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Nateen wrote:

I have given the idea of repeating crossbows some thought, and the solution I came up with was a weapon rune based on bags of holding. Basically you can load X bolts into the crossbow, and fire up to X times before needing to reload, but each bolt needs to be reloaded separately.

A clip fed crossbow is a really cool idea, and I didn't know how common they were in China. From what I have seen, you could rationally give it agile to take advantage of the ability to fire without reloading. This could be balanced by not being able to store poisoned bolts without the poison losing potency, meaning you would have to rely on the 1d4 damage dice.

I'm not actually sure I dig the poison thing, since some sources claim the bolts in chu ko nu were often poisoned because they didn't have much lethality on their own. With that bit of history, it would actually make for a really cool weapon for a tian toxicologist and the like, not to mention just, the power of poison is offset by it's cost

Your right. I thought there was a limit to how long a poison could last on a weapon, but I was incorrect. In that case, using even a simple poison would be a massive increase in damage. I guess at that point the addition of agile wouldn't do much.

I have given the idea of repeating crossbows some thought, and the solution I came up with was a weapon rune based on bags of holding. Basically you can load X bolts into the crossbow, and fire up to X times before needing to reload, but each bolt needs to be reloaded separately.

A clip fed crossbow is a really cool idea, and I didn't know how common they were in China. From what I have seen, you could rationally give it agile to take advantage of the ability to fire without reloading. This could be balanced by not being able to store poisoned bolts without the poison losing potency, meaning you would have to rely on the 1d4 damage dice.

I don't know if I am alone in this, but the main issues I have with firearms is in their flavor.

A flint lock pistol takes more than a dozen seconds to reload, even for a master. For the sake of game play, that would mean a reload of 2, instead of 6+. In addition, an old pistol like the ones being discussed here fired a ball almost 3/4 of an inch in diameter. That strikes me as a 1d10 at least, not 1d4.

The range is actually an interesting question, because the main issue isn't the actual range of the projectile but the hilarious inaccuracy of a smooth bore weapon. In this case, I would increase the range for the pistol to 30 ft, but add a new weapon trait Inaccurate. Inaccurate would double the range penalties, which is what would be the main limitation on range rather than the increments themselves. You could make advanced firearms with rifled barrels that wouldn't have Inaccurate.

As for the traits that it already has, a flint lock pistol is "fatal" no matter where it hits you. Those weapons make golf ball sized holes in things. Versatility is a weird one, because I can't think of a way for a bullet to do bludgeoning damage other than throwing it.

I have other ideas for repeaters, shotguns, how misfire could work, and heavy weapons, but I am unsure if this is the place for them.