I'm getting set to run a pirate-themed Pathfinder game set in Golarion, and I was looking at the firearm rules. My players were nervous about the inclusion of firearms, because "gun rules usually either make guns totally suck and nerf them past where you'd ever use them, or make them too good to where you'd always be using on." The Pathfinder rules definitely err on the side of sucky nerfdom. So I canvassed the firearm and cannon rules in the 3.5e DMG, Stormwrack, Pathfinder Campaign Setting, Skull & Bones from Green Ronin, Broadsides! and Pirates! from Living Imagination, Seas of Blood from Mongoose, and others. Here's my amalgamated firearms rules! Comments are welcome.
Gunpowder Weapons In Golarion
The current state of the art in personal firearms is a smoothbore weapon with a wheellock firing mechanism. Earlier matchlocks, which required a lit match held in a “matchlock” to fire, and the even earlier hand culverins, which required manual application of a lit match, are still in circulation but no regular forces use them. Though most firearms come from the mass production gunworks of Alkenstar, there are skilled craftsmen in other locations that can and do build firearms.
The smiths of Alkenstar have just developed snaplocks, but have kept the innovation to themselves so far. More reliable and inexpensive flintlocks are doubtless not far behind. A couple artisans have made rifled hunting weapons but these are still unique curiosities.
One-Handed Ranged Weapons
Pistol 250 gp 1d6 2d4 x3 50 ft. 3 lbs. P
Blunderbuss pistol 500 gp 1d10 2d6 19-20/x2 5 ft. 5 lbs. B and P
Two-Handed Ranged Weapons
Musket, short 500 gp 1d10 2d6 x3 100 ft. 8 lbs. P
Musket, long 750 gp 1d10 2d6 x3 150 ft. 10 lbs. P
Blunderbuss 500 gp 1d12 3d6 19-20/x2 15 ft. 8 lbs. B and P
Explosive Weapons
Bomb 150 gp 1d10 2d6 x2 5 ft. 1 lb. B
Smoke bomb 70 gp Smoke x2 10 ft. 1 lb. -
Proficiency: All wheellock weapons require Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms) to use without penalty.
Reload: All wheellock weapons hold one shot and take two full round actions to load.
Inaccurate: All non-rifled firearms have an inherent -1 to hit penalty.
Exploding Dice: Whenever you deal damage with a firearm and roll maximum on any damage die, reroll that die and add that roll to the total as well. If you roll maximum on rerolls, continue to reroll, adding to the damage each time.
Misfire: Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll made with a firearm, your firearm might misfire. Immediately roll 1d20. On a 1, the firearm is broken and the powder explodes out the breech, dealing the weapon’s damage to you; on a 2–7, the firearm is broken; on a 8–18, the firearm misfires and is fouled; and on a 19–20, it simply misfires. A fouled firearm requires 2 full rounds to clear before it can be reloaded.
Melee: Pistols may be used as saps and muskets as clubs in melee combat, but they are reasonably fragile and whenever you roll a natural 1 on the attack roll the weapon is broken.
Pistols have a hardness of 10 and 10 hit points; long weapons have a hardness of 10 and 20 hit points.
Pistol: a single shot wheellock pistol.
Blunderbuss Pistol: Also known as a dragon, this is a large pistol with a bell-shaped barrel. A blunderbuss pistol’s damage suffers a -2 penalty per range increment beyond the first.
Musket, short: A wheellock musket with a short barrel suitable for use in close quarters. Also known as an arquebus.
Musket, long: A wheellock musket with a 4 foot long barrel. The long musket must be braced on something or else suffer a -2 penalty to hit. Many such muskets come with a inherent pintle mount so that they can be braced while standing; it requires a move action to set up the pintle.
Blunderbuss: This is a heavy musket with a bell-shaped barrel, also referred to as a musketoon. A blunderbuss’ damage suffers a -2 penalty per range increment beyond the first.
