Pathfinder is as much Renaissance as it is Medieval, if not more so. I want to embrace this and take it further in my campaign setting, but I'm having trouble with an important style decision.
I'm torn between whether or not to have guns. If I do have guns, I want them to be common, not rare. If I do not, I plan to introduce buffed crossbows and a reskinned gunslinger.
What do I go with? Renaissance with longbows and crossbows as the ranged weapons of choice, or firearms that are replacing longbows but have yet to do so completely?
I'd go with what I prefer, but I like both equally, so I'd like to hear some input on this.
Do guns. That arcane gun image is teh awesomesauce. If nothing else, it is kind of new.
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Are you talking about having guns with out the Gunslinger (GS's from now on...) class just the feat and everyone can get a gun or are you talking about letting people come in as GS's? I have played 1 GS and have had several in my games and here is what i have seen.
Played- It was a high level (14th) bring in so it was built in a vacuum. It was extremely powerful. The full BAB and ranged touch attack with dex to dmg. Advance firearms make them even more so.
In my game - The below things were things to watch out for as they can change an encounter very quickly.
EX:
Targeting (Ex): a 7th level power can disarm, confuse, trip all with no CMD or ST allowed. Sure they have to hit the creature but with Dex as main stat and full BAB... easy money.
- Combine the disarm effect + Utility shot 3rd level power and you can disarm a boss and move it 15ft. away all at a distance As compared to a fighter using Gtr Disarm (who has to sink precise points into a non value stat INT to qualify for) while a GS uses his dex.
- X'4 crit very dangerous
All the above can be very encounter / boss / game changing
I allow them in some of my games but its on a game by game basis depending on your players... my group has alot of Min/Max guys.
i'm not sold on guns in pathfinder exactly, and how they're handled seems less than optimal from a story perspective.
allow me to explain: i'm currently writing a steampunk-scifi novel (no publisher yet, but my first manuscript is ready for a hefty edit) and as a result i've been doing a lot of historical weapons research. plate armour evolved from the need to protect valueble cavalry from early firearms, which in fact out-date it by nearly a century. as such, the inclusion of firearms gives me warm feelings because it completes the whole cause-effect cycle. But...
Firearms in Pathfinder ignore armour at close range, making even the heavy plate designed to protect from it redundent. on top of that, you're getting an attack every round no problem, as even a first level human warrior can get proficiency and rapid reload. while i understand it from an in game perspective, the fact is that a veteran musketman in the seventeenth century could fire off up to 3 rounds per minute, and that was considered impressive. i know it's not simulation, it's roleplay, but it still irks me.
if you'll let me make a suggestion, pick up a copy of the iron kingdoms players guide. that has awesome firearms in it, and for the most part it gives multiple shots the old fashioned way... with more barrels! in all seriousness i once designed a character in that with steam-powered battle armour and what amounted to a twenty-four barrel minigun strapped to one arm, just so he didn't have to get out and reload after every shot. it also required a craft (small arms) check to reload your weapon, quite reasonable for the complexity of the task and the conditions of a battlefield.
other than those minor niggles... go for it! guns are cool, and mysterious gunslingers who walk into town and have quickdraw duels are... hang on, what's the word for 'beyond awesome'? nevermind, i'll make one up. Mysterious stranger gunslingers are coowesome. no, that doesn't work, does it? i'll have to think on this...
I thought over it during the night, and I think I'll skip guns, because in order to use them I'd have to make them more common, and I'm not sure I want to go that route.
That said, while guns may not be available, I am unashamedly basing things off of the renaissance, not the medieval era. There may be a few medieval elements, mostly in weaponry, but it's not medieval fantasy and I don't claim that it is. There is also a gunslinger reskinned for crossbows.
One idea I do have, however, is that magitek has increased the standard of living to the point where most people are relatively well off, and the majority of individuals are not farmers. That's not to say poverty doesn't exist, it's to say comparing standards of living to, say, the US in the 1950s or 1960s is more apt than comparing them to the real renaissance. Also, the warrior NPC class isn't used in this campaign setting. This is because your average soldier is a well trained professional and has levels of fighter, ranger, barbarian, cavalier, or maybe crossbow gunslinger for average troops, and pretty much any PC class except oracle for special troops. A barely trained conscript or militia member would be an expert or commoner, perhaps with a couple levels of a PC class if they ended up being in the field long enough.