I recently watched the movie "equilibrium" and looked at the gunslinger class, both official material and guides or suggestions for builds. One thing I noted was that many people consider "Deft Shootist" to be a useless feat since it requires the Dodge and Mobility feats which are considered worthless feats sinks. I'm not sure if I agree with that but it got me thinking if there was a way to make a a Deft Shootist feat that worked without needing a "Feat chain" as it were instead needing higher base stat requirements, so I decided to see how this feat worked out.
Gun Kata (combat)
You have mastered the use of firearms in close quarters combat and know how to avoid attacks of oppotunity.
Prerequisites: Dex 19, Wis 15 (or 17?), Acrobatics 10 ranks, Grit Class Feature or Amatuer Gunslinger feat
Benefit: When wearing light or no armor and using a firearm that you are proficient with you may make an acrobatics check to avoid attacks of opportunity from foes that theaten you (your square? Still not sure how to word this) when attacking with firearms. The DC of this check is your opponents CMD (or opposed by their attack roll to avoid attack of opportunity, which is a better option?) . This check must be made individually for each foe that threatens you if they have the ability to make an attack of opportunity.
Normal: Making any ranged attacks in a threatened square provokes attacks of opportunity.
Any thoughts on this. I decided on the Acrobatics requirement so this feat is a high level thing and can even be a captone ability if they can somehow get a feat at 10th level. The stat requirement mostly so it's not too easy to attain for every player and may require either a very specific race choice, wish spells, stats tomes, and/or very specific allocation of 4th level stat increases.
I'm still not sure if the attacks should be prevented like acrobatics to leave threatened squares or be used in place of AC to avoid actual attacks of opportunity.
Also an idea for Improved Gun Kata
Improved Gun Kata (combat)
Prerequisites: Gun Kata, Dex 21, Wis 17, Acrobatics 15 ranks, Grit Class Feature or Amatuer Gunslinger feat
Benefit: You no longer provoke attacks of oppotunity for reloading weapons that you qualify for the use of Gun Kata with.
Normal: Reloading a firearm provokes an attack of opportinuty
Another option is to make this a grit feat with the added line of "as long as you have at least one grit point" but not to make it a spend grit spend feat
Seems a bit too late-game for such relatively small bonuses...
Seems a bit too late-game for such relatively small bonuses...
True but I thought it was worth putting out there since Gunsligners use light armor unless they go for Gun Tank and don't have the monk's extra AC bonuses barring multiclassing. But yeah "improved" seems a bit too late game but regular is mid game, unless the campaign is 10 level.
or you could just take Point Blank Master...
or you could just take Point Blank Master...
That doesn't work for a pure gunslinger, since they can't take Weapon Specialization. I don't like taking "dips" into other classes to cherry pick the best feats because... well it feels wrong and I'm not a min-maxer, usually, I'm invested in the Role Playing aspect of pathfinder and other RPGs to the point that I only multiclasses if it's part of my character's identity and not just a way to get to the best feats. I find this especially true since Pathfinder isn't a competitive game, or at least it shouldn't be IMO.
If I wanted to take that feat I would just make a fighter and take "Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms)" as my first level bonus feat.
My point was more to the fact that a feat to do as you desire exists and it would stand to reason that if you in a position to ask your GM for homebrew feats, you might have just as much luck asking for a means in which to acquire a feat that already exists. Several classes count as a Fighter for feats at various levels, from even advancement to level -4. Given that Gunslinger is rather Fighter-ish you might have luck asking to count as one of the Gunslinger's level -4. You'd be able to get Specialization by 8 if you save your level 7 feat, then take Point Blank Master at 9, one level before your home made feat.
My point was more to the fact that a feat to do as you desire exists and it would stand to reason that if you in a position to ask your GM for homebrew feats, you might have just as much luck asking for a means in which to acquire a feat that already exists. Several classes count as a Fighter for feats at various levels, from even advancement to level -4. Given that Gunslinger is rather Fighter-ish you might have luck asking to count as one of the Gunslinger's level -4. You'd be able to get Specialization by 8 if you save your level 7 feat, then take Point Blank Master at 9, one level before your home made feat.
OK.
I have another question then: Why do some people consider Dodge and Mobility useless feats?
I have another question then: Why do some people consider Dodge and Mobility useless feats?
My take on it? +1 to AC is to small to make any difference past level 2 and AoO are so easy to avoid that a +4 vs. them feels like a waste.
You know, I get it, I really do, but I don't want to just houserule all the stuff I don't like out of the game. I am the GM for my group because I'm the only one who was motivated to write out a story for the campaign (yes I could have used a pre-made campaign, hindsight and stuff). I altered one feat who's wording made it hard to determine how it was applied but I don't want to go overboard with "GM Powers" to make things work how I thought they should. I just thought deft shootist might be more useable without a "feat chain" is it was made stat dependent and needed rolls to be used.
Maybe my view of the threat AoOs pose is skewed because one of my players is a mythic monk who has built his whole character around Attacks of opportunity with the Wolf Style, trip feats and hs an extended range so he regularly annihilates or at least knocks prone anything that comes within his striking distance using Attacks of Oppotunity alone.
I'd either approach this with a creative solution or just make it simple but unique. Like a +4 dodge bonus against attacks of opportunity for shooting or reloading while threatened.
Human
Mysterious Stranger Gunslinger 1 / Swashbuckler 4 / Fighter 2
Race Point-Blank Shot
CL1 Gun1 Precise Shot, Gunsmithing,
CL2 Swa1 Swashbuckler's Finesse
CL3 Swa2 Weapon Focus
CL4 Swa3
CL5 Swa4 Weapon Specialization, Point-Blank Master
CL6 Ftr1 Rapid Shot
CL7 Ftr2 Combat Reflexes, Snap Shot
Human
Mysterious Stranger Gunslinger 1 / Swashbuckler 4 / Fighter 2Race Point-Blank Shot
CL1 Gun1 Precise Shot, Gunsmithing,
CL2 Swa1 Swashbuckler's Finesse
CL3 Swa2 Weapon Focus
CL4 Swa3
CL5 Swa4 Weapon Specialization, Point-Blank Master
CL6 Ftr1 Rapid Shot
CL7 Ftr2 Combat Reflexes, Snap Shot
Sorry, I don't use the advanced class guide