+1. Also, if you insist on it using weapons, I'd give it proficiency with a feat instead of the evolution.
It's not about insisting on using the weapons. It's more about understanding combat rules when you mix weapon and natural attacks in at the same time as opposed to straight natural weapons or straight swords.
What are the rules here for cases like the above?
Weapon + Natural puts all natural at -5 + -2 for multiple attacks so -7?
It's not often you have players or monsters about mixing this all up.
I'd say money can't buy everything. Even the biggest cities in a campaign have limits on the resources available. As a DM you can control what raw materials, components, and magic they have open for purchase. And finding people who can craft the items the players want may be few and far between. If your party is higher levels, have the spells, and the skills and feats to craft the items, think about time. Crafting high level magic items takes time, lots of it. If you keep the campaign active and the party moving all that money does little for them.
If it's tied up in a stronghold they purchased, who's watching it while they are away? If they take it with them, they better have some impressive inter-planar holding spaces created or an airship or something to move it about.
I'd say keep things active, give a limited time frame in which enemies are vulnerable. Make the campaign urgent and you should be able to balance out most of the ways to break the campaign with unlimited wealth.
Eidolon (Level 4 summoner, quadraped):
evolutions: arms, simple weapons, hooves, mount, and pounce
feats: two-weapon fighting and defense
Weapons: masterwork large and small mace
Throw a Halfing summoner on him:
Weapon: Masterwork lance
Feats: Mounted Combat, Ride-By attack
So if the halfling mounts a charge and the pair pounce... What are the attacks I'm making?
Does the eidolon get both weapons, plus hooves? Then the rider gets a lance attack? Does the primary bite figure into this? Or is it just weapons only from both?
Also, can mage armor apply to the eidolon? They can't wear armor as per rules. Does the spells force defense count?
I've posted it around a few times, and i'll repeat it here now, getting as many shots out with a gunslinger does more harm than good (for the gunslinger) due to misfire. Although if you can ignore misfire then go nuts with making as many attacks as you can.
anyway, your little goblin gunslinger there, if he makes 4 attacks a round, which i think he can RAW, you're looking at at about a 59% chance of a misfire each round, although it seems like standard goblin behavior to do that stupid it would probably make the encounter a little to easy if his gun breaks in the first or second round, or worse if he blows himself up.
may i suggest swapping rapidshot with vital strike if it is possible, have him running around, just of reach, shooting both barrels of the musket when he uses vital strike, it'll be rather devastating actually, brings the chance of a misfire each round down to 36%
I don't mind the jamming as much, but if it breaks his gun every other round that could get old. Quick clear can balance the jamming a fair bit and keeps his threat from being an every round beat down. The uncertainty makes the combat more enjoyable as it adds urgency to a round, "His gun is jammed! Quick! Before he fixes it!"
Vital strike, huh?
"Musket, Double-Barreled
This musket has two parallel barrels; each barrel can be shot independently as a separate action, or both can be fired at once as the same attack.
If both barrels are fired at once, they must both target the same creature or object ... taking a –4 penalty"
"Vital Strike (Combat) Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: When you use the attack action, you can make one attack at your highest base attack bonus that deals additional damage. Roll the weapon’s damage dice for the attack twice and add the results together before adding bonuses from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision-based damage, and other damage bonuses. These extra weapon damage dice are not multiplied on a critical hit, but are added to the total."
So RAW that should be:
Spoiler:
+12-4 = +8 vs. Touch, 10' gun + 10' distance + 10' Longshot + 10' steady aim = 40' range increment, Hunter's Aim: up to 80'/60' vs. touch (with a -2 above 40'/30', Only Humans and Elves), Up to 30' point bank +1 roll, +1 damage
So as a full round he can do: +8 vs. touch up to 40' at 4d12?
And as a standard action he can do: +9 vs. touch up to 30' at 4d12 + 1?
Yeah, that could get scary. Touch on tanks like a paladin or a plate fighter are pretty low. Though the range increments on a double musket are abysmal.
