projectile itself still behaves normally, so while it may be hard to see in flight, its angle of impact, exit wound trajectory etc. may enable a perceptive creature to determine a shooter's general location. If the shooter was hidden then they should be assumed to remain hidden, but this may not prevent a dragon from breathing fire in their direction and hitting anyway, for example.
Special:
If a special weapon requires my full turn to fire, can I still do X in my turn? Probably not. Firing a special weapon that requires your full turn means it occupies your movement, action, bonus action, and any free actions, special actions or reactions you might normally take during your turn. A Fighter for example cannot Action Surge to fire a special weapon twice, as the extra action is also part of the consumed turn. You may still turn to face your target(s) as part of the normal attack sequence, and can still speak as this is not a formal part of the turn (and is mandatory if you have a cool one-liner 😉).
Do I have to make sound effects while using a special firearm? Yes. 😝
Crafting:
If I have crafted one of the upgrades in a project before, do I get advantage on all Tinker's Tools checks for that project? No, the bonus for previous experience only applies to the part(s) of the project you have previous experience with. For example, if you're crafting a Pistol (180h) with the Lightweight upgrade (20h), and have crafted a Pistol before, then you have advantage until you complete 180 hours of work on the project.
Some of the project times are too high! Can I change them? As with most things in D&D, ask your DM! The times given assume a campaign with a reasonable amount of downtime where the player isn't far from somewhere they can work on their project(s), but not every campaign will allow this. You might ask your DM for longer periods of downtime at your party's home-base (if you have one), or try to purchase the tools needed for a mobile workshop for long journeys by road or sea. If all else fails, your DM can reduce the project times, or allow for "breakthroughs" (e.g- a natural 20 on a tinker's tool check) that cause a large amount of work to be completed all at once. The key factor is to ensure that a firearm crafting player doesn't lag behind others in the party for too long as they integrate magical upgrades to compete with those magic swords everybody else found lying around in a dungeon.
What bonus do I get to crafting when I have multiple sources of advantage? While having performed an upgrade before always grants half cost and advantage, having access to a workshop, a helper or parts is left up to your DM as the quality of the bonus can vary. For example, a basic workshop is different to a high end workshop specifically setup for crafting firearms or small metal components, while an eager farmhand will be less useful as a helper than a fellow gunsmith. A simple rule is that each bonus adds +1 to the roll(s), while a high quality bonus (or previous experience) gives either advantage (if you do not already have it) or else adds a +2 or +3 to the roll(s), but it's ultimately up to your DM.
What are the rarities on magical upgrades for? These are intended as a guide to when such an upgrade should be possible, i.e- a Gunsmith should not be nearing completion on a rare upgrade if their allies only have uncommon magic items. It can also be used as a guide to the value of an upgraded firearm should you intend to sell it (or an enemy has designs towards stealing it).
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.
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Since this is a sub-class with quite a range of options represented both through build, trick shot choice and crafting, I decided to add a few suggested builds to give people an idea of where to start with their Gunfighter:
Dragoon
Going in heavy and hard, a dragoon is an armoured knight with a black powder punch, and often rides into battle on horseback to close the distance as quickly as possible.
Primary Abilities: STR, CON, DEX Suggested Fighting Style: Two-weapon Fighting or Great Weapon Fighting, or Archery if low on DEX. Suggested Trick Shots: Surprise Shot, Lightning Reload, Lethal Shot, Disarming Shot, Powder Blast, Smokescreen. Suggested Armour: Heavy Suggested Weapons: Warhammer or Longsword plus a Pistol with Flared Muzzle (Dragon) Suggested Feat: Mounted Combatant.
Gunsmith
For a gunsmith, artistry and craft come first, but that doesn't mean they can't handle themselves when things go awry.
Primary Abilities: DEX, INT, WIS Suggested Fighting Style: Archery, Blind Fighting or Superior Technique. Suggested Trick Shots: Aimed Shot, Smokescreen, Powder Blast, Flourish, Dazing Shot, Winging Shot. Suggested Armour: Light. Suggested Weapons: Multiple firearms with as many upgrades as possible! Suggested Feat: Skilled or Skill Expert.
Musketeer
Fighting with a mixture of finesse and force, a musketeer is a skirmishing gunfighter adept at medium to short range.
Primary Abilities: DEX, CON Suggested Fighting Style: Archery or Duelling. Suggested Trick Shots: Aimed Shot, Surprise Shot, Disarming Shot, Flourish, Smokescreen, Powder Blast Suggested Armour: Medium or Light. Suggested Weapons: Rapier, Musket, optionally a Pistol. For musket-only build take improved then precision sight, reinforced stock and cartridge loading, with a secondary pistol consider multiple barrels. Suggested Feat: Defensive Duellist or Dual Wielder.
Pistolero
Brash and reckless, a pistolero trades quality for quantity, firing off a punishing salvo from multiple pistols as they close before finishing a target off at close range.
Primary Abilities: DEX, CON, WIS Suggested Fighting Style: Two-Weapon Fighting. Suggested Trick Shots: Fusillade, Surprise Shot, Powder Blast, Smokescreen, Disarming Shot, Flourish Suggested Armour: Light or Medium. Suggested Weapons: Rapier and multiple Pistols with Holsters and Lanyards. Suggested Feat: Dual Wielder.
Sniper
The ultimate in ranged support, a sniper is at home at a distance defending a wall or on top of a ridge overlooking an ambush.
Primary Abilities: DEX, WIS Suggested Fighting Style: Archery. Suggested Trick Shots: Aimed Shot, Lethal Shot, Warning Shot, Dazing Shot, Winging Shot, Piercing Shot. Suggested Armour: Light. Suggested Weapon: Musket with Bipod (improvised then integrated), Rifled Barrel, Cartridge Loading, enhanced sight (improved, precision then telescopic), Superior stock. Suggested Feat: Sharpshooter.
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.
Neat edit of the subclass, I like your point about the evolving nature of firearms. To that point have you thought about gating the upgrades to the gunslinger level and reducing investments if earlier similar ones are made? Then it almost becomes a tech tree.
Neat edit of the subclass, I like your point about the evolving nature of firearms. To that point have you thought about gating the upgrades to the gunslinger level and reducing investments if earlier similar ones are made? Then it almost becomes a tech tree.
I really like the idea of structuring things more like a tech-tree, I've thrown up a few sample prerequisites for regular upgrades, and a quick note ahead of the table about it. I've left magical upgrades for now as I think they should just be handled like other magic items by the DM (i.e- you might find enchanted gem dust as loot in a dungeon).
Also, while I was at it, I've separated costs and project times; this means that many upgrades are cheaper overall, but can still take a long time to complete, it also means that the bulk of a magical upgrade is in its gem dust (and how you obtain it). I might have made some upgrades a bit too inexpensive as a result (no play-testing or discussion done on these changes yet), but the idea is for the cost to be more about material cost, while the time is how long it takes to actually plan it out, engineer the parts, assemble it, refine it, apply the runes and infuse with gem dust etc.
I've also added a note about reducing the time for an upgrade that the player has already done; the way I've done this is to tweak Expert Gunsmith so that it's now double proficiency in Tinker's Tools (making 15+ rolls more likely, and putting 25+ rolls within reach even with low INT), and adding that checks are taken at advantage when working on an upgrade that is familiar. This means that double and triple hour rolls should be a lot more likely, effectively reducing a project's time by a third to two thirds depending upon the player's Intelligence score. There may also be other circumstances in which a DM might award advantage to the rolls, such as having access to a high-end workshop, or having skilled help.
The idea is that a gunsmith should usually have a project underway most of the time, so they can spend a few hours on it whenever they have some suitable downtime. I made the time for creating a new pistol or musket the same as they're actually basically the same at a fundamental level, the musket is bigger, but actually that makes it easier in some ways, so I figure it would balance out.
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.
This is exactly what I want when it comes to guns in stuff like DnD
Is there any way for me to use this without having to get a membership to add it to my collection?
No, as you can't even currently get it with a subscription 😝 That's because this is just a copy of the text, I haven't shared the actual homebrew with the community yet so nobody can add it to their collection; I want to get it as final as I can first.
If you need it sooner, you've a few options; first, this sub-class is based on the Gunslinger from Critical Role, which is free content already, you just need to enable Critical Role content for your character (Edit Character -> Home and its a switch on that first page). It functions a bit differently though (see my second post here for details), and if the part you're most interested in is the crafting you might have to adapt it a bit to work. Second, you could create your own homebrew based on my description here, I basically just copied the Gunslinger as a starting point anyway, though a couple of the features have been a bit fiddly to add. Third, you could go whatever class/sub-class you like, take Tinker's Tools proficiency in your background, and ask your DM for firearms proficiency and to use this crafting outline as a guide; you won't get the firearms specific trick shots or other features of the Gunfighter but you'd still get the crafting progression; a Fighter Champion for example still gets four attacks and works well with ranged fighting.
That said, subscriptions on D&D Beyond are pretty reasonable; even if you only subscribe for a month, homebrew you add to a character should stay when your subscription ends. Alternatively, if you're playing as part of a campaign group on DDB, then if your DM gets the master subscription they can add homebrew and share it with the group (content sharing), this also shares all paid content unlocked by anyone in the group. This is how my current group on here is doing it as we're all a bit broke, so we pay a share of the DM's subscription and unlock the bits we individually need (races, spells etc.). But like I say, haven't actually shared the homebrew yet; I'll probably be tinkering with it and testing it for at least another few weeks before I do.
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.
I've made some changes to try to overcome an annoying issue I've had with the Gunfighter so far.
Because of the way sub-classing works on D&D Beyond, Fighter sub-classes need to have two 7th level traits (or at least mine does, for some reason), which is why Lightning Reload was level 7 rather than level 5 where I wanted it (when a Fighter gains their first extra attack), this would mean you could hit level 5, and not be able to fully take advantage of the extra attack until level 7 or else having to build around it with multiple single-shot weapons or adding cartridge loading or multiple barrels on a weapon by level 5. To address this I've made the following changes:
Firearm Proficiency: The ability to treat Loading as Reload (1 shot) is now just part of the Gunfighter's firearm proficiency at level 3, so it'll be ready for you at level 5 to take advantage of the extra attack even if your focus is on building around a rifle.
Flourish: This is the new "well if I have to" seventh level trait (as Quickdraw is the real 7th level bonus), granting advantage on Performance or Sleight of Hand to do a flourish with a one-handed firearm. This is pure Gunfighter show-boating nonsense for the player that wants to spin their pistol every time they draw or holster it. Shouldn't be overpowered since it's really just a flavour roll, but will make it a bit less likely that you accidentally throw your expensive pistol into a molten lava river while showing off.
Lightning Reload: This is now a Trick Shot that allows you to spend your reaction and 1 grit to reload a weapon before attacking, enabling you to attack and reload twice in a turn by spending your bonus action and reaction. This also brings the trick shots to a total of ten, which is how many I really wanted to have, but could never think of a good tenth trick shot to add.
Will need to do some test sessions with these changes, but it feels a lot more like how I wanted it, but couldn't quite figure out till now.
One other issue that came up was the balance of Runes of Tracking/Vengeance versus Runes of Radiance; someone questioned whether the spell-casting runes were worse as they only last for an hour per long rest, whereas as Runes of Radiance apply for any length of time. While it's true that you'll do more bonus damage overall with Runes of Radiance if you have encounters spaced out over longer than an hour, during the hour that Hex/Hunter's Mark lasts you not only do more bonus damage (d6 vs d4) but it applies to all of your weapons, so you can hit a target with your spell-casting weapon before switching to another (including one with Runes of Radiance) and still get that bonus damage. So it's d4 damage over prolonged periods, versus stacking d6 damage over a more limited period, plus the added benefits of Hex/Hunter's mark (though Runes of Radiance also have a neat effect). In the end I decided to leave them as they were in terms of effect, but I've tweaked the casting; it counts as you casting the spell, and instead of ignoring concentration, it ignores concentration checks, so while concentration can't be broken, you still can't cast other concentration spells, so you can't double up the spell, or cast Hunter's Mark with your weapon then cast Hex using Magic Initiate (Warlock). I've also clarified that the spell ends if you are separated from the weapon (drop it, have it taken from you etc.).
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Latest test session has only resulted in a couple of minor tweaks this time:
Cartridge Loading (2) now has a suggested prerequisite of 3 upgrades since it's a more advanced upgrade than multiple barrels, this likewise delays Cartridge Loading (4) since it suggests Cartridge Loading (2) first when playing to the tech-tree model of upgrading.
Runes of Power are now Runes of Piercing to emphasise that they help you strike true/ignore armour, and Power always felt too general.
