Deadly Guns

[Whitersnake]

Hi guys!

As you can find out if you go to the World Building section and check out the Frigates and Flintlocks thread, I'm working on a D&D 3.5 high fantasy campaign setting set in the Colonial age. I'm interested in stats for firearms; preferably deadly ones. I want there to be enough of a different between a musket and crossbow to justify using it, especially if it has a longer reload time. (Maybe muskets should be simple weapons?) Guns should be powerful enough that even mid-level adventurers hesitate to get shot with one, but not so powerful they just break the game. Thoughts?

[DMVerdandi]

there are rules for firearms in the dmg

[Whitersnake]

I know, but those firearms are weak. The campaign I'm looking to run is set in the Colonial era, which means most people should be using guns. As-is, there's really no reason to use a firearm over a crossbow.

[Immabozo]

maybe factor in the possibility of catching an infection from a healing gun shot wound. Magical healing? Then make the infection hit right away! How does it do it? Friggin magic!

[Grynning]

Pathfinder has guns that are reasonable effective due to their high crit multipliers. the "commonplace guns" setting sounds like what you are looking for:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/firearms

If you want a different spin, I've seen DM's make guns ignore most armor, being effectively ranged touch attacks. This makes them quite potent. If you want to be more "realistic" they probably would ignore armor other than plate mail styles, which would stop most personal firearm bullets back in the day. some medieval armor you can see in museums have dents from bullets fired by blacksmiths to prove they would stop them, which is where "bulletproof" comes from.

[Immabozo]

some medieval armor you can see in museums have dents from bullets fired by blacksmiths to prove they would stop them, which is where "bulletproof" comes from.

I didn't know that and am adding that to the thousands of random facts I know! I love it!

[Ashtagon]

Suggestion:

Guns (and only guns) use a lower massive damage threshold. I'd suggest:


MDT = Constitution score + hit dice + armour bonus + enhancement bonuses to armour


And maybe give bonuses for relevant feats (eg. Endurance, Die Hard, etc. could each increase this by +3).

[CRtwenty]

Make them simple weapons, and give them a crazy critical multiplier like x5 or something. Suddenly your players will become terrified that a random peasant with a musket could freak crit them for 50 damage.

[BWR]

The thing some people don't seem to understand is that guns are so popular and deadly not because they deal more damage than melee/bows/slings etc. but because they are easier to use and penetrate well.
I don't know if this is something the OP is forgetting or not, but it's relevant to the answer.

The physics of it is not worth getting into now (and I'm pretty sure I'd mess it up if I tried), but it boils down to a certain amount of force in a small area is more effective at penetrating armor than the same amount over a larger area. A bullet piercing your thigh does not necessarily cause more damage than a sword cutting it off.
In PF at least, firearms have pretty high crit multipliers, which works well.

IMC, I would not reduce them to touch attacks. Armor does mean something, after all. If you want to play up the penetration aspect, grant them an ability that allows them to ignore part of the armor or natural armor of the target. Something like
Handguns ignore 3
Longarms ignore 6
Blunderbusses don't ignore at all.