Pistol and handcrossbow both have a range of 30ft.
So the higher damage die is NOT in exchange for lower range.
No, it's in exchange for the Light property. There's an argument that pistols should be 1d8 (typically the difference between a two-handed weapon and a one-handed weapon is 2 points, and between a light and non-light weapon is 1 point), muskets are well balanced vs heavy crossbows (+1 average damage, but much worse range).
The Pistol’s lack of the Light property might be reasonably called a downside compared to a Hand Crossbow.
I never understood the Light property.
2 attacks at a d10 on you action and your BA is free
Or
3 attacks at a d6, but it uses your action and BA.
You do a little more, but Bonus Action is where you drink a healing potion or misty step out of a tight spot.
If you were running something like Hunters Mark, then its an extra d6 per hit, so it does start adding up. But the first round you lose your bonus action to set uo Hunters mark, and every time you kill your target, you gotta use you BA to move hinterd mark again.
Id rather hit harder and keep my BA free. Which means Pistol would be preferable to HandCrossbow.
To compare the numbers, two pistol attacks with let's say a +4 DEX mod gives you 2d10+(4*2) for 5+6+8=19. Three hand crossbow attacks- with the feat- gives you 3d6+(4*3) for 3+4+3+12=22. That's a feat investment either way with the loading property, and Light comes out ahead on simple DPR. 5e isn't a game that encourages/enables constant mobility or extensive item use in combat, so your Misty Step or potion will have very limited uses and generally need to justify themselves against doing additional damage. Pistols trade a free hand for lower DPR in the one-handed Martial Ranged Weapon tier.
Pistols trade a free hand for lower DPR in the one-handed Martial Ranged Weapon tier.
Remember that repeating shot requires attunement, and without repeating shot one-handed is actually useless, because the ammunition property requires you to use two hands.
To continue, let's assume you use a potion every 3 rounds. 3-round damage with the pistols is average 57. 3-round damage with the crossbows (with one attack lost in a round for the potion) is average 60. 3 points of difference really isn't a lot, that's just dice variance.
"A pistol and musket average 1 damage per roll higher "
That is the very definition of power creep.
No, it isn't. Power creep occurs when better options are added over time. Firearms and crossbows were added at the same time. Pistols, Muskets, Hand Crossbows, Light Crossbows, and Heavy Crossbows have the same profiles they had in 2014. What has changed is that all of them had Weapon Masteries added and Pistols and Muskets were moved from the DMG to the PHB. That's it. There is no power creep. You clearly think one option is hands down better than the other (it is not), but that is not power creep.
Side by side comparison of hand crossbow and pistol, they have the same range, pistol does more damage. Both have feats to get rid of the loading property. Theres no downside to a pistol, compared to a hand crossbow.
That's not true.
Benefits of a Pistol over a Hand Crossbow
1d10 damage versus 1d6 (average +2 damage per hit)
Benefits of a Hand Crossbow over a Pistol
Light property (affects attacks per turn and proficiency*) The extra damage from the Light Property and Crossbow Expert will exceed the damage difference from using a Pistol. The Pistol will be playing catch up in damage unless you have a way to make a Bonus Action attack with the Pistol.
With Crossbow Expert, you add your ability modifier to the Bonus Action attack from Light if using a Hand Crossbow. Gunner doesn't offer an equivalent benefit; Gunner gives Firearm proficiency instead, which you might have if you already have martial weapons proficiency.
Crossbow Expert removes the free hand requirement of the Ammunition property while Gunner does not. It is reasonable to expect this to change if Gunner is updated to 2024 since the 2014 version of Crossbow Expert did not mention the Ammunition property either. It's not guaranteed until it happens, though.
Longer maximum range (small advantage)
You are much more likely to find a Hand Crossbow, including a magic Hand Crossbow in published adventures.
Lower cost (30% the price of a Pistol)
Cheaper Ammunition (1/6th the cost)
* It's strange but Monks are proficient with Hand Crossbows but they aren't considered Monk Weapons. I wonder if proficiency in Hand Crossbows was intended or not.
Depending on your use case, it may also be fair to compare the Pistol to Light Crossbow even though the Light Crossbow is two-handed.
Benefits of a Pistol over a Hand Crossbow
1d10 damage versus 1d8 (average +1 damage per hit)
One-handed so you can use the Pistol with a second weapon or a shield. Spellcasting is not affected.
Vex mastery for advantage on attack following a hit. This may offset the disadvantage on attacks 31+ feet away.
