Hi! I'm currently running a heist-based adventure, and one of my players is playing a Gunslinger. She recently came to me asking if there was any way she could get a silence rune on her gun. I want to honor her choice to bring a gun to a heist, and so I want to help her out without making her choice completely inconsequential.
So, this is what I came up with, and I'd appreciate any feedback on balance, level, price, and design.
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Silence (Lesser)
Lvl 4
Price 65 gp
Usage etched onto a firearm
This rune muffles the explosion of gunpowder inside the barrel of the etched firearm.
Activate 1 action, command (mental); You cause the rune along the barrel to light up. If your next action on your turn is to Strike with the firearm, the attack makes no noise. After the attack, you still become observed by the target of your Strike, as normal.
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My idea with this design is that the player has to pay a price to silence her gun (in this case, an action), and it lets her be stealthy, but obviously exposes her to whomever she shoots. Other creatures would have to observe her as normal, but she can at least help the party to attack a lone enemy without risking the entire heist.
I had considered giving it a frequency and making it a free action to turn on the rune, but then she could only realistically use the effect once per fight. My thought was to treat it like a metamagic feat.
I marked it as "(Lesser)" to leave room open for more advanced runes that don't require an action to set up.
Any help refining the design would be greatly appreciated.
There is a Silencer item.
The rune would be more permanent though. And could be put on all types of firearms.
Silence is a level 2 spell that becomes available to spellcasters at level 3.
So with both of those in mind, I might consider dropping the price of the silencing rune to that of a level 2 item. It is taking up a rune slot too.