Pathfinder Guns & Gears

Full disclosure: I'm into Pathfinder much more for the lore than I am the mechanics.

That's why this was a book I initially had no interest in; while I like guns in fantasy a great deal, I expected this to mostly be a big bunch of rules and equipment that I wouldn't think twice about, and definitely didn't need to buy myself. Guns & Gears is not this book; flavor is baked into every bit of the text, grounding it firmly in Golarion and making these technologies feel like they demand to be the star of your next story.

The three section format works remarkably well, and I'd love to see it adopted for other releases going forward where applicable. I don't have a ton to say here; the new classes and archetypes are fun, I'm very fond of the new Ancestry and Backgrounds, and nothing seems egregiously broken. Guns are a smidge weaker than I would prefer them, but I trust the mechanical chops of others over my own.

The final chapter, on setting information, is a joy to read. We get a surprisingly international look at the flow of technology across Golarion, and how it's framed varies greatly from region to region, something I enjoyed a great deal. I was pleasantly surprised by how compelling all the weird Ustalav inventions are; the mad science-horror vibe is absolutely nailed.

The star of the show for me is the gazetteer of the Deadshot Lands, our first broad overview of a region in Arcadia larger than a single city or nation, and it shines; I didn't realize how much I wanted an indigenous steampunk western with ancient ruins and a demonic bird-person theocracy, and now I can't get it out of my head. The threat of a posse of outlaws led by a tombstone-toting giant necromancers is a standout here. I'm delighted to finally see a full, partially-labeled map of Arcadia - now give us the details!

Of some small note: there's a pair of pretty egregious art errors in the book at the time of writing. One is a map of international trade routes... except locations are shuffled to the wrong sides of continents and have almost nothing to do with their actual placement, making the map useless, as the routes it depicts are nonsensical and don't touch the places it claims to. Another is in the Ustalav section, where a vessel described as a metal-hulled dirigible is depicted as a magically-flying sailing ship - a pretty significant departure, and a bummer for anyone who would want a visual reference for such a unique craft in their home game.

This book is great. I know Paizofolks are going through a lot right now, and I just want to say I appreciate the great work.

It's split up into multiple mini-books, and does a great job of making it really easy to play with exactly what you want. Mad science? My jam. Guns? That's more of an occasional thing. Everything is neatly divided up, so it's easy to include just what I want, easy to browse just the parts I'm interested in at the moment, and easy to check with a GM about if I'm playing. They even put more of the lore-focused stuff in its own section, so that other settings don't have it getting in the way. There's advice on what's useful about it for homebrew settings, too!

It's a book that shows care for my experience as a player and occasional GM. I'm sure that's generally the case, but I felt it especially while reading Guns & Gears.

That's a lot to say about just the layout!

Some of the fun stuff:
- Construct-focused character? Covered! This was pretty much limited to a single Alchemist archetype in PF1. Inventors can focus on this and buff their constructs quite well.
- More customization. Armor Inventor is no longer limited by a narrow focus on damage reduction. At first level, you can get speed boosts, stealth enhancements, or athletics enhancements.
- Gadgets! This was the other big thing missing from Inventor in the playtest- the ability to whip up something from scratch. These are great.
- Mobility devices. Simple, straightforward rules for wheelchairs, and some very cool magical wheelchairs that focus on different types of mobility. Frog chair was very popular with my friends.
- Balanced, fitting guns. No more guaranteed hits against dragons; guns are weapons like other weapons. There's discussion of how these sorts of guns existed alongside bows in history, and the selection of guns fits the feeling of newly developed technology better. There's nothing that's so much better than other weapons that it sets a new standard for damage, and guns aren't hobbled to the point that gunslinger should just be skipped.
- Lore. I loved all the discussion of what Ustalav's superstitious and rightfully paranoid citizenry has been getting up to with the new technology leaking in.

The Good
The Inventor Class & the new Automaton Ancestry are very flavourful and cool, with Inventor having some good quality of life improvements since the playtest. The new backgrounds continue to be very flavourful and either 'this slots in smoothly' for the common backgrounds or 'this can easily inspire neat stories' for the uncommon/rare backgrounds.

