I gave the GS a try the other night, I was not overly impressed.
He was a 1st level Dwarf with a musket(1D12 damage, 40ft range). I played in a PFS game. In the last combat, which lasted 8 rounds I did a total of 8 point of damage. In the first round I shot, hit, 7 points of damage. Second round, full action reload. Third round, shoot, hit, rolled a big 1 point damage. Fourth round, full action reload. Fifth round, missed with a one on the die<insert slapped forhead here>.Sixth round, standard action Quick Clear. Yes I know I could have spent a Grit and cleared it as a move action, but it's still a full round action to load a musket at this point. Seventh round, full action reload. Eighth round, no action, bad guys all died before my turn.
Yeah, I had some bad luck, but that what happens every so often. Anyway I did 8 points of damage in 8 rounds out of a possible 24 points of damage. If I would have rolled avg damage 6-7 I would have done 13 points of damage. That's not really overwhelming. If he would have been shooting at AC one of those would have missed, at which point I would have be nothing more than a tree stump. With the rapid reload feat and use of a grit point, I could have got off another shot. I have point blank shot as a feat right now. Another shot would have brought my total possible damage up to 36 and avg damage would have been about 17-19 points of damage. I can't wait until level 5 when I can add my Dex mod(3) to my damage rolls.
I had a couple decent combats, and one with a crit and confirm. My crit did 31 points of damage. I rolled avg damage in most of my combats nothing to exciting. However, I was still shooting every other round and if I had to hit AC I would have missed a few times, making me practically useless.
After the game we talked about the gunslinger a bit, and most agreed that it's was underwhelming. The Crit was awesome, but everything else was eh, okay at best. The tables opinion was that the GS was more fluff than substance. Yes we all understood it was a level 1 GS. Most also understood GS don't begin to shine until about level 5. Which is about 11 more PFS games for him at one every 2 weeks.
At this point I will continue to play my GS just to see what he can do at higher levels, but I'm going to have to multiclass into something else so I can make my self useful during reload rounds. Bard or Inquisitor maybe. I would like to get him to level 6, but that's going to take some time in PFS. But if I get him that high before the ultimate combat comes out I'll follow up with another post.
Well, as for which AC to hit, Touch AC with in a certain range works for me. The force of the bullet, at close range, is what does the damage, much like the force of a mace, quarterstaff, or most blunt weapons. Most blunt weapons don't penetrate armor, yet they still do lethal damage. It's the force of the impact that does the damage. Why don't blunt weapons hit touch AC? Maybe because you have to generate enough force to do damage through the armor. While a bullet has enough force to do damage through the armor, without penetration, at close range.
