Pistols: Best Bang for my Buck?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

If I'm playing a PC with a pistol, but only multiclassing into Gunslinger from another class, what KIND of pistol will serve me best if I can only have one? The dueling pistol? Double-barrell? Dragon?

[aobst128]

Depends on if you plan to hold something else along with it. Slide pistol is pretty handy, otherwise if you have a pistol plus a free hand, dueling pistol or clan pistol is the best bet. If you plan to be closer range, double barrel or dragon mouth is more applicable. Jezail is also an option for a non-fatal gun for good average damage.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Looks like if I wanna use gun and sword and not playing a dwarf, probably gonna want Dueling Pistol, then. Thanks!

[Aloysius Pendergast]

I playtested Piercing Wind vs a Dueling Pistol using an Investigator Medic, to see how the extra action required to Release Piercing Wind impacted play, and I found it was very detrimental to my effectiveness.

(Piercing Wind and Jezail both have the same extra action requirement to Release)

I didn't test any of the regular two-handed firearms. Since it's only a Free action to release a hand from them, I'd imagine they'd only slightly impact your action economy.

But the Dueling Pistol was plenty effective. My character was primarily a healer and skill monkey, but the Dueling Pistol added some solid damage to his repertoire.

EDIT: whoops! 3 minute ninja

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Thank you for the advice! Another question's come up that I'd like to ask: If one is dual-wielding and wants to stab and shoot, is it better to use the actual dagger-pistol weapons or use dueling pistols with bayonets? Is there any functional difference between the two?

[breithauptclan]

If dual wielding and you are wanting to stab or shoot, the pistols with bayonets would probably be fine. No feat needed, but you would be wanting to only make ranged attacks at range.

If you want to stab and shoot, you will want the Sword and Pistol feat for the bonuses that it allows. Notably that you don't always provoke reactions for using a ranged Strike in melee range.

Edit: Note, you will still provoke reactions for other things like reload.

[Squiggit]

The dueling pistol with a bayonet is a better gun (d6 fatal d10 vs d4 faal d8) and does not require an action to switch modes, but loses the critical fusion and thrown traits and you need to buy blazons to share runes.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Seems a fair trade-off. Thanks for the clarification!

[Losonti]

Using a combination weapon lets you save on runes, since the two usages share their fundamental runes, plus any property runes that could apply to both configurations.

On the other hand, a firearm with an attached bayonet or reinforced stock is better for your action economy, since you don't need to spend an Interact action (and potentially trigger reactions) to switch between ranged and melee attacks.

Note that while the blazons of shared power will let you share the runes between the two firearms in each hand, that will not translate to their attached weapons. You'd need combination weapons for that. Alternatively, you can designate one pistol as the primary weapon and the bayonet as the secondary, but then you still need to magic up the weapons in your other hand if you plan to dual wield.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I also just realized that neither would really work for the setup I was looking at: the Bullet Dancer archetype locks you in to using SIMPLE firearms plus bayonets and reinforced stocks. Dueling pistols and dagger pistols are both martial.

[Losonti]

Oof, yeah, that significantly limits your options. Times are tough for bullet-kata fighters.