So a campaign I'm planning is approaching its start. The first players have started building their characters, Level 6.
One player is going for a Wayang Gunslinger Musket Master. And he asked to have a single signature gun that would be the only one he would use.
Naturally with the Pathfinder mechanics being as they are that is prettym uch impossible without doing one of the three: just sticking with your one weapon and seeing it become more and more obsolete as everyone else replace their weapons with more powerful magic weapons over time, using a prestige class or archetype that focuses on a weapon that scales with its level or houseruling.
I have often found myself wanting a weapon like that for my characters too, so i thought i wouldn't refuse him this request.
The question is, how to make this fair. We already agreed (and this was his idea, not mine) that his gun would be the only firearm he is proficient in (no other firearms, not even the same type of firearm, just this one individual weapon). So this is a rather limiting factor already but still i need to figure out a way to make the gun scale proportionately.
The first thing that came to my mind is that unlike any regular weapon, he is allowed to re-enchant the weapon freely for regular enchantment costs, but he has to buy a new enchantment completely anew with any previous enchantments lost.
Any suggestons would be welcome. I wouldnt like to give him a prestige class or any replaced class features if possible.
You could flavor it as him being a serious tinkerer with that specific weapon (which also makes sense with how he's proficient with it, but no other muskets).
Simply allow him to upgrade it by spending appropriate time and money. Pretty early on he can spend a couple hours and 300 gp worth of components to make the weapon masterwork. A little later he can spend 2,000 gp and two days tinkering to make it a +1, and so on.
Basically, give him a free Craft Magic Arms & Armor, which works non-magically (or magically, as you and he prefer), but only for that one weapon. In my example above, it costs full purchase price instead of crafting price... largely because I was thinking purchase price when I typed it. Either one is suitable.
Depending how much you trust him to avoid abusing overall wealth by level, you don't need to put any level-based restrictions on it. If you think he's going to neglect defenses or other features to get an above-level gun, slap a restriction on. If you don't think that will happen, just let wealth concerns be the limiting factor.
Alternately, you could basically give him a new class feature at level 1, which is "you get this one gun, and it's the only gun you're proficient in, but it levels up", and use the Black Blade progression from the Bladebound Magus.
Bladebound really just gives you 1/4 your level as an enhancement bonus and an intelligent weapon (the latter being completely out of the question) so that's a little boring.
Arcane bond is much closer to what we are looking for although it alone is useless as long as you're not a spellcaster.
I think i will go with the tinkerer apporach, allow him to combine alchemy and gunsmithing to improve his weapon.
The spell Masterwork Transformation lets you make something masterwork. Once the weapon is magic you can add additional enhancements by paying the difference in cost, per this section of the magic item chapter. So all you'd need to do is houserule that he could upgrade his gun from masterwork to magic and you'd be good.
The spell Masterwork Transformation lets you make something masterwork. Once the weapon is magic you can add additional enhancements by paying the difference in cost, per this section of the magic item chapter. So all you'd need to do is houserule that he could upgrade his gun from masterwork to magic and you'd be good.
I wasn't aware of this. thanks, that makes the whole thing a lot easier to decide.
I think as a trade-off for his lack of proficiency with any other guns he will get the ability to craft special abilities himself by destroying other magic weapons, while the enhancement bonus cap will treat his craft (alchemy) rank as caster-level. He will have to pay according crafting cost according to the adding new abilities rules but get the destroyed item's enchantment crafting cost off.
okay my edit didnt get saved...
let me reiterate:
Any enhancement bonus and abilities beyond his cap (as definded by his Craft(alchemy) rank) would get lost in the process, however their crafting price is still subtracted from the gun's upgrade price. If that ends up higher than the upgrade he ends up adding to the gun, the crafting cost will be reduced to 0 but not less.
This would allow him to create things that would normally require specific spells known, and instead of entirely sacrificing a magic item he woill still almost as much out of it as he would by selling the weapon.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/3rd-party-feats/tripod-machine/general-feats- --3rd-party---tripod-machine/signature-weapon
This, keep in mind, only works for this one weapon. I also decided that he'd be unable to take the firearm proficiency feat. I think that chould more than adequately compensate for the advantage.
this is as easy as core.
Starting with the level 1 battered firearm, a gunslinger can upgrade it to masterwork using their Gunsmithing bonus feat with 300gp and 1 day of work
Then pay to get it enchanted to taste, or take Master Craftsman and Craft Arms and Armor to do it yourself.
I suppose i could just let him pay to get it enchanted but he'd still need a compensation for only being proficient with his one weapon. Maybe that could be the loading mechanism that he was asking for.
You could flavor it as him being a serious tinkerer with that specific weapon (which also makes sense with how he's proficient with it, but no other muskets).
Simply allow him to upgrade it by spending appropriate time and money. Pretty early on he can spend a couple hours and 300 gp worth of components to make the weapon masterwork. A little later he can spend 2,000 gp and two days tinkering to make it a +1, and so on.
Basically, give him a free Craft Magic Arms & Armor, which works non-magically (or magically, as you and he prefer), but only for that one weapon. In my example above, it costs full purchase price instead of crafting price... largely because I was thinking purchase price when I typed it. Either one is suitable.
I like this suggestion.
The trade-off between only being able to use that single weapon, and getting a free crafting feat, for that weapon alone, seems reasonable.
The possibility of removing enhancents could easily be added.
Personally I would like the flavor of improving my own weapon, instead of going to the enchance-o-mat to have it done.