Interesting rules question on firearms, if I take the double attack with the penalty, do I sum the misfire chances and roll, roll one misfire for each barrel, or roll one misfire total for the attack?
"Misfires:
If the natural result of your attack roll falls within a firearm’s misfire value, that shot misses, even if you would have otherwise hit the target. When a firearm misfires, it gains the broken condition."
It sounds like the double shot only gets a single misfire. If so, that makes the double barrel shot on a double musket a little more appealing.
That means a double musket would have a -4 on roll but 2x damage and a (1-3 misfire, 1-4 cartridges) on that shot (15-20% failure.)
Still playing around with these concepts and trying to make some serviceable rank and file troops. My first shot is a Musket Axe wielding Hobgoblin soldier:
Spoiler:
HOBGOBLIN VETERAN CR 3
Male Hobgoblin Fighter 4
LE Medium Humanoid (Goblinoid)
Init +1; Senses Darkvision (60 feet); Perception +3
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DEFENSE
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AC 19, touch 11, flat-footed 18. . (+7 armor, +1 shield, +1 Dex)
hp 33 (4d10+8)
Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +0
Defensive Abilities Bravery +1
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OFFENSE
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Spd 20 ft.
Melee Masterwork Musket, Axe
+8 (1d8+2/20/x3)
Ranged Masterwork Musket, Axe
+7 (1d8/20/x4)
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STATISTICS
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Str 14, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8
Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 17
Feats Amateur Gunslinger, Gunsmithing, Opening Volley, Weapon Focus: Musket, Axe
Skills Acrobatics -3, Escape Artist -4, Fly -4, Intimidate +4, Perception +3, Ride +0, Stealth +4, Swim +1
Languages Common, Goblin
SQ Armor Training 1 (Ex), Deadeye (Ex)
Combat Gear Buckler, Masterwork Banded Mail, Masterwork Musket, Axe, Bullets (10)
Other Gear Backpack (empty), Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (2), Powder Horn (10/10)
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Amateur Gunslinger Although you are not a gunslinger, you have and can use grit.
Armor Training 1 (Ex) Worn armor -1 check penalty, +1 max DEX.
Bravery +1 (Ex) +1 Will save vs. Fear
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Deadeye (Ex) At 1st level, the gunslinger can resolve an attack against touch AC instead of normal AC when firing beyond her firearm's first range increment.
Gunsmithing You know the secrets of repairing and restoring firearms.
Opening Volley Successful ranged attack grants +4 on next melee attack roll
Tactics & Thoughts:
Spoiler:
Has the same tactics as early rifle troops, line up for an opening shot, then charge. Shoots from first or second range increment (40-80'), using his grit point if necessary, to get in +7 vs touch. He will stay back until a bullet hits. This is followed by a charge at +14 vs AC (+8 standard, +4 opening volley, +2 charge bonus.) It gives his opening two attacks a very high rate of success. After that he keeps in standard melee until losing around half his hit points. At which point he will retreat if able, quaffing a healing potion, reloading his gun, and repeating the shot and charge.
Has dark vision, so it's best to use this against the party in areas with no light such as underground or on a cloudy night. 60' of dark vision allows for being outside the 20' of a light spell (40' low light.) This can help catch the party unawares and lead to a nasty surprise introduction into combat.
Given the gun reload is a full round action, it keeps the Hobgoblin from spamming the powerful shoot and charge tactic. That could be balance, or it could be handicapping the unit... You guys have any thoughts?
Buckler is awesome for this build as musket axe counts as a battle axe, and bucklers grant no penalty to shooting a firearm. This means he can shoot, and then use the musket axe as a battle axe in his main hand and gain shield bonus as well as switch back swiftly to reload. All without having to ready a new weapon.
Thank you all for the input and it's nice to see the spread of ideas and opinions on the subject. I think I'm going to steal a fair bit from around the table here and faction the goblin tribes. Maybe some aren't quite as bad as others maybe some are real jerks. Will keep things more interesting if sometimes the enemy is not always as generally painted.
