Can Gun-Mage be Good?

[Krüsher]

Herro forum! Today I was at a D&D meeting where I found myself without my character sheet. Not wanting to have to come up with an optimized build on the spot, I tried to think of a class that I could have fun with for the short time I would use it. I remembered the Gun Mage from Iron Kingdoms. Having a blast shooting magic bullets and yelling "AH AM THE LAW!!!" while bursting through doors made me really appreciate the flavor of the class. My one problem is, I have no idea how I would make it good. I was level 7 so I had Gun Mage 5/ Pistoleer 2 just for the gun bonuses. But I am still stuck as to how to optimize it. Any ideas? Is it possible?

[Kaje]

Spellwarp Sniper can let you shoot area spells out your pistol. Shoot an enemy with a fireball, no save.

[Cieyrin]

Herro forum! Today I was at a D&D meeting where I found myself without my character sheet. Not wanting to have to come up with an optimized build on the spot, I tried to think of a class that I could have fun with for the short time I would use it. I remembered the Gun Mage from Iron Kingdoms. Having a blast shooting magic bullets and yelling "AH AM THE LAW!!!" while bursting through doors made me really appreciate the flavor of the class. My one problem is, I have no idea how I would make it good. I was level 7 so I had Gun Mage 5/ Pistoleer 2 just for the gun bonuses. But I am still stuck as to how to optimize it. Any ideas? Is it possible?

Pistoleer isn't the best thing for Gunmage, given you want casting. My recommendation is to pursue Spellwarp Sniper (Complete Mage), which allows the transformation of area spells to rays and generally enhances ray spells, which Gunmages use a lot. You'll have to dip a level of Rogue or, my recommendation, Spellthief and picking up Master Spellthief, but it's worth it.

Also heavily consider picking up the spell Spell Flower through the Extra Spell feat so that you can hold a charge in your Magelock and still be able to cast. Alternatively, custom make a couple Eternal Wands of Extended Spell Flower if you'd rather save yourself the feats. It'll also let you take advantage of double-barrelled Magelocks for so you can throw multiple charged bullets at once. Girallon's Blessing is also nice to pursue for charging more than two barrels or maintaining casting while holding your charges.

Any gish type PrCs (Abjurant Champion, etc.) can also help, as after 5th level or so you aren't getting meaningful features from Gunmage, so improving on the base is always a good idea.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will. :smallsmile:

[Krüsher]

OOOH. The Liber Mechanika rules on adding more barrels to your pistol are AWESOME. I could easily have an 8 barreled pistol! Any way I can figure out a way to shoot a ray out of each?

[Fizzban]

No Quarter (Privateer Press magazine) #6 and #16 adds loads of options for the gun mage. It introduces new spells, new feats, and 2 prc's the Arcane Tempest Gun Mage and the Amethyst Rose Gun Mage. I'd highly recommend those issues for anyone looking to play a gun mage.

Fizz

[Waker]

Cieryin has the right idea in suggesting a dip into Spellthief for Master Spellthief and then prestige into Spellwarp Sniper. Other classes that merit a mention are Swiftblade or the PF Arcane Archer (though both of these would require DM approval for using the magelock to meet pre reqs).

[Cieyrin]

OOOH. The Liber Mechanika rules on adding more barrels to your pistol are AWESOME. I could easily have an 8 barreled pistol! Any way I can figure out a way to shoot a ray out of each?

Spell Flower + Girallon's Blessing gets you up to 4 barrels charged, throw in Arms of Plenty for another 2 and you'll probably have to turn to grafts or Polymorph-type spells for additional barrels. Just remember that the number of barrels you can charge with Spell Flower is determined by how many hands you have.

And yes, Balanced Multibarrel is so much better than regular.

[Krüsher]

Now I know people are saying that pistoleer was undesirable, but the ability they get that is basically SA would probably work with my DM for the pre-reqs for spellwarp sniper. Also, spellthief is sort of undesirable, we tend to not fight casters all that often so... Meh. I also like pistoleer for it's Pistol Boosting abilities. Sooo... Spell Flower and Girallon's Blessing sound good. Maybe I can try to tack on insectile?

[Cieyrin]

Now I know people are saying that pistoleer was undesirable, but the ability they get that is basically SA would probably work with my DM for the pre-reqs for spellwarp sniper. Also, spellthief is sort of undesirable, we tend to not fight casters all that often so... Meh. I also like pistoleer for it's Pistol Boosting abilities. Sooo... Spell Flower and Girallon's Blessing sound good. Maybe I can try to tack on insectile?

I suppose Pistoleer could work for that but Master Spellthief allows you to stack your Spellthief and Gunmage levels for CL, plus letting you steal spells when you can so you don't expend your own limited slots, so double win there.