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spineyrequiem
2014-04-06, 04:55 PM
So this is for a campaign I'm planning to run at some point in the future. The tech level is generally around Renaissance level, on the principle that they have both the prettiest armour and access to early firearms, primarily matchlocks but with some wheel-locks for those who can afford them. However, since they've also got access to magic and enchanting is relatively easy (not enough to equip every soldier with a magic weapon, but certainly enough that officers and elite troops could have something, along with suitably insane rich people) I want to get together some out-of-the-box ideas for enchanted guns which my players could buy/be fired at by, as well as general integration of magic and guns

So far I've got

Magic-lock muskets: Essentially an ultra-minimised, fire-spell loaded magic wand leading directly into the main charge, eliminating the need for an external priming-pan. This'd obviously be rather expensive, but it'd probably be much more reliable than other methods, particularly when it rained. Until it ran out of charge, of course.

Stealth guns: Since I'm fairly certain that black powder usually fires at subsonic speeds, a simple silencing spell to eliminate the crack of the powder should be enough to render it inaudible. As well as this, the weapon would need something to suck up the smoke, which I imagine would lead to some interesting-looking muzzles.

Portal guns: Not quite how you think. Essentially, a short pistol with a teleportation spell at the muzzle, activated when it touches something above a certain speed, causing it to teleport further back along the barrel. The upshot of this would be that the ball would travel through the barrel several times, effectively increasing its length and thus the maximum muzzle velocity and accuracy. This would then mean that an assassin could effectively smuggle a full-size rifle in a coat pocket, if he was willing to fork out enough cash.

Self-cleaning barrels: Speaks for itself. Would make keeping up consistent fire with a muzzle-loader much easier.

Magically-sealing breech loader: I'm fairly certain that the thing which stopped breech loaders from being popular until relatively recently was the difficulty of sealing the breech against escaping gases. Obviously, magic could eliminate this problem, vastly speeding up reloading. This could then in turn be used to make revolvers and such long before they were meant to exist.

Expanding rounds: An undersized musket ball which would then expand to properly fit the barrel after it'd been loaded. This would allow rifles to load much faster.

Generally enchanted rounds: Obviously the sorts of spells which can be put on arrows could also go on bullets. I particularly like the idea of healing spells on them, if only for the hilarious image of a double line of musketeers marching into a medical tent and firing a series of volleys to cure their injured.

Magical propellant: Probably more the domain of alchemy, but I'm sure there would be something better than gunpowder which could be made.

Magical rifling: Rifling is difficult, especially without access to decent, powered tools. Magic could probably produce it significantly cheaper, which could in turn lead to machine rifling never being invented.

Self-loading musket: Some form of spell causes powder and ball to appear within the breech. This would, of course, be terrifyingly expensive and likely ridiculously powerful. But fun.

What are your thoughts? In particular, what are your ideas for things the dodgy salesmen could attempt to sell them as extras?

The Oni
2014-04-06, 05:35 PM
The portal gun sounds phenomenal. Even better if it's command-word-adjustable to change the number of times the bullet cycles through the chamber for each shot. Imagining a rugged arcane gunslinger chanting numbers under his breath while he blows away hordes of guards (and the snipers who are angling for him on the roof.)

Mechanically, there should be a limit to how much he can cycle at a time though. Perhaps he can speed that sucker up to 30x barrel length for massive range and damage before the barrel just overheats and possibly destroys the gun. Also, charging such a shot would mean a 2 or 3 round firing time.

LibraryOgre
2014-04-06, 09:31 PM
The Guardians of the Flame series had an interesting take on magical propellant. While the heroes used gunpowder, the bad guys used a powder made by heating water inside a sphere of force until it passed beyond plasma. Expose it to real water? It instantly explodes with all that pent up force.

Mr Beer
2014-04-06, 11:26 PM
Some spell to increase the size of the projectile. Cannon-in-a-pocket kind of thing.

Lord Raziere
2014-04-07, 04:05 AM
message bullets.
you fire them at your allies. when the bullet hits their head, instead of killing them, all the energy is transferred into their head as data, and the bullet falls to the ground with one charge left for a reply shot. battles start to get confusing as people start firing on each other to send messages faster....

fake betrayal bullets
you fire them, again at your allies. all they do however is send the message "FAKE BETRAYAL" and make you fall down and become paralyzed for a few seconds to make it look as if you have just died. enough time for the enemy to assume you have just betrayed your ally, and then for them to suddenly rise up and kill them.

Frozen_Feet
2014-04-07, 08:43 AM
Discontinued space gun: the bullet always hits the target from behind, regardless of which angle the shot was originally taken from. Possibly a different application for your teleportation gun technology.

Lord Torath
2014-04-08, 02:06 PM
Question regarding your "portal" gun: Won't you lose power with each "teleport" as the expanding gasses end up in front of your projectile, slowing it down? You're probably better off just using a Wand of Lightning disguised as a pistol. Maybe if you turned it into a railgun instead.

It would have a minimum effect on accuracy; the longer barrel gives you more distance between your aiming recticles, which lets you line them up more accurately. A better trick may just be a telescoping barrel.

I rather like the fake betrayal bullets...:belkar:

Beleriphon
2014-04-08, 02:52 PM
This reminds me of Deep Space Nine where there was a transporter gun that transported bullets a few centimetres behind the target.