Mixed
One element that was mixed was the new non-firearm weapons, since you have a valid weapon of the Pantograph Gauntlet mixed in with useless weapons like backpack ballistas. Backpack ballistas being useless was especially disappointing given their cool visual. The weapon inventor also is abit dull for me, since weapon traits aren't exactly as engaging a gameplay element and this subclass really wants you to be enthusastic about them, the other aspects of Inventor are good enough though that I consider the class as a whole in the good category.

The Bad
Unfortunately aside from the things in my first paragraph I can't really recommend the book. Things like siege engines, vehicles, and guns were all misses from my perspective. I should say the issue with guns isn't a matter of them being OP or 'that guns shouldn't exist in pathfinder', neither of those are true. The issue with this books guns is that they are designed to only really work if you are playing a gunslinger, and how their action economy is immensely demanding, leading to a very repetitive and bland gameplay that greatly diminishes the strengths of pathfinder 2e's action economy. Siege Engines & Vehicles thankfully don't take up too much of the book, but Guns eats up a lot of page count means I don't feel comfortable recommending this product.

Edit:
Coming on a year with no errata, going to keep this at 1 star until fixed.

Inventor
Lots of fun thematic options, like having a mech or a weird weapon.
Weapon Inventor particularly lets folks who are comfortable with the system to do some truly funny options, like an Air Repeater or Clan Dagger Innovation.
Base gameplay itself is very simple, really your fun with the class in combat will be gambling with Overdrives and Unstable actions, along with some specific stuffs some modifications grant.

Automaton
Very cool thematically, has a special Enhancement system that lets folks get more options from the class.
Sharpshooter Automaton and Energy Beam on Monk is one of my favorite combos so far.

Backgrounds
Lots of fun Backgrounds here, both more common for PCs and then some truly strange and interesting options, like getting a Ghost in your Shell or getting clockwork parasited

Inventor Archetype
While the base dedication doesn’t give a lot, it adds a lot of power to some playstyles if you know what you’re doing, once you can get stuff like Explosion, Basic Modification, and autoscaling Crafting

Overwatch
Fun Archetype for when you want to play the Strategist of the group. Fun for characters like Investigators or people who want to pretend they are Lelouch Lamperouge.

Sterling Dynamo
It is a bit disappointing this is the only mian prosthetic in the book (gotta get Lost Omens Grand Bazaar for that!), but it gives a fair amount of lore, a d8 unarmed strike on any ancestry, and gives a lot of other flexibility for both location of prosthetic and for your upgrades to it, which reminds me a bit of Monk stances. Play a Druid with a prosthetic tail for fun times. A fun alternative to Martial Artist.

Trapsmith
a few fun options like flying traps and enhancements to certain traps. Lots of traps are added later, and make for fun options

Vehicle Archetypes
Don’t know what to think of these yet, but it’s certainly nice to have some options for a campaign that will use vehicles! There are tons of vehicles in this book

Weapons:
Some options for poisoners, powerful backup backpack weapons, and some repeating crossbows. A tshirt cannon for bombs, seems fun for Bomber. The crossbows seem fun and useful for Gunslinger. Also am in love with the whacky extendo punch gauntlets for Monk

Gadgets:
Lots of options here, I don’t think a Gadget-focused Inventor will be left wanting.

Siege Weapons:
Similar to wehicles, didn’t spend a lot of time on this. It’s nice that they can exist, though!
Might make for nice setpieces.

Stasian Tech:
It’s cool that there’s a whole section tied to this kind of stuff. Whee, tesla coils

Utility Gear:
A large variety of different uses for these things. I think it’s notably interesting that Mechanical Torches and Ignitors are common. Lots of other nice tech, like clocks, anti demon/undead inhalers, and heated cloaks are uncommon, then things like cameras, printing presses, and jetpacks are rare.

Mobility Devices:
If you’re looking for assistive devices, I feel you’re better off grabbing Lost Omens Grand Bazaar. But it’s nice to have a base.

Gunslinger:
Essentially a Fighter that plays nice with reload weapons, it ends up using Reload as a resource for effects, and how you use this resource is highly dependent on the guns or crossbows you use, so I really feel like there’s a build for everyone here. Can make characters from John Wick to Revolver Ocelot to Linkle.

Backgrounds:
All your western favorites are here, along with you just being the New Vegas protagonist

Gunslinger Archetype:
It’s a lot like Fighter archetype. You get it because you’re a caster and you want some decent weapon scaling, or you want some of the feats in here to help you use guns better, like some reload options.