Benefits of a Light Crossbow over a Pistol
Simple weapon (more accessible)
Longer range (80/320 versus 30/90). That's 50 extra feet where you can keep advantage if you have it somehow.
Slow Mastery works well with the longer range.
Crossbow Expert removes the free hand requirement of the Ammunition property while Gunner does not. It is reasonable to expect this to change if Gunner is updated to 2024 since the 2014 version of Crossbow Expert did not mention the Ammunition property either. It's not guaranteed until it happens, though.
You are much more likely to find a Light Crossbow, including a magic Light Crossbow in published adventures.
Lower cost (10% the price of a Pistol)
Cheaper Ammunition (1/6th the cost)
The price difference between crossbows and firearms become less significant when you start talking about magic weapons, but maintaining multiple ranged weapons so you can bypass Loading will become financially or logistically problematic. Either, you are multiplying the cost of the ranged weapons by the number of attacks, or you have to keep track of whether this attack is the +1 weapon, the vicious one, or whatever.
The damage difference isn't really significant either, however. You are not going to notice an extra +1 or 2 damage per attack. That is part of the reason that when building around cleave, a reach weapon is recommended despite the smaller damage die. You won't notice the -1 average damage, but you will notice the extra attack. You won't notice the damage difference between a Hand Crossbow and a Pistol, but you will notice the extra attack. If you are building around ranged attacks, it will average 8.5 or more damage before you will be eligible to make 4 attacks with an attack action.
Pistols trade a free hand for lower DPR in the one-handed Martial Ranged Weapon tier.
Remember that repeating shot requires attunement, and without repeating shot one-handed is actually useless, because the ammunition property requires you to use two hands.
. 5e isn't a game that encourages/enables constant mobility or extensive item use in combat, so your Misty Step or potion will have very limited uses and generally need to justify themselves against doing additional damage.
the value of a BonusAction isnt something mathable. Just as an example, Rogue cunning action: dash, disengage, or hide, steady aim, are all bonus actions.
How much are rhey worth in dpr? I have no idea if thats something even quantifiable. But i would say they are worth more rhan zero.
Healing word: bonus action heal a downed player. Thats worrh something. Party of 4, one goes down, action economy takes a hit. But you keep doing normal damage on your action and Bonus Action, bring that downed player back. Your bonus action to bring up a downed player just put that players dpr back on the table.
Maybe im too hard on my players but its fairly common for me to knock two different players down in a single encounter. Without healing word as a bonus action, that could snowball into a tpk.
I cant tell you what that is iworth n terms of simple dpr, but its not zero.
MistyStep, players dont do it all the time, but getting grappled by certain monsters absolutely suck. Whats the dpr of that worth? No clue, but its not nothing.
the value of a BonusAction isnt something mathable. Just as an example, Rogue cunning action: dash, disengage, or hide, steady aim, are all bonus actions.
How much are rhey worth in dpr? I have no idea if thats something even quantifiable. But i would say they are worth more rhan zero.
Healing word: bonus action heal a downed player. Thats worrh something. Party of 4, one goes down, action economy takes a hit. But you keep doing normal damage on your action and Bonus Action, bring that downed player back. Your bonus action to bring up a downed player just put that players dpr back on the table.
Maybe im too hard on my players but its fairly common for me to knock two different players down in a single encounter. Without healing word as a bonus action, that could snowball into a tpk.
I cant tell you what that is iworth n terms of simple dpr, but its not zero.
MistyStep, players dont do it all the time, but getting grappled by certain monsters absolutely suck. Whats the dpr of that worth? No clue, but its not nothing.
If you aren't dealing damage or increasing the damage dealt, it's worth nothing.
DPR is not a measurement of effectiveness in combat. It's a measure of damage output. If you are spending your turn healing, your DPR may be zero, but that doesn't mean you aren't contributed.
Still, in terms of DPR analysis only, a Bonus Action (or Reaction) must deal damage or improve the damage dealt or it provides zero DPR benefit. You may find high DPR options that are poor choices in practice because of an opportunity cost that makes you too vulnerable. For example, Reckless Attack may consistently increase a Barbarian's DPR, but there will be many scenarios where using it is a bad idea. Depending on your opponents, you might never use it.
To compare the numbers, two pistol attacks with let's say a +4 DEX mod gives you 2d10+(4*2) for 5+6+8=19. Three hand crossbow attacks- with the feat- gives you 3d6+(4*3) for 3+4+3+12=22. That's a feat investment either way with the loading property, and Light comes out ahead on simple DPR.
