Help assessing the Firearms

[PersistentVaria]

Hey all, I'm new to the forums, so my apologies for the lack of formatting.

I'm interested in help assessing which firearm(s) to use, how, and (of course) why.

I saw that the Blunderbuss is the only non-crafted firearm to have damage dice superior to any simple/melee weapon, so I assumed it would grant the most reward for braving Misfires and coping with Reloading.

To avoid Reloading, I intend to carry a large quantity of guns and quickly stow/draw so as to always have a loaded gun in my hands.

With 7 levels of Gunslinger (Quickdraw) and 1 ASI (Dual Wielder), each turn I can use my free Object Interaction to stow 2 guns and draw 2 guns. If I were only attacking with firearms twice per turn, that'd be ideal.

However, if I want to attack with firearms more than twice per turn, I could use 3 levels of Thief (Fast Hands) to be able to stow 2 more guns and draw 2 more guns as a bonus action. This dip prevents me from getting Fighter 20 (Extra Attack (3)), but I could get a fourth attack on demand via 1 level of War Domain Cleric (War Priest). I assume attacking more is best, but I'm really looking for outside opinions.

Thanks for the help!

[NNescio]

Grab Magic Initiate for Find Familiar, and use an Octopus to help draw weapons and put them in your hands?

[PersistentVaria]

Grab Magic Initiate for Find Familiar, and use an Octopus to help draw weapons and put them in your hands?

That is creative! Haha. I don't think I'll have a problem drawing weapons given the feat(ure)s I mentioned, but now I definitely know where to turn if I did.

My main question is whether using the Blunderbuss and attacking as much as possible with it is the way to do the highest damage with (non-crafted) firearms.

[Laserlight]

One problem is that when you get to the "needs a magic weapon to hit" monsters, you're not likely to have a bucketful of magic blunderbusses.

[NNescio]

One problem is that when you get to the "needs a magic weapon to hit" monsters, you're not likely to have a bucketful of magic blunderbusses.

Are there magic bullets?

[PersistentVaria]

One problem is that when you get to the "needs a magic weapon to hit" monsters, you're not likely to have a bucketful of magic blunderbusses.
For sure. And it will be a bucketful I'll be needing.

I suppose I could resort to reloading if that did ever become the case, but assuming I can keep up with their AC do you see any other way in which I could improve the build?

[Garfunion]

You could ask your DM if you can adapt the crossbow expert feat to work with firearms. Basically you learned how to package your ammo for quick reload.

[Nagog]

You could ask your DM if you can adapt the crossbow expert feat to work with firearms. Basically you learned how to package your ammo for quick reload.

This here is exactly what you need. For further optimization, you may also want to pick up the Sharpshooter feat as well.

I can't think of anything in RAW firearm-wise, however firearms isn't super WOTC RAW, so your DM may just come up with something like a crank gun for you to lug around. He may stipulate that it's a two-handed weapon, but can fire multiple times without reloading. It wouldn't take advantage of the feats and features you've accrued, but it would fit the playstyle well. perhaps the 2d8 x2 would translate into this weapon as 1d4x4, allowing you to hit more targets but at the cost of lower damage? Personally I'd also require using it to not count as a weapon attack, as multiattacking with that weapon would quickly unbalance the action economy as a whole. Perhaps have it considered using an item rather than a weapon attack.

[Vogie]

One problem is that when you get to the "needs a magic weapon to hit" monsters, you're not likely to have a bucketful of magic blunderbusses.

Which is why you clearly chose wisely and are a 6th level Kensei monk. Or one level of Artificer for Arcane Armament.

[MickTheLick]

You could ask your DM if you can adapt the crossbow expert feat to work with firearms. Basically you learned how to package your ammo for quick reload.

Just to update this point: If you are using the Gunslinger class from Critical Role a new feet has now been included, 'Firearms Specialist':

You are adept at using guns effectively.

You gain proficiency with Firearms.


- If you roll a misfire on an attack with a firearm, you can use your reaction to roll a d20. If the number rolled is higher than the weapon’s misfire score, the firearm does not misfire. You cannot use this feature of this feat again until you complete a short or long rest.

- When you use the Attack action and attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a loaded firearm with the light property you are holding.

This is fairly balanced as it does not circumvent the reloading property of firearms like most adaptations of the 'crossbow expert' feet usually do but allows you to duel wield firearms if you use a fire arm with the light property in your off-hand.

Circumventing the reloading property of firearms and allowing you to duel wield them makes them OP to coffee lock levels as firearms are capable of a lot more damage than a 1d6 hand crossbow and have considerably more range.

[Armisael]

The only firearm with the light property (that I’m aware of) is the palm pistol, which is only 1d8. Even if you had infinite ammo in the gun it would still be questionably better than a hand crossbow (10’ extra range and +1 damage in exchange for a misfire chance and disadvantage when in melee).