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I was just wondering if anyone liked the gun enchantments (Lucky, Reliable, and Steadfast)?
I know my group doesn't. Lucky feels weird as a weapon enchant. It seems wrong that the magic way to enchant grit costs more on a lawman's Axiomatic Pistol than a common thugs enchanted rifle. I do like increasing the grit pool but it feels weird here. I'd rather see Lucky as a flat cost increase (like many armor enchants) or divorced from weapons all together. I think an Ioun Stone that increased grit would be cool, as would a slotted item such as boots or a shirt.
Reliable guns still explode so its name is a lie. (Though if it could make the misfire mechanics go to zero I'd be a fan of it).
Both reliable and Steadfast do make the weapons they enchant do more damage so they make sense as weapon enchants, but I think steadfast is a bit overpriced. For a +3 I want to be shooting alchemic whammies from my shotgun with no misfire chance.
Reliable guns still explode so its name is a lie. (Though if it could make the misfire mechanics go to zero I'd be a fan of it).
I agree
Reliable feels a bit useless. Most of the firearms have a misfire range of 1 (not counting alchemic cartridges) and reliable reduces the misfire chance by 1 (minimum 1). So until the gun-using PC has the cash supply to use alchemic rounds for every shot, its useless. Then, by the time you can actually use alchemic cartridges often enough, Steadfast is available making the ability useless again. If the minimum was made 0 rather than 1, It would see more play)
I think the market bonuses are way too high for what they do. +4? I can think of a bunch of +4 special abilities better than that, or a combination of lower costing abilities better than that.
Steadfast is competing against Brilliant Energy, which allows basically "touch attacks" at any range for a weapon. I know there's some caveats (undead/constructs, natural armor), but it's a good place to compare.
I'd say that Steadfast at +3 would feel a little more appropriate.
Reliable is "okay" at +1. It's hard to say how it will play out in reality, as YuenglingDragon mentioned, there's paper cartridges that could potentially be used regularly at the time that you had a +2 weapon.
What I would have preferred to see is the Reliable enhancement remove the blowing up effect, but leave the misfire range increase alone. So your weapon doesn't blow up, but it still auto-fails on a 1-4 or more, etc.
It would even allow reason to have a +1 Reliable Steadfast gun, if you ever found a way (ammo, musket, etc) that you still had a misfire chance, it wouldn't blow up.
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Steadfast is awful. For a +4 enchantment, I'd like to see a whole lot more than 'my gun doesn't explode anymore'.
We wish it would keep the gun from exploding. No, a Steadfast Pepperbox or anything else with a 1-2 misfire range using cartridges will still misfire and even explode.
You're right about one thing, though. Steadfast blows.
Personally, I'm of the opinion that Reliable would be fine at a flat +2000 gold pieces to the cost of the firearm, and that Steadfast would be acceptable as a +1. Considering that it's expected to compete with properties on the weapons of other classes that aren't bent over by an extremely questionable mechanic on their weapon, this seems pretty reasonable to me.
I'm just wondering how long until someone makes a firearm that doesn't need a flash pan -- instead using a permanent spark spell on the hammer.
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Steadfast should go to +3.
Also, there should be another, similar enchantment that reduces misfire by 3 points as a +5 bonus.
With alchemical cartridges in play, guns can misfire on 1, 2, or 3, so an enchantment that completely covers that option would be nice, and putting the misfire "family" of enchantments at 1 = +1, 2 = +3, 3 = +5 makes sense.
Steadfast should go to +3.
Also, there should be another, similar enchantment that reduces misfire by 3 points as a +5 bonus.
With alchemical cartridges in play, guns can misfire on 1, 2, or 3, so an enchantment that completely covers that option would be nice, and putting the misfire "family" of enchantments at 1 = +1, 2 = +3, 3 = +5 makes sense.
Did you seriously suggest that's worth +5? Are you insane? This is a property that's expected to compete with something like adding Speed + Wounding to a weapon. It's not even in the same ballpark.
I think they need to keep Reliable as +1, make Steadfast a +2, and create "Trustworthy Gun" or something like it that is a +3 and lowers the misfire by 3.
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Did you seriously suggest that's worth +5? Are you insane? This is a property that's expected to compete with something like adding Speed + Wounding to a weapon. It's not even in the same ballpark.Steadfast should go to +3.
Also, there should be another, similar enchantment that reduces misfire by 3 points as a +5 bonus.
With alchemical cartridges in play, guns can misfire on 1, 2, or 3, so an enchantment that completely covers that option would be nice, and putting the misfire "family" of enchantments at 1 = +1, 2 = +3, 3 = +5 makes sense.
I am in complete agreement. I was one of the people who pointed out how absurdly overpriced this was in the last round of play-testing, and suggested misfire 1 = +1, misfire 2 = +2.
Nothing changed.
Why, I'm not sure. Maybe they were more concerned with the class mechanics and gun issues, and didn't bother to update the magic enchantments. Or maybe they think the enchantments are fine where they are.
So, instead, this time around, I'm suggesting something that I think they are more likely to actually use in the final version. +1/+3/+5 would suck, but it would suck less than +1/+4/nothing.
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I've done some head-math, and the Fighter is incredibly nasty with a pair of revolvers; passes the Longbow by a decent margin, not as good as a greatsword against low-mid AC targets, but it's close and guns have range. However, he's non-viable, and basically non-functional, as long as misfires remain on the table - gunslingers are the only ones who can clear jams reasonably.
Which, I think, is the point. The gun rules, as presented, are meant to be used mostly by the Gunslinger. There are expanded rules for steam-punk style games, and when they are available, guns become nasty. But they aren't the default.
I know the firearm rules are not open for playtest, and are in stone. However, could those rules not be for the enmass population? The gunslinger, who is the expert of experts, should, through features, beable to superced and override certain mechanics. Am I right or just bonkers? There should be a way to logically extend or override the current rules withing the pervue of "making sense", at least in a fantasy logic sort of way.
To me, Gunslingers are ther builders, experimenters, improver, and redesigners of firearms. Who do you think come up with the advanced fireams? They should logically progress from the early style guns to the advanced somehow? Why not include within the class certain features that would lead to such advancements, thus allwoing them to be great with even the early guns, but also allow for the exclusion or inclusion of advanced firearms without doing any harm to the class or "set firearm rules" they have already written in stone?