I have a player building an Artillerist for an upcoming game who wishes to use the arcane firearm. However he is asking if he would be able to apply the Sharpshooter feat to attacks made with the arcane firearm.
My first instinct on this is to say no as mechanically the firearm is just an arcane focus, not an actual ranged weapon. However fluff wise it could be argued that spells fired from this weapon would be ranged attacks via a ranged weapon, allowing sharpshooter to apply. Any thoughts?
RAW, no. The first two bullet points don’t apply because the character isn’t making weapon attacks (and spells don’t have any concept of “long range” anyway). The third bullet point doesn’t apply because an arcane firearm isn’t a ranged weapon.
The feat your player is looking for is Spell Sniper.
If what they’re actually after is the -5 to hit/+10 to damage, you could homebrew that effect into spell sniper (maybe instead of the new cantrip). I personally would not allow this, because it’s unnecessary, and I don’t think it makes a great deal of sense for spells. But I don’t think it would break the game.
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I have a player building an Artillerist for an upcoming game who wishes to use the arcane firearm. However he is asking if he would be able to apply the Sharpshooter feat to attacks made with the arcane firearm.
My first instinct on this is to say no as mechanically the firearm is just an arcane focus, not an actual ranged weapon. However fluff wise it could be argued that spells fired from this weapon would be ranged attacks via a ranged weapon, allowing sharpshooter to apply. Any thoughts?
RAW, no. The first two bullet points don’t apply because the character isn’t making weapon attacks (and spells don’t have any concept of “long range” anyway). The third bullet point doesn’t apply because an arcane firearm isn’t a ranged weapon.
The feat your player is looking for is Spell Sniper.
If what they’re actually after is the -5 to hit/+10 to damage, you could homebrew that effect into spell sniper (maybe instead of the new cantrip). I personally would not allow this, because it’s unnecessary, and I don’t think it makes a great deal of sense for spells. But I don’t think it would break the game.