Ok here are my issue's so far with Gunslinger, for me it all comes down to economics of time and money, take a look and tell me what you think, give us suggestions on what to do and how to overcome problems:
Blackpowder 10GP per:
Realism - Components are cheap and not too hard to get provided alchemy is in prevalence, sulphur would be the hardest to procure, PRODUCTION TIME is the issue however, it should be quick to make a few batches, after all its a recipy not a construction, currently it takes a WEEK for a single shot's worth minimum.... by crafting rules even assuming its a REALLY easy task, say DC10, I have base 10 in craft Firearms, I roll a D20 average a 10 = 100SP worth of work in a week....that's 3 shot's worth, in a week.....I call shennanigans!
Suggested Game Balance - Keep the Cost if you must but DRASTICALLY lower the time it takes to make the stuff!
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Shot 1 GP per:
Realism - Ingredients = Lead, method = casting or finding a 3 story tower and pouring the lead off (which is what shot towers were built for funnily enough!), so tell me why does 3oz of lead cost a gold piece? really? and its not the equipment used costing, thats part of the artisans tools. using the above example it also takes a week to make 30 balls.... why? are they hand carved with elven rune's?
Suggested Game Balance - make it a trivial task to make them, not requiring a roll and taking an hour to make however many you want, i would also suggest that they cost the same as arrows (which by the way needs a straight bit of wood, feathers, needle, cat gut and a good Fletcher...im just pouring boiling lead (melting temp low enough to do on a camp fire) into a damn mould :P) so 1 GP for 20
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Redonculously extended crafting times:
Realism - as Ive said for the shot and Blackpowder it takes inordinately long times to make simple items (I know blackpowder is not simple but it is if you know the recipe and have the components!) My next issue is with the guns themselves, yes they are expensive,there is a good IC justification printed all over the books, they are rare, built by only one place and they purposefully keep production abysmally low as to inflate the prices.....so when I have the skills and tools to do it myself why the hell does it take so long and cost so much! hell I could live with the stupid price if i could still build them in a timely fashion! i.e - I want to upgrade a pistol to masterwork, book Say's you can get someone to do it for twice the price of normal (its rare work) so DM rules that to craft it yourself is also double cost (why? I dont charge me extra for 'rare' work) so I try to carft DC 20 one per week - I average a 10 so it takes me (at lvl 5) 5 WEEKS to make it masterwork...which I will rarely get 5 weeks in any game as plot is happening in that time (Also I fail the roll on a 8 or less! I roll 3 or less and I have to start again and lose all my money) - ok so I increase the DC by 10 to make it one roll per day...I have to be 11th Lvl to reliably do this?! I have to wait for 11 lvls to get a masterwork weapon? - ok so I suck it up and pay someone 600GP to do it for me, I have to go to this other country to get it done? Can i find an 11th level expert to spend 2 weeks making me masterwork stuff? seriously? Oh and dont even think about making your own guns, 10'000SP at a DC of 10 to 20 would take 6 months MIN, and given the amount of roll's you make you are almost guaranteed to fail without being 12th lvl, a musket is no harder to make than a crossbow in real life, I know its a fantasy game but seriously!
Suggested Game Balance - make making your OWN masterwork stuff the usual masterwork cost not double, I would seriously suggest making he things yourself be FAR less Time consuming (If you must keep the huge cost then do so but reduce the time frame required!)
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NOTE: Crafting mundane items is done by taking the finished cost in Silver Pieces as your target number (remember you are only paying 1/3 cost) then rolling and multiplying roll by DC (assuming you passed), keep rolling at 1 per week till you get the target number or fail DC by 5 or more. Increase DC by 10 to make it roll per day.
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[b]**Yes this is a board for the gunslinger CLASS but at the moment the weapons ARE the class, play a gunslinger without them and see how it goes :) there are plenty of discussions on the class feats and so on so I thought I would look at a different aspect.[b/]
