As it is now Firearm Ace is much worse than Crossbow Ace in a lot of ways and Crossbow Ace isn't even good,
it's an attempt to make reloading weapons work with one playstyle in one class and it still loses out to using bows without feats.
Let's compare them.
Firearm Ace:
"You have a practiced understanding of firearms’ workings,
their mechanisms, and the best way to utilize them. When
you’re wielding a firearm and Interact to reload it, you gain a
+2 circumstance bonus to the damage roll on your next Strike
with that firearm. If the firearm is a simple firearm, increase
the damage die size for that attack by one step. You must
make the attack before the end of your turn or these benefits
are lost."
Crossbow Ace:
"You have a deep understanding of the crossbow. When you're
wielding a crossbow and use Hunt Prey or use Interact to reload
your crossbow, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to the damage
roll on your next Strike with that crossbow. If the crossbow is a
simple crossbow, also increase the damage die size for that attack by
one step. You must make the attack before the end of your next
turn or these benefits are lost."
The basic differences between these feats are that Crossbow Ace triggers on Hunt Prey as well as reload, which allows you
to use it preloaded and makes it a lot more fluid, and that the benefits of Crossbow Ace last until the end of your next turn
which means that you can end your turn with a reload action without losing the benefits.
Obviously the Gunslinger doesn't have a "Hunt Prey" equivalent action but I think there should definitely be a second way to trigger
the feat. Having Firearm Ace trigger on Interact or Draw would be much easier than the Ranger's Hunt Prey (although Crossbow Ace isn't
great so is that really an issue?) but would be a simple fix and if Unsteady keeps requiring an interact to aim it should trigger off that.
The main difference between Crossbow and Firearm Ace is the duration (end of turn vs. end of next turn) but that seems like it could just
be an oversight and it is easily fixed. More difficult to fix is crossbows and guns losing to bows at everything, which isn't really helped
by a feat that barely scales and bumps the simple guns up to the Martial versions mediocrity without really touching the Martial
guns inferiority to bows. If I'm a 10th level Way of the Sniper Gunslinger, using an Arquebus (instead getting bow mastery from an Archetype
for some reason), does flat +2 damage really matter?
Change the Ace feats to be +2 damage per damage dice so that they actually scale for the classes that are meant to use them and give the Martial
guns a reason to take Firearm Ace.
Also if Firearm Ace is supposed to make firearms competitive with better weapons maybe it should be baked into the class, pretty sure every
Gunslinger is an "ace" with guns, that's kinda the point.
