D&D 4E Firearms for the 4E Game (Contributions Welcome)

[Fallen Seraph]

Hmm, well it depends on the context. A single per-encounter musket I would consider simple. However when you turn it into a ordinary usage weapon, I would deem it Military in that, it takes more training and knowledge to affectively use such a weapon in a fast and accurate manner.

Now, if we are talking later period firearms, like revolvers, repeating rifles, etc. I'd say simple, as well but with a variety of feats to show the edge that training can give.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'd say military. It takes training to know how to load a gun, which is the main hold up. Feats should make it easier to load faster or get accuracy.

One of the characters in one of my favorite series of books, The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson, tells a story of himself and several other vagabonds who are stopped while traversing India by a local warlord looking for conscripts (this is in the late 1690's or early 1700's) and administered what Jack Shaftoe refers to as "the Intelligence Test". They handed each of them guns, trying to see who amongst them knew how to load and fire a musket. Two of the vagabonds are able to load and fire, and are press-ganged into the warlord's army. Jack and one of his buddies act like they don't know one end from the other, and are allowed to go on their way.

"So they passed the Intelligence Test?" the fellow Jack is telling this story to asks, referring to the two conscripted vagabonds.

"I would say rather that they failed it," replies Jack.

 

[CleverNickName]

A musket has a lot going on with it, game-wise. It is a melee weapon and a ranged weapon, it is complicated to load and fire, quite expensive, and more powerful and more damaging than your average crossbow. It comes in all shapes and sizes. With proper training and special fittings, it can be a double weapon (maybe even a triple weapon if you count actually shooting it), it can even be readied like a spear against charge attacks. So I am tempted to just roll all of this know-how into a single category, and make them Superior weapons.

This way, even the humble peasant could pick it up and shoot it without penalty, but to get the bonuses to attack rolls, and to be able to fight well in melee with it, and to qualify for certain other feats (faster loading, marksmanship, etc.) you would need the Superior Weapon Proficiency feat.

Does this sound plausable?

 

[Clawhound]

I'm trying to remember Sharpe's Company.

"The difference between you and them is that you fire two shots a minute, and they fire three."

I'd put the rifle down as a military weapon.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Guns have another drawback that haven't been mentioned yet. They make a lot of noise. As soon as anybody fires, everybody and their dog will know that there is a shoot-out nearby.

I'd make muskets the equivalent of crossbows (minor action reload) that does 1d12 damage.

If I wanted to make things (needlessly) more complicated I'd reduce range to a bare minimum and then add the option of loading properly for extended range. (Yes, I saw Last of The Mohicans last night).

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Guns have another drawback that haven't been mentioned yet. They make a lot of noise. As soon as anybody fires, everybody and their dog will know that there is a shoot-out nearby.

That actually is one of the main reasons bows and crossbows haven't been fazed out in my setting. They are assassin weapons. Though they to are more advance in make.

 

[CleverNickName]

Guns have another drawback that haven't been mentioned yet. They make a lot of noise. As soon as anybody fires, everybody and their dog will know that there is a shoot-out nearby.

Now that you mention it, I remember reading something about how one of the advantages of using a musket was that it could frighten the horses of the advancing cavalry. Maybe a rule should be put into place, that makes it possible to frighten animals and other creatures of low intelligence with a musket?

 

[Fallen Seraph]

If you do that, there should be a feat to get rid of that affect. Since horses were trained to be use to gunfire (just like how they were trained to charge into polearms). As well as animals have gotten use to gunfire, so a coyote that always tries to hunt your chickens will only get frightened so often when you fire off your shotgun.

 

[CleverNickName]

If you do that, there should be a feat to get rid of that affect. Since horses were trained to be use to gunfire (just like how they were trained to charge into polearms). As well as animals have gotten use to gunfire, so a coyote that always tries to hunt your chickens will only get frightened so often when you fire off your shotgun.

This sounds more like animal training, not feats. Untrained animals are frightened away, trained ones get a save or a Handle Animal check or something. Trouble is, I don't know how animal training is going to work in 4E.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

This sounds more like animal training, not feats. Untrained animals are frightened away, trained ones get a save or a Handle Animal check or something. Trouble is, I don't know how animal training is going to work in 4E.

This is how I'd approach it, too. Warhorses are trained to ignore that sort of thing.