Bomb: A bomb, also known as a grenade, is thrown as a splash weapon. It explodes and does damage to everyone in a 5’ radius from the target or target square. Bombs do 2d6 damage to a directly targeted creature and 2d4 splash damage.
Smoke bomb: A smoke bomb is thrown as a splash weapon, and puts out a 10’ radius cloud of smoke.
Analysis:
I kept the "exploding damage" from PF but brought the damage up to something decent - even the DMG rules had 1d10 for pistols and 1d12 for muskets. And I brought costs down to something more logical; guns are still 5-10x more expensive than any normal weapon and I felt thousands of gp was out of line. And a little tech was OK but Alkenstar actually having percussion cap weapons was way out of order. Golarion tech is early 1500s in general so I kept to that.
With the two round reload time (maybe have a feat that drops it to one full round action to reload) most engagements that have guns will either be a gunshot and then melee, or will have pistols used as holdout weapons for when you need a quick short range punch. With the inaccuracy and unreliability as a damage tradeoff, I would think this hits the sweet spot of some players wanting one and others not bothering, and as they go up in level they'll mostly abandon them.
Next time: field grade weapons and cannon on ships!
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I like it! These are very, very solid rules. You capture the flavor and ability of arquebus-style weapons very well. My only qualm is that the reloading time, while very realistic, makes specializing in firearms as a PC an unappealing option. I would recommend you develop a feat tree, or a prestige class, to maximize ability with firearms. You may want to look to Blackdyrge's old arbalestier prestige class for inspiration. In it, instead of maximizing the number of attacks, the amount of damage for each attack is increased. With the addition of exploding dice rules, simply adding dice to a firearm's base damage is very useful.
I may try to whip up said prestige class myself...
Ah, thanks for the other references; I have Tome of Secrets but had forgotten it had gun rules, and the Cook PDF is helpful. I prefer to stay away from the more "fantasy/magic" firearm variants.
I also removed the bludgeoning damage from the non-shotgunney weapons. My main criteria is "should a normal pistol hurt a skeleton, if a crossbow won't?" I sayeth no. But a blunderbuss, that's another ball of wax!
It's bedtime, but I just finished the cannon rules, so here they come!
Field Grade Weapons
Most cannon are cast bronze, smooth bore, muzzleloading weapons, although some are breech-loading and older ones are constructed of iron bars welded and bound together. Because they are expensive and rare, many cannons are ornately carved and decorated, and larger ones often have unique names.
Name Cost Damage Weight Range Mount
Bombard 10,000 gp 12d10 8000 lbs. 400 ft. -
Cannon 8,000 gp 10d10 6000 lbs. 300 ft. Very Heavy
Demi-cannon 6,000 gp 8d10 4000 lbs. 250 ft. Heavy
Culverin 4,000 gp 6d10 3000 lbs. 200 ft. Medium
Small culverin 2,000 gp 4d10 2000 lbs. 150 ft. Light
Swivel-gun 1,000 gp 2d10/4d6 200 lbs. 100 ft./25 ft. -
Cannons all require six full round actions to reload and two full round actions to aim. They must be re-aimed every time they are fired.
Cannon (with the exception of swivel-guns) cannot effectively be aimed at a specific person, but instead are aimed at a 10x10 area. Monsters that are large enough can be targeted in this way (assuming they stay still for the three rounds needed to aim and fire).
However, cannons often do splash damage. If the cannon is using stone shot and firing into a stone environment (like most towns), this damage comes from stone fragments (slashing), or if the cannon is using any solid shot and firing into a wooden environment (like a ship), the damage comes from wooden shivers (piercing). Anyone in the 10x10 target area must make a DC 15 Reflex save or else take ¼ the direct damage inflicted by the shot. For example, if a PC is hiding in a 10x10 wooden shack that is hit by a culverin inflicting 35 points of damage on the structure, he may take 8 points of fragment damage if he fails his save.
Bombard – Very large caliber front-loading cannon used in sieges. They fire hundred pound stone balls. Bombards are too large for most ships to carry. A variant of bombard that is used for indirect fire is called the mortars.
