Gunpowder in DnD [3.5]

[locutus]

Muskets that do 2d12 and take two full rounds to reload, with a range increment of 40 feet. It also ignores half your armor bonus to AC. Basically guaranteed to take down but not kill your average lvl2 warrior, which is what passes for trained soldiers for the most part. The max bonus is +2, representing the lack of machine tools for boring and rifling a precise barrel.

Disregarding magic, this gives battles similar results to most preindustrial battles I have heard of. You basically need a squad to do anything reliably, but that squad does alot of damage quickly. A cavalry charge is still viable because they only have to take a volley or two before they eat your riflemen.

It gets screwed up for a few reasons: People start casting True Strike, which is a single rifle wielding sorcerer able to kill the leader of a charge effective at 200ft. The other problem is powder storage. lvl3 sorc PCs start casting invisibility on suicide soldiers, who can ruin your powder magazine even if it's heavily guarded. The overall effect is a return to sword an board on the battlefield.

Of course, dwarves still use powder for mining, and cannons are quite effective on a ship or fortress. In the field, they suffer horribly from a vulnerable powder supply. A ship must be boarded, and a fortress is likely to have wards on it's magazine.

[Omnicrat]

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