Runes of Poisoning have been completely changed after having a look at this excellent resistance/immunity chart; they now deal an extra d6 poison damage on every hit, and the first time you hit each creature in a combat it must pass a DC 17 Constitution save or be Poisoned. Firstly this reduces dice rolling for the saves, meanwhile the basic damage is higher than for Runes of Radiance, as poison damage and poisoned condition immunity are actually quite common, so while these runes will be stronger against most "regular" enemy types, Runes of Radiance are better against others, so it may pay to have a mix of magical weapons. I think the higher level runes should still stack up reasonably well with each other; against enemies that aren't immune, Runes of Poisoning have a solid damage bonus and inflicting Poisoned is very powerful, but the potential for immunity means that Runes of Tracking/Vengeance (Hunter's Mark/Hex) compete by working on nearly everything, plus their other bonuses for the shorter duration.
The Superior Stock now only provides its bonus when firing while stationary (cannot move at all during your turn). This combines with:
New upgrade that I kept forgetting to add, which is Hook & Fork. This is basically the same as the Superior Stock except that it adds weight and requires the musket (arquebus/hook gun) to be fired from cover (hooked onto the edge of a wall or such) or from a planted fork mount (bonus action to plant/stow) and likewise doesn't allow movement. Combined these allow a potential +2 bonus to attack rolls when firing from a stationary position, ideal for defence or sniping, but the drawback of being stationary means enemies can close easily. Though not a requirement, these two upgrades are partly intended for Gunfighters who don't max their Dexterity or don't take the archery fighting style, i.e- those who are built to be more versatile, but might still want to snipe when leaving a position isn't a good idea, but ultimately it's up to a DM whether to allow these for maxed Gunfighters as well (as it would be a +9 + proficiency for a +5 DEX Gunfighter with Archery fighting style and both upgrades, and that's before Runes of Piercing). This shouldn't detract from a dual Lightweight pistol Gunfighter who can be as mobile as they like while dealing an extra attack in most rounds (with Lightning Reload).
Unless there's feedback on any of the latest changes I think the sub-class is basically done; I'm still planning to do another test or two over the next couple of weeks, plus I'll re-read everything about a thousand more times per day, but otherwise this is now probably-mostly-final-I-think™.
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I know I said I thought I was done, well I wasn't. After more testing I've found that no-one really got my idea for the Lethal Shot, and I wasn't using it myself either, as it was too difficult to setup for often too little reward, neither especially good signs!
As a result I've switched it back to being more like the previous Violent Shot; for each grit point spent you increase the weapon damage by d8 (rather than a weapon die, since there's no Misfire anymore). This is much easier to understand and use, but it has some interesting elements; you can spend as much grit as you like (up to your Wisdom modifier) meaning you can potentially add a lot more damage than similar abilities in a single hit, but you're paying for it up front, so you're gambling on hitting in the first place, which makes it either risky or still encourages a combo (gain a hit bonus or advantage from another ability or player).
This was a tough one to decide on for balance, as a Way of the Kensei Deft Strike (1 ki to add martial arts die to damage) can scale all the way up to d12, and only spends the ki point on a hit, meaning you can save it for a critical for maximum effect (as paladins often do with higher level divine smites), whereas this trick shot is a risk. It was originally d6 but that felt too low, but more than d8 feels too high given that it has the potential for more burst damage (spend 2+ grit on one attack that's very likely to hit). It's tricky, as d6 would be consistent with Battle Master manoeuvres at the same level, but those get better dice at higher levels, but again, this can burst, so it's hard to compare, and I'm not really sure if I want to add level scaling onto trick shots. I'd appreciate any thoughts on whether this trick shot is now too strong or too weak!
Other changes include small additions to the 10th and 18th level abilities; Expert Gunsmith is now Seasoned Gunfighter with the same double proficiency on Tinker's Tools, plus regaining one grit on a failed save (has to be caused by an enemy) as an additional grit recovery mechanic in a battle that's maybe going poorly (as you've probably used or failed Indomitable). This helps to further distinguish Grit from Superiority Die as a mechanic; the die can be added on as damage so manoeuvres are generally better, while trick shots are more situational or weaker/more of a gamble, but you can potentially regain grit during a fight to use them more often.
Dead-Shot is now True Grit, which additionally lets you spend two grit to end Charmed, Frightened, Grappled or Stunned on yourself; with grit being a much more limited resource than Ki, and True Grit a much later ability, this hopefully shouldn't step on the toes of Berserkers (who can do this for the duration of every Rage) or Monks (who can do it more cheaply), though it can end more effect types. One interesting interaction is with getting a grit back on a failed save, since you usually have to fail a save to suffer one of these conditions, but you only get one grit back and need two to end the effect so it makes spending your last grit a tougher choice, as you might need to get the two.
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.
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So… it's probably a good thing I still haven't shared this yet as I just discovered a big bug with one of the trick shots; for some mad reason I implemented Smokescreen as lightly obscured and heavily obscured, without double checking exactly what those do, which it turns out was not what I wanted (which is just cover)! This meant that the trick shot as I'd written it either would have done basically nothing, or effectively blinded everyone in the combat. I've been using the trick shot in test sessions, but clearly using it as intended rather than as written.
Anyway, I've rewritten that trick shot so it now functions as intended; creatures in the area of the smoke are lightly obscured and gain half cover vs. ranged attacks, while creatures blocked by the cover (it's blocking line of sight to them) have three-quarters cover against ranged attacks. This is as it's intended to work, basically you're trading an attack (and gunpowder if you're tracking that) plus a grit point to create a temporary piece of soft cover that makes it harder to target ranged attacks, but offers no protection against being fireballed into oblivion.
I've also changed True Grit already; being able to cancel conditions with grit was too strong on reflection, not to mention stepping over other (sub-)classes that can do this (Berserker, Monk etc.). I considered giving free grit on empty in the same way a Battle Master gets a superiority die when rolling Initiative if they don't have any, but Gunfighter/Gunslinger is already a bit "Battlemaster with a gun" and it didn't really capture what I want thematically, plus grit already functions a bit differently as you have ways to recover some (critical or failed save). Instead what I'm leaning towards is Indomitable recovery instead; basically if you take a short rest and have no uses of Indomitable left, you'll get one back. This is a bonus I find interesting as Indomitable is a good Fighter ability (limited re-roll on any save), and as a ranged fighter the Gunfighter will probably tend towards high DEX, light armour plus mobility and/or using cover, so has some resistance to saves already, plus failing a save is one of the ways you can regain grit, so it makes for a tricky choice. In other words, on another Fighter sub-class it might be quite a strong ability as they might be more likely to burn through Indomitable quickly, but a Gunfighter either won't, or may even not use it (let some saves fail) for the grit it gains them instead. There's also a trade off in that while you can get one "free" use of Indomitable per short rest, it's at the cost of having a bank of two or more uses for later, when you might really need it.
Update: And I've updated True Grit again! Part of the problem I think with the later levels of this sub-class is that Impossible Shot, while cool and flavourful is super situational and mostly a non-combat ability (or at least an indirect combat ability if there's a lock/switch whatever to shoot that has some environmental or story impact). What I've done is I've moved the improved critical hit and Impossible Shot down, creating the new True Grit at 10th level (gain 1 grit if you have none when rolling initiative) plus Impossible Shot (reduce DC of object shots), Crack Shot is now Deadshot again but at 15th level, and True Grit is now Masterful Shooter allowing up to three tricks shots in a single firearm attack.
Two or three tricks shots on a single attack is potentially quite a powerful ability, though only certain combinations of trick shot really make sense; most common would likely be Aimed Shot with one of the others to make it easier to hit (or counter disadvantage), though multiple debuff shots (e.g- Disarming Shot and Winging Shot) could be a powerful gamble if it pays off. On the other hand, it means you could end up draining your grit even faster, though if you miss you regain one so while it's still a bit of a gamble it's not necessarily a big one. Probably the strongest combinations will be Lethal Shot plus either Aimed Shot or Surprise Shot, as you could potentially pump all your grit into added damage for one hell of a headshot or gutshot, but it's still a big risk if it fails, these are ideal for a one reaction attack, or for an opening attack, as otherwise on your turn it's better just to spread the trick shots across multiple attacks.
Also, after running a test session against a Battle Master with firearm proficiency I've made some further changes to grit; you now start with four increasing to a total of eight, with up to six trick shots, there is no longer recovery on critical hits (all of us testing the sub-class kept forgetting most of the time). Since trick shots aren't as strong, and are more of a gamble, they are still starting out weaker compared to manoeuvres, but this is on top of superior firearm proficiency (due to the ability to choose to reload) and now double proficiency in tinker's tools as standard (when working on firearms or firearm ammunition), and over time you'll get a third more grit points than Battle Masters have superiority die, though your trick shots will still be weaker overall as you spend them before hitting, similar effects aren't as strong, and they don't increase in strength (no bonus die).
I've also brought back two trick shots in new forms; Piercing Shot (can deal 1d6+WIS damage to a creature covered by your target), and Haemorrhaging Shot (on hit target starts losing HP at the end of its turns equal to your WIS, or can use its Action to end it), giving a nice total of 12 (for the 6 total choices).
I've also been toying with a couple of new magical upgrades:
Runes of Force: These are the same damage as the Electrified/Frozen/Heated Shot but with force damage and making the weapon magical, and so are a more expensive upgrade that takes longer to make.
Runes of Guiding: Not sure about the name, but these runes let you re-roll a missed attack as a reaction, but against a different target along the same path (treating it as a straight line five feet wide up to the maximum range). For a Gunfighter this also has an added bonus in that if you use Runes of Guiding with a Ricochet trick shot, you can bounce the shot one additional time for free (you still have to spend at least one grit to take the shot, but for one grit you get two bounces, for two you get three and so-on).
Also one new upgrade:
Drop Loop: Makes a pistol harder to conceal, but attaches it to your person. Instead of having to stow the pistol, you can instead drop it and draw another pistol, allowing you to draw two as a free object interaction from level 7, or potentially four with Dual Wielder. This is another upgrade I somehow forgot about from my original list of things I wanted to have; this was quite a common feature of pistols when used aboard ships, e.g- by pirates, as reloading would take too long so it was easier to have multiple pistols holstered and ready to fire and just fire them one after another, dropping each to draw the next. The loop lets you ensure that dropped pistols aren't stolen or lost overboard, and resulted in the firer having a "skirt" of spent pistols.
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.
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So I forgot to update to let people know I'd added some special weapons; these are for fun, and partly inspired by the "antique" heavy weapons now available on Hero Forge, though I'd considered adding some before this. They are absolutely not intended to be obtained or crafted by lower level characters, but rather are for high level rewards, or a party weapon that can be brought out for special occasions only (such as storming a fortress). They are powerful, but somewhat balanced by generally poor short range without (expensive) upgrades, plus long reload times; some also have a high Strength requirement to wield, so must instead be setup prior to firing by most characters.
These come on top of what are hopefully now the final (for real) tweaks to wording on the actual sub-class rules and core upgrades; nothing has meaningfully changed, I've just made various little grammatical tweaks to clarify and simplify where I can, and double (well, centuple) checked my snippets. Barring any further feedback or anything I discover myself I'll probably share with the community in a week or so.
I've also expanded the FAQ (end of the second post) which covers questions that have come up in testing which, though I feel the rules are sufficiently clear, are worth answering to avoid possible confusion.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
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So I just remembered that I intended to come back to this after Involuntary Nap Time, having spotted it during said nap time. I've shared the thread with the DM for our Tursk game, in which I play an artificer that's starting to swing into firearm use after starting out with a returning javelin as her primary weapon. When I prod reactions and feedback from him I'll post that as well, but in the interim I will vomit up whatever thoughts occur to me as I write.
On the Class Itself Speaking directly to the Gunfighter itself, I think this is a fine adaptation of Mercer's own work. Especially given the rather severe limitations of the DMG blackpowder guns. Assuming the class as written in the OP is still accurate to your current design, I could easily see folks playing this. It does require a rampaging assload of money though, which could be an issue for players in campaigns where the DM prefers to award items, prestige titles/land, or favors rather than straight gold rewards. I know that such a DM is breaking ZA RURUS to a degree and should be able to adapt their reward structure to accommodate a gunsmith (such as offering them a workshop and a monthly supply of materials or such), but it might be worth noting somewhere as an Alternate Progression bit.
Treating Loading as Reload(1) took me a minute before remembering that the DMG version of 'Reload' is "Action or bonus action", not "action or an individual attack of the Attack action". Still wastes most of a fighter's high-level Multiattack, but at least it gives the option for a follow-up shot. And frankly, one shot every six seconds is still outrageous for blackpowder muzzle-loaders.