Cannon - A heavy bronze cannon firing a 36 to 50 pound shot, also known as a basilisk. These usually can only be placed on the bow mount of very large galleys.
Demi-Cannon – Also known as the cannon-perier, it fires a 24 pound shot. This is the heaviest weapon that can be fired from the side of a ship, and a large ship at that.
Culverin – The culverin is a medium cannon firing an 18 lb shot. These are the most common large weapon mounted broadside on sailing ships.
Small Culverin – Also known as the demi-culverin, this weapon fires a 10 lb shot and is suitable for mounting on many ships, including on the top deck.
Swivel-gun – Swivel-guns, which come in varieties also known as falcons, falconets, or robinets, can take a 1-2 pound solid shot or be filled with a dozen pistol shots. They do 2d10 damage with solid shot, but when loaded with pistol shot do 4d6 damage, less 2 points per range increment, in a 10x10 square.
Ammunition – stone or lead solid shot are the most common ordnance in cannon. There is also chain or bar shot which is effective against rigging (normal solid shot passes through rigging with minimal effect). Grapeshot or canister shot can also be used; this does not do structural damage but targets the crew, doing half the listed damage to all crew in a 10x10x10 area.
Analysis: Taking the Stormwrack method of doing ship damage, where e.g. a caravel has 24 hull sections with hardness 5 and 80 hp each, and six must be destroyed to sink the ship – it requires 3-4 good hits with a culverin to destroy one 10x10x10 section. Given that the cannon can only fire slightly better than once a minute, that’s a good balance of enough damage with promoting resolution by boarding and melee. A heavily armed small carrack might sport 2 culverins below and 5 demi-culverins on deck per side, which at that rate could sink a ship of its class but only with some work.
I apologize for the formatting... I don't know how to get a fixed font to make tables come out OK.
Ah, thanks for the other references; I have Tome of Secrets but had forgotten it had gun rules, and the Cook PDF is helpful. I prefer to stay away from the more "fantasy/magic" firearm variants.
I also removed the bludgeoning damage from the non-shotgunney weapons. My main criteria is "should a normal pistol hurt a skeleton, if a crossbow won't?" I sayeth no. But a blunderbuss, that's another ball of wax!
It's bedtime, but I just finished the cannon rules, so here they come!
For another reference, check out Iron Kingdoms from Privateer Press. The firearms rules are on their website still, if memory serves.
Of course, guns were a pretty big part of the setting, so, yeah, yymv.
A couple of cannon suggestions:
1. Allow several characters to work together to shorten the reloading time of a cannon - similar to how reloading a catapult works.
2. Remove the requirement of re-aiming the cannon if it's being targeted at exactly the same place as last time.
A couple of cannon suggestions:
1. Allow several characters to work together to shorten the reloading time of a cannon - similar to how reloading a catapult works.
2. Remove the requirement of re-aiming the cannon if it's being targeted at exactly the same place as last time.
On #2 that's deliberate; when one of these cannon fires it moves backwards significantly and always has to be reaimed. Only in much later tech levels when you get fixed artillery like howitzers is that possible. But that should be OK; I've left off any simulation of the initial "getting their range" so it's just attack rolls.
On #1, I was debating how much to get into the crewing and options to cut time down. Those reload times are already assuming pretty large crews of 4+ men per gun. I supposed you could let a PC make a prof:siege engineer check DC 15, shortening the reload time by 1 round per 5 they beat it by...
Like in Stormwrack, here's how they do bombard reloading:
Reload: Full-round action and DC 10 Profession (siege engineer) check to swab out bore; two full-round actions and DC 15 Profession (siege engineer) check to load powder and wad; two full-round actions and DC 10 Strength check to load stone shot; two full-round actions and DC 10 Strength check to tamp the shot; two full-round actions to aim the bombard. Normal rate of fire is one shot per ten rounds.
