Pirates of the Lhazaar Principalities (or, adding Iron Kingdom fusils to Eberron)

[T.G. Oskar]

Some time ago, I posted on the forum about an idea I had regarding the use of firearms on an Eberron campaign I'm working at. One of the strongest suggestions I was given was to consider the guns on the Iron Kingdoms 3rd party supplements, but since I didn't have access to it, I mostly waited until I could give it a good read before going on.

Having recently acquired the Character Guide and read the rules on firearms, I decided to give it another go on the forums before adapting this to the story. Ideally, the first few firearms will be small (no rifles or carbines, mostly the pistols), but the rules confuse me a bit (considering they intend to use the 3.0 weapon weight rules, which I'm not so familiar with). Mostly, the fact that all characters need a specific skill to recharge their guns and that it takes a few standard actions (which shouldn't matter at first, as the idea is to go at first with one-shot pistols then engage in combat, but in case guns become more prevalent), which I find a bit restrictive unless you use more and more material in the setting.

So, I ask of you: how to adapt the Iron Kingdoms firearms rules into Dungeons & Dragons proper? For starters, the "X standard actions" requirement seems a bit off when dealing with gunwerks pistols, and most of the slow-loading firearms already use full-round actions, so it's kinda odd to allow only movement and sacrifice most of your standard actions on that. Another thing is whether I should keep the Craft (small arms) skill or merely assume the roll is successful, given that making such a small check for something that basically gets done automatically at 3rd level seems a bit pointless (since you can always take 1, 7 ranks or even a character with 4 ranks and 16+ Int auto-succeeds) for most of the weapons, and the skill has no other utility. I might keep the Concentration checks for loading a weapon in mid-battle, tho. Also, not sure on whether to migrate Craft (mechanika) because that would justify the creation of firearms and other weapons.

Regarding feats so far, I intend to keep the idea of Exotic Weapon Proficiency (small arms) to collapse all pistols into a single feat, or maybe split them between EWP (pistols) and EWP (rifles) given that at the moment there are no rifles. TWF and ITWF already cover the rules for fighting with two pistols, so there's no need for Two-Pistol Fighting and the advanced version. Might also migrate Gunslinger, Improved Gunslinger and Rifleman because the bonuses they provide are quite useful.

Fluff-wise, the idea is to tie the side of House Cannith regarding weaponry to the creation of firearms, but indirectly. Some of the House Cannith crafters migrated to Lhazaar after the house focused on the creation of warforged and magical weaponry. In Lhazaar, where the battle was not as heated as before, those now-excoriated Cannith crafters spearheaded the creation of firearms, albeit starting with the basics (according to IK, pinlock pistols and muskets). With the end of the Last War, the crafters have advanced quite a lot, and are very close to develop the rifle. Gunwerks pistols and other mechanika would emerge from Cannith crafters, whom are now more confident that they can create a production line to mass-produce their firearms, against an Eberron that's growing more and more magical. Of course, unlike in Iron Kingdoms, firearms aren't subject to being suppressed, so they work fine in antimagic fields, providing some of the strongest weapons ever constructed. As well, some of the Lhazaarite vessels are also equipped with cannons, which has worked well against the magical ballistas of the Lyrandar vessels (and because House Lyrandar has sought these weapons for their elemental galleons and airships, the House and the Cannith excoriates aren't in good terms). The hook would be having a Cannith house member (likely one of the two patrons of the party, even if the most likely of them isn't in good terms with the group) lead the party to the Lhazaar principalities in order to pursue the schemas where the creation of firearms is detailed, in hopes that such a weapon will revive the faction of House Cannith that's in disrepair, and likely serve as a way to unite the other two houses (the magic crafters working with magically-powered firearms and the side that created the warforged creating firearm components). Of course, that would place them right in the intrigue between the princes, with which they may make a foothold in the area.

So, with that bit of fluff and the suggested rules, any people that have read the Iron Kingdoms setting may help on how to migrate the firearms into Eberron, and possibly something else (not the classes, but maybe some of the other weapons and mechanical contraptions)?

[Nich_Critic]

I have nothing to add, really (I am AFB from the Iron Kingdom's gun rules), but I second the request for a 3.5 adaptation for firearms. I need guns that perform the same or slightly better then bows.

[Zonugal]

Ideally there needs to be something that makes guns relevant in DnD 3.5 because as it is hand crossbows are going to be more practical.

[Alabenson]

I have nothing to add, really (I am AFB from the Iron Kingdom's gun rules), but I second the request for a 3.5 adaptation for firearms. I need guns that perform the same or slightly better then bows.

I'm not familiar with the Iron Kingdom setting, but if you want to bring firearms into 3.5, I'd start by looking at D20 Modern Past, which has a good selection of stats for early firearms, though the range increments would need to be increased based on the differences between D20 Modern and D&D.

If you really want to maintain historical accuracy, you could rule that the early firearms count as simple weapons, not exotic, which would fit with why firearms replaced bows in real life: they were much easier to become proficient with, thus groups of conscripted peasants could be rapidly trained with them and deployed.

[true_shinken]

I like Pathfinder guns.
They act as touch attacks within the first range increment.

[McQ]

I have nothing really to contribute. But I have read and greatly appreciate the info in your posts.

Iron Kingdoms gets to confusing to me at times, extra rules in some places, and lacking clarification in others.

[McSmack]

Paizo is working on a Pathfinder Gunslinger class for their Ultimate Combat sourcebook. That might be a good place to look. I like the idea that they would be a touch attack while within the first range increment.

So you might look at that or the d20 Past material before going with any specific decision.

Personally I don't think that guns would quite fit the Eberron setting without a little bit of fluff retooling. Magic is incorporated in almost all of Eberron's 'technologies', so I would see House Cannith as developing guns as some sort of magic-technology hybrid. Most of the trouble with primitive firearms was centered around ways to light the powder, but in a magic driven society fire isn't a problem. Perhaps Cannith invents a small schema that works as a firing mechanism (a bound fine fire elemental perhaps). Spark is a cantip from Pathfinder that might also work well as a magical firing mechanism. Of course that assumes you're using power combustion as a primary propellant. You could easily make it somethig like alchemist fire, a low level force effect or simply another fire spell. Have the 'reload time' simply be the amount of time it takes for the firing mechanism to recharge.

Now your only concern is developing a fast reloading mechanism. Something like a repeating crossbow would work well in this situation. It has a simple lever that resets the string and moves a new bolt into position. A Cannith firearm could be made to do the same thing, adding a new dose of propellant (a cartridge consisting of a vial of alchemist fire, perhaps) and a new projectile.

You'd end up with expensive firearms, but ones that don't breakdown as often, and could be fired more often. Perhaps make lower level firearms take several rounds to recharge and the more expensive ones recharge nearly instantaneously.