Soon i have decided that i want to run an Eberron campaign but with some twists. I have kept most things that were in the book already intact, but i wanted to make some slight and some major changes to the setting.
I have been fond for a long time of the 18th century and the Napoleonic wars, and from that i loved reading both the Sharpe and the Hornblower series. When Eberron described it's tone as Dark Pulp Fantasy, i felt like i could incorporate a lot of the styling of Bernard Cornwell with his sharpe series into ebberon, with its pulpish yet gritty feel of it's action, and even incorporate some of the technology into the setting.
So i looked at some of the technology in the setting such as the lightning rails, basically 18th century technology with magic as the catalyst instead of steam essentially, and took that further. What i want to try and homebrew is a mass produced elongated wands that would be wielded by men dressed in Napoleonic style, essentially conscripts, that use these wands in 18th century gun lines because of the fact that most people would not be able to guide any of the spells put out by the wands.
So my question ends like this, how would i go about creating the stats for something like this and how would i giving stats to rows upon rows of people all firing their weapons at the same time.
Rod of firestick: As wand of scorching ray (CL3), but it's in the shape a rod, or gun, or whatever.
being a rod anyone can use it without having to have the spell on their class list.
For more powerful versions add metamagic (reach, empower, etc) and/or change the energy type.
For very powerful versions call it a "blasting rod." Mechanically it's the arcane blast feat with knock back. It'd to 3d6 if you used a 1st level spell and add 1d3 for each spell level higher you wanted to go.
Musket of Magic Missiles:
(CL1)
Call it a rod. Even untrained conscript hit EVERY time. Easy to scale up... every conscript adds 1d4. Of course when you fight against this, every man tries his damnedest to get some brooches of shielding...
Could have cabals of low level wizards selling one to one side and the other to the other and vice versa...
Magical gun runners
Have to be rod.
The wands have activation issues RAW.
Or the soldiers have Mystic levels. Not sure which is harder.
This really makes me think of the Derlavai War, which was basically World War 2 with everything re-written as magic and monsters instead of Technology and Machines.
Pound-for-pound the most popular trick would be the Force Missile Musket, which actually only costs 2k gold using standard rules because it's caster level * spell level * 2000 for a use-activated item.
Of course the range is crap, in fact it's crap (close range) for anything that isn't essentially "artillery" if memory serves. I suppose you could apply the Reach Spell feat, and (illegally) stack it with itself.
Then there is the issue of ammunition, normally it is an all-or-nothing thing, you have to make a new one after 50 shots or you never have to reload ever.
So anyway, with RAW being a lousy guide, we start getting into questions of what "feels right." (Ohnoez I amz the White Wolf! Arooo!) I would start with guns that fire 1 shot per magical "bullet" at 2d6 points of elemental damage, with the element determined by the ammunition. But until recently a single type of Magic Rifle (Hereafter called, "Stick") could only fire a single type of ammunition and using the WRONG ammunition ran a 5% chance of causing a misfire (hits Stick-wielder instead of target, Stick has to be unjammed using magic ritual). Newer models have variable fire and even multiple-round chambers but are more expensive.
Energy resistance applies to a hit target, meaning you can make yourself "bulletproof", but otherwise the effects are interesting. Lightning conducts straight through metal armors and defenses, fire will deal another 1d6 damage to most targets because it burns a while, cold will produce a cubic foot of ice in liquids or a 5-foot square of slippery frost (DC 11 not to fall) on the ground and can be used in massed fire (if the company is trained and thus knows where to aim) to modify terrain, and Acid cuts...
Thank you so much, this works perfectly within the Eberron landscape, especially the idea of what you said with leeching elementals, as that is exactly what they already do to power their airships and boats.
Now all i have to do is come up with mechanics for massed fire. During the Napoleonic wars regiments were lines were formed up with hundereds of men into either 2 or three ranks, but i doubt my players would be facing a fulisade of that magnitude. I just need to figure out how it would work with maybe 15 people or fewer, so if my players face them they would have some sort of chance.
Cartridge pistol: It looks like a sawed off shotgun. Can hold 2 magical cartridges. To make a cartridge requires a magical being and a gunsmith.
Fireball: Requires the help of a fire elemental or efretti. 1D6 for each 2 fire creatures hit dice.
Cone of frost: Requires an ice elemental or Winter Hag. Winter Hags have nothing else to do 3/4ths of the year. Same rules for damage.
Holy: Causes an energy channeling where it hits. Requires any Celestial. Same rules for damage.
Un-Holy: Channel negative energy, requires a lower planer being, and is otherwise like Holy.
I have made many differences between this and Outlaw Star.