Building a gunslinger?

[toxicpie]

I've never been in a game with even firearms before, but I'll be playing in a short Christmas campaign soon so I'd thought I'd give something different a go. We're starting at level 5, so I'll have 10,500 gold to play with.
Any good builds, weapons or magic items I should know about?

Thanks a lot!!

[LoneKnave]

Do you want to build gunslinger the class, or just a guy using guns? Any preference for what kind of gun you want to be using?

[toxicpie]

Yeah gunslinger the class, I'd like to test out the mechanics. :)

Hmm, I was thinking a revolver would be cool, I've heard two is unviable but is there any way to make it work by level 5? Other than that, very little preference, though I would quite like one-handed.
It's Advanced firearms, by the way.

[LoneKnave]

The gunslinger class doesn't really have that many mechanics; most of it is the gun. Gunslinger kinda just gets a few largely superflous abilities, and a few very important ones.

Anyway, with advanced firearms and lvl5, most of the gunslinger problems are gone; you don't need to full attack as badly, and you don't have to be that afraid of misfires. You can just grab a gun and be a mostly alright ranged attacker. Grab the ranged feats you want (deadly aim mostly) and pew-pew at things.

[Avoron]

Fighting with two revolvers is a definite possibility, but it has two problems:
1. Cost. Most of your gold will just go into buying or making them.
2. Reloading. To reload two firearms during a full attack, you generally need one of two things:
a. An extra limb, such as from two levels in alchemist for the Vestigial Arm discovery or from being a tiefling with a prehensile tail.
b. The ability to effectively juggle guns, such as the Gun Twirling and Quick Draw feats, two levels in Juggler Bard, or two levels in Feral Gnasher Barbarian.

If you aren't fighting with two guns, and if this is a short campaign at level 5, you might just want to use the gun with the best damage (double hackbut). But that's just the optimizer in me ranting, and you'll be better off going with a revolver if that's what you want to do.

[Gilarius]

If advanced firearms are available, check if the Trench Fighter archetype (fighter class) is too. If so, it's better than a gunslinger.
Pistoleros overtake it at 11th level due to getting the up close and deadly deed without spending grit.

[toxicpie]

Thanks, everyone! Okay, I think I'll scrap the TWF idea, that's fine.

So I'll either go with a single revolver (so. Damn. Cool.) or a rifle. The way I see it, a rifle gets an awesome range so with a stealth trait I could be a sniper and get in a good few shots before an enemy reaches me. However, does the capacity of one and the standard action it takes to reload just cut the number of my attacks essentially in half? Plus, if I can't attack twice in a round (capacity) doesn't that mean a BAB higher than +5 is totally useless for multiple attacks? Which makes a much less appealing prospect. :/

On the other hand, a revolver's got the coolness (for me) and six attacks before reloading. Though, the range isn't nearly as good, does this become a big problem during combat?

[Avoron]

It normally takes a move action to reload an advanced firearm. If you use an alchemical cartridge, it takes a free action. That's one of the reasons advanced firearms are so powerful.

Long range is generally good, as it allows you to have more attacks go up against touch AC without spending grit.

[LoneKnave]

Actually, Advanced firearms don't have alchemical cartridges , they have metal cartridges instead.

But loading an advanced firearm to full is only a move action anyways.

[ElementalXX]

IF your dm lets you get revolvers for free definetely go for it.

You need free action reloading anyway, so rapid reload is a must anyway wether you go rifle or revolver.

There is a controversy on wether rapid reload works on advanced firearms, personally I think its a typo. It really makes no sense early firearms are easier to reload than advanced, talk to your dm.

Metal cartridges are a kind of alchemical cartridges which advanced firearms use, early firearms use paper cartridges which are other kind of alchemical cartridges