A new player in my group wants a character carrying a minigun as the distinctive weapon in his arsenal. The GM greenlit the concept, but recruited my help in homebrewing the weapon. Though our party is more powerful than normal, the player is mostly concerned with flavor, simplicity, and practical mechanics that make sense.
My first draft involved using the blunderbuss's statistics, but giving it a range of 30 feet, improved capacity, and the automatic property (lifted from Razputin Must Die!). However, since the automatic property fires 10 bullets per attack, this could get VERY costly -- 60 gp per attack with Gunsmithing discounts. Now I'm considering creating my own automatic property that's basically the scatter property as a line-effect without the ability to fire at single targets as normal.
How would you go about making a two-handed minigun?
Take a look at d20 modern im pretty sure they had stats for one there. Might be good for ideas at least.
|
I would make it an area effect, either a line or a cone, depending on how complex your GM wants to allow. Take a look at Predator. The guy with the minigun saws down a good portion of the ahead forest (cone attack). Then look at the simple gatling guns in the new Lone Ranger. The stationary weapons probably shot in a small cone, but more likely a line attack. Pick a single area type, or have the ability to fire in both. Being an area attack, a Reflex 1/2 save would be appropriate.
Damage and firing / reloading actions will need to be discussed with the GM to determine how powerful compared to other weaponry that the minigun is. 1 attack per round for higher damage, or iterative attacks for lower damage? Where does the save DC need to come from, the gun itself, or a function of the player's stats (like to-hit and damage for other weapons)? How much $$ per round should firing a weapon like this cost (for reference, a bab+6 archer with rapid and many shot shoots 2sp worth of ammo per round. also look at touch-slinger's per round ammo costs)?
Since you're creating an entirely new mechanism, you would also probably want a way to enhance it, since the typical +1-5 won't translate directly to an area effect. I would say giving the enhancement bonus to whatever baseline DC the weapon has (as well as weapon focus and fighter weapon group feats) wouldn't be out of line. Most of the weapon abilities seem to still work well (+1 flaming minigun does xd6 base damage +1d6 fire, REF save to half base damage).
I am working on a homebrew futuristic/sci-fi setting featuring firearms. This is the mechanic I am currently toying with in regards to fully-automatic firearms:
AUTOFIRE ATTACK
As an attack action, a creature wielding a firearm with an autofire mode can make an autofire attack. This is a ranged weapon attack that expends ammunition in a hail of bullets with each pull of the trigger, but the shooter takes a penalty to his attack roll equal to twice the firearm’s recoil penalty. Performing an autofire attack expends 10 rounds of ammunition from a firearm. If a firearm expends less than the required number of rounds of ammunition, it expends all of its remaining ammunition and makes a burst fire attack, but the shooter still takes a penalty to his attack roll equal to twice the firearm’s recoil penalty. A target damaged by an autofire attack, regardless of how many bullets were fired, is always treated as if it were hit by a single bullet if the firearm is firing ammunition with special abilities.
When making an autofire attack, the shooter gains two rerolls that can be spent to reroll any autofire attack rolls, miss chance rolls, or weapon damage rolls made as part of this attack, taking the best result. This choice is made after the roll is made and before the results are revealed. If the shooter rolls the maximum die result on any of his weapon’s damage dice, he can use a reroll to roll that die again, adding the result as extra damage to his damage total.
Alternatively, the shooter can forgo one autofire reroll to target two creatures adjacent to each other, or both autofire rerolls to target three creatures (no two of which can be more than 10 ft. apart), with a single autofire attack. When firing at multiple targets, the shooter makes a separate attack roll and damage roll for each target.
The miss chance granted by concealment effects, such as fog, smoke, darkness, or similar effects, is reduced by 20% against an autofire attack (minimum 0%). If an autofire attack roll misses its target by 5 or less, the target still takes damage equal to the firearm’s minimum damage, unless it has any degree of cover, the evasion ability, or a similar effect, in which case it takes no damage.
---------------------------------------
A machine gun deals 3d4 damage, (critical hits do wound damage in my game [wound/vigor-like system], so damage is not multiplied. x4 would be fine here), range 60ft, (I don't have misfires in my game, but misfire 1 would be fine), capacity 100, recoil penalty (-2). A machine gun can only ever make autofire attacks and 5-round burst fire attacks, it can't make single-shot attacks. For Pathfinder, this would obviously be an advanced firearm.
---------------------------------------
A burst fire attack is essentially an autofire attack (with three different burst settings; 2-round, 3-round, 5-round), but you only take a penalty to your attack rolls equal to the firearm's recoil penalty (not double), you only get one reroll, 2-round burst can't target more than one creature, and 5-round bursts ignore 10% concealment. Burst fire attacks never do half damage on a missed attack.
---------------------------------------
The main purpose of a fully-automatic attack is to maximize damage potential by putting more bullets into your target. How is that accomplished in an RPG? More successful hits equates to more damage, as does higher average weapon die rolls.
Also, I never liked the whole cone-attack/line-attack/area-attack mechanics most games have for automatic weapons. The spray of bullets released in a fully-automatic burst isn't quite as sporadic as many people think them to be (5-10ft spread, at the extreme), especially not in a cone or 10-foot-by-10-foot area. Their rules also rarely cover situations when the shooter focuses on one target, you always have to make an area attack. The collateral in those situations is insane.
Anyhow, rambling. Thoughts?
http://www.archivesofnethys.com/MonsterDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Annihilator Robot
This enemy is equipped with 2 chain guns, so maybe this will help.