3) There are so many funky "weapon on a stick" polearms anyway that it would probably take someone with knowledge: Local to recognize the thing for what it is. Seriously you could probably duct tape a halfling on the end of a pole , show up for a phalanx and get booed as a copy cat.
Dude, those Rogues on a stick are deadly! You swing one over the enemies head, and boom, automatic flanking and your weapon gets sneak attack bonus damage.
Make it a part of your back story. Perhaps explain that the weapon was crafted for you by a goblin tribe you saved that was trying to live peacefully before being forcefully exterminated by the local town trying to remove a percieved nuisance. Something like that. It can work and can make for an interesting character besides.
TarkXT is on to something here. You could be a great defender of the weak. What's weaker than a tribe of goblins barely scraping by? A point of two in linguistics to get Goblin as a language, some good backstory as to how you saved them and I'd let it fly.
Though I may have issue with what is traditionally a small weapon being scaled up to medium size. Who knows? Maybe it was a ceremonial gift from the tribe? Makes a good excuse for something of usually poor goblin make to actually be masterwork.
Looking him over, he has decent but not high AC. Put him in tight quarters and move your enemies in from more than one side. If you can get him flanked he's down to his longsword. Have the enemies group to add cover from their allies.
And the big one for this module: Gnolls have darkvision. Your ranger only has low light vision. Gnolls should be raiding at night, under the cover of darkness, cloudy skies, and all that nice gloomy ambiance. Sure a few torches and light spells will drop threat. But a few gnolls with longbows will out range your ranger on that dark night and can really throw a party into disarray for a few rounds.
Well the group has the hunt out evil bent. He's working with an inquisitor in the party who's keeping an eye on the whole affair. I guess the question now is: do you guys have any good, not ham handed, ways to encourage them to work as a pair to deal the justice? And I don't mean teamwork feats, I mean RP and skills usage.
Holy headaches (Batman) aside, these are new players and I'd love to see them pick up that banner and run with pairing off to weigh, measure, an deal with the evil.
In the campaign I am currently running one of my players is a Gnomish Paladin. I love his concept of taking evil out at the knees, but I'm running into a few issues around lawful good. The party is currently up against a goblin and hobgoblin based bad. They are a threat to the local villages and cities. They set off the detect evil alarm. And gnomish society hates goblins and has a rather deadly view of how they should be dealt with. So there's a clean slate to go off and protect the realm, bisect some goblins and that should be the end of it.
But what if a goblin asks for quarter and the Paladin ignores the goblinoid and kills him? Is he headed for a fall?
If he's following the laws of his society, they are sworn enemies of the goblins. That leaves me a little confused on obeying laws, dealing with the threat, and where mercy would fit in to this picture.
Thanks Chris! That's not a bad idea, if I go straight gunslinger I could get vital shot and maybe give him leadership to justify a gun caddie. I may make that as an alternate design. For the moment I made a stab at a Ranger/Gunslinger mix. The idea was to get as many shots out as possible with as rapid a reload as I could get:
This should give him access to free action reloads with cartridges, and a nasty double/triple shot as a full round. I might replace slayer's knack with quick draw to synergize with Gunslinger Initiative. Any calls on this build? No threat, good threat, killer threat? I'm still also looking for some regular gun toting grunt builds, maybe around amateur gunslinger fighters or ogres packing siege weapons as normal weapons. Any thoughts?
I'm running a campaign following the Red Hand of Doom, and I have some players showing interest in firearms. I'd love to run with it.
Spoiler:
Maybe have some of the reasoning of why the Hobgoblins are preparing for war is that they have made connections with some Duergar in the Stonehome Mountains who are supplying them with guns and siege weapons.
But that brings me to the retooling aspect. Obviously lines of goblins with exploding fire javelins would be good for humor, but I want some real gun toting threats.
The easiest adaptation flavor wise seems to be making Wrymlord Saarvith into some mix of Gunslinger or Ranger (Trophy Hunter.) But I worry about lowering his threat with the lack of Manyshot, no companion, and needing time to reload.
Any build or tactics suggestions? How about for likewise arming the rest of the horde?
