Firearms need to be switched from exotic to martial. A flintlock is a fairly advanced firearm and thus much easier to use than say, a handgunne or some other primitive firearm. It is readily obvious the weapons are being exported on a regular basis to the Inner Sea area and should make them common enough. The price is already prohibitive enough without forcing a feat to be burned at the same time. Firearms came into vogue due to the fact they are simple to use and train a person to become proficent with,in addition they take no strength to operate. A bow is far more difficult to master and I think it is feasible to put the firearm on equal footing with the other ranged weapons.
This is Glorian, not The Forgotten Realms. Firearms are present and up until now very advanced. I like that the single shot musket and pistol are where we are topping out tech wise, but believe it is for this very reason they should be moved to martial status.
I like that the single shot musket and pistol are where we are topping out tech wise, but believe it is for this very reason they should be moved to martial status.
I'm not so sure that's the case... Expect more advanced firearms (unless you can point me to a staff post that says otherwise; I don't read every thread so *I* could be wrong).
Revolvers are in the campaign setting book, at any rate.
I have to agree here.
I may be mistaken but it is also my understanding that one the reasons that guns replaced other forms of ranged weapons was the relative ease of use. It's easier to teach someone how to use a gun with some basic level of skill than a bow. This is something that I've found to be true for my-self as well in regards to hunting.
Given that in general they're not even that powerful in comparsion to many other weapons it does seem a tad bit much to ask for a feat as well.
I think the main reason they end up as Exotic is because most people who use them want to keep them rare in most games. If you have a game that you want guns to be common then make them Martial.
Make firearms a simple weapon with an obscene re-load time.
If had as a martial weapon, reduce the re-load time.
So anyone can shoot the darn thing, but a martial user can re-load it in resonable time.
Sort of like how a bastard sword is 2-handed unless you have the feat to use it 1-handed, except using simple & martial & load time instead of x-handed.
I think that you may have something there, BeholderBob. I think your solution would allow for warrior types, especially fighters, to be excellent marksman taking advantage of their martial training,while still allowing the other calsses access to the devices. I just don't think any class which focuses on weapon mastery should be so limited by a simple enough weapon. It's not like they are spiked chains or even a bola.
I would think of using a feat based on rapid reload for flintlocks to decrease reload time. Only limited to flintlocks giving the advantage to those that spent the feat.