How to emphasize switch hitting?

[Kelsey MacAilbert]

In the setting I'm working on firearms are the default weapon. If you get into it with a group of humans (and I consider elves, dwarves, and orcs to be humans), it will probably stay a gunfight unless it is in an extremely enclosed area. It's like fighting in World War 2, kinda. Melee weapons do get used to kill the enemy every now and then, but almost all the fighting is done with firearms.

This changes when the undead show up, and they factor heavily into the setting. Without a functioning circulatory system or internal organs, firearms don't really have that big an effect unless one is dealing with low level zombies. Hacking the creature open or bashing it's bones to bits very often prove more effective. There are also a lot of monsters that have resistance to puncture wounds for similar reasons that undead do, or that can close into melee before more than a couple shots can be fired.

This sets up a situation where it isn't necessarily a good idea to specialize in melee combat because you need a gun more often, but melee weapons are important in enough situations that a martial character needs to have some skill. This means I need to figure out a way to make characters good with both without feat taxes.

The only ideas I have right now are adding in a penalty to firearm attacks if you don't meet a minimum Str, and on tying move speed into Str. If you don't have at least X Str, you can't handle the recoil of the fantasy equivalent of a .30-06 rifle, especially when you fire four shots in one round. If you don't have much muscle, your legs are relatively weak and you can't run that fast. What else do you guys think I could do?

[marcryser]

If firearms are the default weapon for the world, then all adventurers learn how to use them. Simply make firearm a simple weapon and allow its use by all classes. Alternately, you could chose to subdivide the firearms into simple, martial, and exotic based on their availability to the civilian market (simple; hunting weapons and handguns), the military (martial; assault rifles), and exotic (military with special training; rpgs, machine guns, bazookas, etc).

If undead are common, then weapon designers will produce the tech to deal with them. You can expect your characters to carry some silver and cold iron rounds in addition to lead. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to say that a sawed-off pump shotgun is the go-to method for breaking up animated skeletons and a sniper rifle loaded with a .50 calibre wooden round soaked in holy water is just perfect for putting down a vampire.

Soldiers are trained in the weapons that they carry. So they get to practice with their firearms, learn to use a knife, learn to use the firearm as a melee weapon, and learn unarmed combat skills.

Probably all you have to do is say "your characters are proficient with these types of firearms, but don't forget that you'll eventually be forced into melee by some opponents." Let the players go from there.