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Playtest report: Human (half-elf) gunslinger (drifter)/martial artist 7
Class feats: Firearm Ace, Sword and Pistol, Martial Artist Dedication, Wolf Stance, Reloading Strike
Weapons: +1 striking dueling pistol, +1 striking handwraps of mighty blows
I played in a 7th level playtest one-shot last night with another gunslinger (two-gun pistolero using Juggle for reloading) and an inventor (armor), plus a rogue and a redeemer/bard. Here are my thoughts the morning after.
The Build: The idea for the character's mechanics was basically to avoid hands issues for reloading by simply having a free hand all the time, while still taking advantage of the various gun/melee benefits of Sword and Pistol and Reloading Strike; using Martial Artist Dedication allowed me to piggyback my unarmed attack proficiency off my firearms proficiency, so I was extremely accurate. I went with Wolf Stance because I wanted something with a d8 finesse Strike that didn't lock me out of other Strikes - basically meaning I was picking between Wolf and Tiger - and Wolf's backstabber trait seemed to combine well with Sword and Pistol's ability to make my target flat-footed almost at will. (Also, while it wasn't relevant for this build, Tiger Slash requires both hands to be free.) I carried a +1 hatchet as backup in case I needed access to slashing damage, but it didn't come up during the playtest - we did fight some things with resistance to physical damage, but bludgeoning or piercing were able to get around it in each case.
In terms of play at the table, the plan was to use Into the Fray to get into position at the beginning of a fight, then start a two-action routine of pistol strike followed by a Reloading Strike wolf jaw, with a third action left open to use as the situation called for. I picked up both Fleet and Nimble Elf to aid in getting maximum value from Into the Fray.
The Encounters: We had one social encounter followed by three combats. The social encounter was embarrassingly bad for the character, but that was just because I didn't bother to train him in any Charisma-based skills - not the class's fault, I absolutely could have done. In fact, I was struck by how many skills I could have trained; the gunslinger is not skill-starved at all, something I very much appreciate. Still, the champion and the rogue were able to cover us, along with some decent rolls from the inventor. We avoided flipping to initiative.
The first actual fight was against a 5th-level ooze, some kind of meat golem (7th level), and a couple of 4th-level Tiny demonic plants. (The adventure was... atypical. Freaking awesome, but very weird.) The golem hit like a Mack truck, as they do, and I got pummeled by it badly (lost about 1/3 of my hit points to each of its first two attacks), but I gave as good as I got while also taking out both of the demon-plants. Given the relative levels between my character and the plants, the fatal d10 on the gun came up a lot. Very satisfying. I also had Battle Medicine to use as a 3rd action here, which did make the difference between me staying up and dropping the next round. I wound up doing 186 damage over 8 attacks in four total rounds, and I did even stun the golem once with a weapon specialization effect.
The second fight was against an 8th-level spellcaster and some very low-level goons (1st level, as it turned out). Assuming that the goons would be easy fodder and easy to crit against, I decided to focus on them and let my allies deal with the boss - and boy was I right. They were going down in one shot. I don't know how much this encounter demonstrated with regard to the class's balance or power beyond confirming that fighter-level proficiency and mook-level opponents makes for short fights. Most of my third actions in this encounter were spent moving to the next target after the previous one had exploded.
The final battle was against an 11th-level Gargantuan fiendish bird with a painful movement-related debuff (based off of the thunderbird's storm aura), and this one beat us up. We didn't actually have anyone go down, but at least two of us got to single digit hit points during the fight. The pistolero was able to draw aggro and cause the thing to change targets halfway through the fight, which is probably the only reason we didn't lose anybody. I was able to make the Reflex saves to move around fairly easily, but my dice were much colder in this encounter than in the first one. I did crit it once, but most of my hits were just regular hits and the damage wasn't spectacular either. I did 82 damage over 8 attacks altogether, in four rounds.
After-Action Assessment: The build did precisely what I designed it to. I hit pretty hard, didn't miss all that often, and made frequent use of the combos I built into the design. I did almost the exact same thing on each of the first two actions I took every turn, but since that was the plan, it seemed like it was not a big deal. I didn't really include any of the available options for more variation, such as buying Intimidation, and I still mixed things up between movement, Battle Medicine, and an occasional third wolf jaw Strike. All in all, a very good experience.
Level 1 playtest feedback.
https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43a7p?Level-1-feedback#1
Level 8+ playtest report. Wall-of-text alarm.
Ji-Woo versus Belcorra's Retreat level 7 solo playtest
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Bitey Boom Boom: Level 2 kobold gunslinger (way of the drifter) with a blunderbuss and bite attack
Captain Powder Keg: Level 5 kobold gunslinger (way of the drifter) with a shortsword and brace-of-guns consisting of 4 dueling pistols and 2 hand cannons
1. I tried to build and play Way of the Drifter characters using a melee weapon and firearm. It was fun, but annoying to build.
2. Using an unarmed attack for Way of the Drifter felt like the most effective approach, which feels counterintuitive and undermines the flavor.
3. I struggled to build a sword-and-pistol character that felt fun and effective enough to make the action economy hindrances, low range, and low damage of one-handed firearms feel worth it.
4. Finesse weapons feel mandatory for a melee+gun build. Agile is ideal. Unfortunately, many suggested weapons in the flavor text (katanas, scimitars, non-existent cutlasses) are neither of these.
5. The brace-of-guns build can be really fun, but it requires a lot of money, levels, and feats to make it work. For a sword-and-pistol gunslinger, it did not feel very effective.
6. I love scatter weapons, but I wish the gunslinger got feats to increase the splash damage.
7. Tried using a shield for my melee weapon in Way of the Drifter. It felt pretty cool, but I'm not sure if it was intended or legal.
8. Firearm Ace feels mandatory and a build that cannot use it feels lackluster.
9. I found some fun roleplay uses of Black Powder Boost.
10. Not many high level feats that support melee+firearm gunslingers.
11. The scatter quality left questions whether or not I could shoot beyond the first ranged increment. It also raised questions how it interacts with the fatal trait and critical hits. Does the double damage and bonus die count towards the splash damage, which is based on damage dice?
12. Many feats just do not work well with a brace-of-guns build either because of action economy, requiring a free hand, or requiring a loaded gun. Quick Draw is so necessary to make this build work, but it means you will end your turns with an empty gun. I was never able to use my Black Powder Boost feat in combat because of it.
13. Not having my melee weapon proficiency match my firearm proficiency was a little feel-bad, but manageable
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A pair of Gunslingers and Inventors vs. We Be Zombies
Was an encounter that we did and I tried to get notes on. Definitely made a couple mistakes, but hopefully it might be helpful to see some things other might also make mistakes on?
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The following people have had playtest threads up for multiple days but haven't linked to this thread yet. I hope I'm not overstepping any bounds by linking for them.