One of my friends is playtesting the gunslinger class in the Serpent's Skull campaign that I'm running. We have done three combats so far, and I'll go ahead and describe how the gunslinger did in them. I'll try and avoid spoiling any plot here, but you might want to avoid reading it of you don't want any hints about what the campaign involves.
The other members of the party were an Elf Ranger (Guide) and a Human Sorcerer (Stormborn bloodline). Yea, the party is missing both a healer and a rogue, so things will be interesting.
Vitruvius
Male Human Gunslinger 1
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +6 Senses Perception +3
-Defense---------------------------------
AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 14
hp 11 (1d10+1)
Fort +1, Ref +6, Will +3
-Offense---------------------------------
Spd 30ft.
Ranged +5Musket (1d12)
-Statistics------------------------------
Str 12 Dex 18 Con 12 Int 12 Wis 16 Cha 10
Base Atk +1; CMB +2; CMD 16
Feats Precise Shot, Point Blank Shot
Skills Acrobatics 6, Climb 3, Craft (weaponsmith) 5, Knowledge (engineering) 5, Swim 3
Languages Common, Aklo
Gear Musket, Chain Shirt, Masterwork Backpack
Special Abilities Grid, Deeds
My friend decided that he wanted to build a lightly armored gunslinger. Interestingly, we ran into an issue where he was unable to carry much more than just his gun and his armor without encumbering himself with his strength of 12. He had to spend some of his starting gold on a masterwork backpack so that he could carry more while keeping a speed of 30.
Also, he decided to go with Point Blank Shot and Precise shot so that he would not worry about having a -4 penalty when shooting into melee.
First Combat: 3 Ochre Eurypterids (sea scorpions) (CR 1/3 each)
The party starts off unconscious, and the sorcerer was the first to wake up. He spends his first round waking up the gunslinger, and the ranger wakes up from being nibbled on the next round.
The Gunslinger did alright on this fight. He killed one of the sea scorpions with his first shot (hitting touch AC helped). The rest of the party was rolling incredibly badly for most of the fight, giving the gunslinger time to spend a round reloading and then he hit another sea scorpion for 3 damage (the sorcerer finished it off with a ray of frost). The Ranger finally managed to hit his sea scorpion and one shotted it.
Second Combat: 1 Eurypterid (sea scorpion) (CR 1)
This combat was really fast. The gunslinger went first and basically one shotted this larger sea scorpion for 11 damage (10+point blank shot), reducing it to 0 hp. The party then allowed the npc they brought with them to finish it off. Being able to hit touch AC helped once again.
Third Combat: 3 Dimorphodons (CR 1 each)
This combat did not go as well for the gunslinger and actually showed the problems that can come with gun use right now. He missed with his first shot, spent a round reloading, then misfired with a 2 on his second shot. Then he had to spend 2 rounds getting the weapon ready again (1 standard action using a grit to fix the gun, a full round action to reload it) before he finally fired his third shot and managed to take down the final Dimorphodon (the other party members had been killing the others off during all this time).
Thoughts and Observations so far
When I asked the player what he thought of the class his first words were "waiting two rounds to be able to do anything in combat is not fun". This was of course in reference to when his gun misfired. He basically thinks the class is too swingy right now: it can be amazing when it does its damage, but is painful to play when the weapon misfires. I should mention that this was coming from a player who has been bugging me about wanting to play a gun using class in my pathfinder and 3.5 games for years.
He also mentioned that he thought the class should have perception as a class skill instead of handle animal. Personally, I wish it also had disable device so that I could have him fill in for the party's lack of a rogue. I think it could fit with their engineering knowledge. Or maybe gunslingers could be allowed to get utility shot earlier?
Another interesting thing to note is that the player never used his grit except for the one time that the gun misfired. Muskets have a long range, so he never had to use a grit to get a touch attack off in the opening combat situations. However, I should also note that getting touch attacks at this level don't seem to make a huge difference. This was especially shown with the Dimorphodons because they only have +1 natural armor. I'm not sure if all the penalties that gunslingers get are worth just being able to hit touch AC.
The player seemed upset enough about the problems that he had with the misfire that I told him that if the problems continue for one or two more games that I'll modify the class a bit so that it can be more consistent. First, I'm going to change the 'Quick Clear' deed so that it takes a move action instead of a standard action. That way if he has rapid reload he can reload his musket and clear it on the same round instead of having to spend two rounds doing nothing in the fight.
The other change I'm thinking of implementing is increasing the rate at which he gets bonus feats. This will allow him to get the feats he needs (such as Rapid Reload and Lightning Reload Deed) faster. Either that, or I'm going to make both of those feats be built into the class. In fact, I think that may be the best option since it would give the player more to do with his grit from the start. Plus honestly, I can't imagine trying to play this class without the human bonus feat right now.
I hope that the playtest results don't sound too negative, the issue with the misfire kind of put a damper on things. However, the player is very excited about finally getting to play a gun user and is looking forward to seeing the gunslinger in its final form. Thanks for putting out the playtest document!
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When designing elements for my own games, anything that comes up as "not fun" gets thrown out first thing. A character class that is named and functions as combat specialist shouldn't ever spend 2 rounds in combat doing nothing, unless they are dead.
I would like to thank Matrixryu for the constructive yet positive post.
When designing elements for my own games, anything that comes up as "not fun" gets thrown out first thing. A character class that is named and functions as combat specialist shouldn't ever spend 2 rounds in combat doing nothing, unless they are dead.
I would like to thank Matrixryu for the constructive yet positive post.
Thanks! And yea, I'm really leaning towards going ahead and implementing some of the changes that I mentioned in order to improve the fun of the class. I had been hoping to avoid making changes too early so that I could continue to give Paizo 'clean' playtests, but this is a real campaign and the gameplay experience is more important.
Another thing that my player pointed out was that he thought it was odd was that fixing a misfire with quick clear takes 1 grit. I kind of a agree with him. You'd think that would be something you could simply be trained to do. Maybe this should be an ability he can use for free as long as he has 1 grit?