You could take the extra grit feat for 2 more grit. You could just risk the misfires and carry a backup crossbow (or even a backup firearm). It only takes one hour to clear a firearm that has misfired and it can be done while resting.
In my experience, there are ways to make Gunslinger work without Quick Clear. The more concerning issue is that both Buccaneer and Mysterious Stranger removes your Gun Training feature that adds quite a bit of damage (although you could overcome that with feats such as Arcane Strike)
Honestly, depending on stat allocation, because the Gunslinger can dump strength lower (he only needs strength for his equipment) you can probably afford to have decent dex, wisdom, and charisma, depending on how you're allocating stats (if it's point buy, you can easily check out your options; if you're rolling, you'd have to see if you can get rolls that would work.
IMO, Gunslingers have three primary options; one level, five level, or thirteen (for Pistolero/Musket Master). One level gets you quick clear (unless your archetype loses it), grit points, a few deeds, firearm proficiency, 4+int skill points, full BAB, and good hit die; five levels gets you gun training to add dex to your damage rolls; thirteen in those two archetypes removes misfire chance.
EDIT: just noticed this deed:
At 1st level, as a swift action, the mysterious stranger can spend 1 grit point to gain a bonus on all firearm damage rolls equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 1) with all firearm attacks she makes until the end of her turn. At 7th level, when she uses the dead shot deed, she multiplies this bonus by the number of hits she made while rolling the Dead Shot attack.
This deed replaces the quick clear deed.
It removes Arcane Strike as an option, but potentially helps you keep your damage closer to on-par with a gunslinger with gun training. You'd need extra grit points to use it often, but you might not even need much of the damage since you've also got performance and spells to contribute to battles instead of just damage
|
I've tried one level of Mysterious Stranger and full on Archaeologist - I'm now level 8 and I can tell you it doesn't work well.
To be fair, I was also working on having him be a tripper for melee, so effectively had him do two roles at once (this was another mistake). I might have done better if I'd focused my feats on point blank shot/rapid shot/etc to accommodate a normal gunslinger-style build, so I can't say for sure that it won't work.
Having run a pure musket master gunslinger, I can say that hitting touch AC all the damn time might make the not-full-BAB on your archaeologist plenty okay.
Quick clear is another issue (Katz didn't go into detail on how you survive without it); that's where my melee-ing and spellcasting came in as backup, but that hasn't worked out well either. You shouldn't ever have a character without a ranged weapon.
gunslinger 5 / archaeologist 15
feats might look like:
1 PBS
3 Precise Shot
4c rapid reload
5 deadly aim
7 rapid shot
9 weapon focus
11 snap shot
13 improved snap shot
(human gets an extra, so you can grab rapid reload at 1st or collapse most of these down one, or consider dual-talent (dex/cha), or focused study for even more skillmonkeying)
the 5 in gunslinger is mostly for the 3rd level deeds, extra feat at 4th and the dex to damage at 5th, etc.
EDIT: rescinded the mysterious stranger suggestion, since you lose on quick clear AND gun training (in exchange for a quick-clear lookalike)
a more complicated one might be:
gunslinger 1 / archaeologist 4 / gunslinger 4 / archaeologist 11
with your feats like:
1 PBS
3 precise shot
5 rapid reload
7 rapid shot
8c deadly aim
9 weapon focus
11 snap shot
13 improved snap shot
|
I'm not too familiar with archaeologist, but gunslinger 5 is really good for Dex to damage. If you have a Dex of 16 or 18, you don't really want to delay that too much, so I'd only grab one level of arch before 5 of gunslinger and character level 6.
I'd also suggest rapid shot before deadly aim. Another shot is likely more damage than Deadly Aim will add.
Finally, Snap Shot isn't great without Combat Reflexes. I'd probably use those feats to be able to reload/shoot in melee without provoking your own attacks of opportunity. It might not be very useful in an ocean campaign, but snap shot might not be too useful either. At least those may be open for further consideration.
I'm not too familiar with archaeologist, but gunslinger 5 is really good for Dex to damage. If you have a Dex of 16 or 18, you don't really want to delay that too much, so I'd only grab one level of arch before 5 of gunslinger and character level 6.
I'd also suggest rapid shot before deadly aim. Another shot is likely more damage than Deadly Aim will add.
Finally, Snap Shot isn't great without Combat Reflexes. I'd probably use those feats to be able to reload/shoot in melee without provoking your own attacks of opportunity. It might not be very useful in an ocean campaign, but snap shot might not be too useful either. At least those may be open for further consideration.
all valid points. though the basic snap shot might be alright without it--it'd just deter folks from the usual "close on the archer and they're powerless to stop me (provided i have a reach weapon to avoid them 5-foot-step kiting me to death)"
