Guns - experience?

[Keravath]

I think the main question is "Will fire arms be fun in your campaign?"

Other than that - folks seem to be talking about at least two different kinds of firearms. The first are medieval single shot pistols and rifles requiring a separate charge and shot. Powder can get wet. Two hands are needed to reload and reloading happens every turn. The second (and the ones the OP mentioned) are more modern ones using cartidges with multiple shots before reloading is required.

In the first case, the weapons would be limited to one shot/round ... in the latter, they would get as many attacks as the character has and would only lose time when being reloaded (DMG says the character can use an action or bonus action to reload - their choice).

The second question is how much damage you assign. 2d8 or 2d10 sounds like a lot but firearms wouldn't necessarily include a stat bonus to damage (DMG doesn't mention it so by default an attack with these weapons WOULD include the stat bonus as far as I can tell). However, if a DM doesn't include the stat bonus to damage the weapons become strictly worse than non-firearm counterparts.

The DMG doesn't seem to include any sort of misfire mechanic so I am guessing that comes from homebrew somewhere (or Matt Mercer's gunslinger firearms?).

If you use the multi shot guns that cost a bonus action or action to reload and allow the attack stat modifier to damage then the ranged damage goes up by d8 or d10/attack (based on the numbers you listed) - which isn't that big a deal since it depends on how many hit points the DM assigns to the creatures involved. If you use the single shot muzzle loading guns then, for the most part, they don't seem to offer much if any advantage over their heavy/light/hand crossbow counterparts.

[JLandan]

No you didn't, you lowered it.

You said you cut the number of potential attacks in half but "compensated" by doubling damage dice, since the increase is only a doubling of dice and not other increases, like from an ability score, you've lowered the damage, and since it take 2 attacks to make one actual attack missing becomes even more impactful, further lowering average damage.

First, damage is damage, not rate of fire times damage. What you're thinking of is damage per round. If you need high damage per round, play a video game.

Second, I never said no ability modifier was added to the damage. Dex is added, same as any ranged weapon.

Third, possibility of a miss exists on any attack, so including it in a comparison of damage is futile.

The original poster's question was about experience with guns, not damage per second optimization. The house rules I've established for guns in this setting are for this setting. I posted my reasons for the changes. No one is making you play by them, so simmer down.

[Pixel_Kitsune]

I've run two types of firearms.

My standard D&D game has Renaissance era firearms. As other posters have pointed out, they're weaker than Long Bows. That was true in real life as well, the issue is you can train someone to basically aim one in the right direction a LOT faster than you can train an archer. Same with crossbows. My game runs them largely because I had a few NPCs that had firearms and it made no sense to make them special. It has had no issues or hiccups and the people with firearms feel unique but not more powerful than anyone else.

As a one shot I messed around with the World of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt Jr. The conceit there is that while magic is real, a lot of the ways it's understood and it's early uses happened because space faring races crash landed on the planet and formed societies. Enter "Firelances" which are used by the kingdom of Cyador's lancers. Casual description and how they're seen by a society that has not had direct knowledge of tech for close to a thousand years and they're like magic wands that throw firebolts.

But they're just laser weaponry. With the gimmick that because magic can be manipulated and understood by a sufficient level of scientific knowledge on top of having the genetics for it, let's them be restored and reloaded by wizards. It has the desired affect that Mirror Lancers are more powerful than anything else in their HP and general CR bracket. But, again, does not make them invincible if sufficient numbers, creativity or higher levels are applied.

[gloryblaze]

First, damage is damage, not rate of fire times damage. What you're thinking of is damage per round. If you need high damage per round, play a video game.

Second, I never said no ability modifier was added to the damage. Dex is added, same as any ranged weapon.

Third, possibility of a miss exists on any attack, so including it in a comparison of damage is futile.

The original poster's question was about experience with guns, not damage per second optimization. The house rules I've established for guns in this setting are for this setting. I posted my reasons for the changes. No one is making you play by them, so simmer down.

I think (since they were discussing DPR, not damage per attack), their point is that 1d12 + Dex each round (DMG musket) is going to do significantly more DPR than 2d12 + Dex every other round (which is what your musket is, if I understand correctly? Plus bonus damage on crits?), since the DMG musket gets to add their Dex mod twice as many times