I'm finalizing the stats for the my party's first major boss, a CR 3 kasatha soldier with a bit of a gunlsinger thing going on, and I really like the fusillade ability for him, except fusillade seems a little underwhelming. The rules in Alien Archives mention a few times that stats can be adjusted or new abilities created as long as the fiddling is done responsibly, so I wanted to double check a couple ideas I had for giving it a little extra "oomph" here. I'm more concerned with how they work on this specific guy, being CR 3, than how they "balance" against other special abilities. I'm leaning towards making this his most powerful ability, since even though he's following the numbers everywhere else, he's also a soldier specializing in small arms (his shots deal 1d6+4 damage, and he will usually be making full attacks), which is a sub-optimal option, so I figured I could give him a teeny something extra without pushing up his de facto CR.
First idea - base it off of breath weapons As a full action, baddie can fire a volley of bullets in a 30 foot cone (rules say 60 feet, but that's even further than his guns' range) while wielding at least 2 small arms. The attack does damage equal to his weapon's attack, with usual modifier, and adds one extra damage die ("weapon specialization" and bullet barrage in this case, for a total of 2d6+4). This equates to better minimum damage and lower maximum damage than the RAW breath weapon's 4d6 at CR3. Reflex save for half, DC 12 (might make it a little higher? This is the RAW number, but it mentions it being okay to give a small boost to a combat array's biggest ability.
Baddie then uses two of his four arms to reload while he fights normal with his other two, taking 1d4 rounds.
Second idea - Give him an improved quick draw and a bandolier of pistols This would just be a free extra feat, which is a slightly improved version of quickdraw, letting him draw 2 small arms as a swift action. He could then wear a bandolier of like a dozen pistols, toss 4 aside after a fusillade, then start drawing more guns, effectivley allowing him to use it as often as every 3 rounds. Less damage than the first option, but getting the most out of it relies on his attack rolls instead of the party's ref saves, which seems to favor him.
I know that the rules don't mention extra gear, but I was also thinking about giving him jump jets for some extra cool factor.
Party is going to be level 3 when they fight him, and he'll have two CR 1/2 mooks backing him up. He has support from a sniper too, but full cover will be plentiful, so he's more of an environmental hazard that makes positioning important in the fight.
I would go with the second version
You could also give him other equipment
the sonic pistol is only one level higher and deals d8 damage, which makes him potentially a lot more dangerous
or go with the 2d4 lvl 6 laser pistol, you players might not notice the big difference and if yes they probably earned the bonus loot
I wanted this guy to stick with ballistic weapons for more of a space-sheriff vibe, and I'm not expecting the party to actually loot this fight (they'll get a big windfall of cash and a chance for a shopping spree afterwards) because he's going to be a recurring villain unless they take the time to walk up and cut his head off or something. They're basically going to be fighting their way out of an Aspis Consortium mining camp after dealing with some rowdy miners (except now they'll be in possession of an artifact that BBEG considers Aspis Consortium property). I want this guy to hound them for a while and eventually change allegiances and become a villainous Hellknight.
That being the case, those weapons have an item level that's 2-3 above his CR, and I thought pushing his stuff up that high would be a little too unfair.