Artilerist:
Wait, shouldn’t this be in the Gear section of the book?

Beast Gunner:
Eldritch Archer but with a higher RP cost, basically. I think it works well, especially for Spellshots, just need to have a GM that lets you go on a hunt.

Bullet Dancer:
Probably the biggest disappointment in the book. Cool in theory, it just doesn’t really seem to work on Monk the way described. Basically the only way to really use them is to use with Air Repeaters… and also in a game with ABP.

You are not using this archetype with Black Powder weapons like on the cover because either:
1. You can’t reload them because you’re dual wielding them.
2. You can’t FoB at range because you only have one shot, not two.

Your other option is to use ABP and then just have a ton of guns on you to draw twice to “reload” your weapons for a FoB… can’t do this without ABP because Gunner’s Bandolier doesn’t extend to the reinforced stock and bayonet and you can have only one gun enhanced by the Gunner’s Bandolier

Really you have to make a lot of changes to freely use this archetype over options like just getting Monastic Archer or Shooting Stars Stance.

Demolitionist:
Seems like a nice fix to Fire in the Hole!, which in general doesn’t really do what it advertises.
An Alchemist can now better help their party during exploration by taking down things in their way

Fireworks Tech:
Lots of fun abilities, only problem is the lack of fireworks options for use in advanced alchemy! But as it is it gives a lot of flavor and power for a cheap buyin, giving lots of ways to use their reagents at level 1, for both. An Alchemist who takes this Dedication is sure to have fun dazzling opponents.

Gunpowder Phenon:
Performance Gunslinger! Unfortunately has little synergy with Battledancer. It would have been amazing if this archetype let Swashbucklers use precise Strike and Finishers with guns, as that option seems strangely absent from this book (something like Flying Blade).

Sniping Duo:
What a way to bring in a teamwork option. Not only working with guns, bows seem like a good use here. Lets you tagteam with strikes and reactions and generally makes shooting a bit easier if you do some basic planning, or even if you don’t.
As far as powerful options go, this one is extremely flavorful and sure to make you bond with another PC!

Spellshot:
Basic Elemental and Teleporting stuff for Gunslinger. Almost didn’t need to be a separate archetype I think, but Class DC change might justify it. I’m certainly very interested in this archetype, trying to hit elemental weakness and do big energy shots

Unexpected Sharpshooter:
A very specific archetype here, but it certainly sounds fun to play someone who is lucky… or just pretends to be!
Gunslingers are already critfishers, and this archetype is sure to help. Doesn’t add a lot of extrachoice during combat due to the limited nature of the options, but it does give some nice resources that you might want to save for a certain moment.

Guns:
A lot of options here. Not every will work on every class due to the nature of reload, but with stuff like double barrel, air repeaters, and capacity guns, can make for a solid offhand options for melee characters who want to shoot sometimes.

Biggest Complaint comes back to Bullet Dancer, as the attached weapons here make playing someone who wants to be a Bullet Dancer very expensive… attached weapons don’t share runes, even though combination weapons do.

Beast Guns:
Magical Flavorful gun options! Biggest complaint is the static DC on most of them… making it so certain items become useless as you level up.

Cobbled Firearms:
For folks that want to be silly Goblins

Combination Weapons:
Really these are ranged weapons that have a melee component to them. Certain Gunslingers, Barbarians, and Inventors might have fun with them if they use their flat damage effectively.

The dagger combination weapon specifically seems more powerful than most other combination weapons.

Other specific guns and ammo and more siege weapons?
Lots of options here.

Customization options:
Special focus on Gunner’s Bandolier, which will let certain builds have fun with multiple guns,
Blazons of Shared Power which allows you to wield a gun and another weapon (this is an option to use attached weapon+gun, but that’s only one “gun”, still needing another black powder gun to make use of Bullet Dancer)

Breech Injectors which is a nice consumable to fully reload a double-barreled gun

Rotating Gear:
Lots of lore for your favorite gun and gear places, like Arcadia, and then options for Dwarves from Dongun Hold.

Conclusion:
All and all an amazing book for all the GMs and players that want to include Guns and/or Gears into their play. Class options have evolved since the playtest, 90% of the archetypes seem to work well with either former options or options in this book, and they managed to make Reload seem to be worth it most of the time.

Rating: SoM-tier book