Interested in playing Skulls and Shackles, and am considering this class archetype to use, but at the same time I don't want to hold my party back using a poor archetype (I know, I know, play what you want and all that). What are your guys' opinions on this archetype? Is it decent?
You lose trapfinding/trap sense, a rogue talent, uncanny dodge & improved. Sneak attack goes down to d4s when not using one of three types of firearms (all crappy). You gain proficiency in 1H firearms, a free crappy gun, free ammo each day (including magic from L6!) and a few other abilities which slightly mitigate the crappiness of those firearms.
Guns aren't a terrible thing for a rogue to specialise in. You need to invest a lot of feats but it's doable; you can deal damage well. Losing trapfinding means you're not doing the scout alone role for better or for worse. You need a group which has someone doing battlefield control most of the time, the range on your guns is unforgiving.
Overall, I think it is a less than great archetype. But I think it can be fun if you are in a position to exploit certain things to make a bunch of money on the side. If you are looking to deal bunches of damage, I really don't see the archetype delivering for you without a lot of investment.
I like Halflings for Gun Smuggler, particularly Halflings with the Resourceful alternative racial feature. Gun Smuggler's Stolen Shots thingy is a freaking gold mine! Since Rogues are 3/4 BAB, we will go 8 levels in Gun Smuggler, this gives us the improved version of Uncanny Aim... somewhat making up for being small to begin with.
Gun Smuggler 8/
Twilight Talon 10
Twilight Talons get Dead Drops... which are secret caches of pretty much whatever you might need. This turns you into a one-man black market. And, going back to the Halfling with the Resourceful alternative racial feature, said racial feature counts as Catch Off-Guard/Throw Anything for meeting prerquisites... and Twilight Talon happens to have Catch Off-Guard as one of its prerequisites.
Gun Smuggler's Stolen Shots thingy is a freaking gold mine!
Not really, as it disallows you from selling the shots for profit.
Her contacts provide only enough shots to replenish this small supply, so she can’t accumulate ammunition indefinitely, and these shots have a market price of 0 gp.
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Interested in playing Skulls and Shackles, and am considering this class archetype to use, but at the same time I don't want to hold my party back using a poor archetype (I know, I know, play what you want and all that). What are your guys' opinions on this archetype? Is it decent?
Imo the archetype is meant to be played as a switch-hitter with a heavy focus on melee. Your choice of weapon is the Sword Cane Pistol or Dagger Pistol which will allow you to get 1d6 SA in melee (and dex-to-dmg with Finesse Training).
You'll pretty much only use your firearm when you win initiative and are within 20 ft of a target, so that you can full attack a flat-footed target at range. Take Rapid Reload when you feel it to be necessary and then focus on melee.
Yeah, but Gunsmithing has always been its own source of income if you are in a position to sell the bullets you craft... however, you usually need your bullets. Stolen Shots gives you ammo, freeing you to sell ammo you craft. To my knowledge, Gunsmithing still allows one to craft 1000gp/day at 10% cost and still sell what they craft at 50%... so 400gp/day profit? 450gp/day with the Hedge Magician trait...
It is complete BS, but it works. The thing that doesn't probably work is the Twilight Talon's Dead Drops in a Skulls & Shackles setting. I have only designed the character as a black market fence, so actual adventure play wasn't actually my first priority.
@VoodistMonk
But that doesn't have anything to do with Stolen Shots. You could already craft 1000 gp worth of gunpowder and save the portion you need with Gunsmithing. Stolen Shots gives you three fully upgraded rounds per day, or equal to your level if you don't upgrade them beyond +1. That's not enough for a dedicated firearm user. You'll run out of ammo after just one encounter if you rely on the class feature.
Personally I think Construct Saboteur with Spell Cartridges would make the better gunrogue. You'd probably have to dip a level to fulfill the "ability to cast arcane spells" prerequisite, though.
While a sniping urogue can make pretty good use out of firearms, you're honestly significantly better off just getting a wand of snowball or minor magic for an at-will touch cantrip and accomplish much the same task but archetype free and less feat intense. You don't even need to wholly dedicate your build to sniping with a cantrip, as just taking the Stealth skill unlock and Superior Sniper talent will mostly get you there without taking too much from your build overall.
Actually, I'd make a very strong argument that you'd get more value out of Underground Chemist than you would Gun Smuggler due to being able to add Int as a damage mod to splash weapons, and splash weapons themselves have plenty of easy feat and equipment support options, where as you only gain the 1d4/1d6 from the pistols, which is kinda rubbish for something that is so feat demanding to actually get working.
Garbage-Tier Waifu and Wonderstell might both be half right, each... combined, being fully correct in their advice that the Construct Sabotuer-Scout-Underground Chemist UnRogue might be a better option for a Rogue with a gun.
I would allow the Construct Sabotuer's scaling Arcane Strike to qualify for Spell Cartridges, personally, but your mileage may vary. If you must dip for the ability to cast arcane spells... Spellslinger Wizard is probably better than Eldritch Archer since it actually gives you Gunsmithing and Mage Bullets. Still would be lame to have to dip just to meet the prerequisites for Spell Cartridges when you already have Arcane Strike and a replacement for your CL to keep Arcane Strike scaling with your Rogue levels.
Sniping can be made to work with a couple of shots in rapid succession (which isn't going to work with a wand or cantrip) and there's other ways of getting ranged sneak attack working (mist assassin, ranged feint, intimimancy, dirty tricking pets, etc.) which are more full attack friendly. Guns can do a lot of damage for a rogue - though this archetype might not be the best way to go about it it looks workable.
If you have a lot of downtime the gun smuggler seems likely to get pockets jingling with a lot of magic ammo. If you fight multiple encounters per day and never get a chance to rest that feature is entirely decorative, likewise if your GM is offended by smuggled ammo arriving in the middle of a dungeon.