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I love the idea of a gun-wielding Paladin. The imagery of a Paladin besting a foe in combat with his rifle, then pinning him down with a foot on his chest and softly saying, "Smite Evil" before pulling the trigger just gives me chills.
However, like many of the posters on this board I find the Holy Gun lacking. So, I'm trying a rewrite. I'd love ideas if anybody has any. This are some quick ideas I threw together.
Quick aside: I actually like the Smiting Shot deed, the fact that it's a single shot, and not until the enemy dies. I'm not sure why, but I like it. So I kept it in the rewrite.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Holy guns are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, firearms, and light armor.
Have Gun: At 1st level, the holy gun gains the Amateur Gunslinger feat and Gunsmithing as a bonus feat. Use your Charisma bonus in place of your Wisdom bonus for Amateur Gunslinger. She also gains a battered gun identical to the one gained by the gunslinger. The amount of grit you This ability replaces detect evil.
Holy Bullet: At 2nd level, the holy gun gains the following deed. This deed works and interacts with grit the same way as gunslinger deeds, but only the holy gun can use it. If the holy gun also has levels in gunslinger, she can spend grit points from that class to use this deed.
Smiting Shot (Su): A holy gun can spend 1 grit point to make a smiting shot with a firearm attack as a standard action. If the target is evil, the holy gun adds her Charisma bonus and her paladin level to the damage of the firearm attack. If the target of the smiting shot is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage increases to the Charisma modifier plus 2 points of damage per level the paladin possess. Regardless of the target, smiting shot automatically bypasses any DR the creature might have. This ability replaces smite evil.
Divine Bond: At 5th level, a holy gun forms a bond with her deity. This functions as the paladin’s divine bond ability, except the bond must always take the form of a firearm. In addition to the listed abilities, a holy gun can add the distance, reliable, or seeking special abilities to her weapon, but she cannot add the defending or disruption special abilities. This ability replaces the standard paladin’s divine bond.
Divine Deeds (Ex): At 3rd level and every 3 levels after 3rd, choose a single deed available from the list of available deeds as a Gunslinger of your level-2 from the Gunslinger class. You gain the use of that deed. Once chosen, a deed my never be changed. This replaces the Mercy class feature.
Holy Hands (Ex): At 11th level, your bond with a firearm takes a stronger hold. The time to reload your bonded firearm is reduced one step. This replaces Aura of Justice.
Holy Slinger (Ex): This ability function like the holy champion paladin class feature, but the banishment occurs when she hits an evil outsider with the smiting shot deed.
I love the idea of a gun-wielding Paladin. The imagery of a Paladin besting a foe in combat with his rifle, then pinning him down with a foot on his chest and softly saying, "Smite Evil" before pulling the trigger just gives me chills.
However, like many of the posters on this board I find the Holy Gun lacking. So, I'm trying a rewrite. I'd love ideas if anybody has any. This are some quick ideas I threw together.
Quick aside: I actually like the Smiting Shot deed, the fact that it's a single shot, and not until the enemy dies. I'm not sure why, but I like it. So I kept it in the rewrite.
** spoiler omitted **...
You cut out part of your have gun feature so I cannot say what is going on there. It looks like you were giving them charisma in grit but like I said it's only half a sentence...
Otherwise looks cool.
I love the idea of a gun-wielding Paladin. The imagery of a Paladin besting a foe in combat with his rifle, then pinning him down with a foot on his chest and softly saying, "Smite Evil" before pulling the trigger just gives me chills.
However, like many of the posters on this board I find the Holy Gun lacking. So, I'm trying a rewrite. I'd love ideas if anybody has any. This are some quick ideas I threw together.
Quick aside: I actually like the Smiting Shot deed, the fact that it's a single shot, and not until the enemy dies. I'm not sure why, but I like it. So I kept it in the rewrite.
** spoiler omitted **...
You cut out part of your have gun feature so I cannot say what is going on there. It looks like you were giving them charisma in grit but like I said it's only half a sentence...
Otherwise looks cool.
Have Gun: At 1st level, the holy gun gains the Amateur Gunslinger feat and Gunsmithing as a bonus feat. Use your Charisma bonus in place of your Wisdom bonus for Amateur Gunslinger. She also gains a battered gun identical to the one gained by the gunslinger. The amount of grit you This ability replaces detect evil.
Can you tell me where so I can fix it? I don't see anything wrong here.
Here:
The amount of grit you This ability replaces detect evil.
By the way, I like very much your rewriting.