Maybe it's just me but that seems like a lot of dice rolling especially if you have 10 of these on a ship. I'd prefer to go with a flat # of rounds rating. I could vary it and specify required crewing by gun size if people wanted that.
Oh, here's kind of an important omission on the cannon. Do people prefer the to-hit roll be the gunner's BAB or a Profession: Siege Engineer check? And if BAB, the normal DEX BAB or the special Int-modified BAB? Different sources do it different ways. I think that cannon are large enough that "Dex modifier" doesn't make sense whether they are direct or indirect fire, and using the skill check instead of BAB is likely to be bad; skills are inherently much more pumpable than BABs. Try this on:
Proficiency: All cannon require Profession: Siege Engineer (or Artillerist, or Cannoneer, or whatever you want to call it) to operate.
Inaccurate: All cannon have an inherent -4 to hit penalty due to the difficulty of aiming them precisely. A gunner uses their base attack bonus, Int bonus, and modifiers for range, vision, motion, etc. for their to-hit.
Misfire: Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll made with a cannon, the cannon might misfire. Immediately roll a Profession: siege engineer check at DC 15. A successful check indicates that the wad simply misfired and the cannon must be reloaded. A failure by up to 5 indicates that the cannon is fouled and requires 2 full rounds to clear before it can be reloaded. A failure by up to 10 means that the cannon gains the broken condition and requires repair before use. A natural 1 on this check means that the cannon has exploded and does its full normal damage to everyone and everything within 10 ft.
Example of cannon fire: A pirate sloop approaches a merchant caravel and decides to soften them up a bit before closing. They aim their two starboard culverins and fire. The base AC to shoot a caravel is -3 because it's just a big ass object really (value taken from Stormwrack), or AC3 if you want to shoot at a specific section. I this case the pirates just want to hit wherever on it to demoralize the crew. The ships are 200 yards apart, which is three range increments out for the culverin (-6 range). There is a moderate wind (no penalty) and both the firing platform and the target are moving (-5 for each, says Stormwrack). Total AC to hit is 13. The master gunner (+5 BAB, +2 Int) and a crew of three is manning one gun and a bunch of gunner pirate mooks (+2 BAB, +0 Int) are manning the other. So the two shots are +7 vs AC 13 (about a sure thing) and +2 vs AC 13 (hit about half the time).
Feel about right?
For another reference, check out Iron Kingdoms from Privateer Press. The firearms rules are on their website still, if memory serves.Of course, guns were a pretty big part of the setting, so, yeah, yymv.
Cool. I checked this out, I have the first 2 books... The guns are definitely more high tech than the era I'm targeting, but their rules for "those old unreliable guns" track pretty well to this.
Here's my current tuned version.
Gunpowder Weapons In Golarion
Handguns
The current state of the art in personal firearms is a smoothbore weapon with a wheellock firing mechanism. Earlier matchlocks, which required a lit match held in a “matchlock” to fire, and the even earlier hand culverins, which required manual application of a lit match, are still in circulation but no regular forces use them. Though most firearms come from the mass production gunworks of Alkenstar, there are skilled craftsmen in other locations that can and do build firearms.
The smiths of Alkenstar have just developed snaplocks, but have kept the innovation to themselves so far. More reliable and inexpensive flintlocks are doubtless not far behind. A couple artisans have made rifled hunting weapons but these are still unique curiosities.
Name Cost D (S) D (M) Crit Range Weight Type
One-Handed Ranged Weapons
Pistol 250 gp 1d6 2d4 x3 50 ft. 3 lbs. P
Blunderbuss pistol 500 gp 1d10 2d6 19-20/x2 5 ft. 5 lbs. B and P
Two-Handed Ranged Weapons
Musket, short 500 gp 1d10 2d6 x3 100 ft. 8 lbs. P
Musket, long 750 gp 1d10 2d6 x3 150 ft. 10 lbs. P
Blunderbuss 500 gp 1d12 3d6 19-20/x2 15 ft. 8 lbs. B and P
Explosive Weapons
Bomb 150 gp 1d10 2d6 x2 5 ft. 1 lb. B
Smoke bomb 70 gp Smoke x2 10 ft. 1 lb. -
Proficiency: All wheellock weapons require Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms) to use without penalty.
