Homebrew Firearms

Tequila Sunrise · Sep 16, 2008

I'm thinking of starting a plane hopping swashbuckling campaign, so of course I need firearms. So let me know what you think; I'm not a history buff so I really don't know anything about renaissance era firearms. So if you have any suggestions, fire away!

Military Ranged Weapons

One Handed
Handgun
Proficiency +0
Damage 1d8
Range 10/20
Price 50 gp
Weight 2 lb.
Group Firearm
Properties Load move, Puncturing, Slow Loader

Two Handed
Arquebus
Proficiency +0
Damage 1d10
Range 20/40
Price 50 gp
Weight 4 lb.
Group Firearm
Properties Load move, Puncturing, Slow Loader

Blunderbuss
Proficiency +0
Damage 1d6
Area Close blast 3
Price 50 gp
Weight 4 lb.
Group Firearm
Properties Load move, Puncturing, Slow Loader

Puncturing: Attacks made with weapons with this keyword are rolled against Reflex rather than AC.
Slow Loader: Characters who do not have proficiency with weapons with this keyword load them with a longer action rather than normal. For example if a slow loader weapon is normally loaded with a move action, a character without proficiency in that weapon loads it as a standard action instead.

TS

PS Sorry for that horrible pun!

Ginnel · Sep 16, 2008

Tequila Sunrise said:
I'm thinking of starting a plane hopping swashbuckling campaign, so of course I need firearms. So let me know what you think; I'm not a history buff so I really don't know anything about renaissance era firearms. So if you have any suggestions, fire away!

Military Ranged Weapons

One Handed
Handgun
Proficiency +0
Damage 1d8
Range 10/20
Price 50 gp
Weight 2 lb.
Group Firearm
Properties Load move, Puncturing, Slow Loader

Two Handed
Arquebus
Proficiency +0
Damage 1d10
Range 20/40
Price 50 gp
Weight 4 lb.
Group Firearm
Properties Load move, Puncturing, Slow Loader

Shotgun
Proficiency +0
Damage 1d4
Area Close blast 3
Price 50 gp
Weight 4 lb.
Group Firearm
Properties Load move, Puncturing, Slow Loader

Puncturing: Attacks made with weapons with this keyword are rolled against Reflex rather than AC.
Slow Loader: Characters who do not have proficiency with weapons with this keyword load them with a longer action rather than normal. For example if a slow loader weapon is normally loaded with a move action, a character without proficiency in that weapon loads it as a standard action instead.

TS

PS Sorry for that horrible pun!

Hmm how about those stats for a sawn off shotgun and for a normal shotgun 1 square target (so its better against swarms) 1D6 damage and high crit? but still nice work I wouldn't have thought about doing it this way but it works.

Tequila Sunrise · Sep 16, 2008

Ginnel said:
Hmm how about those stats for a sawn off shotgun and for a normal shotgun 1 square target (so its better against swarms) 1D6 damage and high crit? but still nice work I wouldn't have thought about doing it this way but it works.

I don't want to get too involved with different firearm variations. I want to have just a couple of them that roughly represent the many types of renaissance firearms. If any of my players are history buffs, they can call and describe their weapon in greater/different detail than I do but I don't want to have twelve different sets of stats.

On second thought I do think that 1d6 is better for the shotgun/blunderbuss than 1d4.

TS

inati · Sep 16, 2008

I'm curious as to why you are going with the design of new weaponry as opposed to simply retasking existing weapons? For example, just rename Longbow as Rifle, Hand crossbow as Pistol, etc.

Tequila Sunrise · Sep 16, 2008

inati said:
I'm curious as to why you are going with the design of new weaponry as opposed to simply retasking existing weapons? For example, just rename Longbow as Rifle, Hand crossbow as Pistol, etc.

Normally I'm all for simply renaming things, but in this case I think it'll make my campaign feel more swashbuckle-y if firearms are mechanically different.

TS

Masquerade · Sep 16, 2008

Does the puncturing property apply only to basic attacks or to any attack vs AC? Can the blunderbuss be used for anything aside from basic attacks?

