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In one of my current campaigns, the McGuffin is a collection of guns, that eventually come together as some kind of super gun. As such, our gunslinger has chosen to focus on effectively wielding, well, all of them. He has asked me to help be able to build a gunslinger who is good at using guns, without focusing on one. My usually method of effectively using one weapon very well is of no use. Is there a way to build a gunslinger who does this? I could really use some advice, as this is very new ground for me as builds go. Here is the list of guns, and remember, he wants to be able to wield them all effectively:
Coat Pistol, Sword Cane Pistol, Double-barreled Pistol, Axe Musket, Warhammer Musket, Blunderbuss, Double-barreled Musket, Pepperbox, and Culverin.
Not a huge optimizer here, but I'd say focusing on feats/options that effect "ranged combat" rather than weapon-specific feats would be the way to go. Choose feats that are general enough that they will work with each an every weapon. Things like Deadly Aim are your friend in this department.
...Catch Phrase,
-Chris
Ooh, this is a neat challenge..
Well, there's a number of different uses in those weapons listed there:
- Coat Pistol, Sword Cane Pistol: Subterfuge. These would be his backup weapons, kept hidden and used in situations where he's had other weapons taken away, or can't carry obvious weapons with him.
For this, all you'd need is to make sure his Sleight of Hand is decent.
- Pepperbox: Rapidfire option, without the need for using paper cartridges (increasing misfire), for at least a few rounds.
- Double-barreled Pistol, Culverin, Double-barreled Musket: Used for high damage. I'm not exactly sure how the Vital Strike rules work with the double barrels.. could be nicely devastating (one rule says one attack, while the other rule says both shots happen with the same action.. so double weapon damage on both shots?).
Vital Strike on the hand cannon will definitely be interesting, especially on a critical.
- Axemusket, Warhamer Musket: These are good for when you want to get into melee without having to drop your weapon. Fire off rounds until people get close and then start swinging. The nice thing with these is that they give damage reduction bypassing elements (bludgeoning for skeletons, and slashing for zombies, etc). Note that bullets do B&P, so the axemusket is an all-around good damage piercer in one weapon.
- Blunderbuss: For those groups of mooks.
Overall, a nice spread of weaponry options. About the only thing missing is the double hackbut, which is the long range, high damage firing weapon. Probably best suited for sniping. So we can drop the "Stealth, Snipe, Silenced weapon" option.
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So the character will likely want the following:
Skills
Sleight of Hand (for the hidden weaponry).
Bluff (for when weaponry is found anyways, that cane isn't based on sleigh of hand).
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Feats
General
Precise Shot (-4 to shoot in melee vs -4 to shoot double barrels, touch AC is low, but not that low).
Quickdraw (to switch between weapons).
Deadly Aim (penalty to hit is almost never a problem)
Rapid Fire
Rapid Shot (to get that extra attack).
Rapid Reload (for when your number of attacks get really high, combine with paper cartridges to make reloading a free action).
Big Boom
Vital Strike (for extra oomph with select weapons).
Focused Shot (if your DM allows it with guns and the character has high Int).
Up Close and Personal
Deft Shootist (for obvious reasons)
Opening Volley (to give your melee attacks an extra bit of oomph.. "shoot first, axe questions later" ;) ).
Feats to Avoid:
- Anything that needs to choose a specific weapon, obviously, or doesn't apply to guns (such as many shot). Rapid Reload is the only exception, because it extends the rapidfire option for the pepperbox.
- Two-weapon Fighting tree. It might seem cool and nifty, but a lot of these weapons need two hands to use, even if you can get past the loading requirement. It's feat intensive for an already pretty broad list of feats up there too. The obvious weapon combo (pepperbox + double-barrel pistol), requires a free hand to turn the pepperbox to the next shot. Even weapon cords need a swift action to recover the weapon. It's a limited, confusing mess, and you have better options at hand.
- Clustered Shots. Why bother using this with your pepperbox, when you have 3 different weapons ready to use with Vital Strike? With a toolbox of weapons, you don't need to waste feats on making a single weapon option more versatile.
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Multi-classing Options
Spell Access
Getting access to Abundant Ammunition is nothing to sneeze at. While basic ammunition might not be an issue when self made later on down the road, having silver or adamantine bullets, or repeating uses of dragon's breath or entangling shot can get a) pricey, and b) hard to have ready.
Make one of everything and then use the spell at the start of combat to maintain the ammo.
For this, dipping a Bard level can give a nice boost. If you don't like the performance aspect, then the Archaeologist is still available. No performance, a luck-based bonus to rolls, and you gain all your uses per day at 1st level. Pick up Lingering Performance to extend your uses, and Arcane Strike to use on the off-rounds to gain further damage on any attacks.
Teamwork Feats
While normally teamwork feats are messy, the Inquisitor has some really nice options. First, they can use them without needing their allies to have the feat as well (they just need to fill the prerequisites). Second, the feat isn't set in stone, as long as they qualify for the feat it can be changed as a standard action.
Feats like Enfilading Fire, or Target of Opportunity are good ranged combat options (depending on if your allies are melee or ranged themselves). Precise Strike gives you bonus damage for your melee options.
This requires a 3 level dip, but it gives some nice "monster hunter" options, and can open up some roleplaying background to the character. You do gain some spellcasting as well, although it doesn't give the option for Arcane Strike, and doesn't have abundant ammo. Longshot is good though (and has a range of personal, so works no matter the weapon); extending the touch AC range on that first increment is handy.
True Strike is also good for that important, long range vital strike shot.
Basically, your options can open up quite a bit if you feel okay with the character being Indiana Jones or Van Helsing.
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Magic Items
(other than the obvious ones in the firearms section)
- Efficient Quiver: This would be extremely handy to hold all those two-handed longarm weapons. The culverin would likely need to be stored in a handy haversack, due to size, shape and weight.
- Glove of Storing: Good for having a one-handed weapon at the ready. Maybe for holding your pepperbox, or one of your melee weapons. Or perhaps your cane, simply as a fashion statement (walk around with your sword cane, and snap your fingers to make it disappear when combat starts).
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I think that's about it. Stats and other skills are dependent on the direction of the character's personality, and whether you multiclass or not.
Hope this helps!
Allow him to use Weapon focus with all Guns.
As DM I allow that WF applies to the weapon groups that the fighter uses for weapon training rather than a single weapon.
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Well, due to the fact that we will be searching for unique magical guns that, well, only he can effectively use, I doubt any special rulings will be made to make him better at it. That said, he is still not trying to be terrible at it either. I also believe he will have a hard time getting many other magical items out of loot, as he will have more or less a guarantee that a badass gun is on the way. It's a blessing and a curse.