Hi everybody. Im current running Giantslayer and one of my players is using a magus/gunslinger and i want to give him run for his money.
In combat is very lethal because he uses to delays until the bard uses inspire courage and then unleashes (with point-blank master) his rapid fire twf pistols with spell catridges (force damage). Five touch force ranged attacks are lots of damage, for that reason the party is getting lazy and overconfident.
I was wondering if wind spells like wind wall can have effect in his bullets. Force is energy, but solid energy, so should be affected by physical forces like wind.
Any advice would be velcome.
Thanks
PD: i have one more question: Its possible to shoot pistols while being grappled?
|
Two things to occur to me but bear in mind I've never played a gunslinger.
First is are you applying misfire chance for his firearms as the more attacks he makes the more chance he has to roll low and break his gun?
Second your applying the penalties correct i.e. rapid shot -2, TWF (pistols aren't light) is -4. So he should be making 5? attacks per round at -6, -6. So say he's lvl 15 for 3 attacks with a BAB of 15. Then he'd be looking at +9 (MH 15 -6), +9 (RS 15 -6), +9 (TWF 15 -6) +4 (MH 10 -6), -1 (5 -6) (modiified by other things as applicable). With misfire chance on each attack roll. Still good chance at hitting touch AC I admit.
Yeah, his penalties are ok, many monsters in this ap have low touch ac. And spell cartridge prevents misfire.
Not sure about wind effects affecting Spell Cartridges' force projectiles, but Smash From the Air should definitely work against them.
manymost monstersin this apin the game have low touch ac.
Fixed that for you. Seriously, the average touch AC for monsters is ~13, across all CRs below 25.
i have one more question: Its possible to shoot pistols while being grappled?
Yes. There's a -4 penatly to Dex, and an additional -2 penalty to attack rolls, and you cannot perform any action that requires two hands, but since he doesn't need to reload (and the way I read it TWF with physically seperate weapons still works), that's not an issue.
I'd say the best counter to a pistolero is to have enemies be at greater range. As to your main question, force bullets are still bullets, and thus affected as such.
Yeah, his penalties are ok, many monsters in this ap have low touch ac. And spell cartridge prevents misfire.
The firearm can still misfire even when you use Spell Cartridges. The gun will however have a lower than usual misfire since they're not dependent on alchemical cartridges. Was this what you meant?
They might just have made the guns Reliable though, which would lower the misfire to 0 anyways.
|
Spell Cartridges (Combat)
You can fire bullets of arcane energy when your ammunition runs low.
Prerequisite(s): Arcane Strike, ability to cast arcane spells, proficient with firearms.
Benefit(s): While your gun is imbued with power from the Arcane Strike feat, you can fire force bullets instead of regular ammunition. A force bullet deals 1d4 points of force damage for every five caster levels you have. Force bullets do not use black powder or ammunition and count as magic for the purpose of bypassing damage reduction.
So, with 2 feats and one swift action each round he can fire forever without reloading or caring about ammunition. "Balanced".
It is force damage, but apparently it is considered weapon damage as it counts as magic for bypassing DR. Use some mythic opponent with DR/mythic or people with DR/-, like barbarians.
Alternatively, have the giant spellcaster invent Energy Resistance: force and Energy resistance: force communal.
A level 9 Vanilla Fighter with Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, Weapon Training, Cut From the Air, and Smash From the Air can protect themselves and everyone around them from these fancy force bullets.
Literally anyone with Weapon Training can access the feats to do it... yet another suggestion for MAC (there's a thread about the overwhelming popularity of Arsenal Chaplain). An Underfoot Halfling Disciple of the Pike Cavalier is good, too. Myrmidarch Magus... that's like a whole party of Smash From the Air. Lol.
A variety pack of adequate defense against Spell Cartridges shenanigans.
Once they are infamous enough that the enemies are expected to know some of their tactics, have the giant(or henchmen) casters summon Aether Elementals (while being invisible).
they get a small one for 2nd level spell, medium for 4th and it gets bigger from then out.
they are immune to force damage, near invisible and get ranged attacks. see how they like it.
just because he's a giant doesn't mean he's dumb. and summon monster is from the core book (even if what i offer to summon is not, but as Redcloak proved, you are not limited to the basic 4).