Level 7 feels a little threadbare, methinks. It does allow for easy swapping of guns, but the 'Loading becomes Reload' only matters for the first gun, and while a fighter carrying a brace of pistols and quickly switching between them is both historically accurate and frickin' cool, I worry that requiring the same of a gunfighter is an onerously heavy burden. A pistolero gunfighter would need four pistols to get their full Multiattack, and all would need modifications to even allow him to draw them all. That's north of a thousand gold just for basic armaments, to say nothing of the forty thousand-plus GP worth of enchanting he'll have to do simply to match the ability of his paladin buddy to make all his attacks with a magical weapon that the paladin's had since he found that +1 longsword in the zombie crypt back at level 4. I know this can be mitigated with a number of other upgrades, but this Gunfighter does not make the same assumptions that the Gunslinger did. Its base weapon is always going to be either Loading or Reload(1), modifications are not assumed. I don't know. I like the Flourish ability for seasoning and proficiency to Initiative is still awesome, but...I dunno. Maybe it's just me.
I've always hated the "if you have no [Class Resource] left at the beginning of Initiative, regain one [Class Resource]" features. They feel like such an afterthought, especially when a class is otherwise well supplied with resources or has other options for managing their resources. It's all "Congratulations: here is your reward for badly mismanaging your resources!" I know why it's here in this case, but have you considered tying emergency Grit regeneration to another ability? Perhaps something like "when you use your Second Wind ability to regain hit points, you also regain an expended Grit point"? Something the player can control, and a benefit they can use actively as opposed to only getting to use passively, and even then only once they've thoroughly mismanaged their Grit? I know I'd much rather regain Grit when I Second Wind, even if that's technically less possible chances to regain Grit. Feels thematic, too - when you brace up and force yourself top keep going despite your injuries it's heckin' gritty Ay-Eff.
I appreciate the steady, logical progression of both Grit and Trick Shots - one extra Grit point every other level, one extra Trick Shot every other Grit point, with the exception of level 18 because subclass reasons. It pleases my monkey brain and feels like a good way to represent improving mastery of firearms in a system where a character is basically as proficient with any given weapon at level 1 as they're going to be at level 20. Also dig that the Trick Shot DC is still Wisdom-based. I enjoyed that Mercer's Gunslinger encouraged investment in stats beyond Fight Stat and Con, but did so in a more 'soft' manner - a Gunslinger wanted Intelligence to draft and create new gear and Wisdom for Grit, as well as Fight Stat and Con. People hate MADness with a passion, but I really felt like it made the Gunslinger a better character even if at the expense of some power. I may be biased after spending five hundred hours watching Percival, but the Gunslinger - and this Gunfighter by extension - always felt like a sort of 'Prestige' option. You need a shitload of money and a ton of stats to really milk this class for all it's worth, it's a great option for players who're running a fighter but want a bigger-brain version of fighter than the gorram Champion.
And as it stands, a fighter without Heroic rolls can tailor to their story - the crafty, cunning outlaw without much traditional education but who's lived through the worst the world throws at him (low Intelligence, high[er] Wisdom) may take a while to work his way through building and upgrading his equipment, but he's got Grit to spare and his trick shots work better. The noble dandy son who took up gunsmithing as a hobby and studied it as a science (high Intelligence, low[er] Wisdom) can much more easily create new weapons and new modifications, but he's going to have a tougher time making his trick shots land without that gritty, dusty outlaw's experience.
The wording on Smokescreen is a little confusing, I'll admit. Took me a minute to untangle that it meant creatures on the other side of the smoke, rather than within the cloud, get the three-quarters cover benefit. I'll also note that you seem to've accidentally copied the text for Smokescreen over whatever the effect of Surprise Shot is. For the most part the individual trick shot options look good, though from personal experience I can say that Haemorrhaging Shot is entirely too likely to get forgotten by entirely too many people. I'm not sure I've ever seen a player who properly remembers ongoing round-over-round actions like that without some kind of physical aid x_x. You'd think people could remember a DoT, but naaah.
...okay. Think that's all the word-vomit the base class needs.
On the Guns The gun customization chart is what really caught my eye. I love the idea of building your own personal perfect weapon (even if reflecting those modifications in DDB is a ******* nightmare), and the list of gun enchantments is a clean solution to issues that've plagued three campaigns running now for us with the creation/enchanting of items. I really like it. That said, you may want to make a note of which weapons are eligible for which upgrades. You've clearly spent time behind a sight picture yourself, so have I, and we both can look at an upgrade and just know what that upgrade is intended for. Other folks...may not. A 'P', 'M', or 'P/M' tag showing Pistol, Musket, or both Pistol and Musket on each mundane upgrade feels like it wouldn't go amiss for the purposes of clarity.
Kudos on the notion of having shot-type weapons roll damage with advantage rather than the usual 'roll a bunch of d4s because many little pellets' junk. That's an inspired notion and helps encourage people to actually use shot-type weapons, since they gain in reliability and damage-per-gp what they lose in range. Also: dragons are hilarious, what with their ten-foot range. Hueh. Your enemy has to be exactly ten feet away - five feet away and you shoot with disadvantage because too close, fifteen feet and you shoot with disadvantage because too far. Admittedly that can be fixed with precision sights (which feels very weird for a blackpowder dragon), but it's still hilarious.
Will admit, I'm not familiar with hook and fork. You may want to describe that one, just so folks with less idea how guns work than we've got can get a better sense of the physical actions behind the mechanical rule. I get that it's essentially an early form of bipod, but you managed to bamboozle me with that term despite many hundreds of fantasy novels anda pretty solid grounding in firearms so I'm gonna assume a lot of other folks are gonna say 'hook and fork? Bwuh...?'
Have to wonder if a single stock can be both Reinforced and Superior. My shooter/IRL Physics brain says "Uhhh...duh? Why wouldn't that be possible?", but my video game brain snags on both modifications occupying the same 'slot' and thus being incompatible. I know, 'The Rules Do What They Say They Do' and if an upgrade doesn't claim incompatibility then it's compatible, but it feels like a point worth bringing up.
The Volley Gun is utterly impractical overweight nonsense and I love it. It's hysterical. I love that while it's incompatible with basically all other shooty upgrades, it's not incompatible with bayonets or reinforced stocks. Waiting on the gunfighter whose primary weapon is a forty-pound historical abortion of a volley gun he uses to One Man Firing Squad some poor sorry ****er at the start of the fight before going Oni Mode and just beating everybody else to death with the outsized monstrosity. Start of Fight: "Oh gods! he just blew Steve the hell away!" End of Fight: "STEVE WAS THE LUCKY ONE DEAR GODS SOMEBODY STOP THIS OGRE MAN AHHHHGHGHHBJKGHGJKHG-"
Insofar as Magical Upgrades go, I'll admit that part of me wants 'runes of Detonation' to be a thing, and/or the ability to create a specialized underbarrel bracket that can hold a Wand of Fireballs. Because I want my goddamn magic grenade launcher. Hueh. Elsewise I like the sample list, it's a good spread of basic damage augments and more interesting debuff enchantments. Runes of Tracking and Vengeance are particularly interesting. While a small part of me misses the Critical Role idea of enchanting each barrel of a multi-barrel gun separately, I'll admit that enchanting the entire weapon is just a better idea. It already costs the gunfighter an enormous amount of resources just to keep up with everybody else, nobody needs to sextouple the resources required to enchant one single bloody pepperbox properly. It also offers an interesting sort of decision economy in which a gunfighter has to choose between going all-in on a given enchantment and applying it to a pepperbox or a four-cartridge heavily modified rifle, or if she wants to instead focus on crafting different enchantments on two or more less expensive base weapons in order to increase their versatility. Does one spend every dime they've got on an amazeballs magical Bad News? Or do they apply lesser enchantments to multiple cheap(er) two-barreled pistols so that when they encounter something resistant/immune to their main gun, they can simply switch to a different one better suited to that target?
...all right. I think I've vomited enough words to start with. Hope there's something worth holding on to somewhere in that mess. Excellent work Haravikk, and thanks for all the interesting ideas for my artificer.
It does require a rampaging assload of money though, which could be an issue for players in campaigns where the DM prefers to award items, prestige titles/land, or favors rather than straight gold rewards.
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of DM buy-in on this sub-class and crafting rules in general; I've tried to scale the costs with DMG firearms and what equivalent magical items would cost if most players didn't just find them lying around. DM's are of course free to slash gold costs, or just charge for components or such. For magical upgrades, the DM should give you gem dust when other player's get magic items, either finding it in a dungeon, or as part of a quest reward so you can pick the type you want.
Treating Loading as Reload(1) took me a minute before remembering that the DMG version of 'Reload' is "Action or bonus action", not "action or an individual attack of the Attack action". Still wastes most of a fighter's high-level Multiattack, but at least it gives the option for a follow-up shot. And frankly, one shot every six seconds is still outrageous for blackpowder muzzle-loaders.
This is really intended for 5th level, when a player going for a musket based sniper will suddenly find they can only fire once per turn, and might not have met the requirements for cartridge loading yet (as it's quite an advanced firearm feature historically). By the time you're hitting three attacks you should hopefully have either many pistols, or at least one firearm with four or six shots – at least that's my intention.
Level 7 feels a little threadbare, methinks. It does allow for easy swapping of guns, but the 'Loading becomes Reload' only matters for the first gun
It's been tricky to balance certainly; level 7 also grants one extra grit and one extra trick shot, so it's not just the Flourish and Quickdraw abilities. You could choose Lightning Reload (spend a grit to reload) for the latter, though of course that's burning grit to solve the problem.
For Flourish I originally considered baking in additional impacts for what you can do with it, for example using a pistol spin as a distraction, or flicking a palm pistol from a sleeve to gain surprise, but I found that hard to word in a clean way, and wondered if it risked making it seem like that would then be all you could do, whereas I'm sure there are a tonne of flourishes I haven't even thought of. It felt a bit cleaner to just leave it up to the DM/player to argue what a flourish is for (if anything, showboating is absolutely a core Gunfighter mechanic). Maybe I should add a note to that effect?
a fighter carrying a brace of pistols and quickly switching between them is both historically accurate and frickin' cool, I worry that requiring the same of a gunfighter is an onerously heavy burden. A pistolero gunfighter would need four pistols to get their full Multiattack, and all would need modifications to even allow him to draw them all. That's north of a thousand gold just for basic armaments, to say nothing of the forty thousand-plus GP worth of enchanting he'll have to do simply to match the ability of his paladin buddy to make all his attacks with a magical weapon that the paladin's had since he found that +1 longsword in the zombie crypt back at level 4.
In terms of the cost, you should ideally be making additional firearms over time if it's your aim to go for a full brace of pistols and Blackbeard your way through an encounter drawing and firing continuously. You should be able to get three by 11th level, two by 5th is trickier as it depends on whether you already have your first firearm by 3rd level or not.
As for actually using multiple pistols, it's a bit weird mechanically but one of the assumptions I've made is that dropping items is a free action (as per this Crawford tweet and the absence of it being considered an object interaction), this means that at 5th level you can fire a pistol, drop it, and draw another to fire that one while still having a free hand to reload (you can do the same with hand crossbows, heavy crossbows etc. if you want to). At 7th level you can stow a pistol and draw another to do it more cleanly. But this is really where the cheap Drop Loop upgrade is intended to fit in, as you can drop any number of pistols on drop loops, and you can draw an extra pistol in place of stowing one; this means that with four attack you can fire two held pistols, draw two more, then fire those as well. After that you have to a juggle a bit more, meaning you'll either fire only three, or use an off-hand attack to maintain four per turn if you have the pistols, otherwise you drop one, reload the other and prepare to draw a melee weapon.
I think it works, it's a just a bit weird to get your head around mechanically. I might look at whether I can come up with a better FAQ note about how that should work.
For magic item competition, yeah… it's tricky, as I didn't want to have to price things for every eventuality (different cost for musket vs. pistol, multiple barrels versus single etc.). One option would be to take Runes of Tracking/Vengeance on one pistol and fire that one first, as the bonus damage from that will apply to all others as well, and if you have a supply of silver bullets they can all still be "magical" attacks – the first pistol doesn't need to be held, you just need to have it in your possession to maintain the spell, though I could probably clarify that a bit.
have you considered tying emergency Grit regeneration to another ability? Perhaps something like "when you use your Second Wind ability to regain hit points, you also regain an expended Grit point"?
The "regain one grit on Initiative" was something I resisted adding but I could never think of anything better so ended up doing it anyway, but I really love the idea of tying it to another ability instead! Since Second Wind remains only single use at higher levels, do you think may two, or d3 grit points recovered might make more sense than just one?
The wording on Smokescreen is a little confusing, I'll admit. Took me a minute to untangle that it meant creatures on the other side of the smoke, rather than within the cloud, get the three-quarters cover benefit. I'll also note that you seem to've accidentally copied the text for Smokescreen over whatever the effect of Surprise Shot is.
Whoops! I'll correct that. Surprise Shot is similar to Riposte; basically if an enemy misses you you can make a reaction attack with a firearm and add your WIS modifier to the damage. You ignore firing in melee range if using a one-handed firearm, so it's ideal for a pistol build.