Reload: All wheellock weapons hold one shot and take two full round actions to load. Reloading takes two hands and provokes attacks of opportunity.
Inaccurate: All non-rifled firearms have an inherent -1 to hit penalty.
Exploding Dice: Whenever you deal damage with a firearm and roll maximum on any damage die, reroll that die and add that roll to the total as well. If you roll maximum on rerolls, continue to reroll, adding to the damage each time.
Misfire: Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll made with a firearm, your firearm might misfire. Immediately roll 1d20. On a 1, the firearm is broken and the powder explodes out the breech, dealing the weapon’s damage to you; on a 2–7, the firearm is broken; on a 8–18, the firearm misfires and is fouled; and on a 19–20, it simply misfires. A fouled firearm requires 2 full rounds to clear before it can be reloaded.
Melee: Pistols may be used as saps and muskets as clubs in melee combat, but they are reasonably fragile and whenever you roll a natural 1 on the attack roll the weapon is broken.
Pistols have a hardness of 10 and 10 hit points; long weapons have a hardness of 10 and 20 hit points.
Weapon Descriptions
Pistol: a single shot wheellock pistol.
Blunderbuss Pistol: Also known as a dragon, this is a large pistol with a bell-shaped barrel. A blunderbuss pistol’s damage suffers a -2 penalty per range increment beyond the first.
Musket, short: A wheellock musket with a short barrel suitable for use in close quarters. Also known as an arquebus.
Musket, long: A wheellock musket with a 4 foot long barrel. The long musket must be braced on something or else suffer a -2 penalty to hit. Many such muskets come with a inherent pintle mount so that they can be braced while standing; it requires a move action to set up the pintle.
Blunderbuss: This is a heavy musket with a bell-shaped barrel, also referred to as a musketoon. A blunderbuss’ damage suffers a -2 penalty per range increment beyond the first.
Bomb: A bomb, also known as a grenade, is thrown as a splash weapon. It requires one full round action to prepare and light. Once thrown, it explodes and does damage to everyone in a 5’ radius from the target or target square. Bombs do 2d6 damage to a directly targeted creature and 2d4 splash damage.
Smoke bomb: A smoke bomb is thrown as a splash weapon, and puts out a 10’ radius cloud of smoke. It requires one full round action to prepare and light. The smoke dissipates normally.
Field Grade Weapons
Most cannon are cast bronze, smooth bore, muzzleloading weapons, although some are breech-loading and older ones are constructed of iron bars welded and bound together. Because they are expensive and rare, many cannons are ornately carved and decorated, and larger ones often have unique names.
Name Cost Damage Weight Range Mount Crew Ready
Bombard 10,000 gp 12d10 8000 lbs. 400 ft. - 6 10/4
Cannon 8,000 gp 10d10 6000 lbs. 300 ft. Very Heavy 5 6/3
Demi-cannon 6,000 gp 8d10 4000 lbs. 250 ft. Heavy 4 5/2
Culverin 4,000 gp 6d10 3000 lbs. 200 ft. Medium 3 4/2
Small culverin 2,000 gp 4d10 2000 lbs. 150 ft. Light 2 3/2
Swivel-gun 1,000 gp 2d10/4d6 200 lbs. 100 ft./25 ft. - 1 2/1
Damage: Assuming solid shot, this is the damage done on a direct hit. Cannon (with the exception of swivel-guns) cannot effectively be aimed at a specific person, but instead are aimed at a specific area with the intent of damaging a structure. Monsters that are size Huge or larger can be individually targeted (assuming they stay still for the several rounds needed to aim and fire the weapon). When a cannon hits its target area, it only does its listed damage to that 10x10x10 part of the structure, not any creature there. (On a natural 20, the cannon hits an unlucky person in that area dead on and does full damage to them as well.) However, cannons often do splash damage. If the cannon is using stone shot and firing into a stone environment (like most towns), this damage comes from stone fragments (slashing), or if the cannon is using any solid shot and firing into a wooden environment (like a ship), the damage comes from wooden shivers (piercing). Anyone in the 10x10 target area must make a DC 15 Reflex save or else take ¼ the direct damage inflicted by the shot from the fragments. For example, if a PC is hiding in a 10x10 wooden shack that is hit by a culverin inflicting 35 points of damage on the structure, he may take 8 points of fragment damage if he fails his save.
