Gunslinger Stop Bleeding - FAQ(?)

[Machaeus]

From the PRD:

Stop Bleeding: The gunslinger makes a firearm attack and then presses the hot barrel against herself or an adjacent creature to staunch a bleeding wound. Instead of dealing damage, the shot ends a single bleed condition affecting the creature. The gunslinger does not have to make an attack roll when performing the deed in this way; she can instead shoot the firearm into the air, but that shot still uses up ammunition normally.

Emphasis mine.

I love the idea for this mechanic, but...grammatically, I can't tell what is supposed to happen. Do you shoot at someone, but miss automatically, and then staunch the wound? Or can you hit someone with the actual bullet and powder?

[Suma3da]

Basically, you're aiming away and firing a shot just to heat up the barrel to cauterize a wound. The language is there just to make it clear that you can't shoot at an enemy first and then stop the bleeding for someone else.

[Gilarius]

Firing a black powder weapon makes the barrel hot. Where the bullet goes is not important, so you can automatically miss ('I shoot into the air. Missed. Oh dear'). Then you press the hot barrel against the bleeding wound, cauterising the wound.

In real life, I think it might have needed a couple of shots to make the barrel hot enough, and it would leave a very nasty scar. I believe it might have seen actual use, probably after an amputation? Or it might be a myth.

Edit: Ninja'd

[Machaeus]

That seems somewhat awkward to me. Why not just make it a full-round action or something to make it so you can shoot to hit and press it to someone, or a standard if you fire into the air/ground?

Or, maybe make it a swift action to do that, and only after a full attack?

I dunno, it seems like it could be made better and/or more clear.

[Akerlof]

It sounds like:

Dastardly Rogue sneak attacks you with the Bleeding sneak attack rogue talent. You then shoot Dastardly Rogue in the face and, as the life drains from his eyes you cauterize the would with the red hot barrel of your pistol like a man, using the the Stop Bleeding deed.

However, if AM BARBARIAN beats you in initiative and Ginsus Dastardly Rogue into one of those silly accordion-cutouts of a dastardly rogue the way Tom and Jerry do to each other, you can still stanch the bleeding by pressing the red hot barrel of your weapon into your mortal flesh like a man as long as you burn a round of ammunition to heat up the barrel. By, say, shooting the former Dastardly Rogue in the face and claiming you totally saw him move.

The wording means that you don't have to actually attack an enemy to use the deed, you just need to shoot your gun in order to heat up the barrel before cauterizing the wound like a man.

[Michael Sayre]

The "instead of dealing damage" part is pretty weird. Is it saying that the attack triggering the ability doesn't deal damage?

[blahpers]

I can't figure out why you would need ammunition at all. Powder, maybe, but why a bullet?

[Avatar-1]

Presumably it would use the bullet only if the gun happens to be loaded.

There's no rules about firing an unloaded gun, but I can't see why you couldn't.

[insaneogeddon]

Think the intent is you fire it as you hold it to the wound (FITS WITH THE MISS AND ACTION COST) pity the copy for the ability sux.

[Ciaran Barnes]

This is a poorly written ability, but it is a versatile one. The gunslinger can make an attack OR he can simply fire a round in the air. Next, she presses the hot barrel against herself or an adjacent creature who has the bleed condition. I think this would be more clear if it read "Instead of dealing damage to the creature with the bleed wound, it ends a single bleed condition affecting the creature."

@ Avatar-1
The gun won't get hot if no ammunition is expended.

[MrRetsej]

Akerlof wrote:

It sounds like:

Dastardly Rogue sneak attacks you with the Bleeding sneak attack rogue talent. You then shoot Dastardly Rogue in the face and, as the life drains from his eyes you cauterize the would with the red hot barrel of your pistol like a man, using the the Stop Bleeding deed.

However, if AM BARBARIAN beats you in initiative and Ginsus Dastardly Rogue into one of those silly accordion-cutouts of a dastardly rogue the way Tom and Jerry do to each other, you can still stanch the bleeding by pressing the red hot barrel of your weapon into your mortal flesh like a man as long as you burn a round of ammunition to heat up the barrel. By, say, shooting the former Dastardly Rogue in the face and claiming you totally saw him move.

The wording means that you don't have to actually attack an enemy to use the deed, you just need to shoot your gun in order to heat up the barrel before cauterizing the wound like a man.

I would pay good money to see this sequence animated and narrated by Clint Eastwood. I am literally getting snot all over my face I'm laughing so hard.

[insaneogeddon]

The sun's fire makes a garden grow,
A forge fire tempers steel.
Why then are you surprised to find
A fire that can heal?
— The Arbolit, verse 3, from Magi-Nation

In Fullmetal Alchemist, Roy Mustang sears his own wound closed after getting stabbed by Lust. It's not permanent, and he winds up collapsing shortly afterwards and has to go to the hospital, and he even admits that in doing so, he almost passed out from the pain. Still a CMOA

Baki the Grappler has Baki sterilizing the bite Ando got from the Yasha Ape by spreading gunpowder on it and setting it off.

B-Western The Last Outlaw features the leader of an outlaw group who pours gunpowder into a shoulder wound and lights it on fire to cauterize it. Quite squicky and cringe inducing because we see the flames spouting out of both sides of his shoulder since the bullet went straight through.

In the Killer he does this with gunpowder from a shotgun shell. Being as neither of the heroes has anesthesia, the cop gives the title character a big stick to bite down on before igniting the powder.

In John Carpenter's Vampires, Montoya does this pretty much every time he's wounded, once with a lighter, and once by firing his sub-machine gun into the air then holding the hot barrel to the wound.

The main character of Ultraviolet cauterizes one of her wounds with the heat generated by firing her gun.

PS none of these involve also aiming the shot and all involve INTENSE pain! Its obviously not the intent if the ability to shoot AND seal but telling the kind of players that love gunslingers, 2 guns and weapon cord nonsense is a lost cause mostly.

As for 'reality' it hurts but cauterization is mentioned in the Hippocratic Corpus. Since Hippocrates was born after 460 B.C. thats way older than guns.

In Real Life this was the standard practice before suturing the veins was invented. More often than not, it killed the patient even if the wound wouldn't have.

Among the main problems with cauterization is the very real risk of gangrene. The wound isn't merely closed, the veins and arteries in the area are sealed shut. This can cause more tissues to die from lack of blood, which can turn gangrenous and ultimately require amputation. What it does do, however, is buy the wounded individual time to get to a hospital, which they still have to do.