I'm putting together a group to start a new adventure with, which I will be GMing and i'm just reading up on a few things that have been hazy, at best, to me.
One of the things are firearms (as found in Ultimate Combat). Reading through them, I can't shake the feeling that they are just not very good. Let's look at them with their standard prices:
A pistol is different from a simple light crossbow in the following ways:
+ you only need one hand to fire it without penalty (but how much does that matter when you will need that hand to reload your gun?)
+ + it counts like a touch attack at first range increment
+ x4 crit multiplier instead of 19-20/x2 (which I guess is one category up as usually crit multipliers go 20/x2 < 20/x3 = 19-20x2 < 18-20/x2 = 20/x4)
- You need a standard action to reload each shot instead of just a move action
- - First range increment is 20ft. and maximum range 100ft. while on a crossbow the first increment starts at 80ft.
- Misfire: a 5% chance to break your weapon on each shot. And if it's already broken that chance becomes a 25% chance to completely obliterate your weapon and deal damage to yourself in the process.
- - 965gp!! more expensive weapon
- 11gp per 1 shot as opposed to 1 gp per 10 shots.
- Needs exotic weapon proficiency
The disadvantages seem to heavily outweigh the advantages of the pistol.
I just don't see any compelling reason to use firearms unless someone forces you to play a gunslinger or one of the gun-archetypes.
Now with "commonplace guns" at least the weapons start getting sensible prices but they are still quite expensive, 250 gp for a pistol is still a laughable amount compared to how much more you get out of a 35gp crossbow. I would consider using a gunslinger or gun-archetype in such a situation, but for anyone else these weapons are still less desirable than most ranged martial and simple weapons.
"Guns everywhere" would seem a bit over the top, as I wouldn't want people to be marching about with revolvers and double-barreled shotguns in my campaign and even then a pistol would still cost 100 gp.
Is it just me? Am I overlooking something or are firearms really that bad?
Also double-barreled musket has a range of 10 feet? Is that a mistake?
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I hold a similar opinion. The "touch AC" + "misfire" combo seemed like an extremely unfortunate way to interpret guns that left it with all sorts of issues. There are other issues, of course, but those are the two that stand out the most to me.
In my group we house-ruled them to be glorified crossbows. They're still expensive (to explain relative rarity), but the ammo was made cheap and they don't have weird special-case rules that make using one feel like hitting someone over the head with an armed landmine.
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Given the push-back that firearms get from alot of players, you'd think they're over-powered.
As you correctly deducted, you need one of two things going on to make guns NOT suck.
1: Be playing a gunslinger.
2: Be playing in a campaign where the GM is using 'guns everywhere' and so prices come down, AND the proficiency to use them are free to martial characters.
In a typical campaign, where you're not playing a gunslinger, they're just not going to be worth using. Less damage than bows by a ton, less damage than crossbows by almost as much. Too high a feat tax for low BAB progression classes to use just for the touch attacks.
I think whoever did the firearm list thinks that they're cleverly disguised re-chargable wands, because comparing a firearm's cost to a Magic Wand feels like a closer analogy.
CL 3 Burning Hands wand: 2250gp, 3d4, 15 foot cone, Ref/half, 50 charges
Blunderbuss w/ ammo: 2550gp, 1d8, 15 foot cone, vs touch AC (?), 50 discharges.
(2000gp + 500gp + 50gp)
You can probably find a closely approximate spell for every gun, or even a better one than above, but that was something that I noticed while playing a gun wizard gish.
Applying the commonplace guns bandaid sort of overcorrects in the opposite direction, making guns "like wands, but way cheaper".
I like the idea of firearms being "Easy to hit with, average damage weapons", but it's alot of feat-tax, alot of cash, and alot of concessions just for one "cool" idea. :(