As for the Smokescreen wording, I've thrown up an alternative, let me know if you think that's clearer!
I can say that Haemorrhaging Shot is entirely too likely to get forgotten by entirely too many people. I'm not sure I've ever seen a player who properly remembers ongoing round-over-round actions like that without some kind of physical aid x_x. You'd think people could remember a DoT, but naaah.
Yeah, I shared some of these doubts about bringing it back, but it fills a fun niche mechanically.
The idea is that you either stack a few bleeding injuries on an enemy, enough to do extra damage over time but not enough the enemy is willing to sacrifice its action to try to clear it, either that or you pile them on to rob an enemy of one or more turns. I quite like the potential utility of that, but yeah, tracking things like that can be fiddly; though it shouldn't be any harder than any other over time effect that happens in enemy turns, like damaging terrain spells, spirit guardians etc.
That said, this is probably the trick shot I'd drop if I had another good idea for a twelfth trick shot; I think twelve is the ideal number, as it means you can choose up to half, but I've been through shed loads of duds when it comes to new trick shot ideas.
you may want to make a note of which weapons are eligible for which upgrades. You've clearly spent time behind a sight picture yourself, so have I, and we both can look at an upgrade and just know what that upgrade is intended for. Other folks...may not. A 'P', 'M', or 'P/M' tag showing Pistol, Musket, or both Pistol and Musket on each mundane upgrade feels like it wouldn't go amiss for the purposes of clarity.
Kudos on the notion of having shot-type weapons roll damage with advantage rather than the usual 'roll a bunch of d4s because many little pellets' junk. That's an inspired notion and helps encourage people to actually use shot-type weapons, since they gain in reliability and damage-per-gp what they lose in range. Also: dragons are hilarious, what with their ten-foot range. Hueh. Your enemy has to be exactly ten feet away - five feet away and you shoot with disadvantage because too close, fifteen feet and you shoot with disadvantage because too far.
For the dragon it's intended, makes them kind of like a Lance; they're the weapon you pull out when you've got the drop on someone, otherwise you need Aimed Shot to bypass the disadvantage if you've pulled one out in a tight spot. It does however combine really well with Surprise Shot, making it more unfortunate I'd somehow copy/pasted over that one 😉
Will admit, I'm not familiar with hook and fork. You may want to describe that one, just so folks with less idea how guns work than we've got can get a better sense of the physical actions behind the mechanical rule. I get that it's essentially an early form of bipod, but you managed to bamboozle me with that term despite many hundreds of fantasy novels anda pretty solid grounding in firearms so I'm gonna assume a lot of other folks are gonna say 'hook and fork? Bwuh...?'
Sure, I'll see if I can find a way to sum it up in a short way; I originally described the fork as a monopod but that seems to be a very modern term (and usually integrated into the weapon). Basically the hook lets you support the weapon's barrel more easily on a wall or such to focus on aiming, and the fork lets you do it when there's nothing to rest the weapon on. When I'm thinking of a musket with Fork & Hook (or upgrades in general), I'm thinking of something like this nutter from Warhammer has:
Have to wonder if a single stock can be both Reinforced and Superior. My shooter/IRL Physics brain says "Uhhh...duh? Why wouldn't that be possible?", but my video game brain snags on both modifications occupying the same 'slot' and thus being incompatible.
It's intended that you can, as I don't really specify exactly how you make a stock superior or reinforced as such; sights for example state you can't have more than one. If you made your reinforced superior stock from precisely engineered metal for example that would absolutely justify both.
The Volley Gun is utterly impractical overweight nonsense and I love it.
Nock Guns are awesome; they were a crazy idea, not super practical, but ridiculous early firearm nonsense. This is a huge nod to fans of Patrick Harper from Sharpe.
Insofar as Magical Upgrades go, I'll admit that part of me wants 'runes of Detonation' to be a thing, and/or the ability to create a specialized underbarrel bracket that can hold a Wand of Fireballs.
Oh they're absolutely intended just as a sample starting point!
If you can think of something, you should definitely ask your DM for it, same as you could always ask for a bulk discount on magic upgrades or cheaper per-barrel options.
If I put down every idea I had for magic upgrades it'd run to about 50,000 words and take me the next five years of my life. Had to stop somewhere! 😉
...all right. I think I've vomited enough words to start with. Hope there's something worth holding on to somewhere in that mess. Excellent work Haravikk, and thanks for all the interesting ideas for my artificer.
Thanks so much for such detailed feedback! I'm going to integrate a bunch of these changes right away, and have a think about anything else I can do for the pistolero flavour of Gunfighter.
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You helped me out with the Toxicologist. Only right that I return the favor.
On Level 7: I think it's fine. Much like artificers, this is a character option that's built for, and encourages, clever play and inventive thinking. Advantage on flourishes with a couple basic examples should be enough, and the extra grit and trick shot helps fill out the level. A short sidebar note reminding DMs that players should be rewarded for flashy gunplay (within reason) could potentially help, if only because some DMs are total curmudgeons. But...a total-curmudgeon DM is also wildly unlikelt to allow a homebrewed gun-master Fighter in the first place sooooo........
On Grit/Second Wind: I think 2 grit would be fine. No need to involve dice. Getting back two points means a low-level Gunfighter doubles their Grit per short rest, and encourages them to actually use their Grit instead of hoarding it for The Right Moment. After all, they only get Grit back if they've spent Grit in the first place, so using one's Trick Shots aggressively rewards you with more Trick Shots per adventuring day. I'm a big fan of building that sort of incentive into a game mechanic, getting people to actively want to use up their resources instead of sitting on them. I don't think a die roll is needed, though. Two Grit on Second Wind is clean, simple, and gets the job done. Heh, at maximum level that's 11 Grit per short rest; if that doesn't do for your needs then you need to re-evaluate your needs :P
On Smokescreen: This feels like a case where clarity is going to have to beat conciseness. "A creature within the smokescreen is lightly obscured and has half cover against ranged attacks. A creature outside the smokescreen, but on the opposite side of the smokescreen's area from an attacker, has three-quarters cover against any ranged attack attempting to hit through the smokescreen." Or something of the like, simply to make sure that players don't try to have their cake and eat it too with the smoke.
On Haemorrhaging Shot: Perhaps this could be a place for some unconventional D&D-esque gunfighting tactics? Perhaps a 'Powder Blast' that deals 1d6(+mod, if you're being generous) damage to two or three adjacent creatures within five feet of you? Less damage than a regular shot, just loading a bunch of powder and firing it without a projectile as a "BACK OFF, SLEAZEWEASELS!" option. Could be a Dex save against Gunfighter DC for the damage, give the player something to do if they get pressed by a gang of weenies and didn't bother with a bayonet, a reinforced stock, or a backup sword. I dunno. Spitballing ideas.
On Hook and Fork: You may want to give in and simply call this one a bipod. I know that blackpowder guns didn't really have bipods, but people know what a bipod is (ironically, people who don't shoot know what a bipod is but give you the weirdest stare when you say the word 'monopod'). Heh, or just call it Hook and Fork and let people either invent their own description for it or Google that term. The mechanics are relatively clear, I just know from prior experience that someone can grasp a game rule much more quickly if they can picture in their mind the physical action the game rule is attempting to model.
Thanks again for a helpful document, and I'm glad I could offer some assistance.
On Grit/Second Wind: I think 2 grit would be fine. No need to involve dice. Getting back two points means a low-level Gunfighter doubles their Grit per short rest, and encourages them to actually use their Grit instead of hoarding it for The Right Moment. After all, they only get Grit back if they've spent Grit in the first place, so using one's Trick Shots aggressively rewards you with more Trick Shots per adventuring day. I'm a big fan of building that sort of incentive into a game mechanic, getting people to actively want to use up their resources instead of sitting on them. I don't think a die roll is needed, though. Two Grit on Second Wind is clean, simple, and gets the job done. Heh, at maximum level that's 11 Grit per short rest; if that doesn't do for your needs then you need to re-evaluate your needs :P
Oh, I just realised I haven't synced up the Skilled Shooter section properly (which is quite a crucial one to mess up!), so this won't be helping you out any; I've updated it, but basically instead of two grit plus one every two levels seven times, I switched to four plus one every three levels five times; still gives nine total by 18th level, but means you start out with more. This is because trick shots are a bit weaker most of the time than Battle Master manoeuvres as you have to declare them before the attack (so they're more of a gamble by design) and you don't get the superiority die bonuses, but that should be okay as they're on top of other bonuses, and many of them work differently.
So that change that I forgot to copy over (despite mentioning it in one of my comments *facepalms*) should solve the earlier level grit issue, as the recovery won't come in until 10th level anyway. Thinking about it a bit more, I wonder if only one on Second Wind would be fine, if you also reclaimed one when you use Indomitable? This would give one extra per short rest that you can choose exactly when to get it, plus up to three extra per long rest when you're having saves thrown at you. It means you could get up to 10 between short rests most of the time, or up to 13 on that one very difficult fight?
On Smokescreen: This feels like a case where clarity is going to have to beat conciseness. "A creature within the smokescreen is lightly obscured and has half cover against ranged attacks. A creature outside the smokescreen, but on the opposite side of the smokescreen's area from an attacker, has three-quarters cover against any ranged attack attempting to hit through the smokescreen." Or something of the like, simply to make sure that players don't try to have their cake and eat it too with the smoke.
My thinking on the new wording was that smoke doesn't normally provide cover, but by specifying that it provides up to three-quarter cover vs. ranged the cover rules should handle the rest in terms of positioning?
Perhaps a 'Powder Blast' that deals 1d6(+mod, if you're being generous) damage to two or three adjacent creatures within five feet of you? Less damage than a regular shot, just loading a bunch of powder and firing it without a projectile as a "BACK OFF, SLEAZEWEASELS!" option.
That's a fun idea! I'm wondering if it could be combined with a disengage type effect, maybe something like:
Once per turn, when attacking with a firearm against a creature within five feet, you can expend one grit point to select up two additional targets within five feet of both you and your initial target. Instead of rolling to attack as normal, you are immediately pushed backwards by five feet, and each of your targets must take a Dexterity saving throw against your trick shot DC. On failure, a target takes 1d6 + your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 0) in thunder damage.
My thinking is to limit it to once per turn to avoid possible abuse when you can get the ideal three enemies together. Otherwise the main benefit for escape is the push backwards, as it lets you then fire with impunity with your remaining attack(s), if any, and/or run away.
Edit: Actually it occurs to me that Smokescreen could be a good "get me out of here" button if I increased to heavily obscured for creatures within the smoke, as this would blind them (can't make opportunity attacks if you can't see the target somehow), but maybe having two trick shots suitable for escape would be okay?
Update: I've come up with an alternate for Powder Blast, not sure which one I prefer yet:
When making a firearm attack against a creature within 5 feet, you may spend up to three grit points. If you spend two, you may select up to two additional targets, each within 5 feet of both you and your initial target, if you spend three you will target all creatures within five feet (including yourself). Instead of rolling to attack as normal, you deal thunder damage equal to 1d6 + your Wisdom modifier to your target(s). This trick shot consumes one piece of ammunition, plus one charge of gunpowder per grit spent.
This version lacks the backwards push escape button, but instead hits automatically, and if you spend more grit you can make it more dangerous; 1 grit hits one target, 2 hits up to 3, and 3 hits everyone within 5 feet (including yourself), making it a more chaotic option.
Also I'm tempted to keep Haemorrhaging Shot as a trick shot, it'd mean an odd number of trick shots (13) but my mild OCD seems okay with that; it could be up to the player if they think they're going to forget it all the time or not.
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I wouldn't link Grit to Indomitable and Second Wind both. It seems logical, but it also muddies the ability. I'd pick either/or. One grit on Indomitable, or two grit on Second Wind.
Smokescreen switching to heavy obscurement for critters within the screen is probably the cleanest way to do it. It only lasts a few rounds, and while it's more accurate to model different effects based on position in/around the cloud, it's definitely starting to look like more trouble than it's worth.
Powder Blast has the distinct possibility of suffering from Rules Bloat. The variable grit cost deciding which of multiple distinct effects happens feels like too much shenanery for a single option. Instead, consider the scaling Grit used to determine push distance on the original, simpler Powder Blast. One Grit per five feet you want to push yourself, up to three grit. Or maybe Wis mod grit, but a fixed three seems cleaner. Not only does that keep the trick shot simple and relatively easy to resolve, it also allows players to select Powder Blast if they want to Rocket Jump. And we all know how much players like Rocket Jumping.
