Pathfinder Gunslinger build questions

[Ryulin18]

I'm a GM for a pathfinder game with 3 new players.

2 of them have gone for the gunslinger because they look great.

One is going mysterious stranger/pistolerro and the other is straight gunslinger but wants to be a shotgun weilding bad ass.

What do you think of the first build and what do you think the shotgun build should be?

[deuxhero]

1:Give the Gunslinger Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=213035) a read
2: Pistolerro doesn't actually work with Mysterious Stranger. Pazio's editors suck and forgot to say that Pistol Training replaces Gun Training (which MS also replaced), which is clearly the intent. Power wise it isn't really a concern given how Gunslinger isn't that powerful a class and Stranger’s Fortune is pretty terrible, but not strictly legal.

[Cieyrin]

As Deuxhero already said, Pistolero and Mysterious Stranger don't actually mix but you can fake it with some multiclassing (Holy Gun Paladin, Trophy Hunter Ranger, Rogue's 'Grit' talent), as the Paladin and Rogue paths grant Amateur Gunslinger regardless of whether you have grit or not and they allow you to choose a 1st level deed of your choice, which includes the archetype ones. Basically, go Pistolero and pick up Focused Aim via one of those paths and you'll have everything for the most part.

The problem with going Blunderbuss/Shotgun is the slow reloading and the fact that scatter weapons can't benefit from precision damage or damage increasing feats (meaning no Point Blank Shot, Deadly Aim, Vital Strike, etc). This isn't to say they're useless, as they can still benefit from Gun Training, specialized loads (whether that means alchemical cartridges or magical ammo), Focused Aim and the Holy Gun's Smiting Shot. It's for that reason you see a lot of Mysterious Strangers/Holy Guns with blunderbusses. Though, I could also see a Musket Master using Holy Gun to pick up Focused Aim and taking advantage of Fast Musket to get off multiple shotgun blasts with both Dex and Cha to damage. You could also do that with Trophy Hunter or Rogue, though I think Trophy Hunter would probably fit both flavor and mechanics, since the Sneak Attack is useless to you.

When I get back to writing the Handbook, I'll have to give special attention to blunderbuss-focused 'slingers, since they fall outside the normal purview the rest go for...