Firearms (Pathfinder)

[panaikhan]

I know a lot of things got nerfed when they got to Pathfinder.
I am disappointed that firearms was one of them.

As far as I can see, the only thing firearms seem to have going for them, is the 'touch attack' condition for the first range increment - and the ranges for these things now suck...
I'd like to ask the playground's opinion, and if people agree with me, suggest possible fixes to even up such an expensive item against other, cheaper alternatives.

One suggestion I have - turn their 'bullet' into buckshot, give them a small cone of effect (5' per range increment) and lessen the damage to each target by 1 per range increment.

[subject42]

Wait for ultimate combat. They have updated firearms rules that include spread weapons, and a base class/fighter variant that can use firearms more effectively.

[Larpus]

It also depends on what sort of firearms you're talking about, in the srd I could only find rules for pirate-era firearms, which were pretty meh due to how long they took to reload and how easy it was for them to explode in your face, to the point that natives with lances and arrows actually got a decent fighting chance (even further, the firearm bearers themselves still used swords many, many times).

Sheep just got real at around the wild west, when high-precision rifles, multi-shot revolvers and high spread shotguns were introduced, which would have much better stats and even be easier to use.

And then we have modern firearms totally own over swords and fists bar some specific and/or hard to find scenarios and are even easier to use, to the point that even someone with no experience or training can do some waste.

[Daisuke1133]

One suggestion I have - turn their 'bullet' into buckshot, give them a small cone of effect (5' per range increment) and lessen the damage to each target by 1 per range increment.

:smallsigh:

They already do this for the blunderbuss and shotgun. You can either choose to fire a "slug" or shot, and there really is no reason to fire on slug-mode since it is only possible to misfire in theory and not in practice when firing shot.

My own suggestion would be to go the same route as the World of Warcraft RPG:


None of this touch attack nonsense, it renders traditional character's defenses worthless. A non-magical manufactured weapon should not defeat +5 Full Plate.


Attack rolls are done once against full AC and if you misfire, then you misfire.


All guns deal three dice of damage
{table]Weapon|Damage
Musket|3d12
Pistol|3d8
Blunderbuss|3d8[/table]

And so on and so forth


Blunderbusses require no proficiency, but only fire in 30-foot cones.

[Cieyrin]

Wait for ultimate combat. They have updated firearms rules that include spread weapons, and a base class/fighter variant that can use firearms more effectively.

I have a mini-guide for the fighter variant in my sig that I wrote when the Ultimate Combat beta came out. Having seen the Inner Sea Guide's (or whatever it's called) take on firearms, they haven't changed overly much, other than bring in a real revolver into the mix so we don't have to run around with Lightning Reload as our Signature Deed.

The OP caught onto the whole touch attack bit but there's a secondary trait that they missed: You don't need two hands to reload a firearm. This opens up Guns Akimbo type deals so you can get off some crazy shenanigans that way. Plus, if the beta kept the one sight that had full touch attack as a full round still about, you can still get off silly sniping action that way.