Crew: All members of the crew must have at least one rank in Profession: siege engineer.
Ready: Cannons all require the listed number of full round actions to reload and then aim with a normal crew. They must be re-aimed every time they are fired because their recoil moves them significantly out of place. If they are operated with a smaller crew than the listed minimum, the time it takes to reload them is proportionately longer.
Proficiency: All cannon require Profession: Siege Engineer (or Artillerist, or Cannoneer, or whatever you want to call it) to operate.
Inaccurate: All cannon have an inherent -4 to hit penalty due to the difficulty of aiming them precisely. This penalty may be reduced by 1 for every 5 points the gunner has in Profession: siege engineer. A gunner uses their base attack bonus, Int bonus, and other modifiers for range, vision, motion, etc. to determine their total attack bonus.
Misfire: Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll made with a cannon, the cannon might misfire. The crew chief must immediately roll a Profession: siege engineer check at DC 15 (the rest of the crew may assist). A successful check indicates that the wad simply misfired and the cannon must be reloaded. A failure by up to 5 indicates that the cannon is fouled and requires 2 full rounds to clear before it can be reloaded. A failure by up to 10 means that the cannon gains the broken condition and requires repair before further use. A natural 1 on this check means that the cannon has exploded and does its full normal damage to everyone and everything within 10 ft.
Weapon Descriptions
Bombard: Very large caliber front-loading cannon used in sieges. They fire hundred pound stone balls. Bombards are too large for most ships to carry. A variant of bombard that is used for indirect fire is called the mortars.
Cannon: A heavy bronze cannon firing a 36 to 50 pound shot, also known as a basilisk. These usually can only be placed on the bow mount of very large galleys.
Demi-Cannon: Also known as the cannon-perier, it fires a 24 pound shot. This is the heaviest weapon that can be fired from the side of a ship, and a large ship at that.
Culverin: The culverin is a medium cannon firing an 18 lb shot. These are the most common large weapon mounted broadside on sailing ships.
Small Culverin: Also known as the demi-culverin, this weapon fires a 10 lb shot and is suitable for mounting on many ships, including on the top deck.
Swivel-gun: Swivel-guns, which come in varieties also known as falcons, falconets, or robinets, can take a 1-2 pound solid shot or be filled with a dozen pistol shots. They do 2d10 damage with solid shot, but when loaded with pistol shot do 4d6 damage, less 2 points per range increment, in a 10x10 square. A gunner applies their Dexterity bonus to hit instead of their Int bonus with a swivel-gun.
Ammunition: stone or lead solid shot are the most common ordnance in cannon. There is also chain or bar shot which is effective against rigging (normal solid shot passes through rigging doing only minimum damage). Grapeshot or canister shot can also be used; this does not do structural damage but targets the crew, doing half the listed damage to all crew in a 10x10x10 area.
Not for nothing -- because I like what you're doing here! -- but keep an eye on Sinister Adventures next month for something to add...
I'm looking to use Razor Coast as part of this campaign so I'm eager to see it... I developed these rules with that partially in mind!
Oh, and I'm just now reading the d20 past firearm/cannon rules which are pretty good and, as it turns out, quite similar in many ways to mine. The only real problem is that it treats cannon as something to shoot just like any other firearm, which means "I shoot the 60 pound cannon straight at the wizard with my normal ranged attack bonus of +18!" which I hope to avoid.