Balancing a homebrew Anti-Material Rifle (Post v2)

[Silus]

Quoted from my other thread in the 3.5 section. Figure I'd get a bit more help here.


Ok so I've got this weapon I'm working on for my homebrew world and after crunching the numbers I realize that it's probably too powerful.

As it stands, the weapon is like this:
Cost: 3,500g-10,000g (Depending on location)
3d8 Damage
18-20/x4 Crit
Range: 80ft
Misfire 1-2
Capacity 1
Weight 30lb
Type B&P
Full Round Reload (Unaffected by Rapid Reload)
Full Round Fire
Non-Quadrupeds (ie: Bipeds) take a -2 to hit and are knocked back 5ft and are prone after shooting. Quadrupeds take no penalties (Due to stability). Firing while Prone for bipeds incurs no penalties.
Counts as Adamantite for purposes of bypassing DR, regardless of ammo type used
Inherently counts as Construct Bane, does not possess an Enhancement Bonus (Counts as +1 for purposes of Bane damage)

The rifles, called Golem Stoppers, were designed to do just that: Put down constructs. Everything from Clockwork Creatures to wild Animated Objects. Slow to fire, slow to reload, but nightmarishly powerful in the right hands.

Problem is, I feel that the rifle may be TOO powerful. In light of reading the Trench Fighter archetype for Fighters, a Centaur Trench Fighter with a Golem Stopper and 18 Dex, at level 8 with Improved Critical and Weapon Specialization (Why WOULDN'T you pick those up?) is looking at doing (12d8 + 36) + 2d6* on a crit on a construct. That's a damage range of 50-144 at level 8 every two rounds at touch AC.

So how can I keep the same feel of this thing but make it more...manageable?

*(+4 Dex, +2 Weapon Specialization, +3 Bane) = +9 x4 = 36

Replies in the other thread have said that, for the cost, the weapon is actually underpowered for the price.

I want to try to strike a balance between actually wanting to use the weapon and, well, not. Like I want the weapon to be viable, but not OP to the point that I see the PCs all running builds with it in a Construct-heavy game.

I was thinking either up the capacity of the weapon (As a magazine of maybe 5 shots per reload) and eliminating the Full Round firin...thing or keeping the capacity as is but removing the Full Round reload and firing.

[boss45]

Well, you could reduce the price then add a nerf. A strength requirement of 13(or 15 or whatever you decide) that could be bypassed by shooting prone or from cover(to stabilize the heavy barrel). If the user has neither str whatever, cover, or is shooting from prone, they take a -2 penalty to attack rolls with it.

[Stellar_Magic]

I don't know about this... a lot of things about the weapon throw up huge flags in my mind... 18-20/x4 for example is... well, HUGE. I'd personally go with a 19-20/x3, since that critical range exists in the normal weapons we got with the game.

Of course this is pathfinder we're talking about and for most armor piercing uses... just using adamantine ammunition would do, but for a massive gun that you had to lay down to use... Hmm.

Normally I go with 2d12x2 for .50 caliber rifle weapons (4-48 damage) plus adamantine ammunition and you'd be fine. Prices are troublesome to balance by, especially with the way firearms work in pathfinder (extreme expense of guns).

[Silus]

Well, you could reduce the price then add a nerf. A strength requirement of 13(or 15 or whatever you decide) that could be bypassed by shooting prone or from cover(to stabilize the heavy barrel). If the user has neither str whatever, cover, or is shooting from prone, they take a -2 penalty to attack rolls with it.

Initially the price was going to be 1000g, but then I considered that it is more or less innately a +1 Bane weapon and bumped the price up. The low-end price is for those locations where these sort of rifles would used most (In this case, a section of land that's native creatures are living clockwork creatures).


I don't know about this... a lot of things about the weapon throw up huge flags in my mind... 18-20/x4 for example is... well, HUGE. I'd personally go with a 19-20/x3, since that critical range exists in the normal weapons we got with the game.

Of course this is pathfinder we're talking about and for most armor piercing uses... just using adamantine ammunition would do, but for a massive gun that you had to lay down to use... Hmm.

Normally I go with 2d12x2 for .50 caliber rifle weapons (4-48 damage) plus adamantine ammunition and you'd be fine. Prices are troublesome to balance by, especially with the way firearms work in pathfinder (extreme expense of guns).

So 2d12 19-20/x3 would be more rounded?

And should I keep the whole "Ammo shot from this rifle counts as Adamantite for purposes of bypassing DR" and the innate Construct Bane thing?

[jiriku]

How are you scoring crits on constructs with this, since constructs are immune to crits?

[Silus]

How are you scoring crits on constructs with this, since constructs are immune to crits?

Actually in Pathfinder, Constructs are subject to critical hits and precision based damage (Sneak Attacks and such).

[Frozen_Feet]

The power of this weapon against constructs is NOT an issue. It was made to take them down - by God, it should be able to take them down.

If you're worried of everyone wanting it, I think you can just sigh in relief. Fullround Fire and Fullround Reload, if I've interpreted them correctly, already mean only very specific builds would be able to use them efficiently in close combat, and characters not optimized for damage-dealing (skill-focused rogues, many spellcasters) would likely want to do something else than spend their time using a gun. It's costly enough that they'd be better off using that money for something else.

The only remaining question is: how good do you think this is against non-constructs? Is it without doubt better than any other gun? I'd guess that as it is, there are probably faster-firing weapons available that allow for more mobility, and as such many gun-using builds would not bother with this one.