2e: what's the point of breech ejectors?

[Jak]

Title.


Price 10 gp
Usage: attached to firearm (firing mechanism)
These spring-loaded inserts can be fitted into the breech of a double-barreled firearm over the course of 10 minutes or during the firearm's daily maintenance. After the weapon is fired, the ejectors hasten the reloading process by ejecting the spent detritus from the fired rounds. This allows you to reload both barrels of the double-barreled weapon as a single Interact action the next time you reload the weapon as long as you do so before the end of your next turn. However, the ejectors are consumed in the process, and you must spend the time to insert a new set to gain the benefit again."

This kind of feels like a dumb question to me, but it seems there is a rather high cost on this item for not a lot of benefit. 10 GP per use seems like a little much for what amounts to one action. Additionally, it takes 10 minutes to put them in! Am I missing a use case?

[MesiDoomstalker]

You've correctly identified the use case; reducing action cost of reloading is exactly what use the breech ejectors have. This isn't to say its worth it, economically or time-investment. Screwing with action economy is difficult to do in 2e and having a disposable item do so at a decently hefty cost is appropriate.

[Thunder999]

It saves you actions, which is good, the cost really isn't that high, it's less than the price of a 2nd level spell scroll.

[Rynjin]

It saves you actions, which is good, the cost really isn't that high, it's less than the price of a 2nd level spell scroll.

Is the average PF2e second level spell really this bad?

[gesalt]

Is the average PF2e second level spell really this bad? Mostly yeah, with few exceptions. Though consumables are also criminally overpriced.

[AsuraKyoko]

Mostly yeah, with few exceptions. Though consumables are also criminally overpriced.

I've found that Talismans really fall victim to this. They're a cool idea: you affix one to your weapon/armor, and then it gives you a bonus or an extra ability that you can use once, at which pint it gets consumed and you can affix another one. Unfortunately, they are expensive, and a lot of them are really marginal. It would be nice if they could be used either a few times or for an entire fight, or something like that. As it stands, however, they are mostly easily forgotten minor things that just become vendor trash when included in loot.

[Jak]

So my character pays 10 gold and 10 minutes to save a single 2 second action 1 time. The item is consumed in the process, after which my character must pay 10 more gold and spend 10 more minutes loading another set into his double barrel pistol. If my character is rolling in gold and has plenty of breech ejectors, but only has 1 double barrel pistol, he can't even preload the ammo into the ejectors; he will still have to spend 10 minutes after every use to reload the breech ejectors into his firearm.
Else, he could get multiple firearms, get the quick draw feat, and spend a few hours loading them all with breech ejectors, and drop each db-pistol after the first reload.

However, at this point, why not just spend your extra gold on double barrel pistols? They're cheaper by 3 gold than the breech ejectors, and instead of having to take 10 minutes to load them, it takes four seconds. Then, you can QuickDraw, shoot, and drop the weapon all for 1 action. The only negative I can see with this method is bulk, but a double barrel pistol is just one bulk.

In conclusion, it's prohibitively expensive for a net gain of a single action or a single point of damage (by just loading 1 bullet.)


This seems like bad design or an oversight; although, I'm new to pf2e.

[Thunder999]

10 gold is nothing, and it lets you actually use both barrels of a double barrelled weapon more than 1/fight, because you certainly don't want to spend two whole actions reloading.
10 minutes is also not an issue, 2e expects pretty much the entire party to spend at least 10 minutes after each fight resetting/prepping, it's the 10 minutes you spend to Refocus, Treat Wounds, or Repair a Shield, now your Gunslinger has something other than sitting around waiting to do.

2e has a lot of cheap useful consumables and effectively 1/fight (but actually using 10 minutes to reset, because that's less arbitrary and ambiguous)

[Jak]

I mean, I know 10 gold by itself isn't a big deal. One might even be able to afford that on a 1st level character.
My issue is that it's 10 gold every fight.
I suppose I could get over the 10 minutes thing, but a platinum piece for every fight in which you pull the trigger? That will add up pretty quick.

[Zanos]

Breech ejectors are cheap considering they do something that is nearly forbidden in pf2e: getting extra actions. Paying 10gp for one action is nuts, even as a consumable. They aren't worth using at the level you have access to them, but at higher levels the pf2e wealth curves means that using 2 breech ejectors per fight is really nothing. The issue with quick drawing replacement pistols is that there is no way to apply your weapon runes to quickdrawed ranged weapons; there's an item for melee weapons, and an item for ranged weapons, but the item for ranged weapons requires that you attach it to the weapon, requiring time. If you aren't getting the benefit of fundamental runes, you are dealing no damage at higher levels.

With that said, firearms in pf2e are pretty gimped. The "best" gun using builds use sniper shot and a tripod saddle or whatever it's called to fire the biggest gun you can get your hands on 1/turn with sniper shot and covered reload. But generally repeating crossbows are superior, since they probably won't need to be reloaded before the fight ends or you've dealt enough damage to cinch a win without taking a turn to reload mattering.