Hang on. "Thats a feat investment either way"?
Is it?
One repeating shot pistol, uncommon, requires attunement, and you get 2 shots per action. It ignores the Loading property and it makes its own Ammunition, so you just freed up your other hamd to weild a shield.
2d10+8=19
One repeating shot hand crossbow, uncommon, requires attunement, 2 shots per action for same reason.
2d6+8=15
To get that third shot from a hamd crossbow, you need anotherr repeating shot hand crossbow. Dont you? Doesnt rhe Light property require the Light attack use a differenr Light weapon?
So thats 2 attunement slots
That adds a 1d6 to the 15, cause we dont get to add dexmod yet so 18 so far.
Then we need crossbow expert feat to add dwxmod to that Light attack. Thats anothrr 4 added to the previous 18 dpr, fpr a total of 22.
So 1 uncommon magic pistol and one attunement slot for 19 damage.
Versus
1 uncommon magic handcrossbow and 1 atrunement slot only gets you 15 damage.
You meed another magic crossbow and attunement slot to get 18.
And you need a feat xbow expert to get all the way to 22
Pistol: ONE ATTUNEMENT SLOT FOR 19 dpr
H xbow: TWO ATTUNEMENT SLOTS, AND A FEAT FOR 22.dpr
pistols are a massively better deal when you count all the costs.
Once you bring magic items in, yes, the specific choices can alter the results. But as a player, you're never guaranteed access to specific magic items unless your DM specifically ensures it, so comparing that instead of player-choice options is a faux pas.
Magic items aren't a given as a player-facing option, feats are Heck, if we really want to break it down to basics and go only by the PHB, then pistols fall even farther behind since there's no way to get around their reloading. If you have a hate on for firearms, that's your prerogative. But let's throw an extra element into the comparison you started: what does one repeating hand crossbow and one normal one with the feat look like? Assuming two attack rolls per action and +4 DEX, we get 3d6+3*4+2*1 for 3+4+3+12+2=24. Two repeating pistol attacks are 2d10+2*4+2*1 for 5+6+8+2=21. Huh, look at that. The hand crossbow still does better. Yes, there's a feat investment, but with general feats all giving a +1 to one or more abilities in 2024, it's pretty easy to build so you're not missing an ability bump when you take one.
"But let's throw an extra element into the comparison you started: what does one repeating hand crossbow and one normal one with the feat look like?"
I dont even know what this question means.
You wanna stow magical hcrossbow-deal with ammo property on the nonmagical hcrossbow-reequip the magical one again, at the end of every turn to deal with the ammunition property on the nonmagical crossbow?
I guess if you never need to use yoir free object interaction ever, i guess that works. Hope you never have to open a door.
"Yes, there's a feat investment, but with general feats all giving a +1 to one or more abilities in 2024, it's pretty easy to build so you're not missing an ability bump when you take one"
Look, you are bordering on arguing that absolutely nothing matters but dpr and everything else is a wash.
An entire half feat for 4 damage per turn. No other benefit
Speedy or Skulker give you all sorts of benefits and a +1 to dex.
"Magic items aren't a given as a player-facing option,"
Well, lets really look at that, shall we?
If no repeating shot weapon is ever made available, what do you get?
One mundane pistol and a feat and they do 22 dpr.
Hows the hamd crossbow cpmbo work?
You need a free hand to deal with the ammuniton property of BOTH hand crossbows to wield 2 of them. So at the end of your turn, you have 2 hxb, you stow 1, that frees a hand to deal with 2, then you stow 2, the. You equip 1 so you have a free hand to deal with 1, then you equip 2?
How many object interactiosn is that? I think its 1 obkecg interaction too many.
So in a world where repeating shot is not available, you can only wield 1 hand crossbow or 1 pistol, and pistol dpr is higher.
"Magic items aren't a given as a player-facing option,"
Well, lets really look at that, shall we?
If no repeating shot weapon is ever made available, what do you get?
One mundane pistol and a feat and they do 22 dpr.
Hows the hamd crossbow cpmbo work?
You need a free hand to deal with the ammuniton property of BOTH hand crossbows to wield 2 of them. So at the end of your turn, you have 2 hxb, you stow 1, that frees a hand to deal with 2, then you stow 2, the. You equip 1 so you have a free hand to deal with 1, then you equip 2?
