Norren's page

So, I'm playing a Gun using Wizard in a level 8 party (I'm built as a Gish using Abjurant Champion as my PrC, so I have CL 5 and 6 BAB) and the DM allowed advanced firearm rules, giving me a Pepperbox rifle and when all feats tally up, some nice damage, rolling around 60 to 70 DPT basically every turn, as long as there's something for me to shoot within 30 feet. (Focused shot on a 26 int is lovely.)

Unfortunately, the DM's looking at me thinking he needs to nerf me because my damage is disproportionately high. (and I sort of soloed a CR 13 last session) I've both told him to stop letting me get within 30 feet so my damage goes down, and I'm already looking through ways to nerf myself without crippling my build in the long run (mostly by redoing my feats so my bigger bonuses come later), but I'm worried that just reducing myself down isn't going to help:

• We have one player who's Duelist build averages 0 damage
  
• Our Longbow Fighter is built exclusively for ranged and has spent the last 3 encounters in melee. (in fairness, one encounter was because he tempted fate and a CR13 single mob encounter grappled him in a surprise round while he was climbing... the rest I dunno what's going on.)
  
• There's one more player who's playing a Divine Trickster (Sniper Rogue 3, Cleric 3, Trickster 2) that's just on an unbelievable string of bad luck with his damage rolls, he's done less than half his average the entire campaign, one turn he hit with both attacks with a revolver (silencing oil'd), from stealth, making iterative stealth checks against the -20 penalty, and did 8 damage. All ones.
  
• Our dedicated caster just falls asleep at the table and can't be woken up.
  

Usually, our party is optimized for damage, so... I'm not really sure what's going on. I feel like something is wrong besides my lawful evil Gunmage invoking "shoot first, speak with dead later".

I'm working on a bard variant (inspired by the 3.5e truenamer's skill-check based casting, with more reasonable check scaling, but more on that later.) that I intend to use in my group's campaigns, and I'm trying to make sure that I hit the pathfinder balance points right. (I also figured if it works out, I'd post it so people could use it if they were so inclined)

1: I'm not sure how to phrase the search for this so that it gets useful information... a year ago when introduced to pathfinder, I found a post that explained what the natural multiclass breakpoints for a pathfinder class were, based on some levels tending to be heavier than others. My memory and own evaluation of the classes is that odd and prime number levels tend to have the strongest features, and I want to make sure that I capture the general pattern correctly.

2: Bonus feat "value". I've noticed that among 3/4 BAB classes, the ones with narrow bonus feat lists tend to have them more often than the ones with regular combat bonus feats. Inquisitor having teamwork feats every 3 levels, Alchemists and rogues getting "psuedo-feats" every 2 levels, but monks getting bonus feats every 4 levels.

I have been thinking to replace Lore Master with a "knowledge bonus feat", allowing a skill focus, magic school focus, or weapon focus feat, but am uncertain how many or at what progression to provide them. These all strike me as "minor" bonus feats, once every 3 levels seems reasonable... but I see the skill focus feats so rarely I'm not sure if that's just flat out too generous?

3: Bonus Martial/Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Fluff). How in Kromm's name do I balance this? I've noticed some very bard flavored weaponry in the SRD (Bladed scarf, Totem spear, off the top of my head) that seemed very intriguing as bard concepts, and my test bard is going to be a veil dancer using bladed scarves, but I simply do not like the associated feat tax.

I've penciled in a "performance weapon" mechanic based loosely on the arcane bond concept, where you get up to level/5 of weapons that you customize and practice with and can treat as parts of your performance. (The flavor being that you could decorate a weapon and make it a display of physical or acting prowess eg: "I put streamers on my quarterstaff and twirl it like a baton!") This opens up all weapons as fluff weapon, but I really like the idea of making the existing "fluff" weapons baseline proficiency for the bard, since, well, the class exists specifically for that fluff.

Would it be reasonable to add a weapon proficiency feat to the list of "knowledge bonus feats" I mentioned in #2? Perhaps if I specifically state "Performance themed bonus weapon proficiency feat"? There are so few of them it almost seems overly specific, and PF performance weapons often end up being functionally worse than their non-exotic counterparts. (the bladed scarf losing reach/near reach is one example that comes to mind.)

What really bugs me about this, is I know Monk's bonus feat list doesn't include bonus weapon proficiency choices for monk weapons, resulting in exotic monk weapons that the monk simply has to pay feat tax for.

I was going to post Music progression balance questions, but that's probably a full post on it's own, it's a touch after 4:30 am, and I think my first three questions are bordering on too extensive anyway. *nervous chuckle*

Thanks in advance!

Greets!

Forgive the ignorance of the questions, but I'm rolling up a Spellslinger for my group's new campaign, and I ran into some rather confusing questions regarding the casting feature.

When I cast an area affecting spell through the gun, does this shape the spell into a single target attack (assuming cone or line), or otherwise change the range/shape of the spell?

Scenario: I shoot Burning hands from my gun, Does it
A: Hit my direct target only?
B: emit from my gun as if I had simply used my hands.
C: Strike my target and emit as if I were standing in front of him?

I can see compelling arguments for all three, possibly even a D: my choice on casting.

Similarly, if I shoot Scorching Ray
Do I...
... Make a touch roll for each ray?
... lose the ability to split them between targets?
... work off the range rules of my gun instead of the base ray?

Lastly, and this one's probably more a question for my DM than the official rules since it's a 3.5 backwards compatibility question: If I cast a spell using the Ocular spell feat (Spend a standard action, prepare any spell that does not have a target of personal only as a ray spell in my eye), I can fire that from the gun as a ray? The mechanics of Ocular spell make it seem more as if I'm casting the spell then storing it in my eye, which could conflict with the verbage of casting a spell in the gun and shooting it.