Spellslinger Question - Caster Bullets

[Gorr_the_Gastly]

I was thinking while mage bullets are cool. Think a spellslinger could research a method to use scrolls as ammunition for his magic gun?

[NoACWarrior]

You could do that - fluff wise you could make some type of magic scroll case which lets you activate the scroll within.

I'd caution against that though, since scrolls are really much more expensive than wand spell triggers.

Wand spell triggers are 15 per charge x SL x CL, and scrolls are 25 per charge x SL x CL.

I'd instead make some type of staff of storage (I think there's a glove of storage which lets you use the wand inside as if in your hands while letting you use a sword and shield) for which you toss a wand inside and can use the staff as a normal staff as well.

If you are looking for the most cost effective way of making single shot magic items which have to be "reloaded" go the command activation style with a 1/day use restriction and 2 charge universal charges which bring the cost down to 3.6 gold per charge x SL x CL (its kind of cheesy to have a single use command word item be limited to 1/day charge).

If you are really asking for the DM to throw the book at you, you could get a 1/week version of the same above command activation to divide the price by 7.

[Gorr_the_Gastly]

Interesting ideas here. I wanted to play a caster gunner like outlaw star style.

So limited use caster charges wouldnt be bad. I was thinking using indivisual scrolls as shells so you have to load the scroll like one would load a shell

[NoACWarrior]

hmm... how much do you expect a caster shell to actually cost... and did you actually want to utilize Tao masters to create said shells?

Lets go through more numbers for the caster shells, shall we.

For Command word style (could be more fun with RPing to figure out the right command word):
A daily renewable caster shell with a single charge usable per day should be 360 x SL x CL
A non renewable caster shell with a single charge total should be 18 x SL x CL
(note that if you put 1/day charge limit you can reduce the price down to 3.6 but that's way too cheesy and most DMs with throw a MiC at you)

For Spell trigger style (mechanically this is a more strict way to deal with non-caster gun users):
A non renewable caster shell with multiple charges (wand) total should be 15 x SL x CL x Charges (normally wands have 50 charges in which you get the discount, also the spell level limit this way is 4)
A non renewable caster shell with a few charges (scroll) total should be 25 x SL x CL x Charges

On top of all of that, if you go with Spell trigger style you could have a special skill just for Caster Guns - like Tao Mastery which emulates UMD but only works for caster guns and correctly created shells.
The difference for you would be reusable vs expendable shells - where as expendable is much more in line with OLS Caster Guns, it may not be as practical.

Keep in mind if you are trying to convince a DM to let you play this, you won't get away with things like getting Tao Mastery as a skill, refluffing wands and scrolls as caster shells, and buying low charge wands.
The staff which holds the magical shells isn't as bad since casting gloves let you do it (at a cost of 20k GP).

If this were in my campaign and I was strict in the setting (survival or period themed), I'd only let you make the command word style Caster Shells and a refluffed version of Casting gloves.

Back to how Caster Guns would work - you'd spend a free action "loading" it with the caster shell disappearing into the extra-dimensional storage space, and then use a command word as a standard action to activate it.
Next round, as a free action, ditch the spent shell, and spend a free action "loading" the next shell, again use a command word as a standard action to activate the new shell.

The issue I see is that there is nothing stopping you from getting the caster shell and activating it without the Caster Gun, and being 20k gold the caster gun is horrendously expensive at lower levels.

If you are the DM you could rule that the caster shells can only be used in caster guns, and that Tao Mastery is a skill allowing a person to use the spell trigger type of caster shells in a caster gun (essentially cheaper versions of the same shells) even without the ability to UMD or have the spell on their spell list.

[Gorr_the_Gastly]

I know in the show each shell was a one time use, and extremely rare. Which is understandable given the setting. In a more PFish setting this should be less of an issue. A single use shell that is expended like a scroll with one charge is seems more simple but a limited use charge per day would be more simple.

Something like a Shocking Grasp shell with maybe a 1/day or 3/day limit would fit the theme I desire and not allow endless use of those spells after all giving a magic user to much liberty with spells can end badly.

So following your formula it would cost 25x1(SL)x1(l)x3 = 75 GP to create a Scroll Shell of 3/day charges of Shocking Grasp right?

[grarrrg]

hmm... how much do you expect a caster shell to actually cost... and did you actually want to utilize Tao masters to create said shells?

:smallconfused:
Tao Magic has nothing to do with Caster-gun Magic.

Tao Magic is still perfectly functional as-is, without needing to resort to handguns.

Caster-gun Magic is powered by Mana, of which there is an ever dwindling amount present. Only 3 wizards are capable of harnessing the powers of Mana, and they are the only remaining source of said Caster-shells.

[/nerd rant]

[NoACWarrior]

Ah sorry, I thought the 3 wizards use tao magic to create caster shells...

I didn't watch the hotsprings episode in detail, since I was covering my eyes for alot of it (don't berate my innocence).

But back to the pricing for the scrolls - scrolls are 1 use per charge, once the charge is used up its toast. A scroll can have multiple spells on it, but I don't know off the top of my head the limit of it.

For the scroll of shocking grasp it would be 25gp x Spell Level 1 x Caster Level 1 x 3 total charges = 75 gold

[grarrrg]

Ah sorry, I thought the 3 wizards use tao magic to create caster shells...

That's alright.
The most likely place people have seen it would have been Cartoon Network, and I'm not sure they EVER aired the Hot Springs episode, for reasons you have eluded to.
And seriously, that episode is pretty much the ONLY place they give ANY info on Caster-guns, besides "they shoot magic".

P.S. In case anyone asks, I only watch that episode for the plot. :smallwink:

[Jormengand]

Don't know stance on brew and such, so I have no idea whether or not this will be helpful at all. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?327549-The-Spellslinger-3-P-base-class-PEACH)