How many object interactiosn is that? I think its 1 obkecg interaction too many.
So in a world where repeating shot is not available, you can only wield 1 hand crossbow or 1 pistol, and pistol dpr is higher.
Crossbow Expert means you don't need the free hand and can dual-wield. Since we're comparing with the feat for the pistol, the only fair comparison for the crossbow also includes the feat, so you can't argue against its use. So try again, with that considered.
Assuming a Fighter taking Gunner or Crossbow Expert at level 4 and starting with a +3 attribute modifier, increasing to +4 at level 8, and +5 at level 12:
Level 1: Hand Crossbow: 6.85 DPR vs Pistol 5.8 DPR
Level 5: Hand Crossbow: 12.55 DPR vs Pistol 10.75 DPR
Level 8: Hand Crossbow: 14.4 DPR vs Pistol 11.95 DPR
Level 11: Hand Crossbow: 18.7 DPR vs Pistol 17.93 DPR
Level 12: Hand Crossbow: 22.8 DPR vs Pistol 21.3 DPR
Level 20: Hand Crossbow: 28.5 DPR vs Pistol 28.4 DPR
In terms of DPR, because the Hand Crossbow gives you a Bonus Action attack, the Firearm is always falling behind.
The pistol and hand crossbow are designed for different purposes. While yes they do share the similarity of having the same range, one handed and having the vex mastery, the hand crossbow are for much more consistent applications of damage (as seen with it having more attacks).
In contrast the pistol works much better with items such as a Shield (if the Gunner feat was translated to 5.5e) and benefits far more with a Crit than the hand crossbow. Dealing a 2d10 (11) compared to a hand crossbow's 2d6 (7), this is even more noticeable with the Piercer feat, adding another dice on a Crit.
Repeating Shot was available to the 2014 Artificer in Tasha's, so that's not new. It is new that it's an item available outside of artificer replication.
I'm playing an 2025 artillerist with it now - they only get one attack per turn anyway. Mechanically I'm trading some range for the ability to have a one-handed weapon. But for my particular character, it's less the gunslinger archetype and more this is just a magic ranged weapon. 1d10+1+Int (true strike) ... or 2d10 firebolt with a much longer range. Actually, firebolt gets an extra d8 added if it's my Arcane Firearm, and a standard attack does not.
Obvs I could give it to someone with two attacks, or a battle smith or armorer also has extra attack. Note that Artificer doesn't get any of the Weapon Masteries though.
The Pistol’s lack of the Light property might be reasonably called a downside compared to a Hand Crossbow.
pronouns: he/she/they
No, it's in exchange for the Light property. There's an argument that pistols should be 1d8 (typically the difference between a two-handed weapon and a one-handed weapon is 2 points, and between a light and non-light weapon is 1 point), muskets are well balanced vs heavy crossbows (+1 average damage, but much worse range).
I never understood the Light property.
2 attacks at a d10 on you action and your BA is free
Or
3 attacks at a d6, but it uses your action and BA.
You do a little more, but Bonus Action is where you drink a healing potion or misty step out of a tight spot.
If you were running something like Hunters Mark, then its an extra d6 per hit, so it does start adding up. But the first round you lose your bonus action to set uo Hunters mark, and every time you kill your target, you gotta use you BA to move hinterd mark again.
Id rather hit harder and keep my BA free. Which means Pistol would be preferable to HandCrossbow.
That's a matter of preference, not power creep
Any sufficiently widespread magic is indistinguishable from technology.
The second funniest thing to make a D&D party do is explain morality
Try your hand at the Ultimate Skill Build Challenge!
I probably nitpick and scrutinize too much
To compare the numbers, two pistol attacks with let's say a +4 DEX mod gives you 2d10+(4*2) for 5+6+8=19. Three hand crossbow attacks- with the feat- gives you 3d6+(4*3) for 3+4+3+12=22. That's a feat investment either way with the loading property, and Light comes out ahead on simple DPR. 5e isn't a game that encourages/enables constant mobility or extensive item use in combat, so your Misty Step or potion will have very limited uses and generally need to justify themselves against doing additional damage. Pistols trade a free hand for lower DPR in the one-handed Martial Ranged Weapon tier.
Remember that repeating shot requires attunement, and without repeating shot one-handed is actually useless, because the ammunition property requires you to use two hands.
