Running Firearms for NPCs and PC

[blackjack50]

So I love the 1700s and studied it in college. My latest game is going to contain a few muskets and things of that nature. I am wondering if anyone has tips for running the NPCs and also how to deal with players using them? Like what kinds of things should I pay close attention to in combat?

Here is an example of an NPC I’m using:

https://tethysdnd.tumblr.com/post/141451536973/resource-black-band-musketeer/amp

I will have this one used a few times. Some of the areas there will be elevation changes and stuff.

[Dark.Revenant]

NPCs with firearms are easy. You give them guns and you recalculate CR. They make loud bangs and produce smoke.

PCs with firearms: 1700s-era firearms are pretty much all going to be flintlocks. The DMG stats for pistol and musket should fit just fine. You can diversify the types somewhat if you'd like, like a blunderbuss or a muzzle-loading rifle. The pistol and musket are pretty much the standard weapons of military men in the 1700s, easy to train and be effective with, so I'd make them simple weapons. I'd give the Wizard and Sorcerer proficiency with pistols, too. Other types would be martial weapons, especially the rifle, which would require a full action to reload but have double the range and deal 2d8 damage instead of 1d12. If you want, bayonets could be attached to muskets/rifles and serve as a simple 1d8 two-handed piercing weapon. Lastly, I'd slash the costs of these weapons to be more period-appropriate.

As for feat support, I'd make an alternative to Crossbow Expert called Firearms Expert, which would allow you to draw and/or fire a loaded pistol as a bonus action after making an attack, would allow you to make a bayonet attack as a bonus action after making a ranged attack with a musket/rifle, and would allow you to draw a pistol as part of making an attack with it. That should cover all the swashbuckling scenarios.

I'd also let muskets/rifles work with Polearm Master; you would get the reaction against enemies entering your reach (bayonet only) and you'd hit with the butt of the weapon as a bonus action for 1d4 bludgeoning damage as usual.

[HappyDaze]

If you make them simple weapons (which is reasonable), be sure to keep them expensive to make, buy, and (maybe) even maintain.

I'd consider introducing Artisan's Tools (Gunsmith's Tools) unless you want guns to require both smith's and woodcarver's tools, but I think a specialized set of tools is in order here.

Alchemists will make powder, but you might want to have powder go bad after a time even if kept relatively protected from the humidity.

[JoeJ]

If you want to do 1700s firearms, the simplest way is to start by removing bows and crossbows from the lists of simple and martial weapons. Say that these archaic tools are no longer used except by a few rich hobbyists, so no class starts out with proficiency in them. Then simply use the light crossbow stats for pistol, except that it's no longer a two-handed weapon. Muskets use heavy crossbow stats. Keep the costs for the guns the same as for the crossbows they replace and have them on the same weapon list, since you want these weapons to be in common use. The cost of crossbow quarrels becomes the cost of powder and lead for the double the number of shots (since you can't recover half of them after the battle).

Then, if you're using feats, replace the word "crossbow" with "firearm" everywhere that it appears in the Crossbow Expert feat. You can ignore the part about hand crossbows, because those no longer exist.

That's it. Guns are now in the world, and players who want ranged weapons have a reason to choose them over other alternatives.