matt mercers gunslinger

[Amdy_vill]

what would be the best way to optimize matt mercers gunslinger sub class. i was thinking dual wealding feat and human or halfling.

[Anonymouswizard]

It depends on the setting.

If the setting only has matchlocks, don't bother. You'll be nearly useless in the rain.

If the setting has wheellocks or flintlocks, and ideally the latter, you'll want to get some way to draw a weapon as a free action. Otherwise you'll be losing every other attack having to reload your weapon.

If it's a setting like Tal'Dorei which either has advanced firearms or skipped directly to them then the class is working as intended.

Otherwise, Archery Fighting Style to make the shots that don't malfunction more likely to hit, Sharpshooter for the '-5 accuracy, +10 damage'. Dual Wielder will increase your damage, but likely by less than Sharpshooter would. If you do go for two-weapon fighting you might want to make your offhand weapon a high damage one shot gun, and draw a new one every round.

On that note, never underestimate the usefulness of having another loaded firearm on your person. Make sure all your guns have safeties and that your holsters are designed to keep those safeties on, and dropping your expended gun to draw a new one is free once per turn, compared to spending an attack to reload. If your GM gives you the downtime to craft guns make sure you have at least one spare for your primary weapon, and that you have enough space on your body to hold every firearm you might want at short notice without impeding your movement.

Also, it's not quite optimisation, but flare guns have several noncombat uses. If you spend a lot of time adventuring outdoors and the party likes to split up (what? I've been in that situation before) making sure every group has a flare gun gives an easy way to signal if you're in trouble. Don't be afraid to ask the GM if they'll let you make other 'tool guns' if you've got any ideas.

[Throne12]

Having played a Matt's gunslinger and having a player play one. It's not worth playing. The Battlemaster Fighter does the same and is better in my Opinion. The cool trick shots you don't get to later when you get maneuvers right at lv 3. Trick shots also don't add extra damage were sp dice do.

[DarkKnightJin]

Dual Wielder and two-weapon fighting is probably less than optimal, actually.
Bumping Dex, and picking Archery, is 'better to make sure tour shots land and can do their lovely damage.
Halfling could work, but you'd be at Disadvantage with the Heavy 2-handed weapons. Which would kinda nudge you into using a Pepperbox with 6 shots at the most.

Honestly, watch Percy at work during the first campaign. He's pretty optimized for the class.

I believe Matt said that if the dice are on Percy's side, he could make short work of most of the rest of Vox Machina in a couple of rounds.
Except maybe Grog, but.. It's Grog. That guy is a pain to actually take down even on the best of days.

[Thrasher92]

If you are going to be a human, and they make you use the Tinker's Tools to work on your guns, you should absolutely take the Prodigy feat from XgtE.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Having played a Matt's gunslinger and having a player play one. It's not worth playing. The Battlemaster Fighter does the same and is better in my Opinion. The cool trick shots you don't get to later when you get maneuvers right at lv 3. Trick shots also don't add extra damage were sp dice do.

The battlemaster doesn't get guns though. In regards to drawing your weapons, you fix that issue at level 7. It's not very difficult to optimize for a gunslinger, you're just a ranged fighter in the end so you get to max dex and take a few choice feats pretty early on. I'd personally go Human over halfling (VHuman is an even better option) but halflings would have the benefit of very rarely misfiring the small firearms.

Aim for the higher tier guns as soon as possible (pepperbox, bad news) and talk with your DM about possibly having a magical gun somewhere down the line and make absolutely sure to carry a melee weapon with you.

Fighters have it pretty simple, you can't go wrong.

[Mikal]

The battlemaster doesn't get guns though.

Weapon Master Feat. Now you do, and can even out an odd Dex score if you have one.
Choose Pistol, Musket, Pepperbox, Scattergun, or swap two of those for "Bad News" or Hand Mortar if you prefer.
You're now a better gunslinger than the gunslinger.

[Oramac]

Personally, I find the misfire mechanic to be overly punishing. Not really a fan tbh.

That said, if you want to optimize it, Sharpshooter and the Archery fighting style would be at the top of the list. Possibly Crossbow Expert if you expect to find yourself in melee for some reason.

[DarthPenance]

Currently playing a gunslinger, I say that really it's not that hard to optimize, you will need max dex and archery style to get your very high hit-rate, halfling certainly helps with not rolling ones, but they will be restricted only to pistols and pepperbox, since they won't be able to use the other weapons, which are heavy.
Which is why I suggest a medium sized race, and picking the Lucky feat to make the misfires less likely, variant human works lovely.
After maxing dex you should try and focus on wisdom, for using Grit points. I made my Int high too for flavor, but it's not necessary, unless your DM rules that you would need high Int to craft the weapons and other stuff.
Sharpshooter also helps a lot in the case of damage, but use it only when you are basically garanteed to hit with a normal attack.
The biggest problem is when I've found non-magical damage resistance/immunity, my DM let me enchant my pistol so that helps, but not all DMs may allow the firearms to be enchanted or if they are, it'll be very costy and time consuming, if you can't enchant, if you have a Wizard who has magic weapon it could help a lot, otherwise make/buy silver bullets.

[Throne12]

The battlemaster doesn't get guns though. In regards to drawing your weapons, you fix that issue at level 7. It's not very difficult to optimize for a gunslinger, you're just a ranged fighter in the end so you get to max dex and take a few choice feats pretty early on. I'd personally go Human over halfling (VHuman is an even better option) but halflings would have the benefit of very rarely misfiring the small firearms.

Aim for the higher tier guns as soon as possible (pepperbox, bad news) and talk with your DM about possibly having a magical gun somewhere down the line and make absolutely sure to carry a melee weapon with you.

Fighters have it pretty simple, you can't go wrong.

If it a weapon in the world it would be considered a Martial weapon and fighters get prof. Or yuour DM can just be there are no guns if you want a gun then you need to be a gunslinger. That would be stupied. If I was to DM that way I would just use the Aritficet gunsmith rules. You have a gun you made it does 2d6 and takes a bonus action to reload.


Or I'll just tell my player build a crossbow user and just reskin the crossbow as a firearm. A heavy crossbow is a d10 and light crossbow d8 and a hand xbow a d6. You got a long rifle d10, rifle d8, pistol d6.

[Mikal]

If it a weapon in the world it would be considered a Martial weapon and fighters get prof. Or yuour DM can just be there are no guns if you want a gun then you need to be a gunslinger. That would be stupied. If I was to DM that way I would just use the Aritficet gunsmith rules. You have a gun you made it does 2d6 and takes a bonus action to reload.

Not necessarily. DM could rule they're unique enough that standard martial proficiency doesn't apply to them. Which also makes sense as Gunslingers don't get firearm proficiency until level 3, thus implying that firearms is a separate category from martial weapons.

Which is why I again recommend the Weapon Master feat, especially if one has an odd dex score.