I am allowing a player to be a gunslinger in our Skull & Shackles adventure, or so I initially have agreed. For this specific adventure, I am allowing guns.
My initial though was, in the end it generally a Ranger-esq class, and not too much more to worry about.
My concern came at the cost of the bullets and powder. Am I right to understand a single bullet is 1g? How do normal players afford this?
I started him off with 20 bullets (knowing he will lose them when captured, but anticipating he can get them back later)
For as much as I don't want guns to be rampid, I also see no reason why rarity can't compensate for cost.
Any thoughts from others who allow them?
he gets the gunsmithing feat, and he can make bullets at 10% of the cost.
see below:
You know the secrets of repairing and restoring firearms.
Benefit: If you have access to a gunsmith's kit, you can create and restore firearms, craft bullets, and mix black powder for all types of firearms. You do not need to make a Craft check to create firearms and ammunition or to restore firearms.
Crafting Firearms: You can craft any early firearm for a cost in raw materials equal to half the price of the firearm. At your GM’s discretion, you can craft advanced firearms for a cost in raw materials equal to half the price of the firearm. Crafting a firearm in this way takes 1 day of work for every 1,000 gp of the firearm’s price (minimum 1 day).
Crafting Ammunition: You can craft bullets, pellets, and black powder for a cost in raw materials equal to 10% of the price. If you have at least 1 rank in Craft (alchemy), you can craft alchemical cartridges for a cost in raw materials equal to half the price of the cartridge. At your GM’s discretion, you can craft metal cartridges for a cost in raw materials equal to half the cost of the cartridge. Crafting bullets, black powder, or cartridges takes 1 day of work for every 1,000 gp of ammunition (minimum 1 day).
Restoring a Broken Firearm: Each day, with an hour’s worth of work, you can use this feat to repair a single firearm with the broken condition. You can take time during a rest period to restore a broken firearm with this feat.
Special: If you are a gunslinger, this feat grants the following additional benefit. You can use this feat to repair and restore your initial, battered weapon. It costs 300 gp and 1 day of work to upgrade it to a masterwork firearm of its type.
I suggest re reading the class carefully, the gunsmithing feature is what allows him to get bullets cheaper. But he is still making them all himself outside of anything that appears in the ap.
Basically just be aware of how the touch AC works for guns in regards to range reloading times ammo capacity etc. As long as he follows all of these it should be fine.
Someone in the party who's able and willing to cast Abundant Ammunition for him would help out a LOT! Or even a level 1 wand that rangers, wizards/sorcerers, or cleric/oracles can use at first round of combat would be good too.
Otherwise, yea, forking over quite a bit of cash. One of the main drawbacks for firearm mechanics.
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Someone in the party who's able and willing to cast Abundant Ammunition for him would help out a LOT! Or even a level 1 wand that rangers, wizards/sorcerers, or cleric/oracles can use at first round of combat would be good too.
Otherwise, yea, forking over quite a bit of cash. One of the main drawbacks for firearm mechanics.
Unless the character is denied the ability to craft ammuntion the amount of money spent is more than reasonable. 10 shots for the cost of 1gp? Any encounter that requires more than 10 rounds (using rapid shot every round) will give more than enough to cover the 2gp of regular ammunition. The cost of the more expensive ammuntion (alchemical/paper) will still cost just 50% of the normal price when being able to craft them. It will still come out to be far less than the cost of a wand in the beginning when it matters. The wand will be far more effective when they are using special ammunition later on (as it is alchemical/special materials and expensive but still non magical), by then the characters will have more resources (spells available) and the gunslinger can afford to buy a scroll of it and pass it on the the prepared spellcaster of the party to learn (or negotiate with the spontaneous caster to get it) for use when needed. Ideally the party cleric could have one mem'd for use and they can still pop off a cure light if needed so it isn't a wasted slot.
The larger problem at the beginning of the AP is that everything is taken away from the character so they won't have a gunsmithing kit. Once that item is obtained, the character can take 1 day of crafting to make up to 10,000 normal bullets for the cost of 1,000gp. If you are running the AP, I'd just make sure to leave a stash of bullets someplace (enough for a handful of shots per encounter until they can get some down time and get their gear back).
Something to keep in mind whenever you are weighing the cost of a gunslinger, is that each non-alchemical shot is 1.1 gp even with Gunsmithing, unless they have found a way to avoid needing black powder.
It is pretty expensive, but I see it as the natural drawback of the class. They can attack touch AC, can do pretty darn good damage, and to balance that out they need to pay to do it and occasionally devote a day to replenishing their ammo.
Agreed that the biggest issue facing a gunslinger though is the fact that their stuff is taken away from then initially, so unless you give them a way to get some bullets and powder early, they could have a rough time until they are able to get a kit and make some more.