PS: Here are the rules I use:

Military Ranged Weapons (Two-Handed)
Carbine +2 1d12 15/30 45 gp 4 lb. Load minor
Handgun +2 1d10 10/20 40 gp 2 lb. Load minor, small

Superior Ranged Weapons (Two-Handed)
Longrifle +2 1d12 20/40 50 gp 6 lb. Load minor, high crit

Korvax · Sep 16, 2008

This is what we came up with for black powder weaponry in our swashbuckling campaign:

*When used with a basic attack, black powder weapons target Ref Defence instead of AC.*

Pistol
One-handed ranged weapon
Range: 10/20
Prof Bonus: +2
Damage: 1d10
Load: Full Round
High-Crit, 19-20 crit range

Musket
Two-handed ranged weapon
Range: 15/30
Prof Bonus: +2
Damage: 1d12
Load: Full Round
High-Crit, 19-20 crit range

Grenade
Ranged projectile weapon (Area Burst 2)
Range: 6/12
Prof Bonus: +2
Damage: 1d8
High-Crit, 19-20 crit range

Blunderbuss
2 handed ranged weapon, close blast 3, only usable with a basic attack.
Proficiency bonus +2
Damage: 2d6 in Blast 2 radius, 1d6 to the rest of the area.
Targets Ref instead of AC
Load: Full Round
High-Crit, 19-20 crit range

Blunderbuss damage diagram example (2 represents 2d6 area, 1 represents 1d6 area, S is shooter)

111
221
221
S

Loading Times:
Unproficient: No loading (high-risk)
Proficient: 1 Full Round (1 Standard, 1 Move, 1 Minor); loading draws OAs
Expert Loader: 1 Standard; No OA
Magical Weapon enhancement: 1 Standard; loading draws OAs
Expert Loader with Magical Weapon enhancement: 1 Move; No OA

New Feats:
Guns follow superior weapon rules, and require the Superior Weapon Proficiency feat to use well.

Expert Loader [Heroic]
Requirements: Int 13 or Dex 13, Proficient with a black powder weapon.
You have mastered loading a black powder weapon with great efficiency.
Benefit: You may reload a mundane black powder weapon as a Standard action, or load a magical black powder weapon as a move action.

Load on the Run [Paragon]
Requirements: Level 11, Dex 15, Expert Loader
You are so adept at loading a black powder weapon that you have mastered loading one while on the move.
Benefit: You can move up to your speed and reload a black powder weapon as a move action. Moving provokes an Opportunity Attack as normal.

chronoplasm · Sep 16, 2008

One point I want to raise:

Often, many adventures with gunmen characters are plagued by the problem that ammo can run out and become quite scarce during dungeon crawls.
I generally solve this by giving characters a ritual for making gunpowder and by making the ingredients readily available in dungeons.

Charcoal is just burned wood.
Saltpetre can be scraped from the walls.
Sulfur can be collected from geothermal vents.

That said, good stuff man!

I don't like the idea of weapons targeting reflex instead of AC though.
I'm no history buff myself, but from what I understand, guns didn't always puncture armor back then. The way I understand it guns were kind of unreliable in those days, had bad accuracy, and would sometimes explode in one's face.
Besides, rolling against reflex kind of makes me think of something like The Matrix.
I'd say just go AC.

Tequila Sunrise · Sep 16, 2008

...and I thought I was the first one to think about 4e firearms!

Masquerade said:
Does the puncturing property apply only to basic attacks or to any attack vs AC? Can the blunderbuss be used for anything aside from basic attacks?

Puncturing applies to all attacks and all firearms can be used with non-basic attacks, barring unforseen brokenness. My players are pretty cool about house rules, so if I have tweak firearm rules later on it won't be a problem.

Chronoplasm said:
Often, many adventures with gunmen characters are plagued by the problem that ammo can run out and become quite scarce during dungeon crawls.
I generally solve this by giving characters a ritual for making gunpowder and by making the ingredients readily available in dungeons.

The ammo ritual is a great idea for any thrower/archer/gunman who plan on extended wilderness excursions. In my own game, I'm not going to make my players stress about gunpowder and bullets. As long as they don't use their firearms excessively (say, every round of three extended battles) during extended wilderness excursions, I don't see the fun in screwing players out of a trademark weapon.

Chronoplasm said:
I don't like the idea of weapons targeting reflex instead of AC though.
I'm no history buff myself, but from what I understand, guns didn't always puncture armor back then. The way I understand it guns were kind of unreliable in those days, had bad accuracy, and would sometimes explode in one's face.

As I understand old guns, which granted isn't much, they were very powerful but inaccurate. Bullets tended to leave gun muzzles at odd angles rather than in straight lines, which is why I gave them +0 to attack. I'm sure that armor did stop the occasional bullet, but armor did die out solely because of firearms.

TS

demonking1 · Sep 16, 2008

Flash Grenade:
Ranged Projectiles (Burst 2 within 7 squares)
Prof: +0
Damage: 0
Price: 30 GP
Weight: 2lb
Special: Creatures in area when weapon is thrown are blinded, save ends.