ALSO: I've been talking over the customizations lists with the DM for Grave of Saints, the game my artificer is in. He's uninterested in the actual Gunfighter itself (he prefers the Renegade fighter rules from Bilgewater for gun-y fighter), but he's impressed with the customization lists and sees no reason not to allow them in his game. I'll likely be testing a few of those out. Heh, also brought up the curious question for Pistol Swords (which might be a twitch overtuned even if it does scratch my anime itch; getting a d8 melee weapon and a d10 ranged weapon in the same hand with no penalty to either attack is heckin' stronk) of whether the Pistol and the Sword each count as a different item for the purposes of enchanting. Star uses the Repeating Shot infusion on her scavenged pistol to negate the need for half the modifiers on the list, but while that definitely makes the pistol a +1 Infinite Ammo blaster, the question arose as to whether the +1 and the magical damage properties would transfer to the blade of a pistol sword, were Star to use that infusion on such a weapon.
Curious what your thoughts would be, as well as the thoughts of anyone who DMs and is bold enough to answer.
The pistol sword question is an interesting one; I'd probably be inclined to rule that since they start as two separate weapons combining them doesn't make them a single weapon, the upgrade is that you can use both with a single hand. But if I were DM'ing though I'd allow for the relative strength of the character compared to the rest of the group, i.e- if they're competing against more heavily optimised builds I'd maybe throw them the doubled upgrade.
Regarding the strength of the Pistol Sword; only the bonus action attack ignores the range, it's intended to represent stabbing and firing simultaneously (which is how pistol swords were used historically, they're not just anime weapons, though historically they were super impractical and quickly abandoned, but I love the idea of them). Though I'm probably not balancing it well for non-fighters, as the bonus damage for a fighter will be less compared to the damage they're losing from using the (relatively) weaker rapier over other melee weapons for a STR/DEX/CON Gunfighter (rather than DEX/WIS/CON). I might rethink that, maybe have it rule that if you attack the same target with the pistol after attacking with the rapier in the same turn maybe? So you need extra attack or Haste to do it? Or do you think just leave the disadvantage?
Update: Maybe something like this?
Prerequisites: 3 upgrades including Lightweight A Lightweight pistol combined with a Rapier is no longer Light but can be used as either weapon while requiring only one hand to wield. If you fire the pistol at a target immediately after you attacked the same target with the rapier during the same turn, you may ignore the penalty for firing within melee range.
This would mean you need either multiple attacks, action surge, haste or some other bonus (War Priest for War Cleric or such) to take advantage of the stab and shoot technique. For a character that can attack once, and only once, they're still getting a pistol and sword that don't need to be swapped and leave your other hand free (so the pistol can still be reloaded, or you can cast, hold a shield or whatever).
Is there any particular reason your DM prefers the Renegade sub-class (the one that was on DDB as sponsored content iirc)? Or is it just that it's simpler (no trick shots)?
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Well, case study: looking at it from the perspective of my Battlesmith, as I'd say virtually all users of these options are going to be either Gunfighters directly or artificers cribbing the lists for their own guns. Every other case is going to be edge enough that it becomes their own DM's issue rather than yours.
Battlesmiths gain the ability, if both weapons qualify as 'Enchanted', to use Intelligence to both shoot and stab whilst retaining their shield and/or alternate item. Using a bonus action means they don't get to activate their Steel Defender's force punch that turn, or their Homunculus' Force Loogie if they have a Homunculus, but the bonus-action pistol shot deals more damage more accurately if the smith herself is engaging the target in close. If the pistol sword counts as two separate conjoined items, then theoretically the artificer can employ two separate infusions on it, as well - one on the blade and one on the gun. That could get nutbars in a hurry, if the Battlesmith is able to create a single weapon that counts as both a Radiant rapier and a Repeating pistol as just one example. Not to mention a particularly wealthy Battlesmith using the runic upgrades on both the gun and the blade to attain two different enchantment types in one hand. And of course, if the device qualifies as a single item then only one infusion allows the smith to attack with Intelligence using either end of the weapon.
My own personal artificer would love that option, though for her it's primarily a case of versatility. She's already got two other options for a useful(*) bonus action, the pistol sword is more covering the bases for her than it is a damage spike. Being able to switch seamlessly between Stabbing and Throwing/Shooting is why she started with a Returning weapon. A rapier-based pistol sword offering a d8 stab and a d10 shot is a hell of an upgrade over a d6 both ways. I'll admit, the aesthetic also very much fits her specifically, fancy gal that she is, but anyone else could either reflavor the blade or use a Longsword as the base and treat it as a saber or messer or the like instead.
Other artificers are less likely to care, methinks. Artillerists want to be attacking with their enhanced cantrips more than with any sort of weapon, and armorers are strongly encouraged to use their armor's integral weapons over anything else. An alchemist could potentially make effective use of a pistol sword to ghetto themselves an Extra Attack, since they have no clear use of their bonus action and their 'enhanced cantrips' are no such thing most of the time, but the alchemist is so awful that a player trying to make a stab-shooty alchemist should be allowed to do whatever she can to patch that godawful subclass.
Honestly, talking through it? When used normally it seems fine, but it also kinda instantly obsoletes two-weapon fighting so long as you can continue stuffing bullets in the pistol (though to be fair, everything obsoletes TWF. it's so bad...). Assuming pistol swords can't make use of any cartridge reload systems, that means one pistol shot every other turn if the bonus is used to reload between shots, which...mostly evens out with TWF, if one factors in the cost of ammo? Mostly just means you get a great spike turn on your first turn of combat and then it's a normal rapier until you need to switch to shooting. Artificers break the hell out of it with Repeating Shot, but that's an issue with artificers more than it is the weapons themselves, and if each half of the weapon is separately infuseable that could get tricky. Though also kinda awesome, depending on the tone of one's game.
I've been tempted to play the Critical Role Gunslinger Fighter sub-class for a while, but its always felt a bit strange mechanically due to the custom firearms and a lack of real options in terms of customisation, as the mechanics of customisation presumably happened mostly as behind the scenes discussion. There are also various issues with balance and some of the mechanics, such as Misfire which, though appropriate, can be more of a hindrance than a benefit to gameplay.
So I decided to take a stab at adapting the Gunslinger firstly to use the simpler Dungeonmaster's Guide firearms, with all the necessary tweaking that entails, as well as changing the trick shots to rebalance, remove and replace some. I've also tried to develop a system of upgrades and an outline for crafting them to give the sub-class a clear equipment progression since firearms cannot usually be found, and there are no magical firearms as standard, though this aspect isn't actually Gunfighter specific (you could use the same crafting guideline for a character that learns Firearms proficiency such as an Artificer).
The idea with the Gunfighter is to capture the same kind of flavour of a Gunslinger; they're a tinkerer but also supremely skilled with their own creations, with trick shots and traits to reflect this. I'll detail in a later post the exact changes from Gunslinger to Gunfighter.
Update:
The Gunfighter sub-class has now been released! You can find it here.
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Apologies about the formatting, it looks a lot nicer on the actual homebrew page, but I don't want to share that while I'm still tweaking it.
The complete list of changes from Gunslinger to Gunfighter is as follows:
And then of course there's the list of suggested upgrades, including magical upgrades, and a sample system for crafting (total up the time costs, roll tinker's tools for each hour spent to see if more than an hour's work gets done). The costs of the upgrades probably aren't terribly well balanced; I've tried to keep the total magical upgrade costs in line with magic items of similar strength, without making them a project that takes months of game time to complete, though the rarity of enchanted materials is an easy control mechanism for the DM to use to prevent them being added too early.
I've tried to give a reasonable mix of non-magical upgrades as well, allowing you to boost weapon range or trade range for other benefits, enabling you to upgrade your musket into a sniper rifle, or a blunderbuss, or to make a pepperbox by adding a bunch of barrels to your pistol and so-on. Most upgrades are loosely justifiable for the kind of firearms for the time period represented in Forgotten Realms D&D, as even mad things like gun-blades did actually exist (though they had dubious effectiveness, so these are more fantasy oriented in terms of usefulness).
My intention is that if your character starts at a higher level in order to already be a Gunfighter at the start of a campaign, then your DM might give you one or two weapons with one or two upgrades each, and you'd add to them over the campaign to make them incrementally more useful (and more powerful, with magical upgrades).
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FAQ
This is a placeholder FAQ for some questions/clarifications I feel take too much space to work into the rules themselves, and which I'll probably add as a comment on the published version:
Gunfighter
Firearms and Upgrades
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Suggested Builds
Since this is a sub-class with quite a range of options represented both through build, trick shot choice and crafting, I decided to add a few suggested builds to give people an idea of where to start with their Gunfighter:
Dragoon
Going in heavy and hard, a dragoon is an armoured knight with a black powder punch, and often rides into battle on horseback to close the distance as quickly as possible.
Primary Abilities: STR, CON, DEX
Suggested Fighting Style: Two-weapon Fighting or Great Weapon Fighting, or Archery if low on DEX.
Suggested Trick Shots: Surprise Shot, Lightning Reload, Lethal Shot, Disarming Shot, Powder Blast, Smokescreen.
Suggested Armour: Heavy
Suggested Weapons: Warhammer or Longsword plus a Pistol with Flared Muzzle (Dragon)
Suggested Feat: Mounted Combatant.
Gunsmith
For a gunsmith, artistry and craft come first, but that doesn't mean they can't handle themselves when things go awry.
Primary Abilities: DEX, INT, WIS
Suggested Fighting Style: Archery, Blind Fighting or Superior Technique.
Suggested Trick Shots: Aimed Shot, Smokescreen, Powder Blast, Flourish, Dazing Shot, Winging Shot.
Suggested Armour: Light.
Suggested Weapons: Multiple firearms with as many upgrades as possible!
Suggested Feat: Skilled or Skill Expert.
Musketeer
Fighting with a mixture of finesse and force, a musketeer is a skirmishing gunfighter adept at medium to short range.
Primary Abilities: DEX, CON
Suggested Fighting Style: Archery or Duelling.
Suggested Trick Shots: Aimed Shot, Surprise Shot, Disarming Shot, Flourish, Smokescreen, Powder Blast
Suggested Armour: Medium or Light.
Suggested Weapons: Rapier, Musket, optionally a Pistol. For musket-only build take improved then precision sight, reinforced stock and cartridge loading, with a secondary pistol consider multiple barrels.
Suggested Feat: Defensive Duellist or Dual Wielder.
Pistolero
Brash and reckless, a pistolero trades quality for quantity, firing off a punishing salvo from multiple pistols as they close before finishing a target off at close range.
Primary Abilities: DEX, CON, WIS
Suggested Fighting Style: Two-Weapon Fighting.
Suggested Trick Shots: Fusillade, Surprise Shot, Powder Blast, Smokescreen, Disarming Shot, Flourish
Suggested Armour: Light or Medium.
Suggested Weapons: Rapier and multiple Pistols with Holsters and Lanyards.
Suggested Feat: Dual Wielder.
Sniper
The ultimate in ranged support, a sniper is at home at a distance defending a wall or on top of a ridge overlooking an ambush.
Primary Abilities: DEX, WIS
Suggested Fighting Style: Archery.
Suggested Trick Shots: Aimed Shot, Lethal Shot, Warning Shot, Dazing Shot, Winging Shot, Piercing Shot.
Suggested Armour: Light.
Suggested Weapon: Musket with Bipod (improvised then integrated), Rifled Barrel, Cartridge Loading, enhanced sight (improved, precision then telescopic), Superior stock.
Suggested Feat: Sharpshooter.
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.
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Neat edit of the subclass, I like your point about the evolving nature of firearms. To that point have you thought about gating the upgrades to the gunslinger level and reducing investments if earlier similar ones are made? Then it almost becomes a tech tree.
I really like the idea of structuring things more like a tech-tree, I've thrown up a few sample prerequisites for regular upgrades, and a quick note ahead of the table about it. I've left magical upgrades for now as I think they should just be handled like other magic items by the DM (i.e- you might find enchanted gem dust as loot in a dungeon).
Also, while I was at it, I've separated costs and project times; this means that many upgrades are cheaper overall, but can still take a long time to complete, it also means that the bulk of a magical upgrade is in its gem dust (and how you obtain it). I might have made some upgrades a bit too inexpensive as a result (no play-testing or discussion done on these changes yet), but the idea is for the cost to be more about material cost, while the time is how long it takes to actually plan it out, engineer the parts, assemble it, refine it, apply the runes and infuse with gem dust etc.
I've also added a note about reducing the time for an upgrade that the player has already done; the way I've done this is to tweak Expert Gunsmith so that it's now double proficiency in Tinker's Tools (making 15+ rolls more likely, and putting 25+ rolls within reach even with low INT), and adding that checks are taken at advantage when working on an upgrade that is familiar. This means that double and triple hour rolls should be a lot more likely, effectively reducing a project's time by a third to two thirds depending upon the player's Intelligence score. There may also be other circumstances in which a DM might award advantage to the rolls, such as having access to a high-end workshop, or having skilled help.
The idea is that a gunsmith should usually have a project underway most of the time, so they can spend a few hours on it whenever they have some suitable downtime. I made the time for creating a new pistol or musket the same as they're actually basically the same at a fundamental level, the musket is bigger, but actually that makes it easier in some ways, so I figure it would balance out.
