Guns in D&D - A Hot Take

FreezerBurnedDM · Jan 27, 2019

I have guns in one of my games but I've never spent that much time thinking about it because honestly, trying to mock up accurate ballistics and firearms development in a 5e game just sounds like more trouble then it's worth to me. I'm not running a realistic physics simulator, I'm running a fantasy tabletop game. I'm much more concerned with the mythology of firearms then the physics of it.

Morrus · Jan 27, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
I mean, does losing your whole head in a clean slice really make much of a difference compared to losing half of your head from a 7.62 round?

That's exactly my point. Both can do catastrophic damage to you.

Satyrn · Jan 27, 2019

FreezerBurnedDM said:
I have guns in one of my games but I've never spent that much time thinking about it because honestly, trying to mock up accurate ballistics and firearms development in a 5e game just sounds like more trouble then it's worth to me. I'm not running a realistic physics simulator, I'm running a fantasy tabletop game. I'm much more concerned with the mythology of firearms then the physics of it.

Yeah!

For the guns in my game, I just reflavored the crossbow stats, giving the pistol and rifle (hand crossbow, and light crossbow) the reload property from the DMG.

The heavy crossbow became two different weapons. The sniper rifle has an increased range, and disadvantage at normal ranges instead of long. The shotgun does double damage at an extraordinarily reduced normal range, and minimal damage at long ranges (the damage die, with no extra bonuses from anything, pretty much no matter what) without disadvantage.

And to help capture the feeling of the shotgun being the best weapon to shoot a pigeon with, you can choose to take a long range shot with advantage, but the attack only deals 1 damage. Period. . . . unless the shotgun is a TORGUE, in which case the pigeon EXPLODES dealing +1d6 damage.

Satyrn · Jan 27, 2019

If you want to cook the pigeon while killing it, I recommend using a Maliwan.

PrimevalSeeker · Jan 27, 2019

I like the types of guns included in the setting of the Pillars of Eternity games.

Based on that game, the range of the guns from short to long would be, blunderbusses followed by pistols, with only arquebuses having the same range as bows or crossbows. Regarding damage, I would make a blunderbuss 2d4 (blunt/pierce), pistol d6 (pierce) and arquebus d10 (pierce). I would give all guns the loading property as well. Basically I would treat guns more or less as crossbows, without getting into to much realistic details.

doctorbadwolf · Jan 27, 2019

In my own homebrew system, I take a stance that any weapon that CAN incapacitate you with one attack, without requiring a freak accident or incredible strength, does 1d10 damage on a hit. Characters generally start with 15-20 Health, so it takes 3 average hits to take you out of a fight. Critical success on an attack can either give an advantage on the next check you make in that scene, or give an advantage on the damage. An advantage adds a bonus equal to your skill ranks, or to an attribute, GMs discretion. So, you’re looking at a bonus from 2-6, generally.

Guns stand out and are valuable because they have good range, many are very concealable, and they deal Penetrating damage, which mitigates most armor DR.

CleverNickName · Jan 28, 2019

77IM said:
Honestly, I think you could do a lot worse than re-skinning crossbows to model early firearms.

Yep, this is what I would start with, and then make adjustments until it "feels" right.

Imaculata · Jan 28, 2019

In my 3.5 pirate campaign, flintlock pistols do 1d10 damage, and flintlock rifles do 1d12. And this seems pretty well balanced for this particular system. It makes guns pretty deadly, but there is the drawback of the long reload times, and the possibility of gunpowder getting wet, and misfires. To balance things out, I allow feats and spells that normally only work with arrows/projectiles, to also work with bullets. Feats such as Quickdraw, allow you to quickly draw multiple preloaded pistols, as long as you have them within easy reach (thats what bandoliers are for!). And yes, a monk can use deflect arrows to deflect a bullet. This is fantasy after all.

TiwazTyrsfist · Jan 28, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
And to the OP's premise: people have survived dozens of knife wounds at a time, but I'm sure you wouldn't argue that a dagger should do 0.1-0.5 points of damage right?

That's an outlier.

Also, in a thread that I titled "Hot Take" I just might. But I won't today.

TiwazTyrsfist · Jan 28, 2019

Hriston said:
Fact check: I'm not sure where you got your statistics, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunshot_wound says in 2015 there were 205,000 deaths resulting from a total of 1 million such wounds inflicted in interpersonal violence globally, so following the rest of your argument, the correct damage expression would be more like 1d5 - 1.

You're now responsible for providing d5's for the whole group.