So I have been puzzling around the Tomes trying to find an answer for one of my players and have finally landed on the community. I have a Player who is running a Drow, Pact of the Blade, Hexblade Warlock, here is the dilemma. The player just hit Level 4 and is looking at what feat to take, his game plan is to eventually be a dual wielder but more in a swashbuckler sense. He wants to wield a single-hand weapon in his main and a pistol in his off hand, we are running WaterDeep Dragon Heist so there is a good possibility they will come across some pistols and other firearms through Bregan D'arthe.
Now there is a question on that right away. With pact of the blade it says any melee weapon you create you are proficient with, but you can make the pact with any weapon you have as long as its not sentient. Does creating this pact make you proficient with the weapon, even if you aren't to begin with, like say firearms? The wording has got me going in circles since its technically not a melee weapon you are magically creating . Second Dilemma, if it does give him proficiency would he be able to take a feat that requires a specific weapon proficiency? He would like to take the Gunslinger Feat: Prerequisite: Requires proficiency with a handgun, and Dexterity 13
You ignore the loading property of handguns (pistols and revolvers) with which you are proficient.
You add +1 to determine initiative in any turn where you draw your handgun from its holster to take the Attack action and you are within 30 feet of your target.
Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls with any handgun.
When you use the Attack action and attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a handgun you are holding.
Now when we first discussed this I thought he would not be able to take the feat since he technically does not have proficiency with the weapon which is in the prerequisite, even if the pact of the blade gives him the proficiency, he only really has it while wielding the weapon right? I love the idea he has for the character but can't seem to find a better breakdown of how the abilities truly work. So what do you think?
I don't really know the pistol rules from Dragon Heist, so I can't comment on them too much. That said Hexblades are proficient with all simple weapons from Warlock and martial weapons from Hex Warrior. So, unless pistols require exotic weapon proficiency which I don't think exists in 5e, then a Hexblade should be proficient barring something from the Dragon Heist rules I don't know.
A number of rules would interact with this. 1st is Pact of the Blade "You can use your action to create a pact weapon in your empty hand. You can choose the form that this meleeweapon takes each time you create it (see the Weapons section for weapon options). You are proficient with it while you wield it. This weapon counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage."
Next is Hex Warrior feature "Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls" followed by "If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type."
Finally there is the Invocation Improved Pact Weapon which states "You can use any weapon you summon with your Pact of the Blade feature as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells." followed by "Finally, the weapon you conjure can be a shortbow, longbow, light crossbow, or heavy crossbow."
Honestly I don't know why they didn't say Improved Pact Weapon could effect any rangedweapon instead calling out specific weapons B*S* that won't automatically apply to future suppliments or Gods of Faerun someone wants to have a hand crossbow!
Hexblade should allow the player to make the pistol a Pact Weapon even without the invocation, because of the wording on Hexwarrior. Hexwarrior upgrades Pact Weapon and allows him to Hexwarrior bond to any weapon at 1st lvl before the character even gets Pact Weapon. That said the player will only get to attack with Charisma with the sword or pistol, not both.
The biggest limitation is that removing the loading property does not remove the ammunition property. So you are going to have to put the sword down to put bullets in the gun, which requires two hands.
And of course he can't cast most spells while both hands are occupied. It might make more sense to make him a wandslinger and reflavor Eldritch Blast as looking like a gunshot. Possibly a gun shaped wand could be created.
Unfortunately he needs to have a free hand to load load the gun. Ignoring the loading property only means you can fire it more than once per turn. You're still need a free hand. Technically RAW he can't load it in advance either but that's stupid.
I don't really know firearms, so I can't comment on those, but I'll help with what I can, based on clarifications by Jeremy Crawford, Lead Rules Designer (Plus source links).
1- Pact of the Blade only makes you proficient with weapons you create. You can bond with a weapon you're not proficient with, but you still won't get proficiency. (Source link)
2- Hex Warrior allows you to make a diferent bond with a single weapon you are proficient with and EXTENDS to your pact weapon. This means it can affect two weapons in total. (Source link)
Sorry about the topic necromancing, been away from the forums for a while.
Thank you for this post that first source link clarifies a lot of what my player and I were going back and fourth on. This info will be very helpful as they just hit lvl 4 and are getting ready to choose feats, i think this might alter his choices.
Or they can take two levels of artificer and get the repeating shot infusion for their pistol which reads as follows.
This magic weapon grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it when it's used to make a ranged attack, and it ignores the loading property if it has it.
If the weapon lacks ammunition, it produces its own, automatically creating one piece of magic ammunition when the wielder makes a ranged attack with it. The ammunition created by the weapon vanishes the instant after it hits or misses a target.