Here:
The amount of grit you This ability replaces detect evil.By the way, I like very much your rewriting.
That was a cut that didn't get fully cut. Oops.
Thanks! Any suggestions to the archetype? Now that I think about it, I'm not too fond of the Paladin losing DE and I'm not too fond on the Holy Hands ability. I feel HH is kind of a cop-out for an ability.
Edit: what about making Have Gun replace Divine Health and Divine Grace? instead of Detect Evil
I wouldn't get rid of Divine Grace. The Holy Gun should be able to avoid a wide variety of effects by virtue of sheer mental and physical toughness with some lucky dodging in there - that's what Divine Grace covers. I think replacing Detect Evil forces the Holy Gun to rely more on Sense Motive and his intuition than just "pinging" bad guys, which works for me, I like him as a squinty-eyed sort of character.
Ditching Divine Health for something isn't an all bad idea.
I can dig it. How about replacing divine health with this (or something like it):
Divine Grit (Ex): At 3rd level, a Holy Gun begins his day with a grit pool equal to half his charisma modifier, minimum 1, instead of the number determined by Amateur Gunslinger. His maximum grit amount does not change. This replaces divine health.
I really, really think you need to make Smiting Shot not be a standard action in order for this class to scale appropriately into higher levels and against tougher enemies. You don't have to allow it to be used on every shot; a simple "once per round, when you make an attack with a firearm..." would do. Allowing it with every shot in a full attack might be too powerful, although you'd likely be draining your grit dry pretty fast.
Also, with Holy Hands, I'd either make it only when divine bond is actually active (when you've buffed your gun with it, in other words), or only while you have at least 1 grit. Holy Guns shouldn't be better gunslingers than gunslingers are (ie, they should have at least as much of a limit on their quick reload as the specialized class does).
Thanks for the feedback, Foz. Give me a few minutes to finagle some stuff and I'll have a rewrite for you. I have an idea to scale the smiting shot I think you'll like
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Holy guns are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, firearms, and light armor.
Have Gun: At 1st level, the holy gun gains the Amateur Gunslinger feat and Gunsmithing as a bonus feat. Use your Charisma bonus in place of your Wisdom bonus for Amateur Gunslinger. She also gains a battered gun identical to the one gained by the gunslinger. This ability replaces detect evil.
Holy Bullet: At 2nd level, the holy gun gains the following deed. This deed works and interacts with grit the same way as gunslinger deeds, but only the holy gun can use it. If the holy gun also has levels in gunslinger, she can spend grit points from that class to use this deed.
Smiting Shot (Su): A holy gun can spend 1 grit point to make a smiting shot with a firearm attack as a standard action. If the target is evil, the holy gun adds her Charisma bonus and her paladin level to the damage of the firearm attack. If the target of the smiting shot is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage increases to the Charisma modifier plus 2 points of damage per level the paladin possess. Regardless of the target, smiting shot automatically bypasses any DR the creature might have. At 8th level, smiting shot may be activated once per round as a swift action instead of a standard action. Only the first attack in a given round is considered a smiting shot. This ability replaces smite evil, aura of resolve.
Divine Deeds (Ex): At 3rd level and every 3 levels after 3rd, choose a single deed available from the list of available deeds as a Gunslinger of your level-2 from the Gunslinger class. You gain the use of that deed. Once chosen, a deed my never be changed. This replaces the Mercy class feature.
Divine Grit (Ex): At 3rd level, a Holy Gun begins his day with a grit pool equal to half his charisma modifier, minimum 1, instead of the number determined by Amateur Gunslinger. His maximum grit amount does not change. This replaces divine health.
Divine Bond: At 5th level, a holy gun forms a bond with her deity. This functions as the paladin’s divine bond ability, except the bond must always take the form of a firearm. In addition to the listed abilities, a holy gun can add the distance, reliable, or seeking special abilities to her weapon, but she cannot add the defending or disruption special abilities. This ability replaces the standard paladin’s divine bond.
Holy Reload (Ex): At 11th level, your bond with a firearm takes a stronger hold. When the divine bond class feature is active, the time to reload your bonded firearm is reduced one step. This replaces Aura of Justice.
Holy Slinger (Ex): This ability function like the holy champion paladin class feature, but the banishment occurs when she hits an evil outsider with the smiting shot deed.
The bolded parts in the abilities are the changes, I think you'll like the smiting shot change. I was going to replace aura of righteousness and allow it as a free action to use on every shot, but upon thinking about it, I don't think its a good idea.