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.
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Damn.
This is exactly what I want when it comes to guns in stuff like DnD
Is there any way for me to use this without having to get a membership to add it to my collection?
No, as you can't even currently get it with a subscription 😝
That's because this is just a copy of the text, I haven't shared the actual homebrew with the community yet so nobody can add it to their collection; I want to get it as final as I can first.
If you need it sooner, you've a few options; first, this sub-class is based on the Gunslinger from Critical Role, which is free content already, you just need to enable Critical Role content for your character (Edit Character -> Home and its a switch on that first page). It functions a bit differently though (see my second post here for details), and if the part you're most interested in is the crafting you might have to adapt it a bit to work. Second, you could create your own homebrew based on my description here, I basically just copied the Gunslinger as a starting point anyway, though a couple of the features have been a bit fiddly to add. Third, you could go whatever class/sub-class you like, take Tinker's Tools proficiency in your background, and ask your DM for firearms proficiency and to use this crafting outline as a guide; you won't get the firearms specific trick shots or other features of the Gunfighter but you'd still get the crafting progression; a Fighter Champion for example still gets four attacks and works well with ranged fighting.
That said, subscriptions on D&D Beyond are pretty reasonable; even if you only subscribe for a month, homebrew you add to a character should stay when your subscription ends. Alternatively, if you're playing as part of a campaign group on DDB, then if your DM gets the master subscription they can add homebrew and share it with the group (content sharing), this also shares all paid content unlocked by anyone in the group. This is how my current group on here is doing it as we're all a bit broke, so we pay a share of the DM's subscription and unlock the bits we individually need (races, spells etc.). But like I say, haven't actually shared the homebrew yet; I'll probably be tinkering with it and testing it for at least another few weeks before I do.
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.
I've made some changes to try to overcome an annoying issue I've had with the Gunfighter so far.
Because of the way sub-classing works on D&D Beyond, Fighter sub-classes need to have two 7th level traits (or at least mine does, for some reason), which is why Lightning Reload was level 7 rather than level 5 where I wanted it (when a Fighter gains their first extra attack), this would mean you could hit level 5, and not be able to fully take advantage of the extra attack until level 7 or else having to build around it with multiple single-shot weapons or adding cartridge loading or multiple barrels on a weapon by level 5. To address this I've made the following changes:
Will need to do some test sessions with these changes, but it feels a lot more like how I wanted it, but couldn't quite figure out till now.
One other issue that came up was the balance of Runes of Tracking/Vengeance versus Runes of Radiance; someone questioned whether the spell-casting runes were worse as they only last for an hour per long rest, whereas as Runes of Radiance apply for any length of time. While it's true that you'll do more bonus damage overall with Runes of Radiance if you have encounters spaced out over longer than an hour, during the hour that Hex/Hunter's Mark lasts you not only do more bonus damage (d6 vs d4) but it applies to all of your weapons, so you can hit a target with your spell-casting weapon before switching to another (including one with Runes of Radiance) and still get that bonus damage. So it's d4 damage over prolonged periods, versus stacking d6 damage over a more limited period, plus the added benefits of Hex/Hunter's mark (though Runes of Radiance also have a neat effect). In the end I decided to leave them as they were in terms of effect, but I've tweaked the casting; it counts as you casting the spell, and instead of ignoring concentration, it ignores concentration checks, so while concentration can't be broken, you still can't cast other concentration spells, so you can't double up the spell, or cast Hunter's Mark with your weapon then cast Hex using Magic Initiate (Warlock). I've also clarified that the spell ends if you are separated from the weapon (drop it, have it taken from you etc.).
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.
Latest test session has only resulted in a couple of minor tweaks this time:
Unless there's feedback on any of the latest changes I think the sub-class is basically done; I'm still planning to do another test or two over the next couple of weeks, plus I'll re-read everything about a thousand more times per day, but otherwise this is now probably-mostly-final-I-think™.
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.
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I know I said I thought I was done, well I wasn't. After more testing I've found that no-one really got my idea for the Lethal Shot, and I wasn't using it myself either, as it was too difficult to setup for often too little reward, neither especially good signs!
As a result I've switched it back to being more like the previous Violent Shot; for each grit point spent you increase the weapon damage by d8 (rather than a weapon die, since there's no Misfire anymore). This is much easier to understand and use, but it has some interesting elements; you can spend as much grit as you like (up to your Wisdom modifier) meaning you can potentially add a lot more damage than similar abilities in a single hit, but you're paying for it up front, so you're gambling on hitting in the first place, which makes it either risky or still encourages a combo (gain a hit bonus or advantage from another ability or player).
This was a tough one to decide on for balance, as a Way of the Kensei Deft Strike (1 ki to add martial arts die to damage) can scale all the way up to d12, and only spends the ki point on a hit, meaning you can save it for a critical for maximum effect (as paladins often do with higher level divine smites), whereas this trick shot is a risk. It was originally d6 but that felt too low, but more than d8 feels too high given that it has the potential for more burst damage (spend 2+ grit on one attack that's very likely to hit). It's tricky, as d6 would be consistent with Battle Master manoeuvres at the same level, but those get better dice at higher levels, but again, this can burst, so it's hard to compare, and I'm not really sure if I want to add level scaling onto trick shots. I'd appreciate any thoughts on whether this trick shot is now too strong or too weak!
Other changes include small additions to the 10th and 18th level abilities; Expert Gunsmith is now Seasoned Gunfighter with the same double proficiency on Tinker's Tools, plus regaining one grit on a failed save (has to be caused by an enemy) as an additional grit recovery mechanic in a battle that's maybe going poorly (as you've probably used or failed Indomitable). This helps to further distinguish Grit from Superiority Die as a mechanic; the die can be added on as damage so manoeuvres are generally better, while trick shots are more situational or weaker/more of a gamble, but you can potentially regain grit during a fight to use them more often.
Dead-Shot is now True Grit, which additionally lets you spend two grit to end Charmed, Frightened, Grappled or Stunned on yourself; with grit being a much more limited resource than Ki, and True Grit a much later ability, this hopefully shouldn't step on the toes of Berserkers (who can do this for the duration of every Rage) or Monks (who can do it more cheaply), though it can end more effect types. One interesting interaction is with getting a grit back on a failed save, since you usually have to fail a save to suffer one of these conditions, but you only get one grit back and need two to end the effect so it makes spending your last grit a tougher choice, as you might need to get the two.
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.
So… it's probably a good thing I still haven't shared this yet as I just discovered a big bug with one of the trick shots; for some mad reason I implemented Smokescreen as lightly obscured and heavily obscured, without double checking exactly what those do, which it turns out was not what I wanted (which is just cover)! This meant that the trick shot as I'd written it either would have done basically nothing, or effectively blinded everyone in the combat. I've been using the trick shot in test sessions, but clearly using it as intended rather than as written.
Anyway, I've rewritten that trick shot so it now functions as intended; creatures in the area of the smoke are lightly obscured and gain half cover vs. ranged attacks, while creatures blocked by the cover (it's blocking line of sight to them) have three-quarters cover against ranged attacks. This is as it's intended to work, basically you're trading an attack (and gunpowder if you're tracking that) plus a grit point to create a temporary piece of soft cover that makes it harder to target ranged attacks, but offers no protection against being fireballed into oblivion.
I've also changed True Grit already; being able to cancel conditions with grit was too strong on reflection, not to mention stepping over other (sub-)classes that can do this (Berserker, Monk etc.). I considered giving free grit on empty in the same way a Battle Master gets a superiority die when rolling Initiative if they don't have any, but Gunfighter/Gunslinger is already a bit "Battlemaster with a gun" and it didn't really capture what I want thematically, plus grit already functions a bit differently as you have ways to recover some (critical or failed save). Instead what I'm leaning towards is Indomitable recovery instead; basically if you take a short rest and have no uses of Indomitable left, you'll get one back. This is a bonus I find interesting as Indomitable is a good Fighter ability (limited re-roll on any save), and as a ranged fighter the Gunfighter will probably tend towards high DEX, light armour plus mobility and/or using cover, so has some resistance to saves already, plus failing a save is one of the ways you can regain grit, so it makes for a tricky choice. In other words, on another Fighter sub-class it might be quite a strong ability as they might be more likely to burn through Indomitable quickly, but a Gunfighter either won't, or may even not use it (let some saves fail) for the grit it gains them instead. There's also a trade off in that while you can get one "free" use of Indomitable per short rest, it's at the cost of having a bank of two or more uses for later, when you might really need it.Update: And I've updated True Grit again! Part of the problem I think with the later levels of this sub-class is that Impossible Shot, while cool and flavourful is super situational and mostly a non-combat ability (or at least an indirect combat ability if there's a lock/switch whatever to shoot that has some environmental or story impact). What I've done is I've moved the improved critical hit and Impossible Shot down, creating the new True Grit at 10th level (gain 1 grit if you have none when rolling initiative) plus Impossible Shot (reduce DC of object shots), Crack Shot is now Deadshot again but at 15th level, and True Grit is now Masterful Shooter allowing up to three tricks shots in a single firearm attack.
Two or three tricks shots on a single attack is potentially quite a powerful ability, though only certain combinations of trick shot really make sense; most common would likely be Aimed Shot with one of the others to make it easier to hit (or counter disadvantage), though multiple debuff shots (e.g- Disarming Shot and Winging Shot) could be a powerful gamble if it pays off. On the other hand, it means you could end up draining your grit even faster, though if you miss you regain one so while it's still a bit of a gamble it's not necessarily a big one. Probably the strongest combinations will be Lethal Shot plus either Aimed Shot or Surprise Shot, as you could potentially pump all your grit into added damage for one hell of a headshot or gutshot, but it's still a big risk if it fails, these are ideal for a one reaction attack, or for an opening attack, as otherwise on your turn it's better just to spread the trick shots across multiple attacks.
Also, after running a test session against a Battle Master with firearm proficiency I've made some further changes to grit; you now start with four increasing to a total of eight, with up to six trick shots, there is no longer recovery on critical hits (all of us testing the sub-class kept forgetting most of the time). Since trick shots aren't as strong, and are more of a gamble, they are still starting out weaker compared to manoeuvres, but this is on top of superior firearm proficiency (due to the ability to choose to reload) and now double proficiency in tinker's tools as standard (when working on firearms or firearm ammunition), and over time you'll get a third more grit points than Battle Masters have superiority die, though your trick shots will still be weaker overall as you spend them before hitting, similar effects aren't as strong, and they don't increase in strength (no bonus die).
I've also brought back two trick shots in new forms; Piercing Shot (can deal 1d6+WIS damage to a creature covered by your target), and Haemorrhaging Shot (on hit target starts losing HP at the end of its turns equal to your WIS, or can use its Action to end it), giving a nice total of 12 (for the 6 total choices).
I've also been toying with a couple of new magical upgrades:
Also one new upgrade:
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.
So I forgot to update to let people know I'd added some special weapons; these are for fun, and partly inspired by the "antique" heavy weapons now available on Hero Forge, though I'd considered adding some before this. They are absolutely not intended to be obtained or crafted by lower level characters, but rather are for high level rewards, or a party weapon that can be brought out for special occasions only (such as storming a fortress). They are powerful, but somewhat balanced by generally poor short range without (expensive) upgrades, plus long reload times; some also have a high Strength requirement to wield, so must instead be setup prior to firing by most characters.
These come on top of what are hopefully now the final (for real) tweaks to wording on the actual sub-class rules and core upgrades; nothing has meaningfully changed, I've just made various little grammatical tweaks to clarify and simplify where I can, and double (well, centuple) checked my snippets. Barring any further feedback or anything I discover myself I'll probably share with the community in a week or so.
I've also expanded the FAQ (end of the second post) which covers questions that have come up in testing which, though I feel the rules are sufficiently clear, are worth answering to avoid possible confusion.
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.
So I just remembered that I intended to come back to this after Involuntary Nap Time, having spotted it during said nap time. I've shared the thread with the DM for our Tursk game, in which I play an artificer that's starting to swing into firearm use after starting out with a returning javelin as her primary weapon. When I prod reactions and feedback from him I'll post that as well, but in the interim I will vomit up whatever thoughts occur to me as I write.
On the Class Itself
Speaking directly to the Gunfighter itself, I think this is a fine adaptation of Mercer's own work. Especially given the rather severe limitations of the DMG blackpowder guns. Assuming the class as written in the OP is still accurate to your current design, I could easily see folks playing this. It does require a rampaging assload of money though, which could be an issue for players in campaigns where the DM prefers to award items, prestige titles/land, or favors rather than straight gold rewards. I know that such a DM is breaking ZA RURUS to a degree and should be able to adapt their reward structure to accommodate a gunsmith (such as offering them a workshop and a monthly supply of materials or such), but it might be worth noting somewhere as an Alternate Progression bit.
