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Maginomicon
2013-09-22, 02:14 PM
Wand/Dorje "Guns"
(assuming spell points are in use)

A “gun” is a template that can be applied on any wand or dorje that meets certain prerequisites. Essentially, a gun is a wand (a “wand gun”) or dorje (a “dorje gun”) that has certain extra properties:


Guns are considered ranged simple weapons in most cases (such as for the purposes of proficiencies and iteratives) with a range increment equal to a tenth of the normal range of the spell/power (no rounding is necessary) and can be enchanted as if it were a bow or crossbow (and bestow ammunition effects on the gun’s effect). Targets outside of the normal range of the gun’s spell/power cannot be targeted by the gun.
It can be used by anyone. This means it does not require a “use magic device” check or a “use psionic device” check and is a use-activated item.
It can only contain an spell or power that normally takes a standard action to cast/manifest and utilizes a “grenade-like”, “bullet-like”, or “ray-like” effect (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=297907). You can’t, for example, put a cure light wounds or cat’s grace effect into a gun.
The dorje gun’s effect can be augmented by increasing its manifester level (for powers). If a wand gun’s spell would be reduced to its minimum damage, crafting must follow the normal rules for crafting a wand with higher CL.
It can be “recharged” in one of three ways:
You can spend money on it.
You can spend XP on it.
You can expend magical or psionic energy into it.
If the contained effect is a grenade-like effect that does not normally require a ranged touch attack to reach a destination square or intersection (such as most grenade-like spells with a simple range), when the gun is “fired” at a specific square or intersection the character must first succeed on a ranged touch attack (AC 5) within the effect’s normal range to affect that square. Treat a miss as if you were missing with a splash weapon.
Normally, operating a gun requires two hands. However, you can shoot a gun with one hand at a -2 penalty on attack rolls per spell/power level. You can shoot a gun with each hand, but you take a penalty on attack rolls as if attacking with two one-handed weapons. This penalty is cumulative with the penalty for one-handed firing.
Weighs 2 pounds for every spell/power level of the contained spell/power.


A gun is still treated as a wand or a dorje for the purposes of effects which affect a wand or a dorje.

Guns can be bought pre-campaign, but may not be charged up with character SP/PP pre-campaign (charging them up with XP/gp pre-campaign is fine) because those charges dissipate 24 hours later.

Recharging a Gun

You cannot recharge a gun beyond it’s normal charge limit of 50 charges.

Recharging a Wand Gun

Be aware that the caster level that was required to craft the wand gun may be higher than expected.

As a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, you can spend gp equal to 15 times the caster level required to craft the wand gun to give the wand gun a single charge. A wand gun can be recharged this way up to 10 times a day. You must have a hand free to do this.

As a swift action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity, you can spend XP equal to 50 times the caster level required to craft the wand gun to give the wand gun a single charge. A wand gun can be recharged this way up to three times a day.

As a move action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity, you can expend spell points equal to the caster level required to craft the wand gun to give the wand gun a single charge. A wand gun can be recharged this way up to five times a day, but the charges added in this way dissipate 24 hours after they were added.

Recharging a Dorje Gun

Be aware that the manifester level that was required to craft the dorje gun may be higher than expected.

As a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, you can spend gp equal to 15 times the manifester level required to craft the dorje gun to give the dorje gun a single charge. A dorje gun can be recharged this way up to 10 times a day. You must have a hand free to do this.

As a swift action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity, you can spend XP equal to 50 times the manifester level required to craft the dorje gun to give the dorje gun a single charge. A dorje gun can be recharged this way up to three times a day.

As a move action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity, you can expend power points equal to the manifester level required to craft the dorje gun to give the dorje gun a single charge. A dorje gun can be recharged this way up to five times a day, but the charges added in this way dissipate 24 hours after they were added.

Crafting a Gun

Crafting a gun adds special costs and prerequisites. When calculating the normal wand or dorje costs, double the final base cost. Add the Jack of All Trades feat (Complete Adventurer p110) to the crafting prerequisites. You cannot create an “eternal” gun (Magic Item Compendium p159).

Casting a spell that with a higher dice-based-effect requires expending more spell points, so crafting a spell effect magic item with a higher dice-based-effect than the minimum requires a higher CL. This can only be done at specific caster levels depending on the level of the spell as noted on the table below.
{table=head]Spell Level | Minimum Casting CL | If you want this CL for the Dice-Based-Effects... | ...you must use this CL when crafting the item.
0 or 1 | 1 | 2,3,4,etc. | 3,5,7,etc. |
2 | 3 | 4,5,6,etc. | 5,7,9,etc. |
3 | 5 | 6,7,8,etc. | 7,9,11,etc. |
4 | 7 | 8,9,10,etc. | 9,11,13,etc. |
5 | 9 | 10,11,12,etc. | 11,13,15,etc. |
6 | 11 | 12,13,14,etc. | 13,15,17,etc. |
7 | 13 | 14,15,16,etc. | 15,17,19,etc. |
8 | 15 | 16,17,18,etc. | 17,19,21,etc. |
9 | 17 | 18,19,20,etc. | 19,21,23,etc. |
[/table]

When using a higher CL than normal, the higher CL is also used for non-dice-based-damage effects of the spell (such as duration). The choice of creating a magic item with this higher CL has to be made at item creation and cannot be changed afterwards. Notate the CL used for the spell effect item as an expression of “dice-effects vs non-dice-effects”.
For example:
“CL 5/5” for a lowest-level wand of fireball
“CL 5/6” for a lowest-damage wand of fireball that uses CL 6 for non-dice-effects
“CL 6/7” for a wand of fireball that uses CL 6 for dice-based-effects and CL7 for all other effects.
By default, magic items that use a spell effect that has a dice-based-effect use the minimum CL for their dice-based-effects.

What I Want To Know Is:

What becomes horribly broken (non-functional/worthless) or overpowered with this envisioning of guns? (elaborate on why)
Is "doubling the final base price" too small? Too much? (elaborate on why)
Does the interaction with the "Mirrors, Visual Rays, and Light" House Rule described here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=297907) sound cool/broken/overpowered? (elaborate on why)


What I Don't Want To Hear:

That I should scrap this idea entirely and go with some other form of guns (such as the DMG guns or Pathfinder guns).
That guns shouldn't be in D&D 3.5 outright thematically.

Jormengand
2013-09-22, 02:19 PM
That I should scrap this idea entirely and go with some other form of guns (such as the DMG guns or Pathfinder guns).

While I have very little idea how well balanced these would be, I feel I should point out that they needn't be mutually exclusive with DMG/PF/both guns.