Bulhakov
2014-04-08, 04:57 PM
Magically adjustable barrel size/length:
- a standard musket could temporarily turn into a hilariously oversized sniper rifle
- a short blunderbuss into a flak-cannon

Magic bayonets
- all the typical sword enhancements
- etheral/psionic blade that can be turned on/off

Magical versions of modern weapon accessories:
- laser sight
- sniper scope
- night vision scope

Non-lethal weapons? Lightning enchanted "taser" pistol crossbow?

Also, don't forget grenades! Magical detonators/fuses/sesnsors. Smoke, tear gas, fear gas, sleeping gas...

fusilier
2014-04-08, 11:41 PM
Black powder is capable of accelerating bullets to supersonic speeds. Although it may not have been that common, except on the longest barreled muskets. An American Civil War rifle-musket had a muzzle velocity at close to the sonic speed.

erikun
2014-04-09, 06:54 AM
Speaking of hidden rifles, why not just apply the reverse of the pocket space idea to the gun? Basically allow the barrel to collapse upon itself (part stored into pocket space) whenever it is placed in a pocket or other container? It would allow an unusually long gun - or sword, if you want - to be hidden in an unusually small place.

arcane_asp
2014-04-09, 07:33 AM
There's lots of ideas above for magically enhance guns, but of course the ammunition is as important.

Never discount the value of bullets that can shoot around corners, over walls, etc

Then of course there is the old adage of there being 'a bullet with your name on it' -literally, a custom made round that actively seeks an inividual being if they're within range. Alternatively, maybe it seeks a particular race/class/gender or something...

Snowyowl
2014-04-09, 10:29 AM
Regenerating ammo. Never needs reloading - forget having lines of riflemen, just lay down suppressing fire continuously.

Magic wands with sights or scopes to improve accuracy. Not actual guns, but look like them at first glance.

Don't forget magic armour. And a Protection from Bullets spell.

Guns that only work for one person, and can be summoned to the hand.

And yeah, bullets made of silver or enchanted with banishment and anti-magic, for the more... esoteric targets.

Knaight
2014-04-09, 11:41 AM
I'd add a few ways to alter trajectory. For instance:

Phasing: The bullet goes right through the first object/target it encounters. Which basically lets you fire through walls, and totally ignore human shields.
Falling: The bullet is fired in a high trajectory, then abruptly stops, and accelerates downwards. This allows for firing over obstacles.

CarpeGuitarrem
2014-04-09, 11:57 AM
I don't know how you'd do it, but whatever this is (https://images.puella-magi.net/thumb/8/80/Mami_rifles_ep1.png/400px-Mami_rifles_ep1.png?20110428225644). :smallbiggrin:

Slipperychicken
2014-04-09, 08:09 PM
Efficient magazine: Uses hammerspace to store an improbable number of bullets.

Explosive bullets: Shouldn't need to explain this one. Bullet enters body, bullet goes boom. Also in lightning and cold.

Expanding bullet. Spiked bullet enters body, bullet expands to aggravate wound, spikes get longer, make removal harder. Add hooks for extra fun.

ProfDet529
2017-10-23, 09:28 AM
I'm saving this thread. And adding some ideas of my own:

(assuming D&D 3.5E/5E)

Scope of Darkvision.
Scope of Farsight/Longsight (Is there a spell for magical visual magnification?).
Magic-lock musket, but replace the miniaturized Wand of Fireball with a Wand of Magic Missle.
Efficient Quiver, but as a shot-pouch/powder horn.
Ethereal Derringer (A spell that conjures a pocket pistol into the casters hand. Think Green-Flame Blade).
Musket of Puncturing/Piercing (similar to the Rapier of Puncturing).
Phantom firearms (not my idea, but definitely fits here. Check D&D Wiki).

spineyrequiem
2017-10-23, 08:53 PM
Crucified Christ, someone necroed one of my threads from over three years ago? I'm flattered.

For those who're wondering, the campaign never quite happened but coincidentally I did play with a musket a week or so ago. Thus, more ideas!

Self-ramming: The barrel automatically pulls the powder, ball and wadding down. Would greatly speed up loading times (messing around with ramrods is a pain, though it'd probably still be worth having one for if the spell fails or so you can use it to extract misfires)

Automatic priming: Takes a small amount of powder from the main charge to fill the pan. Could even grind it finer to make it more effective (note that the http://www.wideopenspaces.com/old-school-musket-fast-shooting/ (1784 PotzdamMagaz) can already do this due to a conical touch-hole, but in a world with magic it's easily possible old-fashioned magic would do what's otherwise only possible with clever engineering)

Widening barrel: Can't be bothered with expensive shrinking bullets? Get a barrel that widens to allow easy loading then shrinks down for a tight fit just before firing!

Light bullet: Pretty much just a tracer round. Or a flare if you can make it bright enough, I suppose...

Ranging bullet: Communicates back to the gun when it either plows into the ground or passes over the top of a roughly man-size target. Could potentially also indicate if it was off to the left or right, but I imagine that even with magic there's only so much info a speeding bullet can pass back

Unit Accurizer: Look, I couldn't think of a decent name. When fired, the bullet subtly pulls suitably enchanted guns so they'll shoot roughly the same thing. The idea being that you have a unit marksman fire one off then the other screbs let their muskets aim for them. Relies on it being relatively cheap, and only effective on large targets, but does make it more likely that a good number will hit.

Long-range canister: An explosive shell which rather than relying on a time or impact fuse goes off when a decent number of bodies are nearby. Obviously only really worth it in cannon.

LibraryOgre
2017-10-24, 12:14 PM
The Mod Wonder:

Here Lies "Getting Inventive with enchanted firearms"
Died peacefully in its sleep April 9th, 2014
Returned to Hell October 24, 2017