The Premise
As written, gunslingers are not playable in standard campaign. It was already covered by others, but allow me to summarize it for the sake of completeness:
- economy. Gunslingers are not viable financially. At the cost of 1 GP per bullet, I am quite sure that anyone capable boring an impression in a brick is likely to laugh their had off at this price. When one takes into account the breakage rules for firearms, it becomes obvious that Gunslingers are money sink.
- damage. Loss of iterative attacks (well, one could always use Quick Draw and draw a bow, but that somewhat ironic, not effective). Guns are inferior both in terms of range and damage to other weapons. oh, and guns can break.
- complexity. Gunslingers are Fighters sans weapon and armor training. They are saddled with most ineffective weapons in game (well, crossbows do come close, but crossbows do not break). And yet, in order to do their shtick they have to memorize rules for grit. The grit and deeds have been very precisely criticized by Cartigan and ProfessorCirno elsewhere.
Salvaging Bits and Pieces
As written in playtest PDF, firearms rules are not open to debate. As such, they are not salvageable. The prices, the fragility and default loss of iterative attacks are there to stay.
In order to fix the Gunslinger, we have to make them overcome shortcomings listed above. Fortunately, it is not difficult as in terms of problem complexity, Gunslingers are still rather simple.
- economy.
Let the Gunslingers make their own guns, mend their guns and produce gunpowder and bullets at no cost. In the beginning, the musketeers had to make do in the field with their weapons. And so they did.
Additionally, increase breakage chance for anyone without Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Firearms). That way robbing gunslingers will not be profitable - why would you want to steal an unusable item?
- damage.
The loss of iterative attacks (and at the same time in-game presence of spells like Scorching Ray) led me to the following ideas for salvaging damage (essentially, this is a Warlock class ability in disguise):
Firearm Expertise (Ex) A Gunslinger firing a gun gains bonus damage damage equal to 1d6 per two class levels (+1d6 at 2nd level, +2d6 at 4th level, up the the maximum of +10d6 damage at 20th level). The damage is not multiplied upon critical hit. The damage is considered precision damage and as such does not affect creatures immune to critical hit. This ability replaces Weapon Training.
The next ability is meant to portray insane mobility of inconic Hong Kong action gunslingers. At the same time, it fulfills the purpose of allowing gunslingers to use ranged weapons in melee.
Enhanced Mobility (Ex) As an immediate action, a gunslinger may use an attack of opportunity to move 5 feet into any direction. The action provokes attacks of opportunity as normal. If the ability is used in response to an attack, resolve the attack first albeit increase Gunslinger's armor class by 4 and his Reflex save by 4. This ability replaces Armor Training.
Evasion (Ex) (to reflect Mobility and to help with the next weakness)
Fragile Supplies: Any fire based effect which inflicts damage on Gunslinger renders 10% of his supplies unusable and inflicts 50% more damage. Any soaking with liquid renders 10% of his supplies unusable until the supplies are properly treated.
- complexity.
The game already has feats, spells, smites, energy channels, rages and so on - do we need yet another class incapable of multiclassing due to incompatible subsystem?
Drop Grit and Deeds. The Monks do it better and yet they still are quite bad at being in the front line. The Magus gets better action economy with Spell Combat, and Magus Arcane Pool mechanic is simpler and more effective.
Drop targeting. This is far outside of existing combat system. And it makes no sense with the presence of other ranged weapons in game - the crossbows and bows are pretty accurate, too.
Just add a few Gunslinger-only feats. And let Gunslinger qualify for Fighter feats.
Additionally, you could add firearm upgrades (costly and requiring certain prerequisites to use effectively):
- revolving gun chamber - ability to fire several shots at the cost of extended reload and increased misfire chance
- bayonet - mountable blade
Regards,
Ruemere