Firstly, what level are you guys and what's the party composition? That would help a lot in allowing us to suggest monsters and NPC's, as well as feats and spells, to use for a challenging encounter for these guys.
Even with -4 TWF and -2 Rapid Shot, a full BAB class that is attacking Touch AC is going to hit consistently. As long as he has a +3 to hit, he can hit almost every monster 50% of the time (avg TAC is ~13 for monsters and non-dex-based NPCs), so if his +hit is higher than +3 (which I'm sure that it most definitely is), he's going to hit almost every attack (especially with a Bard providing Inspire Courage). Attacking his +hit certainly helps, but probably isn't going to be your best option tbh. There are things you can do to negate his hits aside from AC though, such as Blur, Displacement, and Mirror Image, so I would use these spells liberally and as often as possible.
So, since he's highly reliant upon Full Attacks, that means his Action Economy is one of the most vulnerable things you can attack. So start doing things that consume his Move Action and Standard Actions. If you can consume his Move, then he can only use his Standard to make an Attack Action, which is a Single Attack rather than 5 Attacks from a Full Attack Action.
Also, he only attacks TAC when he's within his first range increment. Move beyond 30 feet and he'll be forced to use a Move Action to move closer, otherwise he'll be attacking full AC and his accuracy will be in the dumpster with an additional -2 for each range increment. He can still use the Deadeye Deed to attack Touch AC outside of his first range increment, but that's okay, you're consuming his Grit and he won't be able to do that all day long.
Consume his standard action:
Grapple/Pin him
Do anything that can force him to cast a Magus spell rather than attack
Consume his move action:
Disarm him (or Burning Disarm), this costs him a Move Action to pick up the weapon.
Simply move further than 30ft away from him, forcing him to use a Move Action to move closer
Trip or Ranged Trip him (and move away), this costs him a Move Action to stand up from prone, as well as a Move Action in lieu of a Standard to move closer if you moved away. He can still attack or full attack from prone, so move away.
Overrun him and defeat his CMD by 5 to cause him to become prone
Battering Blast to Bull Rush him away and cause him to fall prone
Other things that can mess with him:
Cover/Concealment
Any Fog/Obscuring Mist spells
Bungle is a –20 penalty on its next attack roll or check that requires a d20 roll <---- this only works until he is level 10 though.
Any Blind effects (Dirty Tricks or Blindness or Reach Metamagic + Touch of Blindness)
Any Create Pit spell
Any Entanglement/Grease spell
Gunslingers have horrible Will Saves, so Dominate Person and anything that attacks Will saves, like Hold Person, or Beguiling Gift + Any Cursed Item or Ingested Poison
Invisible targets
Illusions (he won't know it's an illusion until he acts upon the illusion somehow, he has to interact with the Illusion either by touching it or attacking it, and then still has to defeat the Will save to disbelieve)
Summon Large-sized Monsters adjacent to him (not only does this provoke AoO's when he attempts to Move or stand up from prone, but you mainly want to use this to Block his path and provide Soft Cover if possible)
Summon Wolves, and other monsters that Trip. You can substitute any AoO's that get provoked from these Wolves as Trip attempts as well.
Flying Monsters/NPC's that stay outside of his first range increment
Wall of Suppression and Anti-Magic Field effects to prevent Arcane Strike/Spell Cartridges
Awesome Blow/Bull Rush to forcefully move him somewhere
Attack his Grit and Swift Action by making lots of Ranged Attacks against him - Try to force him to use Gunslinger's Dodge Deed as often as possible because this consumes his Immediate Action, making him unable to use his Swift Action to activate Arcane Strike in the following round. This also removes his Grit so he's not able to perform Deadeye as often as he'd like as well.
PD: i have one more question: Its possible to shoot pistols while being grappled?
Yes, you can still perform tasks that requires one hand while grappled (such as attacking with a 1h weapon). But, if he attacks and doesn't use his Standard to Clear the Grapple, then next round you Pin him. I bet that's the last time he does that.
a good way to break full round action is the slow spell (which should also be used in case they haste up to at least drop their hasted attack).
since it dispel haste. anyone who is hasted is automatically not anymore. while if they are not hasted any who loose their save would be unable to make full attacks.