How Would This Work Mechanically?: Rifle with "Wand Rounds"

[PangolinPie]

I have a friend who wants to get involved in my current D&D game. He's a big fan of the visual aesthetics of a long barreled rifle, used both as ranged weapon as well as a pole-arm (with a bayonet attached) or using the blunt end of the pommel for bludgeoning. After looking through various books and links I sent him, he had an inquiry and was wondering if there could be a way he could have a specially designed rifle with a six chambered spinning barrel like a revolver, each loaded with a standard 50 charge wand and in which he could switch between barrels at will.

I'm thinking it would count as a half action to switch between barrels but aside from that...is this even possible? I mean there is an Artificer already in the group so we have that at our disposal and he's willing to save up the gold for it...but can this work?

[atomicwaffle]

a friend of mine told me a story how they made a glass wand launcher. Cracked glass wand with like 40 charges of fireball, fired from a launcher. Shatters on impact, fun ensues.

[Starbuck_II]

I have a friend who wants to get involved in my current D&D game. He's a big fan of the visual aesthetics of a long barreled rifle, used both as ranged weapon as well as a pole-arm (with a bayonet attached) or using the blunt end of the pommel for bludgeoning. After looking through various books and links I sent him, he had an inquiry and was wondering if there could be a way he could have a specially designed rifle with a six chambered spinning barrel like a revolver, each loaded with a standard 50 charge wand and in which he could switch between barrels at will.

I'm thinking it would count as a half action to switch between barrels but aside from that...is this even possible? I mean there is an Artificer already in the group so we have that at our disposal and he's willing to save up the gold for it...but can this work?

Sounds more like a special wand holder since he is just shooting wand charges.

Not sure how much this is worth. Is activating each round an attack or standard action like normal wand useage?

[Doc_Maynot]

I typically allow this sort of thing, using the normal rules for Wand Chambers (Dungeonscape), but applied to a repeating crossbow. The guy who brought it up to me named it a "staticaster," I see no reason to not allow such a thing. Maybe make an advanced one based off of a Rod of Many Wands for a "Full Auto" sort of thing?

[Pluto!]

Sounds reasonable.

Personally, I'd give it a Swift Action time to switch chambers, and go one of two ways with the rest of it:

Either

Let the wands work as normal

OR

Let the rifle add its magical enhancement bonus to spell Attack Rolls and DCs, with the caveats that two wand charges are expended per use and that targeted spells now require successful ranged touch attacks to deliver.

[Tohsaka Rin]

Crossbow bayonets should be in Complete Scoundrel.

Treat the device like a custom wondrous item. I'd basically make the thing function like the Arcane Strike feat from Complete Warrior, with the following changes.

It only works on a standard action.

It uses charges from installed wands to function.

When activating the item, it creates a magical projectile (which winks out in an anti-magic field)

For every charged drained from a wand, add 1d4 to the projectile.

Requires ranged touch attack.

Ranged as a shortbow, normally. If two ADDITIONAL charges are used (separate from the ones burned to deal damage) it may instead use the range of a longbow.

Elemental type is based on the spell held by the wand.

Obviously, more could be added to this, but I'm in a hurry, and quick and dirty should be enough for others to build on.

[Flickerdart]

the blunt end of the pommel
Do...do you mean the stock? No rifle has ever had a pommel.

[Azraile]

I had some what of a plan for something like that.... my char is half elemental and an artificer....

One metal pipe, one wand made cheep buy not charging it fully (say up to 10), gust of wind at will.

slide the wand in the pile, put your palm agents the pipe tightly, gust of wind blast the wand into some ones chest.

[Flickerdart]

one wand made cheep buy not charging it fully (say up to 10)

That's not a thing you can do. Wands are created with 50 charges, always.

[Darkweave31]

Maybe use the stats of a halberd with a wand chamber for the wand? Combine with spinning halberd for the blunt attack.

[Hazrond]

Guys i think the idea was to fire wands that break and release all their spell slots in a mighty explosion, am i incorrect? :smallconfused:

[Sith_Happens]

I'd call it fair, especially since someone here could probably figure out how to get six Wand Chambers onto the same weapon anyways (which would be all the fun of having six wands without the hassle of it taking an action to switch between them).

[Prime32]

Dungeonscape has the Wand Bracer, a mundane item that holds up to five wands in spring-loaded slots. It's a full-round action to insert a wand, but a swift action to remove it.
The Wand Bracelet from MIC is a magic item which is more expensive and holds only four wands (or light weapons) but lets you store or switch between them as a move action.
Try adapting one of those. A five-barrel weapon seems more mystical to me than a six-barrel one anyway.

I'd call it fair, especially since someone here could probably figure out how to get six Wand Chambers onto the same weapon anyways (which would be all the fun of having six wands without the hassle of it taking an action to switch between them).Off the top of my head, you could get a double weapon and build hidden blades into each end - that would give you four. But if I want to wield a lot of wands at once, I usually put the chambers in gauntlets and armor spikes.