To continue, let's assume you use a potion every 3 rounds. 3-round damage with the pistols is average 57. 3-round damage with the crossbows (with one attack lost in a round for the potion) is average 60. 3 points of difference really isn't a lot, that's just dice variance.
No, it isn't. Power creep occurs when better options are added over time. Firearms and crossbows were added at the same time. Pistols, Muskets, Hand Crossbows, Light Crossbows, and Heavy Crossbows have the same profiles they had in 2014. What has changed is that all of them had Weapon Masteries added and Pistols and Muskets were moved from the DMG to the PHB. That's it. There is no power creep. You clearly think one option is hands down better than the other (it is not), but that is not power creep.
That's not true.
Benefits of a Pistol over a Hand Crossbow
Benefits of a Hand Crossbow over a Pistol
* It's strange but Monks are proficient with Hand Crossbows but they aren't considered Monk Weapons. I wonder if proficiency in Hand Crossbows was intended or not.
Depending on your use case, it may also be fair to compare the Pistol to Light Crossbow even though the Light Crossbow is two-handed.
Benefits of a Pistol over a Hand Crossbow
Benefits of a Light Crossbow over a Pistol
The price difference between crossbows and firearms become less significant when you start talking about magic weapons, but maintaining multiple ranged weapons so you can bypass Loading will become financially or logistically problematic. Either, you are multiplying the cost of the ranged weapons by the number of attacks, or you have to keep track of whether this attack is the +1 weapon, the vicious one, or whatever.
The damage difference isn't really significant either, however. You are not going to notice an extra +1 or 2 damage per attack. That is part of the reason that when building around cleave, a reach weapon is recommended despite the smaller damage die. You won't notice the -1 average damage, but you will notice the extra attack. You won't notice the damage difference between a Hand Crossbow and a Pistol, but you will notice the extra attack. If you are building around ranged attacks, it will average 8.5 or more damage before you will be eligible to make 4 attacks with an attack action.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Fair point.
the value of a BonusAction isnt something mathable. Just as an example, Rogue cunning action: dash, disengage, or hide, steady aim, are all bonus actions.
How much are rhey worth in dpr? I have no idea if thats something even quantifiable. But i would say they are worth more rhan zero.
Healing word: bonus action heal a downed player. Thats worrh something. Party of 4, one goes down, action economy takes a hit. But you keep doing normal damage on your action and Bonus Action, bring that downed player back. Your bonus action to bring up a downed player just put that players dpr back on the table.
Maybe im too hard on my players but its fairly common for me to knock two different players down in a single encounter. Without healing word as a bonus action, that could snowball into a tpk.
I cant tell you what that is iworth n terms of simple dpr, but its not zero.
MistyStep, players dont do it all the time, but getting grappled by certain monsters absolutely suck. Whats the dpr of that worth? No clue, but its not nothing.
If you aren't dealing damage or increasing the damage dealt, it's worth nothing.
DPR is not a measurement of effectiveness in combat. It's a measure of damage output. If you are spending your turn healing, your DPR may be zero, but that doesn't mean you aren't contributed.
Still, in terms of DPR analysis only, a Bonus Action (or Reaction) must deal damage or improve the damage dealt or it provides zero DPR benefit. You may find high DPR options that are poor choices in practice because of an opportunity cost that makes you too vulnerable. For example, Reckless Attack may consistently increase a Barbarian's DPR, but there will be many scenarios where using it is a bad idea. Depending on your opponents, you might never use it.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Hang on. "Thats a feat investment either way"?
Is it?
One repeating shot pistol, uncommon, requires attunement, and you get 2 shots per action. It ignores the Loading property and it makes its own Ammunition, so you just freed up your other hamd to weild a shield.
2d10+8=19
One repeating shot hand crossbow, uncommon, requires attunement, 2 shots per action for same reason.
2d6+8=15
To get that third shot from a hamd crossbow, you need anotherr repeating shot hand crossbow. Dont you? Doesnt rhe Light property require the Light attack use a differenr Light weapon?
So thats 2 attunement slots
That adds a 1d6 to the 15, cause we dont get to add dexmod yet so 18 so far.
Then we need crossbow expert feat to add dwxmod to that Light attack. Thats anothrr 4 added to the previous 18 dpr, fpr a total of 22.
So 1 uncommon magic pistol and one attunement slot for 19 damage.
Versus
1 uncommon magic handcrossbow and 1 atrunement slot only gets you 15 damage.
You meed another magic crossbow and attunement slot to get 18.