Treating Loading as Reload(1) took me a minute before remembering that the DMG version of 'Reload' is "Action or bonus action", not "action or an individual attack of the Attack action". Still wastes most of a fighter's high-level Multiattack, but at least it gives the option for a follow-up shot. And frankly, one shot every six seconds is still outrageous for blackpowder muzzle-loaders.
Level 7 feels a little threadbare, methinks. It does allow for easy swapping of guns, but the 'Loading becomes Reload' only matters for the first gun, and while a fighter carrying a brace of pistols and quickly switching between them is both historically accurate and frickin' cool, I worry that requiring the same of a gunfighter is an onerously heavy burden. A pistolero gunfighter would need four pistols to get their full Multiattack, and all would need modifications to even allow him to draw them all. That's north of a thousand gold just for basic armaments, to say nothing of the forty thousand-plus GP worth of enchanting he'll have to do simply to match the ability of his paladin buddy to make all his attacks with a magical weapon that the paladin's had since he found that +1 longsword in the zombie crypt back at level 4. I know this can be mitigated with a number of other upgrades, but this Gunfighter does not make the same assumptions that the Gunslinger did. Its base weapon is always going to be either Loading or Reload(1), modifications are not assumed. I don't know. I like the Flourish ability for seasoning and proficiency to Initiative is still awesome, but...I dunno. Maybe it's just me.
I've always hated the "if you have no [Class Resource] left at the beginning of Initiative, regain one [Class Resource]" features. They feel like such an afterthought, especially when a class is otherwise well supplied with resources or has other options for managing their resources. It's all "Congratulations: here is your reward for badly mismanaging your resources!" I know why it's here in this case, but have you considered tying emergency Grit regeneration to another ability? Perhaps something like "when you use your Second Wind ability to regain hit points, you also regain an expended Grit point"? Something the player can control, and a benefit they can use actively as opposed to only getting to use passively, and even then only once they've thoroughly mismanaged their Grit? I know I'd much rather regain Grit when I Second Wind, even if that's technically less possible chances to regain Grit. Feels thematic, too - when you brace up and force yourself top keep going despite your injuries it's heckin' gritty Ay-Eff.
I appreciate the steady, logical progression of both Grit and Trick Shots - one extra Grit point every other level, one extra Trick Shot every other Grit point, with the exception of level 18 because subclass reasons. It pleases my monkey brain and feels like a good way to represent improving mastery of firearms in a system where a character is basically as proficient with any given weapon at level 1 as they're going to be at level 20. Also dig that the Trick Shot DC is still Wisdom-based. I enjoyed that Mercer's Gunslinger encouraged investment in stats beyond Fight Stat and Con, but did so in a more 'soft' manner - a Gunslinger wanted Intelligence to draft and create new gear and Wisdom for Grit, as well as Fight Stat and Con. People hate MADness with a passion, but I really felt like it made the Gunslinger a better character even if at the expense of some power. I may be biased after spending five hundred hours watching Percival, but the Gunslinger - and this Gunfighter by extension - always felt like a sort of 'Prestige' option. You need a shitload of money and a ton of stats to really milk this class for all it's worth, it's a great option for players who're running a fighter but want a bigger-brain version of fighter than the gorram Champion.
And as it stands, a fighter without Heroic rolls can tailor to their story - the crafty, cunning outlaw without much traditional education but who's lived through the worst the world throws at him (low Intelligence, high[er] Wisdom) may take a while to work his way through building and upgrading his equipment, but he's got Grit to spare and his trick shots work better. The noble dandy son who took up gunsmithing as a hobby and studied it as a science (high Intelligence, low[er] Wisdom) can much more easily create new weapons and new modifications, but he's going to have a tougher time making his trick shots land without that gritty, dusty outlaw's experience.
The wording on Smokescreen is a little confusing, I'll admit. Took me a minute to untangle that it meant creatures on the other side of the smoke, rather than within the cloud, get the three-quarters cover benefit. I'll also note that you seem to've accidentally copied the text for Smokescreen over whatever the effect of Surprise Shot is. For the most part the individual trick shot options look good, though from personal experience I can say that Haemorrhaging Shot is entirely too likely to get forgotten by entirely too many people. I'm not sure I've ever seen a player who properly remembers ongoing round-over-round actions like that without some kind of physical aid x_x. You'd think people could remember a DoT, but naaah.
...okay. Think that's all the word-vomit the base class needs.
On the Guns
The gun customization chart is what really caught my eye. I love the idea of building your own personal perfect weapon (even if reflecting those modifications in DDB is a ******* nightmare), and the list of gun enchantments is a clean solution to issues that've plagued three campaigns running now for us with the creation/enchanting of items. I really like it. That said, you may want to make a note of which weapons are eligible for which upgrades. You've clearly spent time behind a sight picture yourself, so have I, and we both can look at an upgrade and just know what that upgrade is intended for. Other folks...may not. A 'P', 'M', or 'P/M' tag showing Pistol, Musket, or both Pistol and Musket on each mundane upgrade feels like it wouldn't go amiss for the purposes of clarity.
Kudos on the notion of having shot-type weapons roll damage with advantage rather than the usual 'roll a bunch of d4s because many little pellets' junk. That's an inspired notion and helps encourage people to actually use shot-type weapons, since they gain in reliability and damage-per-gp what they lose in range. Also: dragons are hilarious, what with their ten-foot range. Hueh. Your enemy has to be exactly ten feet away - five feet away and you shoot with disadvantage because too close, fifteen feet and you shoot with disadvantage because too far. Admittedly that can be fixed with precision sights (which feels very weird for a blackpowder dragon), but it's still hilarious.
Will admit, I'm not familiar with hook and fork. You may want to describe that one, just so folks with less idea how guns work than we've got can get a better sense of the physical actions behind the mechanical rule. I get that it's essentially an early form of bipod, but you managed to bamboozle me with that term despite many hundreds of fantasy novels anda pretty solid grounding in firearms so I'm gonna assume a lot of other folks are gonna say 'hook and fork? Bwuh...?'
Have to wonder if a single stock can be both Reinforced and Superior. My shooter/IRL Physics brain says "Uhhh...duh? Why wouldn't that be possible?", but my video game brain snags on both modifications occupying the same 'slot' and thus being incompatible. I know, 'The Rules Do What They Say They Do' and if an upgrade doesn't claim incompatibility then it's compatible, but it feels like a point worth bringing up.
The Volley Gun is utterly impractical overweight nonsense and I love it. It's hysterical. I love that while it's incompatible with basically all other shooty upgrades, it's not incompatible with bayonets or reinforced stocks. Waiting on the gunfighter whose primary weapon is a forty-pound historical abortion of a volley gun he uses to One Man Firing Squad some poor sorry ****er at the start of the fight before going Oni Mode and just beating everybody else to death with the outsized monstrosity.
Start of Fight: "Oh gods! he just blew Steve the hell away!"
End of Fight: "STEVE WAS THE LUCKY ONE DEAR GODS SOMEBODY STOP THIS OGRE MAN AHHHHGHGHHBJKGHGJKHG-"
Insofar as Magical Upgrades go, I'll admit that part of me wants 'runes of Detonation' to be a thing, and/or the ability to create a specialized underbarrel bracket that can hold a Wand of Fireballs. Because I want my goddamn magic grenade launcher. Hueh. Elsewise I like the sample list, it's a good spread of basic damage augments and more interesting debuff enchantments. Runes of Tracking and Vengeance are particularly interesting. While a small part of me misses the Critical Role idea of enchanting each barrel of a multi-barrel gun separately, I'll admit that enchanting the entire weapon is just a better idea. It already costs the gunfighter an enormous amount of resources just to keep up with everybody else, nobody needs to sextouple the resources required to enchant one single bloody pepperbox properly. It also offers an interesting sort of decision economy in which a gunfighter has to choose between going all-in on a given enchantment and applying it to a pepperbox or a four-cartridge heavily modified rifle, or if she wants to instead focus on crafting different enchantments on two or more less expensive base weapons in order to increase their versatility. Does one spend every dime they've got on an amazeballs magical Bad News? Or do they apply lesser enchantments to multiple cheap(er) two-barreled pistols so that when they encounter something resistant/immune to their main gun, they can simply switch to a different one better suited to that target?
...all right. I think I've vomited enough words to start with. Hope there's something worth holding on to somewhere in that mess. Excellent work Haravikk, and thanks for all the interesting ideas for my artificer.
Please do not contact or message me.
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of DM buy-in on this sub-class and crafting rules in general; I've tried to scale the costs with DMG firearms and what equivalent magical items would cost if most players didn't just find them lying around. DM's are of course free to slash gold costs, or just charge for components or such. For magical upgrades, the DM should give you gem dust when other player's get magic items, either finding it in a dungeon, or as part of a quest reward so you can pick the type you want.
This is really intended for 5th level, when a player going for a musket based sniper will suddenly find they can only fire once per turn, and might not have met the requirements for cartridge loading yet (as it's quite an advanced firearm feature historically). By the time you're hitting three attacks you should hopefully have either many pistols, or at least one firearm with four or six shots – at least that's my intention.
It's been tricky to balance certainly; level 7 also grants one extra grit and one extra trick shot, so it's not just the Flourish and Quickdraw abilities. You could choose Lightning Reload (spend a grit to reload) for the latter, though of course that's burning grit to solve the problem.
For Flourish I originally considered baking in additional impacts for what you can do with it, for example using a pistol spin as a distraction, or flicking a palm pistol from a sleeve to gain surprise, but I found that hard to word in a clean way, and wondered if it risked making it seem like that would then be all you could do, whereas I'm sure there are a tonne of flourishes I haven't even thought of. It felt a bit cleaner to just leave it up to the DM/player to argue what a flourish is for (if anything, showboating is absolutely a core Gunfighter mechanic). Maybe I should add a note to that effect?
In terms of the cost, you should ideally be making additional firearms over time if it's your aim to go for a full brace of pistols and Blackbeard your way through an encounter drawing and firing continuously. You should be able to get three by 11th level, two by 5th is trickier as it depends on whether you already have your first firearm by 3rd level or not.
As for actually using multiple pistols, it's a bit weird mechanically but one of the assumptions I've made is that dropping items is a free action (as per this Crawford tweet and the absence of it being considered an object interaction), this means that at 5th level you can fire a pistol, drop it, and draw another to fire that one while still having a free hand to reload (you can do the same with hand crossbows, heavy crossbows etc. if you want to). At 7th level you can stow a pistol and draw another to do it more cleanly. But this is really where the cheap Drop Loop upgrade is intended to fit in, as you can drop any number of pistols on drop loops, and you can draw an extra pistol in place of stowing one; this means that with four attack you can fire two held pistols, draw two more, then fire those as well. After that you have to a juggle a bit more, meaning you'll either fire only three, or use an off-hand attack to maintain four per turn if you have the pistols, otherwise you drop one, reload the other and prepare to draw a melee weapon.
I think it works, it's a just a bit weird to get your head around mechanically. I might look at whether I can come up with a better FAQ note about how that should work.
For magic item competition, yeah… it's tricky, as I didn't want to have to price things for every eventuality (different cost for musket vs. pistol, multiple barrels versus single etc.). One option would be to take Runes of Tracking/Vengeance on one pistol and fire that one first, as the bonus damage from that will apply to all others as well, and if you have a supply of silver bullets they can all still be "magical" attacks – the first pistol doesn't need to be held, you just need to have it in your possession to maintain the spell, though I could probably clarify that a bit.
The "regain one grit on Initiative" was something I resisted adding but I could never think of anything better so ended up doing it anyway, but I really love the idea of tying it to another ability instead! Since Second Wind remains only single use at higher levels, do you think may two, or d3 grit points recovered might make more sense than just one?
Whoops! I'll correct that. Surprise Shot is similar to Riposte; basically if an enemy misses you you can make a reaction attack with a firearm and add your WIS modifier to the damage. You ignore firing in melee range if using a one-handed firearm, so it's ideal for a pistol build.
As for the Smokescreen wording, I've thrown up an alternative, let me know if you think that's clearer!
Yeah, I shared some of these doubts about bringing it back, but it fills a fun niche mechanically.
The idea is that you either stack a few bleeding injuries on an enemy, enough to do extra damage over time but not enough the enemy is willing to sacrifice its action to try to clear it, either that or you pile them on to rob an enemy of one or more turns. I quite like the potential utility of that, but yeah, tracking things like that can be fiddly; though it shouldn't be any harder than any other over time effect that happens in enemy turns, like damaging terrain spells, spirit guardians etc.
That said, this is probably the trick shot I'd drop if I had another good idea for a twelfth trick shot; I think twelve is the ideal number, as it means you can choose up to half, but I've been through shed loads of duds when it comes to new trick shot ideas.
That's a good idea, I'll do that!