So I have been puzzling around the Tomes trying to find an answer for one of my players and have finally landed on the community. I have a Player who is running a Drow, Pact of the Blade, Hexblade Warlock, here is the dilemma. The player just hit Level 4 and is looking at what feat to take, his game plan is to eventually be a dual wielder but more in a swashbuckler sense. He wants to wield a single-hand weapon in his main and a pistol in his off hand, we are running WaterDeep Dragon Heist so there is a good possibility they will come across some pistols and other firearms through Bregan D'arthe.
Now there is a question on that right away. With pact of the blade it says any melee weapon you create you are proficient with, but you can make the pact with any weapon you have as long as its not sentient. Does creating this pact make you proficient with the weapon, even if you aren't to begin with, like say firearms? The wording has got me going in circles since its technically not a melee weapon you are magically creating . Second Dilemma, if it does give him proficiency would he be able to take a feat that requires a specific weapon proficiency? He would like to take the Gunslinger Feat: Prerequisite: Requires proficiency with a handgun, and Dexterity 13
Now when we first discussed this I thought he would not be able to take the feat since he technically does not have proficiency with the weapon which is in the prerequisite, even if the pact of the blade gives him the proficiency, he only really has it while wielding the weapon right? I love the idea he has for the character but can't seem to find a better breakdown of how the abilities truly work. So what do you think?
May the dice ever roll in your favor.
I don't really know the pistol rules from Dragon Heist, so I can't comment on them too much. That said Hexblades are proficient with all simple weapons from Warlock and martial weapons from Hex Warrior. So, unless pistols require exotic weapon proficiency which I don't think exists in 5e, then a Hexblade should be proficient barring something from the Dragon Heist rules I don't know.
A number of rules would interact with this. 1st is Pact of the Blade "You can use your action to create a pact weapon in your empty hand. You can choose the form that this melee weapon takes each time you create it (see the Weapons section for weapon options). You are proficient with it while you wield it. This weapon counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage."
Next is Hex Warrior feature "Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls" followed by "If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type."
Finally there is the Invocation Improved Pact Weapon which states "You can use any weapon you summon with your Pact of the Blade feature as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells." followed by "Finally, the weapon you conjure can be a shortbow, longbow, light crossbow, or heavy crossbow."
Honestly I don't know why they didn't say Improved Pact Weapon could effect any ranged weapon instead calling out specific weapons B*S* that won't automatically apply to future suppliments or Gods of Faerun someone wants to have a hand crossbow!
Hexblade should allow the player to make the pistol a Pact Weapon even without the invocation, because of the wording on Hexwarrior. Hexwarrior upgrades Pact Weapon and allows him to Hexwarrior bond to any weapon at 1st lvl before the character even gets Pact Weapon. That said the player will only get to attack with Charisma with the sword or pistol, not both.
The biggest limitation is that removing the loading property does not remove the ammunition property. So you are going to have to put the sword down to put bullets in the gun, which requires two hands.
And of course he can't cast most spells while both hands are occupied. It might make more sense to make him a wandslinger and reflavor Eldritch Blast as looking like a gunshot. Possibly a gun shaped wand could be created.
Unfortunately he needs to have a free hand to load load the gun. Ignoring the loading property only means you can fire it more than once per turn. You're still need a free hand. Technically RAW he can't load it in advance either but that's stupid.
I don't really know firearms, so I can't comment on those, but I'll help with what I can, based on clarifications by Jeremy Crawford, Lead Rules Designer (Plus source links).
1- Pact of the Blade only makes you proficient with weapons you create. You can bond with a weapon you're not proficient with, but you still won't get proficiency. (Source link)
2- Hex Warrior allows you to make a diferent bond with a single weapon you are proficient with and EXTENDS to your pact weapon. This means it can affect two weapons in total. (Source link)
Sorry about the topic necromancing, been away from the forums for a while.
Thank you for this post that first source link clarifies a lot of what my player and I were going back and fourth on. This info will be very helpful as they just hit lvl 4 and are getting ready to choose feats, i think this might alter his choices.
May the dice ever roll in your favor.
Or they can take two levels of artificer and get the repeating shot infusion for their pistol which reads as follows.
This magic weapon grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it when it's used to make a ranged attack, and it ignores the loading property if it has it.
If the weapon lacks ammunition, it produces its own, automatically creating one piece of magic ammunition when the wielder makes a ranged attack with it. The ammunition created by the weapon vanishes the instant after it hits or misses a target.
Firearms don't have the loading property.
They have the RELoading property.
Which means they can fire without needing a free hand.
But they have to use an action or bonus action to reload it after it's expended it's shots.