And you need a feat xbow expert to get all the way to 22
Pistol: ONE ATTUNEMENT SLOT FOR 19 dpr
H xbow: TWO ATTUNEMENT SLOTS, AND A FEAT FOR 22.dpr
pistols are a massively better deal when you count all the costs.
Did i miss something in the math?
Once you bring magic items in, yes, the specific choices can alter the results. But as a player, you're never guaranteed access to specific magic items unless your DM specifically ensures it, so comparing that instead of player-choice options is a faux pas.
Magic items aren't a given as a player-facing option, feats are Heck, if we really want to break it down to basics and go only by the PHB, then pistols fall even farther behind since there's no way to get around their reloading. If you have a hate on for firearms, that's your prerogative. But let's throw an extra element into the comparison you started: what does one repeating hand crossbow and one normal one with the feat look like? Assuming two attack rolls per action and +4 DEX, we get 3d6+3*4+2*1 for 3+4+3+12+2=24. Two repeating pistol attacks are 2d10+2*4+2*1 for 5+6+8+2=21. Huh, look at that. The hand crossbow still does better. Yes, there's a feat investment, but with general feats all giving a +1 to one or more abilities in 2024, it's pretty easy to build so you're not missing an ability bump when you take one.
"But let's throw an extra element into the comparison you started: what does one repeating hand crossbow and one normal one with the feat look like?"
I dont even know what this question means.
You wanna stow magical hcrossbow-deal with ammo property on the nonmagical hcrossbow-reequip the magical one again, at the end of every turn to deal with the ammunition property on the nonmagical crossbow?
I guess if you never need to use yoir free object interaction ever, i guess that works. Hope you never have to open a door.
"Yes, there's a feat investment, but with general feats all giving a +1 to one or more abilities in 2024, it's pretty easy to build so you're not missing an ability bump when you take one"
Look, you are bordering on arguing that absolutely nothing matters but dpr and everything else is a wash.
An entire half feat for 4 damage per turn. No other benefit
Speedy or Skulker give you all sorts of benefits and a +1 to dex.
"Magic items aren't a given as a player-facing option,"
Well, lets really look at that, shall we?
If no repeating shot weapon is ever made available, what do you get?
One mundane pistol and a feat and they do 22 dpr.
Hows the hamd crossbow cpmbo work?
You need a free hand to deal with the ammuniton property of BOTH hand crossbows to wield 2 of them. So at the end of your turn, you have 2 hxb, you stow 1, that frees a hand to deal with 2, then you stow 2, the. You equip 1 so you have a free hand to deal with 1, then you equip 2?
How many object interactiosn is that? I think its 1 obkecg interaction too many.
So in a world where repeating shot is not available, you can only wield 1 hand crossbow or 1 pistol, and pistol dpr is higher.
Crossbow Expert means you don't need the free hand and can dual-wield. Since we're comparing with the feat for the pistol, the only fair comparison for the crossbow also includes the feat, so you can't argue against its use. So try again, with that considered.
Assuming a Fighter taking Gunner or Crossbow Expert at level 4 and starting with a +3 attribute modifier, increasing to +4 at level 8, and +5 at level 12:
In terms of DPR, because the Hand Crossbow gives you a Bonus Action attack, the Firearm is always falling behind.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
The pistol and hand crossbow are designed for different purposes. While yes they do share the similarity of having the same range, one handed and having the vex mastery, the hand crossbow are for much more consistent applications of damage (as seen with it having more attacks).
In contrast the pistol works much better with items such as a Shield (if the Gunner feat was translated to 5.5e) and benefits far more with a Crit than the hand crossbow. Dealing a 2d10 (11) compared to a hand crossbow's 2d6 (7), this is even more noticeable with the Piercer feat, adding another dice on a Crit.
Repeating Shot was available to the 2014 Artificer in Tasha's, so that's not new. It is new that it's an item available outside of artificer replication.
I'm playing an 2025 artillerist with it now - they only get one attack per turn anyway. Mechanically I'm trading some range for the ability to have a one-handed weapon. But for my particular character, it's less the gunslinger archetype and more this is just a magic ranged weapon. 1d10+1+Int (true strike) ... or 2d10 firebolt with a much longer range. Actually, firebolt gets an extra d8 added if it's my Arcane Firearm, and a standard attack does not.
Obvs I could give it to someone with two attacks, or a battle smith or armorer also has extra attack. Note that Artificer doesn't get any of the Weapon Masteries though.