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In order to test some of my theories, I ran a level 7 Tengu Drifter through the final level of Abomination Vault 1.
Yes, I am aware Ji-Woo is Korean, not Japanese, but character refused to be called anything that did not start with the sound "Ji".
CG; Medium; Tengu; Humanoid
Perception +15; Low-Light Vision
Languages Common, Aklo, Sylvan, Tengu
Skills Acrobatics +13, Arcana +11, Astrology Lore +11, Crafting +13, Deception +11, Nature +11, Occultism +11, Religion +11, Society +11, Survival +11, Tengu Lore +11, Thievery +18
Str+0, Dex+4, Con+2, Int+2, Wis+2, Cha+2
Items* Striking Ghost Touch Blunderbuss, Striking Dueling Pistol, Striking Handwraps, +1 Leather Armor, Bag of Holding. Pearly Aeon Stone, and lots of alchemy bombs. So many bombs.
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AC 25; Fort+13, Ref+15, Will+13
HP 80 (+1 fast healing per minute)
Eat Fortune (Reaction 1/day)
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Speed 25'
Beak +16 2d6+6 (agile)
Dueling Pistol +18 2d6+3 (30', fatal d10, versatile b, reload 1)
Blunderbuss +18 2d8+3 (15' cone, scatter, versatile b, reload 1)
Alchemical Shot (**) Ji-Woo can use a bomb with either of his guns to change the damage type to that of the bomb, and also deal 1d6 persistent damage. On a failure, the gun misfires. The gun must be loaded to use this attack. He can choose from Fire, Frost, Sonic, Electricity, or Positive Damage.
Innate Spells Electric Arc 3d4+2 (DC 21), Detect Magic (1st)
Feats Ancestry: Storm Lash, Eat Fortune, Tengu Lore (b); General/Skill: Dubious Knowledge (b), Assurance (Thievery), Untrained Improvisation, Ancestral Paragon, Wary Disarmament, Arcane Sense, Alchemical Crafting (b); Class: Sword and Pistol, Blast Lock, Alchemical Shot, Alchemist Dedication
*Items are as I had everything when I first entered the dungeon. I quickly gained more items as things went.
Craft is a weird addition to the class, when you don't actually do anything with it. I'm certain now that I'd like a 1st level class feat that gives basic alchemical benefits and the ability to use reagents to craft bullets for free every day.
I was pleasantly shocked when Blast Lock actually saw use, though I did eventually switch it out for Risky Reload. I hadn't realized how powerful the ability to pick a lock at ranged is in this edition, with no equivalent of Ranged Legerdemain so far. Even more once legendary proficiency kicks in, 2 levels ahead of the ability to get legendary thievery.
Alchemical Shot seems to have too many drawbacks for its utility. It is essentially a Striking Spell kind of mechanic, except limited to a certain weapon group and with an extra drawback. I would remove the misfire chance on a failure, and only have it happen on a critical failure, as it is bad enough to spend 3 actions on something that might not hit at all.
Sword and Pistol wasn't as useful as I hoped, but others have made the case for that already.
I wish Reloading Strike worked to accommodate Unarmed/2hander style, but as it was I didn't bother with it. The Dueling Pistol was my backup, not my main weapon.
In fact, I didn't really care for Misfire at all, aside from something like Risky Reload. A Strike ability that is an action saver makes sense to have as a failure state an action penalty, but otherwise it was more annoying than flavorful. If Alchemical Shot and Scatter Blast were 1 action instead of 2, Misfire would make more sense on those abilities, though even there I'd still prefer failure to simply fail and only misfire on a crit failure (with Scatter Shot, having no damage at all on a failure when you'd normally at least get splash damage is penalty enough).
As I suspected, getting splash damage felt different than getting fatal damage, even if they roughly mathed out to equally damaging abilities (scatter being slightly stronger if you can get multiple enemies in the cone). I personally preferred being able to at least pick away at bosses even on a miss. My perception may have been slightly colored by being able to light the Worm that Walks on fire; as it turns out I don't mind using 3 actions on an enemy that I can hit on a 7 and that reliably got hit for around 1/4 the creatures health on a hit (2 got the max 26 damage). I didn't crit at all that fight (rolled badly, even misfired twice), but at least it was over in 7 rounds even with my luck.
That said, the Dueling pistol did have a few moments in the sun. I ran away from the poltergeist the first time I encountered her, but came back once I had a second ghost touch rune. I crit with a Ghost Charge'd shot against a poltergeist (37+6 persistent positive damage), followed up with my ghost touch beak (13 damage). And poof went Candace the Unfriendly laundry maid.
Reload continues to be a killer. That really needs to be addressed in the final version of this class. In a game where bows did not exist, I think it might be fine to have all range strikes take 2 actions per strike (though firearms are arguably not high range enough to be truly "ranged"), but bows are just way too powerful. As a patch, I propose a solution that I call "Reactive Reload", to be introduced as a general feat but given to Gunslingers as a bonus feat at level 1.
Reactive Reload ↙ General Feat 3
Trigger You make a strike with a reload weapon.
Interact to reload your weapon if it is reload 1 or less, or reduce the number of actions needed to reload your weapon by 1.
Final thought: I actually enjoyed myself a lot more than I thought. It had an uphill battle because I enjoyed Midnightoker's Drifter homebrew so much, but in the end I had fun. I think I'll continue this character into the next AP entry, except surrender to the inevitable and revise it to just be a dual class alchemist/gunslinger character. Though I'm keeping all the treasure I scrounged up in this entry. He is a Tengu, after all.