For the dragon it's intended, makes them kind of like a Lance; they're the weapon you pull out when you've got the drop on someone, otherwise you need Aimed Shot to bypass the disadvantage if you've pulled one out in a tight spot. It does however combine really well with Surprise Shot, making it more unfortunate I'd somehow copy/pasted over that one 😉
Sure, I'll see if I can find a way to sum it up in a short way; I originally described the fork as a monopod but that seems to be a very modern term (and usually integrated into the weapon). Basically the hook lets you support the weapon's barrel more easily on a wall or such to focus on aiming, and the fork lets you do it when there's nothing to rest the weapon on. When I'm thinking of a musket with Fork & Hook (or upgrades in general), I'm thinking of something like this nutter from Warhammer has:
It's intended that you can, as I don't really specify exactly how you make a stock superior or reinforced as such; sights for example state you can't have more than one. If you made your reinforced superior stock from precisely engineered metal for example that would absolutely justify both.
Nock Guns are awesome; they were a crazy idea, not super practical, but ridiculous early firearm nonsense. This is a huge nod to fans of Patrick Harper from Sharpe.
Oh they're absolutely intended just as a sample starting point!
If you can think of something, you should definitely ask your DM for it, same as you could always ask for a bulk discount on magic upgrades or cheaper per-barrel options.
If I put down every idea I had for magic upgrades it'd run to about 50,000 words and take me the next five years of my life. Had to stop somewhere! 😉
Thanks so much for such detailed feedback! I'm going to integrate a bunch of these changes right away, and have a think about anything else I can do for the pistolero flavour of Gunfighter.
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On Level 7: I think it's fine. Much like artificers, this is a character option that's built for, and encourages, clever play and inventive thinking. Advantage on flourishes with a couple basic examples should be enough, and the extra grit and trick shot helps fill out the level. A short sidebar note reminding DMs that players should be rewarded for flashy gunplay (within reason) could potentially help, if only because some DMs are total curmudgeons. But...a total-curmudgeon DM is also wildly unlikelt to allow a homebrewed gun-master Fighter in the first place sooooo........
On Grit/Second Wind: I think 2 grit would be fine. No need to involve dice. Getting back two points means a low-level Gunfighter doubles their Grit per short rest, and encourages them to actually use their Grit instead of hoarding it for The Right Moment. After all, they only get Grit back if they've spent Grit in the first place, so using one's Trick Shots aggressively rewards you with more Trick Shots per adventuring day. I'm a big fan of building that sort of incentive into a game mechanic, getting people to actively want to use up their resources instead of sitting on them. I don't think a die roll is needed, though. Two Grit on Second Wind is clean, simple, and gets the job done. Heh, at maximum level that's 11 Grit per short rest; if that doesn't do for your needs then you need to re-evaluate your needs :P
On Smokescreen: This feels like a case where clarity is going to have to beat conciseness. "A creature within the smokescreen is lightly obscured and has half cover against ranged attacks. A creature outside the smokescreen, but on the opposite side of the smokescreen's area from an attacker, has three-quarters cover against any ranged attack attempting to hit through the smokescreen." Or something of the like, simply to make sure that players don't try to have their cake and eat it too with the smoke.
On Haemorrhaging Shot: Perhaps this could be a place for some unconventional D&D-esque gunfighting tactics? Perhaps a 'Powder Blast' that deals 1d6(+mod, if you're being generous) damage to two or three adjacent creatures within five feet of you? Less damage than a regular shot, just loading a bunch of powder and firing it without a projectile as a "BACK OFF, SLEAZEWEASELS!" option. Could be a Dex save against Gunfighter DC for the damage, give the player something to do if they get pressed by a gang of weenies and didn't bother with a bayonet, a reinforced stock, or a backup sword. I dunno. Spitballing ideas.
On Hook and Fork: You may want to give in and simply call this one a bipod. I know that blackpowder guns didn't really have bipods, but people know what a bipod is (ironically, people who don't shoot know what a bipod is but give you the weirdest stare when you say the word 'monopod'). Heh, or just call it Hook and Fork and let people either invent their own description for it or Google that term. The mechanics are relatively clear, I just know from prior experience that someone can grasp a game rule much more quickly if they can picture in their mind the physical action the game rule is attempting to model.
Thanks again for a helpful document, and I'm glad I could offer some assistance.
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Oh, I just realised I haven't synced up the Skilled Shooter section properly (which is quite a crucial one to mess up!), so this won't be helping you out any; I've updated it, but basically instead of two grit plus one every two levels seven times, I switched to four plus one every three levels five times; still gives nine total by 18th level, but means you start out with more. This is because trick shots are a bit weaker most of the time than Battle Master manoeuvres as you have to declare them before the attack (so they're more of a gamble by design) and you don't get the superiority die bonuses, but that should be okay as they're on top of other bonuses, and many of them work differently.
So that change that I forgot to copy over (despite mentioning it in one of my comments *facepalms*) should solve the earlier level grit issue, as the recovery won't come in until 10th level anyway. Thinking about it a bit more, I wonder if only one on Second Wind would be fine, if you also reclaimed one when you use Indomitable? This would give one extra per short rest that you can choose exactly when to get it, plus up to three extra per long rest when you're having saves thrown at you. It means you could get up to 10 between short rests most of the time, or up to 13 on that one very difficult fight?
My thinking on the new wording was that smoke doesn't normally provide cover, but by specifying that it provides up to three-quarter cover vs. ranged the cover rules should handle the rest in terms of positioning?
That's a fun idea! I'm wondering if it could be combined with a disengage type effect, maybe something like:
My thinking is to limit it to once per turn to avoid possible abuse when you can get the ideal three enemies together. Otherwise the main benefit for escape is the push backwards, as it lets you then fire with impunity with your remaining attack(s), if any, and/or run away.
Edit: Actually it occurs to me that Smokescreen could be a good "get me out of here" button if I increased to heavily obscured for creatures within the smoke, as this would blind them (can't make opportunity attacks if you can't see the target somehow), but maybe having two trick shots suitable for escape would be okay?
Update: I've come up with an alternate for Powder Blast, not sure which one I prefer yet:
This version lacks the backwards push escape button, but instead hits automatically, and if you spend more grit you can make it more dangerous; 1 grit hits one target, 2 hits up to 3, and 3 hits everyone within 5 feet (including yourself), making it a more chaotic option.
Also I'm tempted to keep Haemorrhaging Shot as a trick shot, it'd mean an odd number of trick shots (13) but my mild OCD seems okay with that; it could be up to the player if they think they're going to forget it all the time or not.
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I wouldn't link Grit to Indomitable and Second Wind both. It seems logical, but it also muddies the ability. I'd pick either/or. One grit on Indomitable, or two grit on Second Wind.
Smokescreen switching to heavy obscurement for critters within the screen is probably the cleanest way to do it. It only lasts a few rounds, and while it's more accurate to model different effects based on position in/around the cloud, it's definitely starting to look like more trouble than it's worth.
Powder Blast has the distinct possibility of suffering from Rules Bloat. The variable grit cost deciding which of multiple distinct effects happens feels like too much shenanery for a single option. Instead, consider the scaling Grit used to determine push distance on the original, simpler Powder Blast. One Grit per five feet you want to push yourself, up to three grit. Or maybe Wis mod grit, but a fixed three seems cleaner. Not only does that keep the trick shot simple and relatively easy to resolve, it also allows players to select Powder Blast if they want to Rocket Jump. And we all know how much players like Rocket Jumping.
ALSO: I've been talking over the customizations lists with the DM for Grave of Saints, the game my artificer is in. He's uninterested in the actual Gunfighter itself (he prefers the Renegade fighter rules from Bilgewater for gun-y fighter), but he's impressed with the customization lists and sees no reason not to allow them in his game. I'll likely be testing a few of those out. Heh, also brought up the curious question for Pistol Swords (which might be a twitch overtuned even if it does scratch my anime itch; getting a d8 melee weapon and a d10 ranged weapon in the same hand with no penalty to either attack is heckin' stronk) of whether the Pistol and the Sword each count as a different item for the purposes of enchanting. Star uses the Repeating Shot infusion on her scavenged pistol to negate the need for half the modifiers on the list, but while that definitely makes the pistol a +1 Infinite Ammo blaster, the question arose as to whether the +1 and the magical damage properties would transfer to the blade of a pistol sword, were Star to use that infusion on such a weapon.
Curious what your thoughts would be, as well as the thoughts of anyone who DMs and is bold enough to answer.
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The pistol sword question is an interesting one; I'd probably be inclined to rule that since they start as two separate weapons combining them doesn't make them a single weapon, the upgrade is that you can use both with a single hand. But if I were DM'ing though I'd allow for the relative strength of the character compared to the rest of the group, i.e- if they're competing against more heavily optimised builds I'd maybe throw them the doubled upgrade.
Regarding the strength of the Pistol Sword; only the bonus action attack ignores the range, it's intended to represent stabbing and firing simultaneously (which is how pistol swords were used historically, they're not just anime weapons, though historically they were super impractical and quickly abandoned, but I love the idea of them). Though I'm probably not balancing it well for non-fighters, as the bonus damage for a fighter will be less compared to the damage they're losing from using the (relatively) weaker rapier over other melee weapons for a STR/DEX/CON Gunfighter (rather than DEX/WIS/CON). I might rethink that, maybe have it rule that if you attack the same target with the pistol after attacking with the rapier in the same turn maybe? So you need extra attack or Haste to do it? Or do you think just leave the disadvantage?
Update: Maybe something like this?
This would mean you need either multiple attacks, action surge, haste or some other bonus (War Priest for War Cleric or such) to take advantage of the stab and shoot technique. For a character that can attack once, and only once, they're still getting a pistol and sword that don't need to be swapped and leave your other hand free (so the pistol can still be reloaded, or you can cast, hold a shield or whatever).
Is there any particular reason your DM prefers the Renegade sub-class (the one that was on DDB as sponsored content iirc)? Or is it just that it's simpler (no trick shots)?
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Well, case study: looking at it from the perspective of my Battlesmith, as I'd say virtually all users of these options are going to be either Gunfighters directly or artificers cribbing the lists for their own guns. Every other case is going to be edge enough that it becomes their own DM's issue rather than yours.
Battlesmiths gain the ability, if both weapons qualify as 'Enchanted', to use Intelligence to both shoot and stab whilst retaining their shield and/or alternate item. Using a bonus action means they don't get to activate their Steel Defender's force punch that turn, or their Homunculus' Force Loogie if they have a Homunculus, but the bonus-action pistol shot deals more damage more accurately if the smith herself is engaging the target in close. If the pistol sword counts as two separate conjoined items, then theoretically the artificer can employ two separate infusions on it, as well - one on the blade and one on the gun. That could get nutbars in a hurry, if the Battlesmith is able to create a single weapon that counts as both a Radiant rapier and a Repeating pistol as just one example. Not to mention a particularly wealthy Battlesmith using the runic upgrades on both the gun and the blade to attain two different enchantment types in one hand. And of course, if the device qualifies as a single item then only one infusion allows the smith to attack with Intelligence using either end of the weapon.
My own personal artificer would love that option, though for her it's primarily a case of versatility. She's already got two other options for a useful(*) bonus action, the pistol sword is more covering the bases for her than it is a damage spike. Being able to switch seamlessly between Stabbing and Throwing/Shooting is why she started with a Returning weapon. A rapier-based pistol sword offering a d8 stab and a d10 shot is a hell of an upgrade over a d6 both ways. I'll admit, the aesthetic also very much fits her specifically, fancy gal that she is, but anyone else could either reflavor the blade or use a Longsword as the base and treat it as a saber or messer or the like instead.
Other artificers are less likely to care, methinks. Artillerists want to be attacking with their enhanced cantrips more than with any sort of weapon, and armorers are strongly encouraged to use their armor's integral weapons over anything else. An alchemist could potentially make effective use of a pistol sword to ghetto themselves an Extra Attack, since they have no clear use of their bonus action and their 'enhanced cantrips' are no such thing most of the time, but the alchemist is so awful that a player trying to make a stab-shooty alchemist should be allowed to do whatever she can to patch that godawful subclass.
Honestly, talking through it? When used normally it seems fine, but it also kinda instantly obsoletes two-weapon fighting so long as you can continue stuffing bullets in the pistol (though to be fair, everything obsoletes TWF. it's so bad...). Assuming pistol swords can't make use of any cartridge reload systems, that means one pistol shot every other turn if the bonus is used to reload between shots, which...mostly evens out with TWF, if one factors in the cost of ammo? Mostly just means you get a great spike turn on your first turn of combat and then it's a normal rapier until you need to switch to shooting. Artificers break the hell out of it with Repeating Shot, but that's an issue with artificers more than it is the weapons themselves, and if each half of the weapon is separately infuseable that could get tricky. Though also kinda awesome, depending on the tone of one's game.
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